Last month I mentioned the community-led Scotland the Bread campaign on the back of British food insecurity resulting from the crisis in Ukraine.
The war has unavoidably and catastrophically disrupted the production and supply of wheat from the feted ‘breadbasket of Europe’ which, when combined with Russian crops, accounts for over a quarter of the global supply.
Based in the fertile East Neuk of Fife, Scotland the Bread is an innovative member-owned enterprise founded a decade ago with the ‘common purpose of nourishment, sustainability and food sovereignty’ – a particularly prescient goal in the current climate.
The enterprise grows and mills heritage wheat right here in Scotland, selling its nutritious flours to the public and communities so that everyone has access to better bread.
Growing heritage grains
After years of research, grains that were commonly grown in 19th Century Scotland were selected for flavour, higher vitamin and mineral content and suitability for the local growing conditions.
I first heard about the enterprise from an artisan baker local to us, Strath Bread, which not only uses the nutrient-rich flour in their handcrafted sourdoughs and ciabattas but sells it direct to fellow baking enthusiasts.
Scotland the Bread’s ethos has so inspired us that we have renewed our efforts in trying to stock a nutritious alternative to refined shop-bought white flour here at the farm.
We are hoping to add the revived heritage ‘Balcaskie Landrace’ fine wholemeal wheat flour to our farm shop and have managed to source and are now stocking a beautiful spelt flour grown in Aberdeenshire by Westfield Farm and milled in Golspie.
This simple but fundamental principle of nourishing, sustainable and ethical food for local folk has also made us contemplate what we sell from the farm starting with our own dairy produce.
Producing dairy with welfare in mind
Not only are Nick and dedicated farm worker Scott champions of stringent animal welfare in the production of our milk, but we are proponents of the many nutritional benefits of the white stuff.
High in Vitamins B2, B5 and B12 as well as a rich source of important health-supporting minerals including calcium, phosphorous, potassium and iodine, milk is a protein-packed food/drink source. And this research – available on milk.co.uk – applies to homogenised semi-skimmed milk.
Just think of the health benefits garnered from a glass of pure, creamy non-homogenised milk.
Building on this solid nutritional foundation, it makes sense for us to add natural, whole milk dairy products to the range of ice creams, yoghurt and milk we currently offer – flavoured yoghurts, creme fraiche and hopefully Kefir, for instance – but a wave of Covid at Rootfield has delayed both product development and the honing of our gelato range.
Happily, parlour manager Katie has recently returned to help get things back on track on the processing side, while we will shortly be welcoming a local couple with more than two decades’ of dairying experience to the farm teams – Amy, who will work with Katie in the parlour production kitchen, and partner Craig as dairyman.
Team will help boost business
The new team will give the farming and our diversified business a much-needed boost during what we are acutely aware of as a time of great insecurity and uncertainty across not just dairying but the entire agricultural sector.
Still in the process of recovering from Covid ourselves, Nick and I have a lot to be grateful for this Easter – our health and that of our girls; our family and friends, particularly in light of the ongoing displacement of the Ukrainian people; our hardworking staff; our herd; our loyal farm shop and wholesale customers; and our continued alliance with our milk buyer and independent producer Highland Fine Cheeses of Tain.
With cost of milk production fast overtaking the price per litre paid by processors, and dairy farmers pulling out of supermarket contracts across the country, Nick is glad not to have all his eggs in one basket.
Jo lives at Rootfield Farm in the Black Isle with her husband Nick, daughters Daisy and Mollie, and 120 dairy cows. They run the Black Isle Dairy.