Am Bratach No. 191
September 2007
mandy@bratach.co.uk

‘Little local networks springing up’ as demand for local food grows

Interest in eating locally-produced food is on the increase, but producers in North West Sutherland face ever greater challenges, writes Mandy Haggith.

Many visitors to Highland games in Lochinver and Durness will have encountered the North West Sutherland Food Link stall. The Link is offering a service to vegetable growers, collecting their produce and selling it on roving stalls on Saturdays and at special events. The demand for the vegetables is keen, and Phil Taylor, the Link co-ordinator, says that almost everything on offer sells well.

Although there are now thirty-four people signed up as producers, most do not grow huge amounts. Mr Taylor acknowledges that this has been a difficult growing season with so much rain. “You have had to be really dedicated to get crops in the ground and harvested this year”, he says.

One of the spin-offs of the stalls has been what Mr Taylor describes as “little local networks springing up” as visitors to the stalls discover that someone living close to them can supply them with vegetables, and arrangements are made to buy directly rather than waiting for the next stall to come around. Next year, he says that the Link has the resources it needs to run stalls again and he will be discussing with producers about other ideas.

In Lairg, Emma Armstrong is planning to set up a local vegetable box scheme with some other growers. Her experience of selling produce at the East Sutherland farmers’ markets has been “difficult”, she says. “You end up bringing stuff back.” As a mother of two young children, aged 1 and 4, taking a day off the croft is not easy. “It would be better to be able to work from home and deliver vegetables to people who you can be sure want them”, she says. She is aiming to get about twenty people signed up in the Lairg area for £10 or £20 boxes of vegetables, which she will deliver fortnightly from April to November and monthly after that.

Originally from Lancashire and brought up on beef farm, Mrs Armstrong finds life on the Sutherland croft to be “wonderful”. She and her husband, who works for Highland Council, have a large vegetable and soft fruit garden and have invested in two polytunnels and a small herd of Highland cattle. They grow on organic principles, though find that the expense of certification is prohibitive. Emma talks enthusiastically about her use of biological controls of pests in the polytunnels, and the results speak for themselves. She took three first prizes, two seconds and a third in the Lairg Crofters Show, and describes herself, chuckling, as “the Lairg raspberry growing champion for the second year in a row”. Her other firsts this year were for broccoli and new potatoes.

The Armstrong’s croft will be open to the public for the weekend of October 12-13, as part of a Highland wide scheme called GatesOpen, which is organised by the Highlands and Islands Local Food Network. As well as being able to look around the polytunnels, Mrs Armstrong says: “We’ll have a mini-farmers market, some child-friendly autumn crafts, a spinner and a bee keeper”. Visitors will also be able to see the Highland cattle and meet some of the free range pigs that her neighbour Alastair Marshall keeps. “There’ll also be a spit roast for people who want a taste”, she says.

There are dozens of similar events happening elsewhere in the Highlands, but the Armstrong’s croft is the only such in Sutherland. The project leader, Georgia Macleod, emphasises that the events are targeted at local people, not tourists. “We are keen to get people who live there to open their eyes to what is available to them locally”, she says.

Direct sales to local people will remain particularly vital since Highland Council rejected the request by the Highlands and Islands Local Food Network to give a guarantee that local producers can supply food to the council, such as for school meals and centres for the elderly. The new cabinet secretary for rural affairs and the environment, Richard Lochhead MSP, has pledged support for local food networks, but if the local authority will not support local producers then it is not clear how that pledge works in practice.

The foot-and-mouth scare was another unwelcome alarm for livestock rearers who are already struggling with low returns on their efforts. “It was a shock”, Phil Taylor, who is also administrator for the North West Cattle Producers Association. “All the sales have been put back.”

Fortunately things seem now to be getting back to normal, though animal sale prices are still depressingly low. For example a North West Sutherland pure Highland cow with calf sold recently at Dingwall mart for just £300 together. Although some other breeds and crosses can achieve higher prices, often by the time transport to the mart and other costs are added in, there is sometimes virtually no return at all for the work involved in rearing them. The early signs are that hill store lambs are selling for a few pounds less than last year.

The Scottish Executive has just announced £100,000 for marketing of Scotch Lamb, but this is not likely to make much impact on prices to sheep farmers and there is no equivalent support for fruit, vegetables or other foods.

Buying directly from food producers is the most helpful way to support our local food economy. The Armstrongs have a waiting list for their beef, which they sell locally around Lairg after it is slaughtered, butchered and vacuum packed by Millers of Grantown-on-Spey. “Selling directly is the only way to make it financially worthwhile”, says Mrs Armstrong.

Contact Mrs Armstrong on 402051 (emmaarmstrong@headweb.co.uk).