December 2009

The seasonal tasks are well upon us now and in an effort to have our Christmas news out in good time it will seem like a small gap since you last heard from us. Not to worry, it is good long time after that until January's open days so you will get a bit of a festive break from tales of mud and feathers (yes thanks, there are still plenty of both).

 

The open days for December break out of their normal pattern and this month fall on Monday 21st, Tuesday 22nd & Wednesday 23rd December but we are open at the farm each day for our normal times of 10:00am - 4:30pm. Sorry but we are not open on Christmas Eve, we have to do something with a tree. Deliveries will be heading out on Monday 21st to Inverurie, Alford, Strathdon, Aboyne, Tarland and Upper Deeside and on Tuesday to Banchory and Aberdeen, at least that is the best laid scheme. If there are any changes to this we will let those affected know as soon as we can. While we are not taking/preparing seperate orders for New Year, we will be open on Wednesday 30th December for collections from 10:00am - 4:30pm, should you wish to leave your order in our fridge rather than yours.

 

The December product list can be downloaded here and we have our full range of fresh meats and charcuterie this month, with a return from venison also. We are still taking orders too for geese, gammons, turkeys and other seasonal savories such as chipolatas and pancetta which are all itemised on the form. If you are putting in an order this month, we would be grateful if these could be in as early as possible to help our planning, thanks.

 

We shall be at Inverurie Farmers Market on the 12th December and at Banchory on the 19th. A number of people are collecting their orders from the Banchory market and please let us know if this would like to do this also.

 

We will look forward to seeing some of you at the farm or on the delivery run this month and in the meantime we thank you very much for your support again this year and wish you all a very Happy Christmas and a great New Year.

 

 

October 2009

One of the benefits of being butchers and retailers as well as farmers is that we have at least some influence over the end value of our products. Market fluctuations in the value of agricultural products is not a new phenomenon, indeed farmers have long bemoaned the lows, if not the highs, associated with the growing of crops and raising of animals. In common with any other goods traded as a commodity on a world market the price is determined by a host of factors, many of which seem highly disconnected from the business of producing good Scottish food.

 

Prices for lamb for instance last year were at times almost 50% higher than the previous year while at harvest this year the price of barley is almost 100% lower than harvest 2008 and there is a feeling that the severity of the oscillations is increasing. There is at times money to be made in playing these markets but if the recent woes caused by people playing in the financial markets were not discouragement enough, there is an unpleasant taste about something as basic as our food being reduced to a commodity and arbitrarily becoming affordable or not, or profitable or not. Prices of goods will always vary to some degree but by keeping our production and consumption as closely linked as possible perhaps we can sidestep the worst of the instability and trade in a slightly more sustainable way in which price and value has more to do with our soils and our animals than what's happening on the other side of the world.

 

September 2009

Over the last year we have considerably increased our sheep numbers and are planning to do so again this Autumn. We have been very pleased with our choice of Hebridean sheep, a view which seems to be shared by others around the country, as the breed is no longer considered rare, having increased in sufficient numbers in recent years to warrant the removal of this tag. This has been largely due to a band of enthusiasts mostly keeping sheep in small numbers, but increasingly the breed is being used on a larger scale for conservation grazing projects and quality meat production. The history of the breed stretches back a thousand years into Scottish life where it is thought to have been a crofters sheep prior to the Highland clearances and it is exciting to see it returning in numbers to its native areas and beyond.

 

The Hebridean is a hardy, thrifty sheep well able to look after itself and this makes for generally easy management, until the sheep's opinion on what is good for it conflicts with the managers! The pleasure they take in skipping along the top of stone dykes or running through new 'stockproof' fences being examples. In between the showers of August we managed this week to have our sheep sheared, which will be some relief to the flock should the sun decide to put in an appearance. The wool from our flock goes west to the Isle of Mull Weavers where it is converted into organic tweed in the traditional Hebridean manner, the different tones of browns, blacks and silvers in the fleeces being divided out and spun separately to create the pattern in the weave. This is a fascinating project attempting, just in time, to capture the passing generations traditional Islands knowledge and skills on weaving and natural dying.

 

August 2009

Like the course of true love, farming seldom runs smoothly and this last month has seen its share of ups, downs, disagreements and reconciliations. Most of the angst has been in the animal world, including the death of a young cow during calving, a very poor litter of pigs and the loss of one of our more valuable male breeding sheep. But with livestock comes, from time to time, deadstock and it is part and parcel of the job that animals will not live forever, it would just be better for the morale if too many don't die at once!

 

But taking hold of our half full glass, we remain very encouraged by the interest in our products and grateful to our customers who keep on buying from us despite the economic uncertainly. So looking ahead, the geese are growing well and are now outside in all weathers, not being at all discouraged by the recent thunder storms. The new crop of lambs are coming on nicely and we have just spent two hot days sorting through them, tagging and looking out future breeding females and we have some lovely calves from the cows, sired by our new bull.

 

June 2009

We enjoyed some splendid weather for our farm open days and walk in May, but it has been pretty variable since then. The goslings are growing at a great rate now and are getting out to grass as often as the weather allows and appreciating the grass in their diet. They are about two thirds feathered now, so are able to stand a shower or two but prolonged rain is still not a good idea. Once fully feathered they are very tough birds and seem willing to take anything that the Cushnie weather can throw at them, particularly relishing a wild windy day.

 

Of the other stock, we have just had the first two Belted Galloway calves of the year which are doing well. These are the first calves from a new young bull we bought last year and we are looking forward to seeing how they shape up, so far so good. The pigs are doing what pigs do and have produced a succession of litters over the last month or two. Some of the litters have been smaller than we would like but as a consequence the piglets are growing very fast, having more milk to share around and spending less time squabbling!

 

May 2009

Life is looking rather green now at Wark, that is in between the mud that the recent rain has generated. The crops are in and looking well and with the rain would now benefit from some warmth. The Hebridean sheep have been busy lambing this month, which has gone reasonably well, with just a few remaining to lamb and some large 'gambling clubs' now developing among the older lambs. The nasty weather during the middle of the month was not good for the sheep and we lost a few new born lambs in the rain, sleet and high winds. One of the reasons we chose to lamb in May is that the weather, in theory, is better than April, not so this year, but hopefully on average it will prove the right policy. Otherwise, our spring seems on track and we have sufficient grass growth to keep the stock happy. This years goslings arrived at the beginning of the month and are now settled in and growing as fast as they always do. They are still inside under heat lamps at the moment but if we get some reasonable sunshine in a couple of weeks we will start to walk them to the field for the day.

 

As we haven't held a farm walk for a while we shall be leading a farm walk on the Saturday of this months open days. A number of new customers have asked about seeing the farm and the animals so, weather permitting, we shall set off at 11:00am from the shop. There is no particular theme for the walk so we shall just take in a number of points of interest covering organic farming, animals and conservation, so come armed with an enquiring mind, wellies and, depending on the day, warm & waterproof clothing. The walks usually last about an hour and a half and will be suitable for all ages, but bear in mind we may cross some uneven and soft ground. If you would definitely like to come along, it would be handy if you could let us know in advance, otherwise if the sun's shining on the day, just turn up. We will also have a 'pet' lamb bottle feeding session if any children would like to help out once we return from the walk. If you can't make this walk, we shall be hosting another outing as part of the July open days (25th) with Aberdeenshire Council ranger service searching for bugs and beasties round the farm.

 

April 2009

One of the central tenets of organic growing is that you facilitate the cycling of nutrients around the farm and that as far as possible the requirements for growing crops and rearing animals do not depend on outside inputs. As is recognised in the naming of the Soil Association at the base of all this is a healthy soil. It is interesting to look back at the issues surrounding the formation of the charity and see that its founding members were concerned not directly with issues of animal welfare or environmental degradation, much of what, rightly, motivates current organic ideas, but with human health. More particularly, the idea that health begats health and a healthy soil delivers healthy plants and so on into animals and people. It is an inspiring and believable theory, but coming down reality, how do we achieve the healthy soil? Feed it seems to be the answer, keeping in mind that the healthy soil is not a inert mineral mixture but is actually a composite organism, put together of millions of seperate lifeforms.

