Merry Christmas from Grierson Organic
Christmas is now upon us, and at Newmiln Farm, working overtime to get all the jobs done is part of the festive spirit. It comes with the profession, I suppose. Meat needs to be procured and packaged, orders need to be arranged and delivered, and a single last-minute...
Pastoral farming for climate friendly beef
Recent years have seen a growing scepticism towards eating meat, fuelled by knowledge of the environmental impact of intensive livestock farming. This has led to a shift towards vegetarianism and veganism in the population, and even proposals to eliminate meat from...
Cheap food – value versus cost
I’m writing again on a chicken theme largely in response to the Guardian investigation into the production practices at the 2 Sisters Food group (2SFG) in the midlands. Apart from its findings I am genuinely interested into how poultry is processed on such a...
Organic Chicken – FAQs
Over the years I have noticed that the same questions about organic chicken crop up regularly when chatting to customers, so we wondered if a quick fact sheet may help. Apologies to those of you who know this stuff, here goes. Does organic mean free range? Organic...
Grass Fed Meat: Why bother?
I know I always say this, but in Scotland we are blessed, we have a mild climate with plenty of rain, and so we can grow any food that we need. As organic farmers though, our major crop is grass. Growing grass is a mild obsession, as grass, or more precisely clover...
Animal Welfare: Why should we care?
Every day I walk into the farm and there’s a squad of piglets mooching about. We brought a sick sow in to keep an eye on her and she then had 8 piglets. They’re now 6 weeks old and they have started venturing out. I hurry past in my infinite busyness but their baby...
Good food culture in Scotland’s big year
Phew. Lets all catch our breath. Scotland is having a very busy year. Commonwealth games, Referendum, Ryder Cup, AND good weather. As farmers we have had a near perfect growing year. We’ve needed it. After the very challenging growing seasons of 2012 and 2013 we were...