Wark Farm

October 2020

This is a guest post by SaM:

"Baling our straw was a salvage action this year. Because of the late time of the year, the straw lying on our fields was still wet and as spells of dry weather became increasingly rare, we felt our anxiety levels increase with each passing day. We urgently needed a few days of sunny, preferably windy days, to get our straw to airdry. Then the weather turned into our favor, but with the straw not being as dry as it could have been, this meant that the clumps of straw on the field all had to be turned a few times first so they could dry out on all sides, before they could get baled. The result was our farm helper doing lap after lap with the tractor before we could even start baling. The time, money, fuel and stress spent was way higher than what it would have cost us to simply buy in straw from somewhere else. Yet, put again for the choice, we would have made the same decision again. Why? Because there's something incredibly precious about being self-sufficient. And about not letting things go to waste. One of the first things I learned about the farm and Laurel's vision on it, is how she believes in keeping things going round in circles. Land fertilized by our cattle and sheep; the next year barley grown on that land; barley seeds turned into whiskey; the too tiny seeds filtered out and used to feed wild-and domestic birds; the straw remains turned into bedding for the cattle and sheep. And the circle restarts again.

Sometimes going the long way is valuable by itself. Because the long way equals life. Life in rhythm with nature.

Practical Info

ORDERING FORM FOR NOVEMBER IS NOW OPEN

For November we're bringing back a lot of favourites such as sausages, pork cuts, gammon steaks and pork boiling joints to make your own ham. But we also have venison back on the menu. And of course there is our regular range of aged Belted Galloway Beef, Hebridean Lamb and home cured bacons. More info about this on our ordering form.

ALSO WE ARE NOW TAKING PRE-ORDERS FOR THE FESTIVITIES

As most of our regulars know, we are an organic farm driven by careful stock management in harmony with the land, which means high quality produce but also limitations in available supply. As such, we welcome people to put their festive pre-orders in as soon as possible. In case you would like certain beef joints for the festivities, you can also request this in comments and we'll get back to you about what is possible. The link to the ordering form can be found below.

Link to order.

Thank you as always for all your support.

Laurel & Sabrina