While most Londoners have spent summer 2024 staring at grey skies and wondering if the sun will ever put in an appearance, Lucie Davidson and Jerry O'Shea are desperately hoping for rain.
Almost three years ago the couple turned their back on academic careers in the capital and launched themselves into a new life on a dilapidated 110-acre farm in Italy, where they now spend their time making olive oil, raising honey bees, and growing lavender.
“Right now we have got a field of 2,000 lavender plants crisping up in the sun,” said Jerry. “We would love some rain.”
Lucie, 27, and Jerry, 30, took the radical decision to become farmers after growing deeply disillusioned with the sheer cost of living in London. Lucie is originally from Streatham, while Jerry hails from Orpington; the couple met while studying at Cambridge.
After returning to London they moved in with Jerry’s family in order to save for a deposit for a flat or their own. Even with a budget of around £400,000 to play with they were deeply disappointed with their options. “Basically we were looking at boxes,” said Jerry.
For Lucie the thought of paying a mortgage until she was middle aged did not appeal. “At the time we were going to be academics, and so our salary prospects were not amazing,” she said. “If we were bankers it might have been different.”
Back then the couple were earning a living with a mixture of teaching and tutoring.
Work went online during the pandemic, and they began to consider what this meant for their future. Jerry was initially keen to move to Cornwall, a plan Lucie nixed. “I didn’t see the sense in moving to some random place in the English countryside,” she said.
“I completely got carried away when I saw that we could buy a whole farm.”
Jerry then started looking at properties in France — too expensive — and Italy.
“I completely got carried away when I saw that we could buy a whole farm, a whole valley,” he said.
In May 2021 the couple went out to Italy to view some properties and fell in love with the Pitino Agricolo farm in the Marche region of north east Italy.
Despite a list of shortcomings — including no water or electricity, and a derelict earthquake-damaged farmhouse which needed to be knocked down and rebuilt — they agreed to pay €160,000 (£134,000) for the property, using their savings plus a parental loan.
They moved to Italy that October, immediately getting stuck into the olive harvest while living in a rented flat nearby. They then taught themselves how to press olive oil by reading academic papers and asking neighbours for advice.
Progress on building their new life, which has featured on Channel 4's Help! We Bought a Village, has been slow but steady. The couple now have planning permission to rebuild the farmhouse and plan to start work this winter, with the help of an EU grant to promote agricultural enterprise.
They are also growing an array of crops including grapevines, truffles, olives, and lavender, as well as producing honey, and growing their own fruit and vegetables.
Produce is sold online and at markets, but profits are not yet enough for them to live on.
On the upside, living costs in Italy are low. Their current home is a three bedroom flat five minutes’ from the farm, for which they pay €300 (£253) per month. Going out for dinner for a treat costs around €20. The couple continue to teach and tutor, remotely, to bring in extra income.
“I did not imagine I would be spending so much time researching tractors.”
“Ironically one of the reasons we left London was because we didn’t want a workaholic lifestyle,” said Jerry. “In Italy I do four hours of tutoring per day and every other waking hour is at the farm. We have had about four days off in two years.”
Lucie finds the physical work on the farm enjoyable. All the admin and the worrying about money not so much. “I did not imagine I would be spending so much time researching tractors,” she said.
The welcome from locals has been warm, if a little bemused.
“There are not that many young people here so they are really supportive,” said Lucie. “They do all think we are crazy though.”
Despite the challenges of trying to turn their farm into a going concern Lucie and Jerry remain determined to keep going. “Even though the farm is unbelievably hard work and there is so much risk, the views literally take our breath away every single day,” said Jerry.