 

Bringing all this back to Wark Farm, we are this year trialling the application of composted vegetative waste to one of our fields as a soil food. This is a Soil Association approved input from a certified local source, going on to a field to grow barley this year. We have a slight dilemma here, as this is bringing in external inputs but our conclusion however is that as a shortcut to enhancing soil health (we can produce only limited quantities of compost or manure from our outdoor livestock) and utilising a waste product it is acceptable.

 

March 2009

It is with a little trepidation that I write about a sense of spring in the air at Wark this month. Most March's since we have been here have delivered a blast from winter so the enjoyment of hearing the birds tuning up and seeing the grass freshen is just tempered a little by wondering just how rude the shock may be.

 

Still, looking on the brigt side of life, we have been making ready for spring work, completing the 'pig shift' between fields this week, putting the pigs in fine fettle enjoying their new pens. This clears the way for old pig ground to be manured, ploughed and in due course sown with barley for more pig feed, so the farm cycle goes round. Stock are also now all shut off this years hay fields ready for the grass to take advantage of any warmth. We have had one accidental lamb so far this year and barring further unplanned autumnal promiscuity, lambing proper should start in just over a month.

 

February 2009

We've often said to people that, while living on the side of a hill can be a touch drafty, there is much to be said for waters habit of rapidly draining away to the valley below. We won't perhaps go so far as to eat our hats, but when over a foot of snow melts in a day or two life is apt to become a little soggy. Mud is the chief character of the farm at present and where once all was white, now we have a rich tapestry of browns in a range of sensuous textures.

 

The rush of warmth has also come accompanied by a burst of song from the skylarks and a general relaxation in the mood of our animals. Although straw consumption has gone up dramatically as we try to keep the mud at bay in the pig pens there is much enthusiastic rooting occurring and the sheep are pleased to be back grazing after a couple of weeks of munching hay. As for the cows, loafing is the word that comes to mind seeing them on a recent sunny morning.

 

We made mention in January of less popular cuts, such as bone-in lamb shoulder. Much encouraged by an enthusiastic response (we hope they were enjoyed) we will have more available this month for those who missed out in January. After some enquiries, for which we have to thank a celebrity TV chef, we have also put on our list this month bone-in pork shoulder, a cut we have prepared from time to time and which also responds well to the slow and low cooking approach that brings out the best in the lamb shoulder.

 

January 2009

The New Year has come in quietly at Wark, which is some relief after the rather busy Christmas period. 

 

The relative quiet has allowed us to move on with some of the outstanding jobs around the farm and in the office, such as preparing for moving pigs to a new field and fencing upgrades. The frozen ground for much of the last month has been pleasant for outside jobs, although it does mean that the water pipes to pig pens freeze and we have to fill troughs from a tanker. Pigs are not seasonal breeders so, while the other stock are all busy surviving the winter, we have had a number of new litters of piglets over the last few weeks some of which are now emerging to enjoy the sun on frosty days. It is surprising just how warm it is inside a pig arc even in sub-zero weather.

 

Our open days this month are on 29th, 30th & 31st January with the shop open at the farm for the normal times of 10.00 - 4:30pm each day. Deliveries will be going out to Aboyne, Tarland, Strathdon and Alford on Thursday and remaining country areas and Aberdeen on Friday. An up to date product list is attached and includes fresh pork and lamb, Maryfield Chickens and a selection of frozen beef, along with the usual bacon, ham, etc. and new for this month, Lorne or square sausage - a traditional Scottish sausage made into a 'loaf' and sliced rather than being stuffed into skins. 

 

There has been a certain amount in the food media about customers choosing 'poorer' cuts of meat in response to harder times. We haven't seen much of this yet, but hard times should not be needed to try some of these cuts as many cooked in the right way are superb and certainly among our favourite meals. So how about trying something different this month you haven't cooked before, say bone-in shoulder of lamb, shin of beef, smoked pork hough or maybe even trotters?

 

Once in a while we make mention of our monthly buyers scheme and a New Year seems an appropriate point to inform and encourage anyone who does, or would like to, order regularly to consider signing up. In a nutshell the scheme commits you to a monthly meat order of your choice of £20 or more, paid by standing order. In return we discount your order by 5%, provide you with new product samples (lorne sausage this month!) and, if you wish, make up your order for you to a pre-agreed general specification. More details and a form to sign up can be found on the How to Order page.

  

October 2008

 

September turned out a busy month, as expected, with attendance at a number of extra events. Life on the farm has been quiet as a consequence but October should see us catch up with some of the stock and field work, including hopefully fairly soon the harvesting of the barley.

 

The seasons have definitely changed now too with the swallows leaving and the first of the wild geese arriving. The grass growth has slowed and the cattle and sheep are being moved around the farm to start to tidy up fields where there is some greenery to eat still. We are now around half way through calving the Belties and so far have had a good run on female calves, which is not great news for meat production but good for expanding our herd.

 

With the turn in the year we have now opened our order book for Christmas geese which will be available during our Christmas open days of 21- 23 December. Full details are available on the Goose page or get in touch.

 

We shall be at Inverurie farmers market on the 11^th October and Banchory on the 18^th before we our open days at the farm on the 23^rd, 24^th & 25^th when we shall have our normal range of fresh meat and charcuterie. Right at the end of the month and running into November we shall also be attending the BBC Good Food show in Glasgow (31^st – 2^nd November) as part of the Slow Food section of the show.

 

June 2008

 

June sees Wark at its most verdant with everything growing at pace, taking advantage of the long daylight hours. We benefited from the few wet days at the end of May, as after a very wet spring, when the dry weather came the ground had dried up remarkably quickly.

 

June will see our first ‘harvests’ from our new poultry enterprises and from the middle of the month we should have the first Aylesbury duck, Poulet Goulois chicken and Guinea fowl ready for sale. Numbers will be limited to start with but we look forward to having them regularly available and to our customers feedback. If you try them please let us know what you think.

 

We are also this month attending Inverurie Farmers market for the first time. The market is held in the centre of Inverurie on the second Saturday of the month (this month it is on the 14^th) and we will have our usual range of charcuterie products, including the Spotty Pig pork pies, bacon, hams and smoked sausage. For future months we also plan to take fresh duck and guinea fowl to the market.

 

We will be at Banchory Farmers market as normal on the 21st June and our open days this month are on the 26th, 27th & 28th June when we are open from 10:00am - 4:30pm. We are holding a farm walk on the Saturday of our open days (28th) for anyone who would like to come for a wander round the farm to learn more about what we do and why as well as enjoy the country and see some of the animals. The walk will start at 11:00 at the farm buildings/shop and last for around and hour and a half. Please do get in touch if you would like more details. PLEASE NOTE WALK NOW POSTPONED UNTIL JULY 26TH

 

 

March 2008 

One of the inspiring things about producing organically is that there exists a goal, against which one farms, of an idealistic sustainable system. As with any goal, there is the inevitability of never fully attainting it, but it is there as an ideal. Holding this in front it is possible to make farming decisions with a degree of consistency and, I hope, integrity. In this ideal world consumers would share our views and trust us to produce food to this understood standard.

 

In the meantime though, while we are waiting for this ideal world to materialise, we have our annual Soil Association farm audit at the end of the month and, for the first time, a separate organic audit of the processing facility. To get meat with an organic stamp on it onto the shelves it must be 1. reared to organic standards; 2. slaughtered to organic standards; and 3. butchered and packed to organic standards. And the big job in all this is not that we have to do 1, 2 & 3 to organic standards ... but that we have to have all the paper in place to prove it!  While not all products will be audited at once, hopefully we shall soon have the first of our fully certified products on sale.

 

We are open this month on Thursday 27th, Friday 28th and Saturday 29th March. At the farm we are open 10:00am - 4:30pm each day and deliveries will be going out on Friday 28th. We are back to a full product list this month with the complete range of fresh beef as well as pork, lamb, charcuterie and Maryfield Farm chicken. An up to date product list is attached. Note: we do have a small number of frozen geese available this month (which could also be collected for Easter, by arrangement, if required).

 

Unfortunately as with the rest of the pig rearing industry we have been subject to very large increases in feeding costs over the last year. Feed accounts for about 80% of the cost of our pig growing and when we started selling pork our feed cost was £180-£200/ton. It is now £380/ton, so unfortunately the time has come to adjust some of our pork prices. Growing a proportion of our feed on the farm means we have some buffering against commodity prices and so the full increased cost is not reflected in the price changes. We hope you will understand the need for this. Our beef and lamb being entirely grass fed is not affected, but we have had to pass on the increased costs of Maryfield chickens.

