The second stop on Michel Roux Jr’s culinary journey across the country for our latest series with The Balvenie ‘The Craftsmen’s Dinner’, was a trip to one of the UK’s most celebrated life-stock farms – NewMiln farm in Perth, Scotland.
The second stop on Michel Roux Jr’s culinary journey across the country for our latest series with The Balvenie ‘The Craftsmen’s Dinner’, was a trip to one of the UK’s most celebrated life-stock farms – NewMiln farm in Perth, Scotland.Run by husband-and-wife duo Hugh and Sascha Grierson, Grierson Organic uses increasingly rare traditional farming techniques, having achieved organic status in 2002. They adopt organic principles to produce meat that tastes exemplary but also to support a sustainable, eco-conscious farming model – As Michel comments in the film, ‘Happy pigs make good bacon’.
Whilst organic farming is a highly labour intensive process, taking 4 times more manpower than intensive farming, the Grierson’s take on the extra work out of respect for the land. Hugh Grierson commented ‘The business is about linking our lifestyle with a healthy future. We exist the way we do because there is a rapidly growing number of people who share our views and want to engage with our product, it’s a cycle that connects ecology, people and a sustainable way of living.’
We asked Sascha Grierson about the organic farming principles they adopt on NewMiln farm and how her involvement in The Craftsmen’s Dinner has impacted her own craft:
What does it mean to you to be an organic farmer?
It means farming with the resources that we have – sunlight, clover grasses and recycling as much of our animal waste as possible back into our land. It also means producing the best tasting food possible with the resources that we have available. Land management is key, looking after our soil and farming for the long-term, so that we maintain healthy soils, and therefore can continue to be productive.
How does your passion for your craft affect your lifestyle?
We are blessed to be able to eat well, and that means having good ingredients to start with in our kitchen. Being a very diverse farm that produces a range of produce means we have many different balls to juggle. Sometimes it can seem like a lot to do, but in reality we are only just beginning – there’s lots more opportunity out there. We are lucky to have great people working here and that enables us to get away when we need to.
Was there a particular craftsperson in the series whose work resonated with you, and why?
It was a lovely experience meeting all these people, and it’s impossible to choose one. We are all products of our backgrounds and family histories, with a strong streak of independence running through our characters, and an acceptance that these things happened as much by chance as by design, and that how life goes. Real craft is found in making something that lasts forever. Farming doesn’t feel like that. Although the land is permanent we are only looking after it for the next generation and have no control over what they do after us. It’s our job to tread as lightly as we can while we are here. That’s our craft.
Watch the trailer for the Grierson Organic episode of The Craftsmen’s Dinner here.
Tune in on Monday 28th March to watch the second episode of the series featuring Grierson Organic, or alternatively subscribe to The Craftsmen’s Dinner YouTube channel to follow the rest of the series.
