Hippies living in a Welsh village known as Tipi Valley are growing cannabis and making their own booze.
They say a microclimate in the folds of the sweeping Talley Valley in rural Carmarthenshire has made it possible for them to easily grow weed, even without heat-intensifying poly tunnels.
Many ‘residents’ at the sprawling, 100-acre site in the Welsh Hills also brew their own beer and cider and make homemade wine from the rich variety of fruits that grow abundantly on the land.
Former NHS hospital worker Irene Saunders, who has raised three children at Tipi Valley since moving there as a 17-year-old, admitted she has been growing cannabis on her four-acre plot ‘for years’.
Irene, now 57, said: ‘I grow mine in poly tunnels, but others grow it in uncovered in open air perfectly well.
‘I’ve had some prolific results, but the cannabis I grow is strictly for personal use.
‘I would never sell it to anyone else and nor would any of the others growing it here.
‘It’s remarkable how easily it grows here, mainly because we’re in a microclimate which gives us lots of sunshine and just the right amount of rain. The growing conditions are pretty much perfect.’
Hippies living in a Welsh village known as Tipi Valley are growing cannabis and making their own booze
Locals say a microclimate in the folds of the sweeping Talley Valley in rural Carmarthenshire has made it possible for them to easily grow weed, even without heat-intensifying poly tunnels
Scores of homemade greenhouses are seen in the Tipi Valley – some will be growing cannabis
Irene’s garden is proof of that: she is growing dozens of different vegetables, including courgettes and sugar snap peas, and fruits which she uses to produce her own wine.
Her homemade creations include wines made from elderberry, lemon balm and even fennel.
She also makes non-alcoholic fruit juices and cordials for her five young grandchildren, who have all been brought up on the site.
Homemade wines, beers and ciders flow at huge parties held regularly at Tipi Valley’s communal Big Lodge, she said.
‘We had a massive party there recently to celebrate the birthdays of several people living here and there was plenty of alcohol produced on site. We had lots of live music and a 17-year-old on the decks – it was an amazing night. Almost everyone was there.
‘Nights like that remind you why you live here. You won’t find the same sense of community and togetherness anywhere else in the world.
‘I’m proud to say I’m the first of three generations of my family living here,’ she said.
‘I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else in the world. This is paradise for me. I can grow pretty much anything I want and I’m free.
One local, a former NHS hospital worker, who has raised three children at Tipi Valley since moving there as a 17-year-old, admitted she has been growing cannabis on her four-acre plot ‘for years’
‘It’s remarkable how easily it grows here, mainly because we’re in a microclimate which gives us lots of sunshine and just the right amount of rain. The growing conditions are pretty much perfect,’ she said
In one vegetable patch, a local is growing dozens of different vegetables, including courgettes and sugar snap peas, and fruits which she uses to produce her own wine
‘I was brought up in Ramsgate and I was bored. I was working as a domestic at an NHS hospital at the time. One day my then-boyfriend brought me out here for a couple of weeks and I loved it. I moved in permanently not long after.
‘Living a conventional life in a town just wasn’t for me, I guess.
‘Don’t get me wrong, living here has it’s challenges too. Winter, especially, can be tough. You’ve got to make sure you have enough wood to burn to keep you warm and we often get snowed in for days on end up here.
‘The early years were tough because there was a lot of friction with the locals, in particular the farmers, because we had short-term dwellers who behaved irresponsibly. They’d let their dogs off their leads and the dogs chased and in some cases killed sheep, and they’d burn fence posts on their fires, instead of collecting their own wood.
‘As a result, one night around a dozen farmers turned up here with shotguns and were threatening all sorts.
‘We managed to calm them down eventually, but it was a terrifying experience.
‘Looking back, I can understand why the farmers were so angry. I really don’t blame them, but it was a minority of sight dwellers who were not invested in the place for the long term. They didn’t stay long.
‘We don’t really have rules here as such, other than everyone has to respect everybody else and not be an idiot.’
Many ‘residents’ at the sprawling, 100-acre site in the Welsh Hills also brew their own beer and cider and make homemade wine from the rich variety of fruits that grow abundantly on the land
‘I’ve had some prolific results, but the cannabis I grow is strictly for personal use,’ one local said
Irene’s only major complaint is the growing number of wooden lodge-style homes that are being built on the land, dramatically reducing the proportion of tipis being used.
‘When I first moved here everyone lived in tipis, yurts or bell tents. There was only ever canvas.
‘But over the past year or two, many of the dwellers have started building their own wooden constructions and to be honest with you it is starting to look a bit like a council housing estate here now. I don’t like them at all. I long for the days when everyone was under canvas.
She is also concerned that several – unnamed – individuals, mainly men, are currently vying for power within the community, which has traditionally been run along non-hierarchical lines.
She said: ‘Some of the guys here think they have golden balls and they want to run things their way and change the way we live.
‘But I can tell you, I have more balls than they do.
‘There has never been a hierarchy here. We are all equal and we don’t need people trying to tell us how to do things.’
Despite living a mainly self-sufficient lifestyle, Irene admits to shopping for meat and fish at a local supermarket. ‘All the flirt and veg I eat is grown in my garden, but I have to get in my van and nip out to the supermarket sometimes for the stuff I can’t grow,
The early years were tough for the ‘residents’ due to friction with the locals, in particular the farmers, because there were short-term dwellers who behaved irresponsibly
‘We don’t really have rules here as such, other than everyone has to respect everybody else and not be an idiot’
A trust has been established to fund and raise money for the community – the Tipi Valley Trust – which is ‘well resourced’ and as a result more and more land is being purchased
The community is not connected to main’s electricity and relies on solar power for power
‘We haven’t stopped engaging with the outside world completely. In fact, a large number of dwellers actually have jobs in the local towns, Llandeilo and Llandovery, mainly. Most work in trades, such as carpentry, painting and decorating or plumbing. We also have a woman who goes out to work as a welder.
‘And most children here attend local schools too.
‘We’ve even hosted cricket matches in the summer against Llandeilo. We put some horses out in a field to get the grass down first and did our best to prepare a wicket. It wasn’t exactly Lords, but we all had a lot of fun.
‘We joked that we were playing in Valley grey, rather than whites, because we don’t have a laundry here.’
Irene’s home at what she calls ‘The Valley’ is two joined-up Portakabins trucked in from Newport and dropped into position with a crane.
She said: ‘We put a roof over the top and it’s powered by solar panels. We’ve got a wood burner to keep us warm and I cook outdoors on a barbecue which is actually an old washing machine drum tipped on its side, with a grate over the top. It works as well as any Aga.’
She bought her land in Tipi Valley off a local farmer, Will Busk, almost 40 years ago and has divided it into quarters to share with her three grown-up children and their families.
‘Mr Busk was a lovely man,’ she said. ‘He saw what we were trying to achieve here and wanted to help. He only charged me £2,000 for the land, He could have charged me a lot more.’
Most of the locals will go to nearby towns for work and are skilled in trades, such as carpentry, painting and decorating or plumbing
One local’s only major complaint is the growing number of wooden lodge-style homes that are being built on the land, dramatically reducing the proportion of tipis being used.
She said a trust established to fund and raise money for the community – the Tipi Valley Trust – is ‘well resourced’ and as a result more and more land is being purchased.
The trust had wanted to connect the site to mains electricity, but, according to Irene, ‘the greedy b……s at the power company wanted to charge us £3,000 for each post they’d have to put in to connect us, in addition to all sorts of other costs’.
She added: ‘Maybe in time, we’ll have power lines and electricity and I can finally get rid of my noisy old petrol generator.’