 

Country Living magazine in association with the Field Studies Council have declared the 30th March "Bring Back the Nature Table" day". This is a campaign to encourage schools (and families) to resurrect the practice of creating a table collection of interesting nature items as a way of encouraging children to learn more about the natural world and to take time when in the country to notice the details of their surroundings (more at www.countryliving.co.uk). There are a number of events happening round the country and while we are not open on the 30th, if any families (or grown ups) would like to start their nature tables on our Saturday (29th) open day this month, we will have available suggested routes and a map for a walk round the farm to see what you can find. 

 

 

Febraury 2008

Two significant moves for us this month are our recruitment of two staff to help us to continue growing the business. Part of this will be in finance and part in the processing side of the business and hopefully this will allow us to concentrate on increasing the farm production to keep pace with demand and to keep up with weekly orders for charcuterie going to deli’s.

 

Outside, it’s been another muddy month and we await spring with some enthusiasm. There are signs now that the year has turned, we heard the first full skylark song at the end of January, the wild mallard duck are getting busy on the ponds and pools with much chasing and splashing and the cock pheasants are staking their claims to their territories. They may yet be forced to revert to winter habits though if recent winters are any measure, with much of our worst weather appearing in February and March.

 

Inside, we had a successful visit to the Speciality Fine Food Fair in Glasgow at the end of January at which we tried out some new products on potential buyers from farm shops and deli’s. The response was encouraging and we will put in train the regular production of some of these items, including pepperone pencils and a roast smoked pork joint.

 

Our open days this month are 21st, 22nd & 23^rd February and we are open at our usual times at the farm of 10:00am until 4:30pm. We shall have fresh pork, lamb and some beef along with Maryfield chickens and our pies and charcuterie. We will also be at the Banchory Farmers market on the 16^th February, and this runs from 9:00am until 1:00pm.

 

Januray 2008

We are rather late updating the website this month, as we try to re-enter some sort of routine after a busy December. 2007 was a good year overall for us, with the major milestone of achieving organic status on the farm in October. The task now for the new year is to achieve organic status on the processing side of the business so we can offer organic traceability all the way through. While the majority of people who buy from us are well aware of the standards to which we farm – you can after all come and see it on the ground – there will be a satisfaction in having this acknowledged in our products.

 

On the farming front it’s more of the same this year as we look to expand animal numbers to meet demand for existing and new products coming up. This time of year though, it is steady heavy work, with daily feeding in the short daylight  being a recurring cycle with few breaks in between. We have had the benefit of some superb frosty and snowy mornings since New Year and the depressing effect of a number of days where it has barely got light. The frosty day area great for tidying up the mud, but the downside is that on those days the water pipes freeze outside and we have to cart water for the pigs. Swings and roundabouts!

 

Our open days this month are Thursday 24^th, Friday 25^rd & Saturday 26^th January and we are open as usual from 10am until 4:30pm. Deliveries will be going out on Friday 25^th. This month we have fresh pork and lamb, frozen beef along with our charcuterie range, pies and Maryfield Farm’s chicken. We shall also be attending Banchory Farmers Market on Saturday 19^th January (9:00am – 1:00pm).

 

 

December 2007

It always seems rather stereotypical to discuss the weather in relation to farming but it has such a bearing on day to day activity that it is hard not to. The recent almost continuous wet weather has made for a trying time. In particular the management of the pigs is made considerably harder with prolonged wet. The grass in the runs turns to mud, the straw in the arks needs renewing frequently to keep it dry, the feed when put on the ground disappears into the mud … On the upside though the ponds are all nice and full and the wetland very wet!

 

Most other focus though, beyond the daily routine, is on preparations for Christmas including last minute building works as well as all the product preparations. The Christmas open days break the normal pattern of opening and we are open on the 22^nd, 23^rd and 24^th December (half day). The deliveries will be going out on the 23^rd (Sunday) and if you are planning to have an order delivered, please let us know as soon as possible. The shop opening times are 10:00am – 4:30pm on Saturday and Sunday and 10:00am – 2:00pm on Monday (Christmas Eve). If you wish to place an order for collection for New Year, these can be collected on 30^th January (10:00am – 4:30pm) or will be delivered the same day. If you would like to place an order for either date, an order form can be downloaded here.

 

We shall also be attending the last Banchory Farmers Market of the year on Saturday 15^th December (9:00am – 1:00pm).

 

Best wishes to all our customers for Christmas and the New Year.

 

October 2007

As of 1^st October we have completed our two year conversion period to formal organic status. In effect this means that our land has been through a 24 month period where it has been managed to full Soil Association organic standards. This time, called conversion, is used to create a buffer from any past chemical use or other prohibited inputs and to allow time for the farm systems to be adjusted to be compatible with the organic approach.

 

In effect, our land is now organic and some of our stock can be classified as organic. Animals also have to go through a conversion period and, ultimately to be sold as organic, the animal has to have been born while the farm was being managed organically. This means that some of our younger cattle, along with the most of the pigs and sheep will be able to be sold as organic in due course, while the older cattle and pigs can never be classified as organic but are termed converted stock and are suitable for breeding organic progeny.

 

Having converted the land and animals we are now working on obtaining an organic processors licence for our butchery and processing rooms here at the farm and, to complete the organic circle, we also need to have the animals slaughtered in an organic approved abattoir, which still requires some work. Coming out of the end of all that … we should within a few months be able to sell some of our products as organic. It’s an involved process, but having spent the last two years learning as much as we can about the organic philosophy and finding out how it works in practice here, we are more convinced than ever about the benefits of the approach. This, despite the fact, that four years ago, our attitude to organic was on the critical side. It will be fascinating to see how the whole farm ecosystem evolves.

 

Our open days this month are Thursday 24^th, Friday 25^th & Saturday 26^th October and we are open as usual from 10am until 4:30pm. Deliveries will be going out on Friday 25^th. This month we have fresh beef, pork and lamb along with our charcuterie range, pies and Maryfield Farm’s chicken.

 

We shall also be attending Banchory Farmers Market on Saturday 20^th October (9:00am – 1:00pm) and early in November will be attending the BBC Good Food Show in Glasgow on the 2^nd, 3^rd & 4^th of the month (www.glasgow.bbcgoodfoodshow.com). We are sharing a stand there with the British Pig Association and another producer promoting the benefits of pedigree and traditional breeds of pig, as well as selling our Spotty Pig Pork pies and our Andoullie sausages.

 

September 2007

The more that we examine the farm ecosystem here, the more interesting it becomes. As organic farmers, relying on natural process to achieve sustainable outputs, it is helpful to see the farm as an ecosystem. As such it is comprised of layers of interacting and competing organisms dependant on and evolved to their physical environment. This includes both ‘natural organisms’ and our introduced ‘farmed’ species.

 

It can at times seem hugely daunting trying to understand what is going on, especially as one follows a particular line of enquiry, for example the mineral requirements of a herbivore (e.g. a cow or sheep). In its natural state an animal has evolved to take and utilise the minerals it needs from a particular habitat in the form of a range vegetation. In turn the vegetation has taken up the minerals from the soils and the soils to a large extent are dependant on the underlying geology. But it’s not quite that simple.

 

Presence of a particular mineral in the soil does not mean it will be taken up by all plants, only some. In turn some minerals when eaten, have the effect of blocking the uptake of other minerals. Add to this changes in availability with the season, acidity of the soil and organic matter and the process of trying to understand it all takes on the look of a degree course. And as that is only the minerals, before we start on the intricacies of fertility, weeds and diseases, it sometimes seems easier to run away and hide.

 

The alternative to seeing it as complicated is to view it as intricate and accept that understanding the whole is beyond a lifetime’s task. Instead, in appreciating the intricacy of it, we can respond, unlike the modern conventional farming approach, with a farm system based on diversity rather than simplicity. Economic wisdom tells us to simplify and specialise.  Ecological wisdom tells us to maintain diversity. As we build a more diverse system, it is fascinating to see the emerging interactions between the various animals we have and their environment, how they differ and how they complement and exciting to see where this takes us.

 

Our open days this month are Thursday 27^th, Friday 28^th & Saturday 29^th September and we are open as usual from 10am until 4:30pm. Deliveries will be going out on Friday 28^th. This month we have fresh pork and lamb and a range of frozen beef along with our charcuterie range and Maryfield Farm’s chicken.

