UK Homesteading is a British homesteading and self-sufficiency media brand that helps people across the UK grow food, keep animals, preserve their harvest and live more self-sufficiently. With UK-accurate, climate-real, law-aware guidance. It is an independent, UK-based online publisher. What we cover is sometimes called homesteading, smallholding, self-sufficiency, or simply “the good life”.
Why we exist
Most homesteading advice online is written for North America. The wrong climate, the wrong units, and laws that simply don't apply in Britain. Follow it and you can lose a growing season, or fall foul of a rule you never knew existed. We exist to fix that: to give people across the UK growing, keeping, cooking and preserving guidance that is actually accurate where they live. Metric, Celsius, RHS-timed, and true to UK law by nation.
Our mission
To help anyone in the UK grow, keep, cook and preserve more of their own. Accurately, affordably, and within the law.
Who's behind it
UK Homesteading was founded and is developed by Ben Criddle, and is published by Fixr Systems Limited, a UK company based in Cambridge. It's produced by a small editorial team, and guides are researched and written in-house against UK primary sources. Ben is the founder and developer, and a homesteading enthusiast, rather than the subject expert. For the areas where getting it wrong matters most (law, food safety and animal welfare) we're building a panel of credentialled reviewers (a vet, a food-safety specialist and an experienced forager) to check and sign the relevant guides; where a guide has been reviewed, the named reviewer and the date appear on the page. We don't publish invented author names or fabricated credentials.
What makes us different
- ›We write for the UK, not America. Metric units, °C, RHS-aligned timings and UK law by nation.
- ›We cite official UK primary sources (gov.uk, legislation.gov.uk, the FSA, DEFRA and APHA) on every law and food-safety guide, with a visible “last checked” date.
- ›We are honest about cost and effort. Our tools show the real numbers, including the ones that make a project not worth doing.
- ›We never fabricate reviews, star ratings or “we tested it” claims, and we mark every affiliate link plainly.
- ›We cover the whole of homesteading (growing, animals, the kitchen, the law, selling and off-grid) not just vegetable gardening.
How we research
Every guide starts from primary sources. UK government and regulator guidance for anything legal or safety-related, and established horticultural and veterinary references for the rest. We quote and link the source, record the date we checked it, and say plainly where the rules differ between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, or where the honest answer is “it depends”. Cornerstone and safety content uses genuine photography, never AI-generated imagery.
What we value
- Accuracy over volume
- UK-specific over copied-from-abroad
- Honest about cost over aspirational
- Sourced over asserted
- Plain English over jargon
Frequently asked questions
UK Homesteading is published by Fixr Systems Limited, a company registered in England & Wales (Companies House no. 15889598), based in Cambridge, Cambridgeshire.
