We all have childhood memories of picnics. I expect we’ve all got an ideal image of the perfect picnic in our heads too, inspired by everything from Manet’s paintings of un déjeuner sur l’herbe to the Famous Five’s misappropriated lashings of ginger beer*! I remember childhood summer holidays when the spontaneous ‘let’s go for a […]
Every time we run one of our ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Organic Smallholding’ courses we cherish the moment of introductions, where the participants share with us their hopes and dreams for their smallholding futures. It’s a precious and vulnerable moment hearing those ideas voiced, for some people it’s for the first time. It returns Colin […]
The North Medwyn is a tributary of the River Clyde and forms part of the boundary to our land. When we moved here in 2009 we were thrilled to find ourselves living by water. It made the landscape feel so animated. Over time we have learned a lot about the Medwyn, that it’s often spelled […]
Guests enjoy their freshly baked daily bread at The Lint Mill and it is always a talking point, so this month we are taking a closer look at why Colin’s bread is so good and why it matters to us in so many ways. Colin first met Andrew Whitley when he participated in one of […]
Last month we sadly lost our old Soay tup, Wild End Astor. He was a great ram who had lived at The Lint Mill since he was a lamb. Astor sired well over 100 lambs from our small flock of Soay ewes during his nine years with us. Older tups naturally decline in fertility but […]
February can be such a tricky time of year in Scotland. The days are short and the winter can feel never ending. Without the build up to the Christmas festivities to distract us, January and February can feel very long months indeed. Added to this, we seem to have had as much ‘weather’ as climate […]
We have been making our own Organic Goats Milk Soap since 2018. In those early days, Deborah was lucky to have lots of help from our lovely neighbour Niki who was a soap maker (she used to trade locally as Findlays Bar before changing career into teaching). Niki generously shared her soap making knowledge with […]
We had hoped our kitchen and scullery would be complete for the festivities but the work had taken longer than expected, not helped by the deep snow and temperatures of minus 17 degrees in early December. It’s been a challenge getting tradespeople down our farm track, despite Colin’s heroic gritting efforts. The final job of […]