We are thrilled to have been awarded a Food and Farming Sustainability Award from RBST Scotland. The Lint Mill is the 2024 Sustainable Small Farm of the Year (sponsored by the Scottish Smallholders Association). On 20th June we were presented with our award at The Royal Highland Show by Mairi Gougeon MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands.
We were nominated by farming and wildlife specialist, Ruth Dalton, from whom we have had some excellent mentoring support over the past year.
This is what we told the RBST that The Lint Mill is all about:
The Lint Mill is more than an organic smallholding, more than a B&B, and more than a provider of educational courses. It is all these things and more. What we do at The Lint Mill is about relationships; relationships with our guests, relationships with the rare breed animals we share our lives with and fundamentally, relationships with our land, with every microbe and every blade of grass. We are not ‘part of nature’; we are nature, and this understanding affects everything we do.
The Lint Mill is our business, but it is also how we choose to live our lives.
At The Lint Mill, our mission is to produce high-quality food in an environmentally and ethically responsible way, while also giving people the opportunity to learn new skills. Our goals are rooted in diversity and resilience.
Our main goal is to enhance biodiversity and manage the land in the most environmentally sustainable way possible. We take a holistic and regenerative approach to land and animal management, and we are dedicated to promoting our rare breed native livestock. We firmly support organic farming practices, and our farm has been certified by the Soil Association since 2016. Furthermore, we are proud to state that we have a net-negative carbon footprint.
We seek to provide our guests and course participants with nutrient-dense, high-welfare food that is lovingly home-reared, home-grown, and home-cooked. We take pride in serving delicious, organic farm-to-table meals that allow everyone who visits to experience the difference in taste that comes from eating rare breed meat. We breed Soay and Castlemilk Moorit sheep, and Bagot and Golden Guernsey goats. We support breeders of Oxford Sandy and Black and British Saddlebacks pigs, buying them as weaners and finishing them annually. We also keep Scots Grey hens for free-range eggs and Shetland geese for parasite management on our farm.
An appreciation of the natural cycles of the year, spending time outside, and connecting with the land and livestock are all crucial to our approach. In recent years we have successfully restored a small hay meadow that now contains a diverse range of nutritious and healing plant species. We are particularly proud of the outcome of these efforts and invite visitors to enjoy the unique experience of being surrounded by butterflies and other pollinators in the meadow before the sheep and goats return to graze. Currently, we are in the process of restoring a small wetland area to add to our mosaic of habitats for wildlife, with a particular focus on encouraging endangered wading birds. We have also created numerous hedgerows and planted small woodlands to provide shelter for a variety of species.
Our diversification strategy revolves around sharing our knowledge and experience with others through our ‘Learn’ program. We offer various courses, such as ‘A Beginner’s Guide to Organic Smallholding,’ ‘Living the Good Life; A Working Weekend at The Lint Mill’, sheep and goat-keeping courses, as well as courses in endangered heritage crafts like basket-making and lost skills such as foraging for wild food. This year, we have added short farm tours to our portfolio for those who want a more informal, family-led experience. We also see this as a further opportunity to sell our farm produce directly. The produce includes organic, rare breed lamb and pork, seasonal vegetables, free-range eggs, vegetable and flower plants from our polytunnel and our hand-made organic goats milk soap made with raw, fresh milk from our small herd of Golden Guernsey goats.
Through all our interactions with visitors, we strive to enhance well-being, educate about where our food comes from, and encourage sustainable living through positive examples.
We feel delighted that our work has been recognised in this way.