 

We shall also be attending Banchory Farmers Market on 15 September and Living Food at Cawdor Castle on 29 September. This latter event was a hugely popular showcase for local and organic producers last year and we hope that this years event will be equally successful.

 

August 2007   July continued much as June had left off, but with slightly longer gaps in between the showers, although unfortunately with not quite long enough gaps for us to stand much chance of making reasonable hay. The barley crops are looking well, although also in need of some sun, but the beans have suffered, in part due to poor pollination which we assume is as a result of a shortage of insects flying in the wet weather. The grass and herbs sown under the crops however have done very well in the damp, which is encouraging.   We have concentrated instead on the launch of our Spotty Pig Pork Pies to a number of deli’s and farm shops around Aberdeenshire and in Aberdeen. They have been well received and details of the shops stocking them can be found on the How to Order page. If you would like to see them stocked somewhere near you please do get in touch and let us know. We are planning to follow the pies with one or two other products from the charcuterie range. Fresh meat sales will still only be made direct from the farm and Finzean Farm Shop.   Writing this a few days into August, with the news of a Foot & Mouth outbreak hitting the headlines, we are keeping everything crossed that there will be no spread and are planning our open days as normal. Depending on when livestock movement restrictions are lifted, we may have to delay our open days or restrict the products we have available for sale. We will update the website with any changes.   At present therefore, the open days this month are Thursday 23rd, Friday 24th and Saturday 25th August, 10:00 – 4:30 each day. This month we have fresh beef, lamb and pork and the usual range of pies and charcuterie. We shall also be attending the Grantown Show (as part of the Cairngorms Farmers Market) on Thursday 9th August, selling Spotty Pig Pork Pies and charcuterie, and Banchory Farmers Market on Saturday 18th August.

 

July 2007

Most of June seemed to end up a grey washout, except for our wildflowers walk on the Saturday of our open days on which the sun shone. We also had at the end of the month the arrival of this years batch of day old goslings.

 

We faced a dilemma this year in sourcing our goslings. Being in organic conversion we are required to source, where possible, organic day old poultry (i.e. those that have come from an organic certified breeding flock). Where this is not possible an exemption can be obtained. As there is only one supplier of organic goslings in the country, who are based in Devon, we were faced with the quandary of sourcing more locally (although still England) but non-organic or sourcing organic from further afield.

 

It is a common choice to have to make as a consumer too, when faced with organic imported foods vs. non-organic local. Personally we have favoured non-organic local, provided we are happy with the provenance. With the geese however we have gone the other way and have made the decision to buy the organic day olds and not make use of the exemption. The reason for this is that we believe it is important that we ‘buy into’ other organic suppliers as this is really the only way that we will see a growth in the organic sector as a whole. By opting out and using the exemptions, we take away the incentive for that organic breeder to expand and for any new breeders to establish, putting a check on the whole system.

 

Our open days this month are Thursday 26^th, Friday 27^th and Saturday 28^th July, 10:00 – 4:30 each day. This month we have fresh lamb and pork, as well as frozen beef and the usual range of pies and charcuterie. We shall also be attending the Braemar Junior Games on Sunday 15 July, selling Spotty Pig Pork Pies, and Banchory Farmers Market on Saturday 21 July.

 

June 2007

June has to be one of the best months of the year. The new seasons growth is still fresh and the wildflowers are reaching a peak of abundance. It is often our best chance of a spell of decent weather too, although this year spring seems to have happened in reverse.

 

To celebrate June at Wark we are focussing on plants and are holding a practical talk on the plants to be found on the farm. The event will take the format of a short wander though some of the farm habitats finding, identifying and learning about the flowers and grasses to be found here and their role in nature and farming. The talk will be led by Bob Davies. Bob is the proprietor of Forvie Tree Nursery and specialises in growing native shrubs and trees from locally sourced seed. Bob was previously a countryside ranger and is a very experienced natural historian with a great skill for sharing his knowledge in an entertaining manner.

 

The talk will start at 11:00am on Saturday, 30^th June. We will start at the farm and ramble for a short distance from the yard stopping at points of interest, so it should be suitable for all ages, but be prepared with appropriate footwear and clothing for the weather on the day. Please bring children too – all welcome – and we will find some suitable amusements for them on the theme. If you have, do bring along plant identification books and you can put them to use on what we find.

 

Our open days this month are 28^th, 29^th & 30^th June (10:00am – 4:30pm) and continuing the plant theme, we will also have, alongside our own produce, stalls from a couple of local growers offering organic herbs and a range of interesting perennial flowers and fresh vegetables. We will have items from both producers on the Thursday and Friday and on the Saturday the producers will be in attendance to talk about what they do.

 

Not forgetting meat though … we will have our full range for fresh meats again this month with fresh Beltie beef alongside the regular lamb and pork. An up to date order form is available to download on the How to Order page and please do fill it in and return it to us if there is an item you would like us to set aside or deliver for you. In response to requests, we are hoping to start stocking our Spotty Pig Pork Pies in some Aberdeenshire deli’s soon, so if there are any shops you would like to see them in please let us know and we will contact them and see if they are interested. In the meantime, feel free to go in and ask for the pies and drum up some demand!

 

May 2007

April was certainly been a great month and spring has arrived much earlier than last year. The cattle are onto fresh grass about a month earlier than this time a year ago and looking better for it. The wildflowers in the hay meadow are shooting ahead of the grass in response to the heat and now that it is in its third summer we look forward to a good display in June.

 

We finished sowing the crops during the month, having increased our arable area this year to try and reach self sufficiency of feed for the pigs and poultry. It is a principle of organic farming that the system should be as self sustaining as possible, relying on as few brought in inputs as possible. We are trying a new variety of beans again this year to one which is supposed to be better adapted to our situation and the remainder of the cropped ground is under barley.

 

In addition to the harvestable crops, we have put one field that performed poorly last year into a green manure crop this season. This is to act as a break year between the two arable crops and to try and increase the amount of organic matter in the soil to improve the soil structure, which caused some of the problem last season. The seed mix also includes sweet clover, a vigorous legume, which increases the amount of available nitrogen in the ground for subsequent crops.

 

All of the cropping fields are also this year being undersown with grass to return them to grazing or hay fields. We are trying out some new grass mixtures this year. They are different on two fronts, one is matching the grass species to the soil conditions in the different fields, using cocksfoot dominated grass swards in a very dry field, rye grass in a good loamy field and a fescue/timothy mix in a heavier wetter field. The thinking is to use an ecological approach to grassland, matching the species to the conditions, rather than trying to alter the conditions to suit a particular grass (as often happens with the ubiquitous rye grass swards).

 

The second difference is in the use of a herb element in the seed mixture to enhance the mineral and medicinal value of the sward to the grazing animals. The herb element alongside the white and red clover is chicory, burnet, ribgrass, yarrow, sheep’s parsley and birdsfoot trefoil. It will be very interesting to see how the sward develops and how the animals respond to it.

 

Our open days this month are on Friday 25^th & Saturday 26^th May – NOTE we are not open on Thursday this month. We shall be open the usual times of 10:00am  – 4:30pm on both days and have frozen beef and fresh lamb, pork and chickens available and our normal range of charcuterie. Deliveries will be made on Friday 25^th. Please do order in advance if you wish to reserve a particular item, using the form on the How to Order page. 

 

April 2007

There have been many conflicting words written over the last decade about global warming, the role of fossil fuels and renewable technologies. Whether the debates are proven or not there is the start of a swing away from infinite dependence on an oil based economy. Food production and distribution plays a significant part in energy usage and carbon production and can therefore play a part in any solution to our energy and climate impacts. To adopt the jargon, re-localisation of food production is a key issue. Where land resources allow, producing and consuming on as local a scale as possible makes so much sense. Allowing this to happen efficiently requires the creation of networks in production, processing and retailing. Some networks will be models of the past and some will be new innovative approaches. Everyone can play a role in this – eating is an agricultural act.

 

Having re-localised consumption, there is also some very interesting work to be done to de-industrialise agriculture and reverse some of the impacts that the post war push to increase agricultural output has resulted in. Current industrialised agriculture is highly dependant on oil to function at modern levels of output. Principally this is in the use of artificial fertiliser, but also in the mechanisation of crop production and intensive animal production. Reversing this oil dependence but maintaining or even increasing output requires learning from history and but also novel approaches to production in the future.

