Wark Farm

Organic Farm and Butchery in Aberdeenshire

Phone Number: 01975 581149

News From Wark Farm December 2020

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  • Posted date:
  • 07-12-2020

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December 2020

This is a guest post by SaM:

Our land is slowly entering its winter sleep. Growth is slowing and colours are fading away. Trees are becoming silhouettes of skeletons, drawing mazes of lines against grey and cloudy skies. I grasp and try to savour each ray of sun, but the few hours of daylight seem to slip by way too fast. The Hebridean sheep and Belties benefit of their tick coats, but even they seem less bouncy, their furs a bit more down with mud. They're more dependent on their humans these days. As they first grazed off the nice bits of greens, we held off feeding them silage until they ‘cleaned' the less interesting parts of the land, but now all of our cattle have moved onto silage. Every day we drive the tractor to where we lined up the silage cut earlier this year and bring back bales to the different cattle and sheep feeders spread over the fields. When our tractor drives up, the heads of our cows perk up, and they follow us, our tractor at the head of a slow moving train of Belties, all moving to the feeder rings where the silage will be deposited. It has its own beauty, the more visible connect between humans and animals. In these dreich times, made even worse by all the uncertainty and anxieties and loneliness brought by corona, connection is more important than ever. Connection to animals, like the cows but even our dogs and the garden birds pecking at old pastry put on the bird feeders. Connection to the land, where growth is never ending, even if less visible. And connections to other humans.

We wish you sprinkles of festivities, not just packed up in one day, but every day. Merry whatever.

Thank you as always for all your support.

Laurel & Sabrina