Wark Farm

The hares certainly know the lie of our land better than we do.

Newsletter May 2021

We're working our way through peak lambing at the farm this week. The ewes are in good shape, the lambs are coming out nicely sized and strong and the overall numbers are reasonable. No thanks are due to the weather though, the lashing tail of this late departing winter has left it's scars and the losses are as painful to bear as they are every year. The highs are just as high though and the lambing team just as tired! Ten months planning and shaping coming to fruition in a few short and intense weeks, the results of which we will either gain or lose from over the next two years.

I have in my head a quote read years ago that proposes that the contrast between a photographic portrait and a painted portrait is that the latter contains time, captured as it is likely to have been over a period of sittings rather than in one moment. I won't enter any artistic debate here, I'm no artist, but I do like the notion of time as a component/ingredient and it is certainly a very tangible part of our farm system. In a simple way, naturally it take time to grow a crop or an animal and indeed we take a bit longer than most conventional farm systems, working as we do with the pace of our traditional breeds and the biology of the land and seasons.

As well as taking time directly though, time is also built in as an element from the years of sculpting the land and systems. The sheep having lambs now contain the evolving, shaping and choosing of genetics that make up the flock for our land and our products; years of selection, thought and shaping. They have gestated their lambs while grazing on herb rich pastures, sown many years back, now matured and diversified by nature. After lambing they will move onto productive clover rich grasslands growing on soils containing in some instances double the organic matter they did 10 years ago, with all the attendant changes in soils and plant biology that that brings. It's more than a simple time line, more in the nature of dynamic sculpture. So as we come to another open week alongside the intensity of lambing it's good to breathe for a moment and look across the farm and think about the products that will be heading out to you all next week and all the richness of the time that is built into all of it. It's a good perspective to feel; before we pull on the wellies and jump right back into the moment again.

The May order form is now open.

On our product range for this month:

* There's our usual list of aged Belted Galloway Beef 

* Hebridean Hogget/Lamb, the full range of fresh cuts

* Venison medaillons and fillet (very limited quantity available)

* We also have our home cured bacons and delicious gammon steaks back on the menu, as well as gammon boiling joints to make your own hams.

* A good selection of pies, including our new-but-already-popular Spring Pea Pie with garden peas, onions roasted until caramelisation and a hint of fennel and garlic. And we also have our special seasonal pie, our Lamb & Wild Garlic Pie.

ORDER INFO:

Ordering deadline: Tuesday 11th May, 1pm.

Order confirmations are not sent out automatically, but will be emailed to you by latest Wednesday 12th May.

COLLECTION/DELIVERY INFO: Orders can be collected at the farm (Sunday 16th May between 11.00am to 2pm) or picked up at Banchory Farmers Market (Saturday 15th May). We also do deliveries in central Aberdeen and Aberdeen City and most of Deeside and Donside. Deliveries will be on Friday 14th May. Delivery is free of charge for orders above £40, otherwise it is £5 delivery charge. Please check with us whether we deliver to your area if this is the first time you're ordering from us.

The updated order form link is below.

As ever please get in touch if you have any queries.

Best wishes 

Laurel & Sabrina