 

As an organic farm we do not use artificial fertiliser but as producers of both pigs and poultry we are users of large quantities of cereal based feeds. Where we can we grow our own but cereals are a relatively low yielding crop, require significant machinery inputs, need oil based drying for storage and mechanised processing to make them palatable. It is a challenge, but a hugely stimulating one, to look at the options for reducing our dependence on cereal cropping and finding ways of increasing home produced sustainable feed. We shall start some trials this summer. A writer in a recent Soil Association journal recently defined de-industrialising agriculture as the replacement of fossil fuel inputs with labour. This is an anathema to the current generation of farm managers and economists but perhaps that is a confirmation that we are on the right track in a search for far reaching solutions. We won’t be placing a job advertisement just yet but it has to be an option.

 

This months open days are Thursday 26^th, Friday 27^th & Saturday 28^th April and we are open the usual times of 10:00am to 4:30pm each day. We will have fresh beef (with some on the bone joints this month), fresh pork and lamb. Apologies to those who have been keen to get some lamb over the last month or two when we have run out, we are trying to increase production at the moment to keep up with demand. We will also have our usual range of cooked and cured meats and the Spotty Pig Pork Pies along with Maryfield Farms fresh chickens. We are now also selling our free range eggs and hope soon to be selling this seasons Guinea fowl eggs, which are slightly smaller than a hens egg and have light spots, a very creamy yolk and amazingly hard shells.

 

A current booking form is available on the How to Order page if you would like to reserve anything in advance or arrange for a delivery, which this month will be made on the 27^th.

 

This month we are holding a farm walk and talk as part of the Scottish Outdoor Access Festival in conjunction with NEEPS. NEEPS - the North East Environmentally-Friendly Peoples Site, is a web based forum for people in the North East to talk, exchange ideas and build networks for more sustainable lifestyles, see more on www.neeps.co.uk. The Festival is a week long event (28^th April to 7^th May) to celebrate the Scottish countryside and encourage people to remember the Outdoor Access Code (www.outdooraccess-scotland.com). We shall start from the farm at 11:00 and the walk will last about 1½ hours and we will look at the farmed landscape, a number of conservation features and have a look at some of the animals. No need to book, just come along with suitable footwear and outdoor clothing.

 

March 2007

There are a quite a number of reasons why we have chosen to farm in the way that we do and, as we speak to our customers, there are clearly also a number of reasons why you buy from us. For this month we have chosen to single out one strand to have a closer look at: animal welfare. (For a handy definition of welfare have a look at www.bsas.org.uk/about_the_bsas/issue_papers/animal_welfare/)

 

This is to the fore this month as we have just submitted our views, as a member of the British Poultry Council, on a DEFRA consultation on whether there should be a standardised labelling system which gives a rating of animal welfare. This is a tricky subject. In principle the idea of being able to look at a packet of meat in a shop and determine at a glance whether it is from a system promoting good, bad or ugly welfare is great, in a way as has happened with eggs. Egg marketing seems to have sorted the product into production systems allowing consumers to draw their own conclusions about the welfare of the hen that laid them. Perhaps it is no coincidence that organic and free range eggs sales are soaring.

 

It is our view that to apply a standardised welfare grading to meat would really require a compulsory approach. The alternative being that those producers operating to a higher standard would probably opt in while those with less to boast about would opt out leaving fragmented information and consumers uninformed. For the same reasons the grading would also have to apply to imports. The DEFRA suggestion is that the grading would, correctly in our view, be assessed on the entire lifespan of the animal resulting in many administrative complications given the way some animals move between units over their lifetime.

 

Organic certification goes a long way to meeting the requirements of demonstrably high welfare standards – it certifies the system (setting the standard), the animals and the final product. There are however differences between the certifying bodies (the Soil Association leading the way on welfare) and also diluting pressures on the regulations governing what can be called organic, as the movement becomes more popular. We have also been disappointed recently to see what we consider to be welfare compromises permitted (with approval from the certifying body) on an organic farm for economic reasons.

 

Where does this leave a national compulsory measure of welfare? We don’t know is our answer. Principle applauded – practicalities enormous. At the end of the day, we are certified to Soil Association organic standards and we are open to customers to visit us, quiz us and view at first hand the farming system we operate. You can see, you can decide and you can tell us what you think. No labelling system will ever provide that amount of product assurance.

 

Our open days this month are on the 29^th, 30^th & 31^st March (Thursday – Saturday) and we will be making our local deliveries on the 30^th. Fresh meat this month will be pork and lamb with a good selection of frozen beef, alongside the cured and cooked products. A current product list can be found on the How to Order page if you would like to pre order products.

 

On the 31^st we are holding a practical conservation day for anyone who would like to come along and help with getting the wetland ready for spring (rebuilding a dam, clearing our ditches, etc.) and planting some trees around our new pond. The work will be suitable for all ages and abilities (i.e. you can do as much or as little as you like) and we will provide a soup and roll lunch. We will kick off at about 10:30 and run through to early afternoon, depending on the weather and enthusiasm! Please come prepared with wellies, waterproofs, clothing suitable for the day and – if you can – a spade. Please let us know if you are intending to come so we have some idea how big a pot of soup to make. Hope to see you then.

 

February 2007

After the cold snap in the middle of January, February has arrived with sudden warmth. Life around the farm has responded in kind and the skylarks have made a start to their long season of singing, the crows have paired up, cock pheasants are strutting their stuff in front of their, admittedly unimpressed, hens and the grass is greening up. We had a similar mild spell in January last year and here’s hoping we don’t follow it with as rough a March as we had then.

 

We have a digger on site at the moment digging the second of our new ponds. Bigger than the first pond this one is deigned to complement the adjacent wetland we have created. The wetland contains a number of ‘splashes’ of open water which are shallow and in which the cattle can puddle creating insect rich habitat for birds to feed. In contrast the pond, while having shallow margins, will also have some deeper areas and livestock will be excluded from the margins so creating a different range of vegetation and habitats for invertebrates, amphibians and birds. We shall plant some shrubs and trees around the pond and will be holding a practical conservation volunteer day on the Saturday of our March open days (31 March) to help with the planting and to overhaul the wetland drains for spring. Do get in touch if you are interested in getting wet and muddy in aid of conservation! We will compensate you with a suitable lunch.

 

January’s pork pie & beer tasting event went very well and we shall now have pork pies available every month to order and from the farm. The open days this month are on Thursday 22^nd, Friday 23^rd & Saturday 24^th and we are open from 10:00am – 4:00pm each day. Our local deliveries will go out on Friday 23^rd. We will have the full range of meats this month – fresh beef, lamb & pork and the usual charcuterie. We have no fresh geese now but do have a stock of frozen oven ready birds, legs for confit and livers. As usual if there is something in particular you would like, it is best to call in advance or put in an order form and we can set it aside.

 

We have also now finalised the details of our monthly buyers scheme and if you are interested more details can be found on the How to Order page. 

 

January 2007

 

It has taken a little effort this month to catch up with the administration following the busy-ness of Christmas and New Year orders, hence the little delayed updating of the website. Apologies to anyone who has looked recently and found us a little behind the times.

 

December went well however and we are encouraged as always by the positive feedback that we have received on the quality of our products. It is always a boost to us to hear when you have enjoyed something you have bought from us and to hear how you prepared and served it. We have also learnt a lot about handling larger numbers of orders and will put this knowledge to use to we progress.

 

The screening of a feature about Wark Farm on BBC Scotland’s Landward programme in early December introduced us to a number of new customers, as did our first appearances at Aberdeen Farmers Markets. Welcome to those new contacts who have joined us from these and other events in the last couple of months. We hope to see you at the farm at some point over the coming year.

