My deal is this ... yes the planting area is just a little over 1/8 of an acre with a small shed that I've built myself from scrap materials. There's no power on the site, no running water ... nothing. I certainly don't pay dearly for the site in cash £15 per year is probably the cheapest land rental you can get in this country. However - I do pay dearly for it in the amount of extra hard work you have to do to get gardening to work somewhere so off-grid ... growing the tobacco is fairly easy ... curing it is a different matter!
Of course I don't live out there
I have a small house in a village close by. We even have the internet there! As well as hot and cold running water and electricity.
However - I have a family with young children in this small space so I hope you understand that I don't wish to fill every available ceiling with hands of curing tobacco ... I don't want them to think it's an exciting thing because I hope that they will grow up to be not dependent on the stuff like I am. And when their friends come around to play - I don't want the parents giving me funny looks - I get those anyway for growing my own vegetables ... but with tobacco there's a chance that they'd get the impression that I'm some kind of covert drugs dealer ... that's how people in my area tend to think.
So I just have to try and come up with innovative ways to use the allotment space for curing well. I will be making alterations to the shed in the next few months to try and get better insulation in there, better air flow, and I will be experimenting with making some kind of solar heat exchanger to warm up the place a bit like the video that was kindly posted up earlier.
