The Cowie family’s initial honesty box of vegetables being sold at the roadside near Portsoy has expanded into a successful farm shop full of home-grown and local produce.
Husband and wife duo Duncan and Lyndsay, along with Duncan’s parents George and Brenda, run the sideline business at Mains of Glassaugh, which is open to the public every Saturday from 10am to 3pm.
Although known on social media as Mains of Glassaugh Vegetables, the family offers a variety of produce including eggs, fruit, meat, home baking, ice-cream, and crafts.
The farming enterprise, between Mains of Glassaugh and Cairnton, finishes 250 cattle per year, and grows 180 acres of spring barley for malting.
Vegetables are grown for the farm shop, with surplus sold to Gauld Fruit and Veg Ltd, Banff, which in turn supplies the Cowies with vegetables out with the growing season.
“We started in 2019 when our children had a wee honesty barrow of last-season veg by the road,” recalled Duncan.
“The following year, we started up a pop-up shop in the garage, where people could come and pick the veg themselves. We then offered veg box deliveries straight to the door at £10 and were attracting as many as 30 customers per week.
“Demand was there for fresh, local produce and that’s when we decided to build a fixed premises in December 2021.”
The shop is manned by the couple themselves with help from family members.
Being open for one day seems to work well for us, with customers making their weekly trip out to source produce,” added Duncan.
“We get weekly deliveries of meat from Presly and Co in Oldmeldrum and Kenny
Thomsen, Buckie, and bread, rolls and home baking from Sinclair’s of Rhynie.”
The Cress Company also supplies speciality foods such as Orkney Cheese, and Lyndsay and Brenda make jams and beetroot chutney, which is a longstanding recipe in the
family.
With Halloween just past, the family welcomed children and parents to the “pick your own” pumpkin patch, which was running in its third year.
They also run an Easter egg hunt each year and are now preparing for the annual carrot picking for the reindeers, where children can come and pick their own from the
field.
This year’s event will take place on December 16 from 9.30am to 3pm at
a cost of £6 per child, which includes a visit and gift from Santa.
Booking is essential via ticketsource.co.uk, which can be accessed via the
Mains of Glassaugh Vegetables Facebook page.
Lyndsay is also offering a wreath-making workshop with a local florist in the run-up to
Christmas.
“Diversification is a big part of farming now, and it’s great to see new and
returned customers coming to us for produce straight from the field or from other local
producers,” said Duncan.
