One business that has never looked back

Lyne Mhor Croft near Gorthleck, 22 miles north of Inverness, extends to 3.5 acres and is run by Jane Mason and her husband, who focus on producing and promoting “farm to fork” produce from their rare breed animals.

They first opened their gates for Open Farm Sunday in 2016 and Jane explains here why no farm is too big, or, in this case too small, to host the event.

“The croft is home to our four breeding sows including the Oxford, Sandy and Black breeds. They produce young stock which the we finish on farm and sell the pork at.

“We originally signed up for our first event, mainly to show the public what rural life is like and to help promote our business.

“The biggest worry for me before the day was the safety and wellbeing of the public, but also of the animals.

“Leaf Open Farm Sunday gave us great support and provided us with information and tools to use at the event.

“The best advice I could give to anyone who is undecided about hosting a Leaf Open Farm Sunday event is go for it and don’t be scared to ask for help.

“Ensuring there are activities for your visitors to engage in whatever their age is key. Plan activities which are simple and easy to manage, many of these can be things you are already doing on the farm or croft. An example of this is our ‘kids feeding kids’ activity.

“We simply let the children come along and have a go at feeding our kid goats – it goes down a treat.

“The most rewarding thing for us as hosts and what really convinced us to continue hosting Open Farm Sunday was the fact people turned up. In our first year we had 70 visitors and in year two around 140 people.”