On Facebook at the moment, there are a variety of posts with no photo, but that makes me take note. Ooh, what’s this? They want to engage with others. Sounds great. They want a comment of something that connects the two of you. Interesting, I’ll think on this. I keep reading. They then have the line of ‘comment, copy and paste on your timeline’. Fat chance. It’s not their words, it’s just copied. So to all of my friends on Facebook: I do read your posts, would love to join in but as soon as I see ‘copy and paste’, I practice social media distancing. Copying and coughing are two things I am happy to stay clear of. Even if it was slightly adapted to hold your own words, it would change it from being someone else’s work, to being yours.
If you are really bored, and had enough of the copy and pasted post on seeing photos number 17, 33 and 61; why not learn a new skill or craft? You do not have to sit on your sofa as many posts seem to suggest. There is a lot more to life than Netflix. Knit a hat, make cheese, plant some herbs, learn a language, make cards, write letters, put up a bird feeder. I could go on. The current situation is a craft hoarders paradise; for once buying the equipment and supplies can match the art of doing something with it. It’s not just a introvert book reader’s heaven. Spring clean, declutter, fold the past six months laundry…
If I’m honest, I do like the sound of being confined to the house for several weeks. But, we have a croft and children and with the time of year, our main projects at the moment are outside (log shed, polytunnel, veg garden). Getting the spinning wheel out with two wee boys who are more akin to Road Runner, is not a good idea.
So my craft area has stayed untouched. By the time the mini crofters are in bed at night, I am doing well to manage a row or two of knitting before wanting to hit the sack. But I am persistent (aka stubborn, who would have guessed) and I think even doing one row is better than nothing.
So for those of us who don’t have the luxury of complete self isolation inside, on our own and have the time to take up a new skill, finish the fifteen projects we have on the go. why not show us what you have made, learned, done, attempted. From ‘Covid-19’ to ‘I did 19’, use the time to do something new while we get a handle on the coughing (and copying) issues.
A literal stock broker though. And with the more stock a farmer has, the broker they are. Although, things just swung a little differently this past week with suddenly meat coming back on people’s menus and being in high demand. Not as high as bog roll or plain flour, but hey, what a change in people’s spending habits.
The situation is this. We currently have no beef at the moment, we sold out about a week before the panic buying habits took off.
About a month ago we had started making plans for the next steer going to his byre in the sky. Chatted to the butcher to ensure the timings gave enough hanging time. We were asked to keep him back until the end of March due to all the Easter preparations. All fine and dandy; a date that matched when the Crofter would be home was picked. Then, last week we rang to book the steer into the abottoir and all private sales have been stopped! Yes, thanks to all the people who for some reason are now raiding butcher shops, the abottoir is trying to keep up with their own demand. So hence no time for those of us who are independent.
The ‘zip-a-dee’ is missing from my do-da’ to say the least. It’s not an emergency, we have food for ourselves, we have food for the cows. We do not have bog roll stuffed sheds. The issue is our customers having to wait. As much as we like to be self suffiecient and sell excess on to others, the supply chain is reliant on others due to the law.
This is also an interesting time to see people’s spending and eating habits. We often promote eating local food even if it costs more; the benefit always seems to outweigh the cost. When the country starts talk of a lock down, where are people going to source their food? Interestingly enough, Scotland has a lot of landscape that can feed livestock and produce meat. It is a struggle to feed and produce a lot of fruit and veg (kale and turnips are grand, but I often buy bananas and other foods that come from a far as we have no hope of being self sufficient in things such as sweet potato). So why the sudden mass buying of meat? We have the supply on our doorstep, we don’t need to fly it in, so why put so much pressure on the shops and butchers (and therefore the abottoir)?
After the dust settles, will people be more aware of where their food comes from? How it can end up in a shop, packaged and ready for them? Will lockdown give people time to start growing their own fruit, veg and herbs? Dairy farmers still milk their cattle, will many try making their own cheese?
Now, a lot can change in a day in the current climate. We, unlike so many other small scale producers, have an alternative option for sending the steer. And with that, he is booked in on Thursday. Let’s hope we can be singing Ode to the Steer before the week is out.
There may be Coronavirus out there, but on the croft, the seasons continue and we carry on. And one of these events is, the farewell of a steer. Yes, all of the last beast has now sold out. But, that does not mean an end; the first part of the process has been started for the next, the butcher is booked.
So, watch here or on Facebook for further news (and hopefully, the Covid-19 will not cause a delay) to filling the freezer.
(This post was initially published back in November but for some reason ended up in the drafts section).
Ahh, amazing. Lewis Hamilton and his team have done really well in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix (information via the currently beloved BBC…). His research team must have converted his car onto the new fangled ‘cabbage rocket fuel’. Did his spinach burgers make him like Pop-eye and he has miraculously been able to push his car over four and a half thousand miles to get it half way across the world?
See, Hamilton is taking on a fight to cut his carbon emissions (or in his words, ‘to be kinder to the world’). So I decided to watch and learn. So far, he has opened a restaurant and he has been maintaining his ‘ day job’ from what I can see. But he seems to have taken a great dislike to our cows, and all the other cows in the UK.
Meanwhile, on the croft, 8 of our 11 cows have never been off the croft and have never been on a plane. They don’t do laps of the field just for the sake of it, not do they need gold plated helmets. They have helped improve the fields so we now get wader birds. Their manure gives our soil nutrients to enable our fruits and vegetables to grow by enrich the soil. Do we use equipment to help work with the cows? Yes, but I don’t do laps of the field for the sake of it. There is a reason (and yes, you can always ask to find out). Can Hamilton start putting a seed sower or plough behind his car to help provide local veg for his restaurant?
So Hamilton, you keep going with saving the plant, one courgette fuelled lap of Formula One at a time. I’ll go back to looking after the livestock and land, one mince and tatties portion at a time.
Birchwood Croft, Inverness-shire 