Dr Richard Jones from the Centre for Local History at the University of Leicester explains a research project which involves living solely off produce sourced from within two miles of his house.

Richard conducted the experiment from his home in Upton, Nottinghamshire. The village has a population of approximately 400. Although he has his own chickens and cultivates a small vegetable patch, Richard has been largely at the mercy of this community for a month's supply of food and drink.

For Richard, the objective is not to be dependent on himself, but on his community. The project underpins his work at the Centre for English Local History. His research focuses on medieval rural society, investigating everything from place-names to settlement archaeology and peasant farming practices.

The project is a collaborative effort with his partner Dr Naomi Sykes, a lecturer in the Department of Archaeology at the University of Nottingham, a specialist in medieval and pre-medieval food production and consumption. They are both interested in the relationship that develops between people, their animals and crops, wild fauna and flora, and the soil.

Together they have designed what is a truly organic experiment; an exercise in conditioning their normal daily life. Thus rather than spending months filling their stores, the couple deliberately minimised their preparation. Henceforth, the results should be a realistic reflection on their lifestyle, rather than an artificial one.

In the modern times of globalisation in which our food travels half way around the world, the researchers want to discover if it is still possible to live entirely from within a local community. How has the idea of what is local changed since the Centre for Local History first opened its doors sixty years ago? Is the local the new global or has the local community disappeared altogether?