The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Burly Hank settles in and five minutes of TV fame
It is feeling distinctly autumnal today as I write, although not in a dry, crisp way unfortunately. The winds are howling and the rain is torrential.
The silver lining of the recent poor weather, for myself and the girls at least, was that Nick did not spend the weekend harvesting his spring barley. Naturally, he and father Dereck are hoping for a good dry spell sooner rather than later so that the fields at Daviot, in particular, are clear for the annual Strathnairn Vintage Tractor Rally on September 30 (find out more at daviotvintage.co.uk).
Elsewhere on the farm, Nick has managed to find a replacement for our British Blue bull, who we lost to injury last month, this time a burly Simmental bull going by the pedigreed name of Hank (although Daisy prefers Bernard).
The honey-coloured chap from Caithness proved rather popular with the ladies when let loose with them for the first time last week, although it was the cows that were after a bit of Hank-y panky (I must give credit for this little joke to my other half ), rather than the other way round. They chased him all over the field until he finally climbed up the dung heap to escape, disappearing down the other side. Thankfully, he was not hurt.
The herd continues to milk well under the new robotic system and thanks to the continued success and growth of Highland Fine Cheese, owned and run by Rory Stone, almost all of Rootfield’s milk is now going to the Tain-based food producer.
We only use a fraction of the milk produced here to make our ice-cream, natural yoghurt and unhomogenised milk with the rest going to Rory. The difference now is that Graham’s no longer balance the excess milk Rory used to have because he needs it all to upscale his production of cheddar, blue, traditional crowdie and brie-style cheeses in preparation for Christmas.
Nick is delighted that he collaborated with Rory almost two years ago and that our milk is travelling such a short distance to be crafted into a range of award-winning local products. What’s more, Nick has happily added a further 10 Ayrshire cows to the herd in the last month to better meet Rory’s milk constituents requirements for cheese-making.
The volume of milk produced by the beautiful chestnut and ivory Ayrshires is less than the Holsteins, but the allimportant butterfat and protein content is higher. Obviously this works well for our processing arm of the business, too.
In the past few weeks, Nick and the girls (his bovine girls that is) have been enjoying their five minutes of fame in a TV commercial and a video short to promote a new local food website. Well, when I say “enjoying” that is not strictly true. Nick is not at all comfortable in front of the camera, but you wouldn’t know it.
Much to my self-conscious husband’s relief, in the television commercial at least only the cows ended up on screen – it was an interview with Rory Stone by Heart FM for Aldi. However, the Transition Black Isle video was an interview with Nick in the middle of a field, surrounded by the rather noisy herd.
Transition Black Isle (transitionblackisle.org. uk) is a group of 130 likeminded members who are working to create “more self-reliant communities through activities such as growing food, reusing and recycling, cutting energy use, learning practical skills and arts and crafts”.
To this end, they have created an online directory of producers and suppliers of local food on the Black Isle called Our Local Larder.
By the time you read this, Nick and I will have attended the official launch of the website in our local village, Muir of Ord, on Thursday, featuring a photographic exhibition, local nibbles and the website itself (blackislelarder.org). You’ll find my superstar-farmer in the Meet the Supplier section alongside three other local food champions.
Another exciting venture celebrating the vibrant food culture in our neck of the woods is Highland Food Fling - highlandfoodfling. wordpress.com.
Highland Food Fling is a fantastic real time resource for foodies who live here or are planning to visit featuring food heroes from the Highland and Moray area.
Via a trio of social media platforms and a blog, Highland Food Fling’s innovative creator, Eve Webster, posts details of upcoming events, seasonal produce, recipes, trends, interesting newspaper articles as well as featuring food heroes and makers of the month, cafes, restaurants, farmers’ markets, pop-ups and well, just about anything that’s going on to do with food in the area.
As you know, I’m not a prolific consumer of social media but with its relevant information, chatty prose and gorgeous photography Highland Food Fling could convert even a luddite like myself; so far I’ve liked it and am now following it on Facebook (don’t ask me about Twitter and Instagram).
Both Our Local Larder and Highland Food Fling are such welcome resources and fantastic at raising the profile of local food and drink (we are a bit biased, of course, being featured on both platforms).
At home, the girls and I have been doing our bit on the local food front by harvesting from a surprisingly abundant crop of apples from our garden – there were none last year. We have six trees, all here before our time, but only one of them bears eating apples, so the rest are destined to be made into peachy hued jelly, pies, crumbles and chutneys.
I suspect, however, it won’t be long before we are all appled out, so the excess will be bagged and popped into the honesty shop or deposited at the production kitchen to be magicked into ice-cream by Rosie and the team.
NEXT MONTH: Food Assemblies and pumpkin time again
“It was the cows that were after a bit of Hank-y panky” “They have created an online directory of producers”
■ Rootfield Farm is on the Black Isle, 10 miles north of Inverness, where Jo lives with husband Nick, a fourthgeneration dairy farmer, their daughters Daisy and Mollie, and 150 cows