 

As befits the start of a new year, we are taking stock and planning the year ahead. We anticipate that after the festive celebrations, January might be a quieter month so we are not offering beef this month but will have fresh pork and lamb as normal along with a range of cured products. More beef next month. We still have some geese too and have a few orders for January so if you have not quite finished feasting …

 

As an antidote to the richness of Christmas fair we are going simple this month and celebrating January with a Pork Pie & a Pint tasting event on Saturday 27^th January. This is also by way of a sorry to those customers who came in December hoping to buy our pork pies and had to make do with an inadequate apology from us when we hadn’t had time to make them last month. We have teamed up with local brewer Rob James of Hillside Brewery, Lumphanan (www.hillsidecroft.eclipse.co.uk) who will be on hand on the 27^th to ply you with samples of his delicious Macbeth beer brewed only a few miles up the road from Wark. To soak up the beer we will have samples of our Spotty Pig Pork Pies for tasting along with an adequate stock for sale! The tastings will be happening between 11:00 and 3:00 on the 27^th and Rob will be on hand to talk beer and we are happy as always to chat about our approach and the animals.

 

To coincide with the tasting, our open days this month are 25^th, 26^th & 27^th January from 10:00am – 4:00pm each day. We will also be attending Banchory Farmers market on the 20^th with a range of products. As always if you want to be sure of a certain cut give a call or put in an order form and we can set it aside for collection or local delivery (which this month will be on the 26^th).

 

With all best wishes for 2007.

 

December 2006

 

In November we had the first batch of our new flock of breeding Hebridean sheep arrive on the farm. We are bringing in female lambs, born this spring, to start the breeding flock. The lambs are coming from three sources, in Glenshee, Stirling and Orkney.

 

The first group to have arrived has settled well and is grazing at the moment in our wild flower meadow, eating the grass there well down which will help the flowers to come away well in the spring. At the same time, both the benefits and disadvantages of the traditional breeds is that they take time to mature and it will be over at least 2½ years before we have any lamb available from the new flock. We hope to be able to use them later in the winter/spring to graze in the wetland and help manage the vegetation there in preparation for the waders spring nesting season.

 

We are now moving into the winter feeding routine, not helped by the very wet autumn we have had. We are fortunate that living on the upper slopes of the valley our soils round the buildings are relatively well drained but with the constant wet, we still produce mud aplenty.

 

December for us is dominated by the preparation of orders for Christmas and attendance at a number of markets. We shall be at Aberdeen Country Market on the 2^nd and 9^th of the month with a selection of fresh meats and charcuterie. The market takes place between 9am and 5pm in Little Belmont Street, just off Union Street. On the 16^th we shall be at Banchory Farmers Market which runs from 9am to 1pm. The market is located in Scott Skinners Square, adjacent to the main street. We finish the Christmas run up with our own open days this month at the farm. We are open for sales and the collection of orders on the 21^st, 22^nd, 23^rd and 24^th from 10:00am to 4:30pm. We shall have our full range of fresh meats, cured and cooked products and seasonal specialties available. If your Christmas tradition includes a trip to collect your Christmas lunch, we look forward to seeing you at the farm and hope you will join us for some seasonal refreshment and Wark Farm tasters while you are here. Christmas orders are being delivered on  22^nd December, unless otherwise advised.

 

If you are planning to come to the farm and would like something specific, it is advisable to give a call or email to order in advance just to check availability. Similarly with geese, we are still taking order and we will probably have some available right up until Christmas, but better to book to be sure of getting the size you would like.

 

For New Year collections and sales we are open at the farm 10:00am to 4:30pm on the 29^th & 30^th December with deliveries being made on the 29^th.

 

Best wishes for Christmas & the New Year.

 

 

November 2006

 

October has proven to be a very diverse and interesting month with attendance at selling events and a range of new products being trialled alongside hosting visits from a student group looking at agri-environment schemes in action and being filmed for a piece on BBC Scotland’s Landward programme about our approach – a new experience for us.

 

Highlight of the month has been attendance at the Slow Food Foundations Terre Madre event in Italy. The Terre Madre (translated as Mother Earth) is a gathering of 1,600 food communities (6,500 delegates) from around the world (150 countries) who come together in Turin for 5 days of workshops, sharing and networking with the aim of building a global network of food communities for mutual support, alliance and assistance.

 

The food communities represented were enormously diverse from honey producers in Mexico to small scale fisherman in the Netherlands to wild mango gatherers from Gabon to rye bread producers from Latvia. Before them all are the Slowfood principles which are to produce food which is GOOD – in taste and quality, CLEAN – in its interaction with the environment & FAIR – in reward to producers.

 

Food communities are more than simply producers. A food community also encompasses co-producers (consumers stepping outside faceless food purchasing), cooks & chefs who choose to use and promote Slow food products and academics working in support of upholding and enhancing traditional methods of food production against the globalisation and industrialisation of food as a world commodity. Particularly interesting was the phrase that ‘eating is an agricultural act’. We all have an effect in the choices we make.

 

The meeting of so many people of such varied race, geography, history and religion sharing a common goal was enormously stimulating, helpful and encouraging. On a slightly more prosaic level the Salone del Gusto (festival of quality food) which happens alongside Terre Madre was a source of inspiration and ideas for improving our products and exploring new lines. There will shortly be opening a UK Slow Food office so the profile of this movement is likely to increase along with giving a boost to local Slow Food convivium (branches) including our local Aberdeenshire group.

 

Binging it all back local … this months Open Days are Thursday 23^rd, Friday 24^th & Saturday 25^th November and we will have our normal range of fresh meats alongside the cured products. New to the open days this month are smoked goose breasts, which have proved to be very successful. We are open from 10:00am – 7:30pm on the weekdays and 10:00am – 3:30pm on the Saturday. Pre-ordering for delivery or collection is proving popular if there is something in particular you would like and we are continuing to take orders for Christmas & New Year geese and hams.

 

October 2006

 

The season has turned now and we are now starting to think more of the winter to come than remember the beautiful summer that has past. There is plenty to be looking forward to.

 

The geese are now looking in their prime, past their first moult and smoothly plated with feather. We have just moved them onto fresh pasture rich with clover and they are making short work of grazing it down. This years Beltie calves are also now appearing and where the geese are impressive, a week old Beltie can best be described as cute, the black and white calves more so than the dun and white. There is something very appealing to the human eye in an animal that clothes itself in sharply contrasting black and white – pandas, puffins and zebras being obvious cases. When the animal is young also the appeal is magnified.

 

We move on also from this year’s harvest which was a mixed bag. The spring barley yielded well, excepting the rather large patch attacked by crane fly (daddy long legs) grub in the spring and we were fortunate to get the straw baled and home in between the showers. The beans fared less well and produced a very variable and overall poor yield, it appears mostly linked to different soil conditions. Some variability may also be linked to variety and we hope to try another seed next year. A reminder that organic farming, even more than agriculture generally, requires much forethought and anticipation of problems so that they can be managed away.

 

Octobers Open Days are on Thursday 26^th, Friday 27^th & Saturday 28^th, 10:00 – 7:30 on the weekdays and 10:00 – 3:30 on Saturday. We shall have fresh pork and lamb for sale and a limited selection of frozen beef. We will also have fresh duck for roasting and duck breasts available. This is alongside our growing range of cured products, which in addition to the bacon now includes gammons, corned beef, hot smoked sausage, real meat hot dogs and cured beef.

 

In fitting with the move to Autumn we are offering for a change this month fresh red deer venison from local producer Strathdon Venison. This venison is from farmed deer, only a few miles from Wark and from a farm well known to us. It is not certified as organic but the animals are reared in a very extensive system with minimum inputs beyond the heather hill natural pasture and improved grasslands.

 

The delivery service continues to grow and if you would like to take advantage of this please do get in touch we will be happy to take your order. We are equally happy to see you at the farm on the open days to share current news, allow you to browse the products on display and try samples of products in development. Stock on display does vary dependant on the advance orders we have taken so if you would like something in particular, please give us a call and we will be happy to put items aside for you to collect when you come.

 

 

September 2006

 

2005 saw a 30% increase in the organic market in the UK with sales of organic food and drink increasing to almost £1.6 billion. This rate of increase is in stark contrast to the sales of no-organic food and drink which rose by only 3% in the same period.

 

The Soil Association’s organic fortnight, celebrating all things organic, is held during September (2-17) including their flagship event the Bristol Organic Food Festival, a huge organic event. This year there is also the inaugural Scottish equivalent being held in November in Glasgow which promises to be an equally popular venue for consumers.

 

There is clearly a consumer movement underway, with an increasing number of people choosing organic produce. The reasons for this choice will vary from person to person. For some it is the health benefits of the food, others reducing their impact on the environment and for others it is an ethical choice for better animal welfare standards. When it comes to organic production however all these issues are at the fore and this month we are hosting a farm talk and walk to look beyond the organic headlines of No Chemicals and non GM to see what is really involved in developing a sustainable food production system.

