Growing and selling vegetables to add to his livestock
A 10-year-old boy from Lincolnshire is working hard to make his farming dreams come true and has become something of a local celebrity.
Farmer Joe’s grandad bought him a raised bed on his eighth birthday and he started “growing tates and stuff in it”. During the first lockdown he then sold fruit and veg from a little yellow trolley and spent the profits on buying animals for his farm.
His enthusiasm for his work has already made him a firm favourite with TV viewers, with appearances on shows including Channel 5’s Springtime on the Farm. His journey can also be followed in the Facebook group Joe’s Garden patch here.
He has animals including two cows, chickens and a small herd of sheep. Sheep called Pumpkin and Strawberry had their lambs on the same day with Joe saying they are named after veg “as I bought them with my veg money”.
He told BBC Look North: “I’ve always dreamt of being a farmer and then my mum had 19 horses and she had quite a bit of grass, so I just wanted to fill the grass up with some nice sheep that I could look at every day.
“Driving tractors is a fun thing, spending time with the animals, you get to be out in fresh air and don’t have to be on screens all the time, and you’re thriving really because you’re outside enjoying the world.”
Joe’s mum Clare Trofer said: “We needed another way of learning, he’s autistic, he’s dyslexic, he has learning and memory problems, but when he’s with his animals and in his garden he shines.”
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