About 60 people from throughout Scotland gathered at Comrie Croft, near Crieff, Perthshire, for a two-day “immersive event” sharing practical farming skills.
It was organised by the Oxford Real Farming Conference (ORFC), together with Comrie Croft and its Tomnah’a Market Garden, as well as social enterprise CoDeL.
The event set out to explore how people are finding a way back to the land and farming. Practical workshops and talks re-introduced participants to traditional skills.
And they heard how to apply new knowledge and practices to their farm or plot of land.
Double does of practical activities
On the eve of the ORFC in the Field event, guests enjoyed some storytelling by folklorist Margaret Bennet.
Sharing tales of Comrie’s Cultybraggan Camp, anecdotes from growing up on Skye, and old Scottish songs, Margaret enthralled her audience and rooted it all in the local landscape.
The following two days were packed with practical action.
Lazy beds and seaweed foraging
Out on the land, Hebridean crofter Padruig Morrison showed guests how to make a “lazy bed” (a method for growing potatoes) to produce great soil with foraged seaweed.
Comrie’s Croft’s Andrew Donaldson and Tomnah’a’s Catherine Kwella walked groups through the croft’s woods and five–acre market garden site growing flowers, fruit, vegetables and herbs.
Throughout, they shared the history of the site and its 12 micro-enterprises, how they accessed land and their hopes for how it will continue to flourish as a croft and community hub well into the future.
In the barn, Edinburgh’s Rhyze Mushrooms demonstrated how to integrate mushrooms into farms and gardens.
Over in the coo shed, Finlay Keiller of Seeds of Scotland shared inspirational stories about the historical and cultural significance of seeds,
Guest speakers joined the event to offer talks focused on land justice.
More old tales
Farmer’s son and researcher Col Gordon gathered guests in the barn to hear old stories from across the Highlands and Islands, and the role of the Gaelic language.
And the practicalities of accessing land were discussed in an in-depth talk by Tara Wight from the Land Workers Alliance and Josh Doble of Community Land Scotland.
Meanwhile, CoDel’s Theona Morrison and Thomas Fisher led a session to develop each guest’s vision for how a small parcel of land could help transform food systems.
CoDel is a community development-focused enterprise based in the Outer Hebrides.
A spokeswoman for ORFC said the evenings were filled with local food, traditional music, including Padruig on his accordion, and “many a good blether”.
The Woolly Pig Company’s David Carruth was also on hand to tell his inspiring stories of farming in some of Scotland’s most difficult landscapes.
It all ended with an impromptu ceilidh as Padruig and fiddler Mark Borthwick played reels and strathspeys.
ORFC’s spokeswoman added: “Guests left ORFC in the Field at Comrie feeling empowered and uplifted, with new ways of seeing land and new knowledge to rekindle ancient practices on their farms.”
ORFC in the Field is a programme of the Real Farming Trust (RFT), a charity that connects and supports people trying to transform our food system from the grassroots up.
RFT provides opportunities for new ideas and partnerships to flourish, while also funding small-scale community projects to help create a more just food system through agroecology.
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