Wark Farm

November 2022

With Laurel balancing farm work and our craft butchery, I figured I'd pitch in by putting together this month's newsletter. For those that don't know me yet, I'm SaM, former banker-turned-foodproducer (or something akin). I'm half Belgian, half Malaysian, mainly nomad (or so I was before I met Laurel, who's also the love of my life and who has undoubtedly Scottified me) and slightly eccentric despite a constant wish to be more average. Hmmm, I never meant to write this much about me, but I thought maybe it'd be nice to know who's writing this.

Anyway, back to the main topic, the farm. There's a lot of technicalities to be told about farming, but for me everything always comes back to emotions. The farm has been a place of re-birth for me and there's no time in the year when this is better reflected in the farm's landscape and views than now. The land is folding inwards, colours are slightly subdued but warmer and earthier than ever. Some life is dying, but other life still lingers inside the soil or dangles on branches. New trees and bushes need to be planted soon, as the land slides into a period of rest, of calm, before re-starting that cycle of buzzing, outwards life again. Our lives move in tiny regenerative cycles, and at the farm, we're lucky to be right at the pulsating pulse of it all. But let me show you and take you for a photo tour over the farm, sharing my tiny places of happy being with you, hoping that it will spread beyond this screen.

Before the photo tour, let me share with you first the link to our updated order form for November. On popular request, we have our pork sausages back on the menu, and for the big fans, we advise to stock up as we won't be making these again for a few months now. A few other specials this month are our pheasant & apricot pies, iron age pork chops, iron age pork fillets, and all our cured meats this month are made with iron age pork. Of course there's our usual range of organic beef and lamb cuts, and we're also taking PRE-ORDERS for TURKEYS and xmas gammons. All practical info is on the order form.

Now join me for the photo tour and i hope you enjoy :-)

Best wishes

Laurel & SaM

November 2022 Order Form

Photo Tour:

Let's start at our back garden, our wee vegetable spot, where there's always something to nibble on, and with a view on our belties in various fields. Hidden behind the hedges, there's a stone bench we made ourselves from recuperated rough stones. It's a lovely spot to just sit and do nothing. Even if just for 5 minutes. To catch our breath and be ready to face the world. But today Moss, our collie dog, is ready to go out for a walk over the farm.

There's something really nice about a bull with a great, soft character. Nighthawk definitely steals hearts. He's so tough looking but he does love his behind-the-ears-scratch.

I fear Laurel has slowly been turning me into a farmer. In heart at least (practically speaking I'm pretty much worthless! I couldn't lift a fork with a heap of sileage or drive that tractor, let alone manouver it's forks or bucket) I've grown to love the smell of good sileage; to enjoy the sound of the cows chumping away at it steadily; and to slow down and watch the dust play in the late autumn/early winter sun. And I don't mind the mud at all.

I've even learned to appreciate the mud. The nitrogen in this mud that provides natural fertilizer. And the surprising pretty picture my phone caught of it today.

The thing that sneaked up most sneakily on me was my change of values. Suddenly I find myself finding long grass valuable, and perceiving clover as a richness. Where in my old life, clover would have meant nothing to me. For fans of The Little Prince (De Saint Exupery), there's many new meaning and richness to be found in a life like this. In a life where something simple like this can bring real joy, you know you're on the right track. Despite occasional anxieties that you've been completely insane.....

And I end the photo tour with our Belties in the rough grass, and a view on our splashes. Coming from a world where everything was smoothed out for me, there's something nourishing about having a bit of wildness here. If we clear out all the wildness, then where will our imagination live?

Thank you for supporting us!

Much love, SaM