A couple living “off-grid” in Totnes say they encourage their lifestyle for everyone.

Ember Smith, 35, and Steph Gabbadon, 35, have become media stars after being featured in national newspapers this week.

They have built two tiny homes made from recycled materials they collected, they live off the land and say they have found “family for life,” writes Laren Beavis, SWNS reporter.

Ember, a mother-of-two originally from Cheshire, says living nomadically is "a totally different world and way of life" - where they have found community and family.

She said: "It has been a really transformative time in terms of forming me as a person. I had a real craving for community."

The couple explained how they had some friends who owned the land - and after being invited to have a look, Ember 'fell in love with the place, its beautiful ethos and ethics'.

She said: "Our friends had bought this land with the intention of creating a community - they wanted camaraderie and a support network not based on money, but time, friendship and connection.

"The ethos is all about living with the land, so engaging in permaculture - which is working with the land and regenerating it."

The community has around 15 to 17 people living there, and everything they produce is organic.

It has a 40 foot polytunnel full of vegetables, fruit and cereal crops - and at certain times of the year the community are totally self-sufficient.

After spending their first year in the community collecting building materials, they have two tiny homes they live in separately.

They’ve built a loft room for the children, storage for their clothes, book shelves, a desk and a fully-equipped kitchen and bathroom.

Ember runs her own businesses, LunaChick, where she makes reusable sanitary towels, using a solar energy-powered sewing machine, and an events company.

Her two children, aged 10 and 12, are in mainstream education - and switch between life in the community and living with their father in a house.

She explains how each community member plays a different role in contributing to and maintaining their home, and then everyone comes together to help with communal projects.

Ember's role is leading creative and artistic projects - such as designing and constructing a hot tub, and is currently helping to build and decorate a tent for parties.

She explained: "There are not any set roles but people find their niche - one guy for example who is into growing is spearheading the poly tunnel, someone else who is getting into carpentry has been building a yurt to use as a chill out space and healing area".

Steph's off-grid journey first began when he found himself living in his tiny car and sofa-surfing at 15.

He admits being inspired by punk rock's 'ethos of rebellion and anti-establishment values' and his father's ambition for him to travel.

Steph explained: "Punk had inspired me to live my own terms.

"The music and culture challenged societal norms, promoting a DIY attitude and a sense of freedom I desperately needed.

"My father believed in the value of experiencing different cultures and perspectives, and his encouragement to explore the world planted the seeds of wanderlust in me."

Ember, who says she has always been adventurous and inspired by the outdoors, says it was the 2016 General Election that sparked her decision to live off-grid.

She said: "It was a pipedream I always had.

"I grew up in a council estate surrounded by big marshes - it was the nineties, so I was tree climbing and not seeing my parents from breakfast till teatime!

"When I was 16 I said to my mum I wanted to live in a commune - and she said they don't really have those anymore.

"But it was when I was grown up, had kids of my own and in 2016 when the tories got into power and all these changes were coming through with benefits I knew I had to finally do it.

"We were living on the bread line as it is - we couldn't have been able to function and we were already massively in debt".

Ember took her kids to a community in Wales - though admits it was a shock to the system after being exposed to 'torrential rain for a week' and losing their car after someone crashed into it.

The family lost a lot of their savings - but managed to save up to live in a yurt - where Ember home-schooled her children for their first year of school and ran her business.

Whilst staying in a Dartmoor carpark in their van, Ember bumped into Steph whilst trying to clean-up the local area.

The pair were living in identical make and model vans only metres away from one another.

She explained: "I was getting used to the van life - trying to clear up car parks and give people a good impression of what we were doing to discourage the 'Anti-traveller rhetoric' and that's when I met Steph who was doing the same thing - it was lovely".

Since meeting Steph and building their new life in this community, Ember says she would encourage people to take a chance on off-grid living.

Steph explains why he loves living in an off-grid community - because his family 'get to live sustainability, self-sufficiently and together, as we want'.

He said: "We get to grow together and to watch the children gain a wealth of wisdom and experience through the many and varied characters that make up our little sliver of paradise.

"The lifestyle lets me live how I want to live but also allows me to help others to live how they want to live - whilst reducing our carbon footprint and revitalizing and rewilding the land.

"My neighbours (if you can call them that) often feel more like a family than anything else.

"It's still punk rock, we're still rebelling but in a much quieter humble way!"

Ember added the road is 'far from straightforward' - but the community is what makes the journey worthwhile.

Ember said: "I would say to anyone absolutely do it - but my advice would be to be aware of the realities.

"Winters suck - chopping wood in the rain, constantly keeping fire going - doing that on your own is really hard, so finding a community is so beneficial and everyone helps each other out.

"I wouldn't live any other way - it's amazing".