SUMMER: COMMUNITY & ABUDANCE

Juicy tomatoes, gluts of courgettes, glowing sunsets and luscious meadows - it’s no secret that summer is the season of abundance. The natural world comes alive and long awaited produce fills our plates. When the Scottish sun shows its face there’s an unmistakable spring in everyone’s step and smiles are passed around. Familiar smells of barbeques, pollen in the air and the aromatics of our tomato jungle tell us that summer is here. There are so many things that make summer great. But this year, for us, one of the most significant things that summer has brought to the farm has been a sense of community.

We have had more people on the farm this year than any of our previous 2 summers and it has given us such a boost in enthusiasm, purpose and meaning. We have had visits from Dunkeld Primary School, workshops with the Landworkers Alliance, monthly volunteer mornings, positive conversations with customers at the farmstand and of course, to top it all off - Soil to Slice with our favourite pizza pals. A big part of what we believe in is that food and farming should be at the heart of our communities. Small, local farms like ours play a role in providing a space for people connect with the land, to see, feel, smell food at its source and to meet the people who work hard to produce it. We believe the more we can rebuild our connection to food, the more we can reconnect with ourselves, our health, our community and our planet. We are so grateful to have a space to facilitate this. Everytime we welcome people to the farm we get new ideas about what is possible and more inspiration for the future direction of the farm.

WHATS BEEN HAPPENING ON THE FARM?

TEAM TROCHRY

This year we have had a few extra hands on the farm which has given us a boost in productivity and a sense of team spirit – Evy and Jenna have both joined us part time this season and have been a wonderful addition to the Trochry Team.

Evy

Evy worked with us in 2023 and has come back on the farm this summer. A yoga teacher who brings unshakable positivity and her yogi strength to the farm. Although Evy doesn’t have a background in growing, she has a passion for food and nutrition – much like Iain, so there’s always plenty to talk about.  She often brings Mini Cupar, her tiny hairy sidekick (dog).

Jenna

Jenna joined the team this summer after gaining an interest in growing veg at her Perth allotment. She just finished training in horticulture and has now turned to a career in gardening/growing. A seasoned entrepreneur and jewellery maker, she’s definitely helped us to be more organised and tidier in the field! She always brings her enthusiasm and eagerness to learn.

 BERRIES

As well as the orchard that we planted this winter - we now have over 100 berry bushes on the farm, including honeyberries, blueberries, josta berries, Aronia berries, gooseberries, redcurrants, whitecurrants & blackcurrants. Interplanting these between our the trees in our orchard, we hope to create more diversity on the farm. They have benefited from a wet summer as regular watering is required to establish strong, healthy plants. It will be a few years before we get a good yield but it will be worth the wait.

FARMSTAND & FARMERS MARKETS

The farmstand has been as busy as ever this summer. We love bumping into customers and really appreciate all the positive feedback. As always we would like to keep it full as much as possible but for now we fill it to the brim on a Tuesday and Friday morning by 11am. Thank you to everyone for your continued support.

Summer markets at Aberfeldy and Guardswell Farm are a highlight for us. We always appreciate the return customers who fill their bags with our produce and there is never a market that goes by where we don’t meet new people and have interesting conversations. August and September are some of our most abundant months in terms of produce so come find us at one of our favourite markets.

SOIL TO SLICE

We have had 2 amazing Soil to Slice events this year – both with over 150 people over the course of each day. We love having our friends from Luigis pizzeria on the farm and it gives us a chance to use the space with its current facilities whilst we dream up ways of improving things in the future. A particular highlight at the July event was the music provided by Jamie Kunka, from Lonely Mountain Skis, and his bespoke Birnam Beavers Soundsystem. Thank you Jamie.

Winter: The ebb and flow of the seasons

One of the things we are beginning to notice after two winters on the farm is how to lean in to the the rhythm of the seasons. In the winter we are learning to take opportunities to slow down when we can and recharge for the year ahead. For us this means allowing more evenings for relaxing indoors: reading, watching TV or spending hours in the kitchen cooking our favourite winter veg. As the days get shorter and veg growing duties slow down, we begin to find extra headspace to allow exciting new ideas to be explored and to start setting the course for the next phase of the farms journey. It is also a time for us to tackle our projects list, making improvements around the farm, fixing, building and continuing to restore the beautiful space that we want to share with our community. And now coming into Spring we feel a rise in energy and optimism for the year ahead, hatching plans and appreciating the extra minutes of daylight each day.