 

The talk and walk will be led by David Younie, Organic Farming Specialist with the Scottish Agricultural College in Aberdeen, who is a very knowledgeable and interesting speaker on the subject. The intention is to give a non farmers introduction to the world of organic farming and will look at issues of livestock and crop production, animal health and welfare, soils and nutrition. If you are interested in finding out what organic production really means then do come along. The walk will kick off from the farm yard at 11:00am on Saturday 30^th September and is expected to last for about 1½ hours. If you know you are coming, then it would be helpful if you could let us know, but it is not essential and feel free to just turn up. The walk coincides with our open days this month of Thursday 28^th, Friday 29^th and Saturday 30^th September when we will be open for selling from 10:00am to 7:30pm on the weekdays and 10:00am to 3:30pm on the Saturday.

 

The 29^th September is also Michaelmas day, being the feast day for St Michael. Traditionally the central piece of the feast was goose and there is a small but growing market for Michaelmas goose. We are sorry to not be able to supply goose this year for your Michaelmas feast shopping list, but we are now taking bookings for our Christmas and New Year geese. So if you would like to delay your Michaelmas celebrations until then, or just want to enjoy an outstandingly delicious Christmas meal then get in touch and we would be delighted to reserve a goose for you.

 

August 2006

 

2006 will certainly go down as a good hay year. With the combination of hot sun and, when we cut the grass, a steady wind, the hay made very quickly and easily. We make hay for preference as it is a much nicer task to feed hay in the winter as well as the advantage for wildlife. Later cutting than silage gives the various birds and young hares and deer a chance to get more mobile before the mower arrives. It also gets round the problem of what to do with all the black plastic that comes with baled silage- there isn’t any. We won’t get such good hay making weather every year but when the sun shines, we shall make hay.

 

The Beltie cows and calves are now back into the wetland after a month or so grazing a higher field. It was a mistake taking them out of the wetland in June as the grass romped away with the heat and no grazing and really limited the sites interest to wading birds (other than snipe) as there was too much cover. Mallard and teal have continued to enjoy the splashes with a few broods around, but for next year we will try to keep the grazing going through the summer to maintain the condition of the habitat.

 

We are continuing to experiment with a range of charcuterie products which is proving interesting and with the addition of a smoker to come in August are hoping to be able to release a regular range of interesting products soon – all taking as their starting points the best of our home produced meats.

 

We started our delivery round with Maryfield Traditional Chickens in July, which has been initially well received. More details of this are on the how to buy page. Please give us a call if you are interested in this service or you would like to pre-order before an open day.

 

The open days for August are Thursday 24th, Friday 25th and Saturday 26th, 10:00am - 7:30pm on the weekdays and 10:00am - 3:30pm on Saturday. We shall have fresh pork and lamb for sale along with frozen beef. We are also hoping to have some of our Muscovy/Pekin duck available too. A number of people have also requested that we host another farm walk, and we plan to do so on the Saturday open day - if you are interested  and are not alrady on our contacts list send us your email and we will let you know our details closer to the time.

 

July 2006

From being short of grass in June we are now awash with it looking

forward to haymaking soon when the weather looks like it might hold. The countryside is settling into summer season, with darker greens prevailing now the freshness of the new growth has past. It is difficult to imagine at this time of year when everything is so lush just how bleak the landscape can be here in winter. We are certainly not short of variety as the seasons revolve.

 

We cleared the roadside verges along the farm track last year to make way for a new hedge and to stop the regeneration of gorse bushes and this year there is a beautiful display of wild flowers coming through, all naturally seeded and beginning to thrive where the competition from the scrub and rank grass has been removed. So far we have counted 31 flowering species, with a few to come, not to mention the grasses. There is nothing very rare, but they make a great show, the vetches in particular at the moment. If you come to an open day this month, take the time to look as you come along the drive. We shall have to continue to cut the verges annually to maintain the favourable conditions and stop the control the gorse. The two acres of flower rich hay meadow that we established last year is also looking well now, with a scattering of oxeye daisy’s showing white over the tall grasses and lots of interesting seedlings now turning into recognisable species.

 

The July open days are on Thursday 27, Friday 28 & Saturday 29 of the month and we shall be open from 10:00am to 7:30pm on the weekdays and 10:00am – 3:30pm on the Saturday. Alongside the pork and Hebridean lamb, we shall have fresh beef again this month, the first from our more mature Belties. We have been waiting for one of the local meat plants to start handling animals of over 30 months since the ban on older cattle was lifted last year. We are now able to send these animals to Grantown-on-Spey, which, while a longer trip, is considerably better than Stirling, which was the previous option. So this month the beef is from a three year old steer and it will be interesting to see how this extra time to mature will affect the meat quality.

 

Alongside the fresh meats we shall have our expanding range of cured products, including the bacons, corned beef, garlic sausage, ham and pancetta, all of which are being well received. Hope to see you if you can make it along.

 

June 2006

 

Writing this a couple of days into June, we have had a welcome rise in temperature after a slow cold May. There is very little grass growth for the cattle and they are being moved regularly to keep them fed. Being organic and therefore applying no artificial fertiliser to the fields, higher temperature is important to stimulate the clover in the fields to ‘fix’ atmospheric nitrogen, which is then available to the grass.

 

We have now finished our spring field cultivations, with the sowing of our wild bird cover plots (a mixture of kale, barley, mustard and quinoa to produce seeds for the small birds in winter) and some new grass margins around cropped fields. We are trying a new margin mix this year including vetches, red clover and knapweed, which along with tussocky grasses, is designed to provide nesting areas and feeding for bumble bees.

 

This years goslings have now arrived, along with a small batch of ducklings, so we are busy checking, watering and feeding lots of hungry mouths. They are all tremendous fun and such inquisitive characters. Shoe laces are a favourite target for the goslings efficacious beaks. They are all indoors in a shed at the moment, under heat lamps, until they are sufficiently feathered to venture outside, which weather permitting we hope will be very soon.

 

Thank you to those of you who braved the May weather and joined us on our farm wildlife walk in May. We had a good turnout and the rain even held off until we had returned to the steading for the BBQ. This months open days will be held on 22^nd, 23^rd and 24^th June. We shall have fresh pork and bacon available for sale along with some new products including pancetta and real corned beef (both of which we are very pleased with). There will be a limited selection of frozen beef (more fresh next month). We will also have available the first of the lamb from our Hebridean sheep. We have high hopes for this meat, which has very good reviews and comes to us highly recommended for flavour.

 

The Hebridean is a primitive type sheep and was though to have been the original sheep of the Highlands and Islands of Scotland before the arrival of the Scottish Blackface. It is a small/medium sheep with black or very dark brown wool, fine legs and two or four horns, in both males and females. Arising from its marginal lands origin, it has a propensity to select the rougher vegetation in a mixed sward and has therefore earned a reputation as a pasture improver and as a very useful species for grazing sites of conservation interest. Our group of Hebrideans show a great liking for eating docks which, as well as being a natural wormer, is also of great help in organic weed control! This selective feeding must also play a role in contributing to the quality of the meat.

 

Of the meat, Alex Barker, writing in the Guild of Food Writers, reported “The meat from Hebridean sheep is unique. It has a rich dark colour, succulent tender texture, and a gamey, utterly delicious flavour. Tested against locally produced butchers lamb and some very good welsh lamb, there was no contest: the Hebridean won hands down. It was tender with a really good bite, and rich but didn’t leave that greasy, fatty taste in the mouth. And it was so full of flavour that some of the young tasters couldn’t believe it really was lamb.”

 

In keeping with our overall farming philosophy, the sheep are slower to mature than conventional stock and need less intensive feeding, giving flavour and succulence time to develop.  Come along to the open day if you would like to try some for yourself and see if the meat can live up to its reputation!

 

May 2006

 

As the ground started to dry out during April, the wetland in the centre of the farm seemed to take on a new attractiveness to a variety of birds. The lapwing in particular, which had been displaying over nearby ploughed fields are now regularly feeding in the damp grass and on the edges of the water splashes. A redshank has been sighted a couple of times too which is a first for us and we hope it will return.

