Joy Lo Dico acquired a smallholding for pleasure – and then the price of firewood started soaring
‘This will be a money pit,’ my friend said. He’s just been for a walk around the 120 acres of broadleaf woodland I bought in Gloucestershire in 2015. He was half-right. When I was still pretty green at woodland management, it was; the price of education, I called it. But events have conspired in the wood’s favour. Seven years on, it produces local jobs, better accommodation for the birds and bees and a supply of fuel for the neighbourhood. It’s also in danger of actually turning a real profit. Rewind to 2014. I was in full-time work in London and decided I needed a peaceful bolthole in the countryside. I found a cottage surrounded by woods (120 acres is about 80 football pitches – not a small undertaking). To my eyes, it was perfect and untouchable. Groves of cherry, stands of ash and oak and a helluva lot of hazel...
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