The seasons are punctuated in Scotland by the changing weather, sometimes all in a day! Being more in tune with these changes connects us, not only to ourselves, but also to the natural world. Wherever you are, take a moment to pause, look around and notice something that is different each week and each month. Whether that’s the colour of the leaves on the trees, the different bird species or even the height of the sun throughout the day. For many reasons, society has distanced us from the beauty of the seasons, but it is now more important than ever, for us to regain that connection so that we can observe the changes that are happening. Our winters are warmer, windier, wetter and more unpredictable. It is important for us all to notice what is happening in order to fully appreciate the reality of climate change and to steps to reduce our impact on the planet.

WHATS BEEN HAPPENING ON THE FARM?

We kicked off the year by returning to the Oxford Real Farming Conference for the second time. The conference is a incredible gathering of inspiring farmers, growers, activists and policymakers sharing a huge variety of ideas and stories all working towards the movement towards a sustainable, fair food and farming system. Over 2 days we tried to make our brains as ‘spongy’ as possible to absorb as much as we could on talks on regenerative agriculture, organic market gardening, permaculture, mushroom cultivation as well as talks on system change and building community around food. We would really recommend this event for anyone interested in being part of the movement towards a better food and farming system!

Apples and Pears! We planted an Orchard!

In February we planted 60 fruit trees in the front field with some very helpful friends. We got a mixture of plums, pears, apples, cherries and damsons from Blackhaugh Community Farm as well as some from Tom the Appleman who we listened to talk about his amazing farm in Wales at the Oxford Real Farming Conference before visiting him on the way up the road. To protect the orchard from winter winds and to bring in more wildlife, we planted a mixed hedge and some fast growing trees - alder, birch and hazel. Over the next few years we plan to test some forest garden techniques in our orchard by intercropping with fruit bushes and perennials as well as undersowing ground cover to make a productive space rich with biodiversity. We are very excited about this!

Chooks

Our chickens spent the winter hiding from the weather in one of our polytunnels. They were so happy to be dust bathing indoors whilst the rain saturated the fields. We even left a few rows of kale, rocket and celery for them to feast on. Its a win-win for both parties as the chickens get shelter from the weather, our veg beds get extra fertiliser AND they help keep our troublesome wireworm population under control. They are now happily back in the field, grazing on fresh pasture where we use electric fencing to move them every couple of weeks. This is one of the keys to such delicious, nutritious eggs.

Buzzing about bees

At the end of last summer we got our first colony of bees! This is something we have wanted to do for a while - not only do they support our vegetables through pollination but they will hopefully provide us with yummy honey! Over the winter the bees keep a low profile but have already started popping their heads out and will require more attention from us during Spring and Summer. We are very much novice beekeepers but are fascinated to learn more from these hard working, super organised creatures.

BIG PLANS FOR 2024

We are now super excited for another year of providing our local community with tasty, nutrient dense, fresh produce. We are so grateful for the enthusiastic support we have received since starting up - both at the farmstand and farmers markets and so we have increased our veg growing capacity by adding 20% more outdoor beds with a plan to focus on growing even more mixed salad, colourful carrots, potatoes, and winter squash for you all. We are going to experiment by growing a long row of cut-flowers so if all goes to plan then keep an eye out for a bunch or two in the farmstand. Failing that - the flowers will keep the bees happy!

Once again we want to share the farm with our community and so have lined up lots of exciting events for the year. Come and get your seedlings at our annual plant sale in May. Our pizza pals from Luigis Pizzeria will be back for Soil to Slice in June, July and August! We will be hosting more veg growing workshops - all abilities welcome. New for this year are monthly volunteer mornings! So come get involved! And watch this space for more announcements coming soon.

We can’t wait to see you all at the farm this summer.

Iain & Kirstin

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