A small but determined and engaged group of crofters from the isle of Lismore in Argyle and from Lochaber undertook the long journey to Uist last weekend, braving ferry cancellations and road closures. The aim: to learn about cereal seed growing in a crofting context, i.e. for small-scale producers in the north west of Scotland. […]
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Maria Scholten, Regional Coordinator for the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, has been working hard with crofters this year to bring more of the heritage grains back into rotation. Hear about her work and how to get involved: We began our grain work early this year with a visit to Uist to learn about grain […]
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This February marked the retirement of our much-loved Seed Sovereignty coordinator for Scotland, Maria Scholten. Having been part of the Seed Sovereignty Programme since the beginning and having dedicated much of her working life to seed, we took to the chance to talk to Maria about her career, the crofting traditions of Uist and the legacy […]
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Reviving Rare Oats, Spreading Bere Barley and (Re)Developing the Machinery to Process Them At the start of February, as the snow fell and the sky brooded, the grain growers of our Welsh and Scottish networks grabbed a coffee, signed on to Zoom, and settled in for a long day of talking oats, bere barley […]
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In late April of this year Mike Hyatt, who farms Baleveolan Croft on The Isle of Lismore, contacted me asking if I knew of anyone malting grain on a small-scale in Scotland. Mike, like many crofters, is patiently waiting for our small-scale de-huller to be developed; once it has been built, the crofters can bring […]
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