 

There is now plenty sign of nest building and egg laying around the farm, both wild and domestic. The first guinea fowl nest from our very free ranging flock was found on the 1^st of May and contained 64 eggs. We have 18 guinea fowl in the laying flock and they forage very widely around the farm, covering perhaps several kilometres per day in their travels. The eggs are laid in a communal nest and are a pale creamy brown in colour, occasionally flecked and with immensely strong shells (suggested to be an adaptation to withstand bushfires in their native Africa).

 

The drying out also allowed the field crops to be sown, about 10 days later than last year, as the contractors raced to catch up with the late season across the county. Four new patches of wild bird cover are still to be sown with a mixture of a cereal and brassicas (kale) to provide winter food for the wild birds, along with some grass/flower margins for bird nesting cover and insect food.

 

The Hebridean sheep have arrived and settled in. They are wethers, castrated males, and are about a year old. More about the sheep another month.

 

The building works to the processing room are being as slow as building works are inclined to be and we won’t be completed in time for the open day this month on the 17^th May, but we are pleased with how it is shaping up.

 

The open day will take place as planned with a range of Oxford, Sandy & Black pork and bacon and Belted Galloway beef available. We shall be open from 10am – 3pm during the day on Wednesday the 17^th and again in the evening of the 17^th between 6pm and 9pm to coincide with the farm wildlife walk led by the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group. The walk will be followed by a pay-as-you go barbeque of Wark Farm pork sausages and beef burgers. If you would like to join the walk it will start at 7pm from the farm yard and do bring appropriate warm clothing and wellies or boots - May is not always tropical at Cushnie and we may well go for a ‘splash’ through the wetland.  Please do come along and join us and see the wildlife, its conservation and the environment our products come from. If you need directions to find us please send an email and we can email a map or alternatively give us a call.

 

We shall also be open for meat sales between 10am and 2pm on Thursday, Friday and Saturday the same week (18^th, 19^th, & 20^th May).  We look forward to seeing you.

 

April 2006

 

March was not a helpful month and trying to farm at 1,000ft brought some challenges as the drifting snow blocked access and subsequent melting snow and rain saturated the ground. We look forwards however now to the proper arrival of spring and April certainly turned up with a beautiful day. Let us hope that it will continue and we will be able to get moving with the spring cultivations.

We are growing spring barley for feed again this year and for the first time shall be trying a field of spring beans for use in the pig and poultry diets. As we are farming organically we must make the most of crop rotations and this year the barley is being grown in fields which have been in grass and clover for a few years and which have had the pigs on them over winter. This should provide the soil fertility and clean ground required for good growth in the absence of artificial fertiliser and chemical sprays.

The beans, being legumes with the ability to fix their own nitrogen from the air, should provide most of their own fertility and are being grown between two years of barley in the rotation. Having a short growing season, beans are an unlikely crop, but we shall be sowing a relatively new variety originally from Sweden, grown for organic systems, which matures very early. We are also contemplating a small area of turnips/kale for green fodder for the pigs and perhaps cattle, as well as some new areas of mixed kale/cereal/quinoa for the wild birds.

One of our gilts produced her first litter of piglets in March and we now have a very lively bunch of spotty piglets, growing at speed and giving the impression that a piglets life is one long game. We housed the sow near the farmhouse before farrowing so we could provide additional heat for the litter and the piglets are now very mobile and having great fun chasing chickens, practicing rooting, eating and sleeping. Not a bad life! There is a lot of other new life in the pipeline as well. The guinea fowl will be laying soon, we are confirming our order for goslings and looking around for some new chickens and we will shortly be collecting a couple of bottle fed Hebridean lambs (probably for breeding but mainly as a birthday present for our daughter!) along with some older Hebridean lambs to go onto the grass this year for lamb and mutton later in the summer.

We are unfortunately not going to be able to host an open day in April as the building works are so far delayed by the weather. We are selling small quantities of pork and the occasional goose from the freezer and if you are interested in this or the next batch of fresh pork (second half April) do get in touch. We are however having an open day on 17^th May at which we will have available a selection of fresh pork and Belted Galloway beef. As part of the open day we are hosting a farm wildlife walk with the Farming & Wildlife Advisory Group, to look at a range of farm wildlife, their habitats and conservation issues. The walk is in the evening and will finish with a barbeque with our own produce, demonstrating in a very tasty way the link between food, farming and conservation! We will provide more details in next months diary, but if you are interested in attending do complete the submit form to the left or on the contact page and we will send you details closer to the time.

March 2006

March is being welcomed in by a return to the sort of winter weather that has been missing for most of the season. We have heavy snow showers and drifting in strong winds. We have had it very easy so far this winter so we shouldn’t begrudge some seasonal weather and the children are certainly appreciating the Snow Days off school.

The snow is not so helpful for the building works in the new processing room, which are now progressing at pace, and we are bringing in deliveries as possible when the road is clear. We have a fond hope of still hosting our first open day in April but as the scale of the works increases we will see …  Do register your interest (submit form on left) or send us an email if you would like us to let you know when the first day will be.

As we make our plans for this year’s geese (only 10 months to go until Christmas!) Avian Influenza remains a major concern for us. We are hopeful that with the correct precautions we should be able to rear the geese as normal, although the veterinary advice is be prepared for when, and not if, it arrives.

Geese would take particularly badly to being confined for a long period should it be necessary, being so much a free ranging and grass eating bird. For the first few weeks of their lives as goslings, while they are dependant on heat, they remain in a building and to get them used to their preferred diet we supplement their organic ration with fresh grass cuttings, which they eat, even from a few days old, with great gusto.

We are convinced that access to fresh grass is a key part of both the animal’s welfare, in expressing their natural behaviour, and in the creation of a final product of quality and flavour. Perhaps even beyond the grazing propensity though, to see a massed flock of geese whooshing into a running flight on being let into their grazing field on a windy morning tells of the freedom that a goose needs. Let us hope that confinement will not prove necessary and that, selfishly, we avoid the scenario of carting mountains of grass clippings to the hungry hordes!

We shall be attending a local Food Tasting event being held at Deeside Activity Park at Dess by Aboyne on the 12^th of March. The event runs from 12pm to 4pm and there will be a number of local food business’s present with samples for tasting and products to purchase. We shall have available for sale a selection of our Oxford, Sandy & Black free range pork and bacon. If you are in the area give it a try and see what local food producers are up to. We hope to meet you there.

February is looking like a busy month at Wark as we proceed with the building works to the processing rooms, starting with a fair amount of clearing out, including some rather thick concrete! There is also all the equipment and fittings to be specified and ordered.

As our experimentation with bacons and hams continues we shall be attending a smoking course this month looking at systems for the smoking of a proportion of the bacon and ham to further add to the eating experience.

We are also hosting the first of a new series of school visits to the farm in February, part of our link to the local primary school. Craigievar are an 'Eco-School' meaning they adhere to various areas of environmental monitoring and performance and as part of this programme we have formed a link with the school to 'sponsor a sow' where the children follow a cycle of production from an individual young pig, through its growth and development until it has its own piglets. The aim is to help the children better understand the facts of food production, while also drawing in enterprise and conservation.

Health & Safety unfortunately limits the amount of involvement that the pigs get out of the project as, no doubt, they would be very keen to take advantage of 50 additional back scratchers in their runs. Even without this however they are likely to be as observant of their visitors as occurs the other way. The cats curiosity is as nothing compared to the pigs, the pigs appetite for knowledge and experience being aided and abetted by a powerful snout and a 100kg of bulk. We have one sow, rapidly becoming a pet, that happily ambles around the farm buildings keeping us company and exercising her thirst for knowledge in a most physical manner. Setting aside her bulk, sandy and spotted coat and trademark tail, it is not un-reminiscent of having a labrador dog in tow - all actions are subordinated to the quest for food!

Anyone interested in the ways of the pig in general could do a lot worse than read the entertaining and informative book 'The Whole Hog' by Lyall Watson. This part text, part eulogy takes a wander through the world of pigs, wild and domestic, throwing up some fascinating insights into the mind of the pig, its long association with humans and the evolutionary parallels of two omnivores. Did they chose us or did we chose them?

We continue to work towards the first of our farm open days at Easter and if you would like to join our mailing list to be kept informed, please send an email or enter your email address in the box on the left and press submit. Otherwise we are selling pork monthly in the normal way, so please do get in touch if you are interested in purchasing.

January 2006

December 2005