Hardiesmill Aberdeen Angus / Tombuie Smokehouse – Update from the farm: Back to school - wholesome meals and easy cooking for the family. Success at the ScotLAND Food & Drink Excellence Awards. Farming summary. Sadness is a small boy with a hole in his wellies, happiness is Granny going for a spin. Hardiesmill 10 steak experience.

It’s been a while since we sent out an update from the farm, therefore if we might start with a short plug for our pies, charcuterie products and beef (officially praised by two Michelin 3 start chefs: Alain Roux and Mark Askew), details are on https://shop.hardiesmill.co.uk/ . We’re also rather pleased to have won the Scottish Food and Drink Excellence Awards for savoury products with our smoked/ cured/pastrami range, which are on sale at Emporeo Stores in the New Kings Road in London and in Antony Worrall Thompson’s new deli in Windsor for those living in the South East. For those further north, we now supply pies, bridies, smoked etc. into Aberdeen, Laurencekirk, St. Andrews, Glasgow, Haddington, Peebles, Selkirk, Kelso and Tebay (Westmoreland) Services on the M6.

As for life on the farm, this year harvest is going to be late. It’s not a total drama, September always used to be the harvest month, and we deliberately switched back to all spring (planted) crops a few years back for just such an eventuality. The potential returns are less, but the inputs (fertilizer, sprays etc) are so much lower that the risk is much smaller too, plus spring barley actually makes better straw (for bedding & feed). That said, next year we’re going to try rice, it might be more suitable!

Meanwhile the lull in proceedings has forced us to tackle a whole heap of jobs that have been avoided for months, even years. 3 miles of greenery covering the electric fencing has been hacked back by hand (for all the advent of modern technology, a scythe is still the fastest way of doing this); the farm office has been restored, the ragwort has been dug out, the cattle courts are being whitewashed and the new flooring bought for the farmhouse 6 years ago has finally been laid. Now to set our collective minds to converting the combine into a semi-submersible vehicle… design ideas are likely to be lifted from the model boats the boys have been sailing through the barley.

The school holidays start and finish about 2 weeks earlier in Scotland than in England, in theory to catch the better weather. We’re not so convinced, as for the last two years the sun has appeared just as they are going back. That said, casual and unscientific observation has lead to the conclusion that a small boy jumping in puddles is inevitably a happy wee chappie, even if his mother isn’t. If a hole appears in his wellies, the situation changes and you have an unhappy wee chappie and a deliriously happy sibling, so every which way you win….

If sadness is a small boy with a hole in his wellies, happiness has to be witnessing Granny plastering Aunty and baby brother in mud when she got the car stuck in a field. It looked as though Aunty had the pox and baby brother had two black eyes! From Granny’s perspective, two wheel drive / four wheel drive – it was an easy mistake…..

If anyone is looking for birthday/Christmas ideas, would like to see the farm, learn about the farm-to-fork process, the impact of feeding and seam cutting, plus try the range of steaks that we do (our Bavette and rump are rated better than a normal fillet at half the price), then we are pleased to offer the “Hardiesmill 10 steak Experience”. Bookings are by appointment and take place on a Friday afternoon (lunch included). Accommodation is available on the farm in a 4-star self-catering cottage for those who would like to stay and explore the area (we’re only an hour from Edinburgh and 10mins from some of the best fishing in the world). For more details please call 01573 410797.

Finally a heartfelt thought for those who, like us, are dealing with the building trade:

“Knowledge is nice, but contacts are everything!”