Generation game down on the farm is a family affair
Euan Cameron works hard all year round in all weathers, clearing, sowing, planting and harvesting dozens of varieties of fruit and veg – but would never swap it for an office job, he tells Catriona Thomson
Euan Cameron is a busy man – if he is not planting, tending crops or harvesting on the small family farm in Fife, he will be off delivering fresh produce to Broughty Ferry, Carnoustie, Dundee or Edinburgh.
He joined his parents working on Pittormie Farm after he finished studying at Dundee University in 2005, having gained a degree in geography, and a Masters in civil/ environmental engineering, but he laughs: “I don’t use any of that now.”
The farm is only 35 acres, so he says: “We need to run it like a market garden, that is the only way to make a living from the land.”
In the past there was an old-fashioned berry shop here in the summer, but now the farm shop is open June to October selling Pittormie’s delicious produce. Traditionally, people would come to buy fruit to make jam, but “that has declined in the last 15 years”.
They now grow around 50 different types of fruits and vegetables. He says: “The greengrocers are most keen on the stuff that you are not going to see in the supermarkets – tayberries, tummelberries, worcesterberries and jostaberries.”
They sell to quite a few greengrocers – “they like our produce straight from the farm”. These include Fraser’s in Dundee, Cheryl at Clementine of Broughty Ferry,
and several sites in Edinburgh, including Tattie Shaws in Elm Row, Dig in Bruntsfield, Root Down in Portobello, and Fruit-a-licious in Morningside.
They also supply some produce to local restaurants, including John Kelly at The Grange Inn, Rory Lovie at Bridgeview Station, and Masterchef winner Jamie Scott at The Newport Restaurant.
Some of their soft fruit goes for processing into wine at Cairn O’mohr at Errol, near Perth, and for beer at Williams Bros Brewery at Alloa.
Another source of income is Jannettas in St Andrews: “They take an awful lot of fruit, they like using locally-grown strawberries and tayberries in their ice-creams.”
Other crops grown on the farm include cabbages, cauliflower, beetroot, broccoli, squash, cucumbers, courgettes and pumpkins. Initially they only grew a couple of hundred squash plants, but as the market has grown they now plant more.
Using a planting machine and biodegradable film made of corn starch, they keep the use of chemicals to an absolute minimum, then “at the end of the season we can just plough it all in”. From August onwards they harvest 20 different varieties of squash.
Euan says: “Growing up on the farm was fun but hard work.” Back then they mainly grew soft fruit – raspberries, strawberries, gooseberries and red currants for the wee berry shop and to supply the cannery.
“We would have berry squads, and the berries would get weighed and our summer job [as kids] was paying the pickers. We had to sit on the money box to make sure it didn’t disappear,” he laughs. In those days it was bus loads of local pickers, he adds, “last year we were really lucky because some of our neighbours had been furloughed”.
It is a waiting game to see what
happens this year, they might have to put out a Facebook post for local pickers. Euan says: “We have used workers from the Czech Republic before but I have had absolutely zero emails from anyone looking this year, so my brother and I will just pick what we can … the world has changed and you have to just roll a bit with it, but it is definitely the downside of Brexit.”
This year they are not sure exactly how Covid will continue to affect them. Euan says: “We found during lockdown, folks really did go back to basics, as a fruit and veg business we benefited as people always needed to eat.
“When people were only allowed out once a day for their exercise, they came to our farm because they were getting out and getting better quality produce.
“What will be will be. I will just grow the stuff, and if I don’t sell it in our shop, I will sell to a greengrocer or a wholesaler. We just need to adapt, hedge our bets and do a bit of everything.”
Last year their wholesale trade was really badly hit, but “overall I can’t complain, we were much busier in the farm shop.”
There is no shortage of work in any time during the farming year. In January, he says, “we usually look after the fruit, tayberries, brambles and the tummelberry and raspberries, cutting out the old canes and tying up the new canes”. In February, it’s prepare for the season and get the machines ready. In March, “we fertilise, and at the end of month we sow all our squashes and beetroot by hand, into cell trays, so you are basically sitting there for days, hand sowing them … the minute the seeds germinate they go from the greenhouse, where there is heat to the polytunnels.”
In early April the growing beds are prepared, and in May it’s all about planting. In June and July, it’s picking berries and currants, then in
August “we harvest early tatties – we have a couple of acres of mainly the old-fashioned varieties like Golden
Wonder, Red Duke of York, Kerr’s Pink. We have 20 different varieties this year, ones you don’t see in supermarkets.” In September, it’s pick plums and apples, and harvest the Squash.
Then in October “it’s proper winter veg time with carrots, leeks and neeps”. In November, “I start cutting canes out again [of the berries and currants], so you are back to square one.” He says: “It is pretty much never-ending. Well, that is what my wife says anyway.”
He met wife, Rae-anne at university, where she was studying medicinal chemistry. She is now a chemistry teacher. The couple have a daughter, Skye, who is four – “she used to be funny about getting dirty, but if we are planting she wants to help, so I don’t want to knock her enthusiasm. We have 100 hens for free range eggs and she is quite good with the chickens.”
His brother Ross joined the business last August. He has two children, Ruairidh and Niamh, who is just a couple of weeks old. Ruairidh is tractor mad, Euan says: “He is only two-and-a-half but he pretty much knows every tractor. It is amazing what they soak up at that age.”
He adds: “Our parents are getting a wee bit older and wanting a slightly quieter life, but I think they are quite chuffed with what my brother and I are doing.
“We are quite cautious about everything – you can only spend your money once, so we do things on a small scale first to see how it goes.
The hardest thing is making a living from such a small parcel of land.”
The land, soil and climate means Pittormie is good for farming and “we have just built up the niche demand for things nobody else grows. It is quite labour intensive and I wouldn’t do all the hours if I rented the farm, but you don’t mind doing it for yourself and the next generation.
They are currently harvesting gooseberries and Euan says ruefully “we will pick what we need and the rest will go to the birds”.
It is always a surprise each year to find out what crop sells the best. Last year they had a great crop of potatoes, and the leeks received praise from all the greengrocers – “that is because I’m harvesting it one day and take it to them the next, but getting that feedback makes it all worthwhile”.
He is proud of what his parents have built up, syaing: “I couldn’t have taken on Pittormie if they hadn’t gambled to buy the land when interest rates were expensive. They probably took bigger risks than I would take, so fair play to them.”
The brothers both stay nearby, but Euan says: “I can see me moving to the farm at some point to let the folks have a proper retirement.”
He still loves working on the family farm – “I don’t think I’d like to be stuck in the office if I am honest.”