Our experience in fish farming and water gardening has galvanized us into action in developing a successful approach to DIY fish farming enabling you to grow fish for your table. 

Many gardeners love to grow vegetables for their own consumption.  Sometimes these same people may have a pond in their garden which has some fish in it – but have they ever thought of rearing these fish for the table?  Well Hugh Fernly Whittingstall saw the potential for this exciting new way to grow your own fish and took delivery of 44 one year old organic carp from our farm as featured on the River Cottage programme.

If you have a pond with a few fish in it - then you may be surpised to know that you are farming fish although on a very small scale.  People in the UK grow fish today in their back gardens for aesthetic purposes, but it is not a huge step to change the emphasis to growing the fish to eat.  A DIY micro fish farm (one pond) will grow species which are good to eat such as common carp rather than a gold fish or blue orfe.  The DIY fish farmer unlike the fish hobbist is not so concerned about how the fish looks but that the fish can grow quickly and with great efficiency.  Also the DIY fish farmer is keen to produce a good tasting fish, which is easy to catch, but like the hobbist, also wants the fish to be healthy and 'happy'. 

Just like growing a few fish as a hobby can be relatively straight forward, growing a few fish for the table can also be quite easy, provided you have healthy ecosystem for the fish to live in, a good food supply and means to catch the fish easily. 

In October 2009 we hosted our first backyard fish farming course here at Upper Hayne which was a great success.   In 2010, we have expanded our courses to include aquaponics, taster days and bespoke courses to suit a range of needs.  The courses provide an introduciton to small scale fish farming with an emphasis on students being able to apply what they have learned on the course to their own situation.  Specific time is set aside during the course for this.  Please see separte web pages on the courses for more information.