RSPB Scotland Volunteer Clare Harte interviewed Lynn Cassells, of Lynbreck Croft which was awarded a Nature of Scotland Award in 2019 in recognition of their work to farm in harmony with nature.
If you know of a person, project, or organisation doing amazing work for Scotland’s nature you can nominate them for this year’s awards. Find out more at rspb.org.uk/natureofscotland.
Farming in harmony with nature
Scotland and farming have a history dating back thousands of years. We’re all familiar with the rolling fields full of spring lambs and grazing cows however times are changing and there is a desire to improve upon the more intensive farming seen over the last 50 years. With urgent action required to tackle the climate crisis, both farmer and consumer are thinking differently about how they provide and buy their food. Step forward, Lynbreck Croft. Situated in the Cairngorms National Park, Lynn Cassells and Sandra Baer have taken an idea and transformed it to show how nature and farming can work hand in hand. I caught up with Lynn for an email interview to gain some insight into the croft.
What was your inspiration?
We never meant to become farmers and when we realised we had a shared ambition of stepping back from our busy urban lives and stepping towards a more rural existence, our goal was to have a few acres and live as self-sufficient as possible - a real 'good life' dream. We were drawn to living closer to nature. When we found Lynbreck, we knew we were in trouble; at 150 acres, it was 15 times bigger than what we were looking for and too expensive! But we fell in love with it and when we finally made it happen and moved here, we knew that working the land would be a big part of what we had to do. With no experience in farming and only practical experience in conservation, we knew our farm model would be based on farming with nature.
Was there any other farm/croft which you looked to for guidance?
In the early days, and even to this day, we took a lot of inspiration from farms abroad. The main influencers were Richard Perkins (Ridgedale, Sweden) and Joel Salatin (Polyface Farms, USA). We were lucky to find a couple of farms in Scotland who also inspired us. Sailean on the Isle of Lismore and Tap o’ Noth in Aberdeenshire. At both of these places, we were really impressed by not just how they farm, but the holistic approaches taken to maximise farm production by working in harmony with the animals and with nature.
Why did you decide on the approach you did?
I suppose because instinctively it felt right. Nature is the most efficient system we have, far greater than anything man made. If we can try to understand and work with natural processes, it can only work for our business. Also, nature is multi-layered and so is our business structure. We do something called 'enterprise stacking' which means that we can draw on multiple income strands, each of which deliver their own unique impact on our land. We have cattle, pigs, hens and bees - all of which have jobs to do and provide produce for us to sell. We do public and private tours, talks and courses. We hope to soon offer holiday accommodation. And finally, we have decided on this approach because it is a happy way to live. Our days are varied and we very much live in sync with nature. One of our most important jobs here at Lynbreck is tending to our kitchen garden which sits at the core of everything we do. We spend hours growing our own fruit and veg in the summer and preserving for the winter. Our belief has always been to grow the best food for ourselves so that we can also provide the best for those around us.
Image: Sandra Angers Blondin
Do you think it's possible for your methods to work on bigger farms?
Easy to answer - 100% yes. All of our enterprises have been inspired by what others do but on a much larger scale. In all honesty, our biggest challenge has been to take these ideas and scale them down.
What's been your biggest lesson learned?
Just how much work it takes! We appreciate everyone does things differently and have so much respect for our farming friends around us. There is a lot of pressure on both farmers to change how we operate and on consumers around how we buy our produce. Of course, we would all prefer to buy seasonal, local food, raised to exceptional welfare standards and that delivers positive environmental outcomes but it can increase costs for both parties and isn’t always as easily accessible. There’s work to be done on both sides to help drive change in production methods and buying habits.
What do you see as the future for Lynbreck?
We are continually inspired! We see a really positive future and are happy with the numbers of animals we are carrying so our focus is to now really make our produce the best of the best. We plan to keep working away in our butchery to create even more tasty goodies for our customers. We enjoy hosting tours and courses and that will continue to feature highly as a way to educate people on food production. Primarily, we aim to keep waking up every day feeling as lucky as we do now about what it is that we do and where we live.
What did winning the Nature of Scotland Food and Farming Award mean to you?
We were really honoured to be nominated by the Cairngorms National Park team - it's a big thing to get to that stage. And then to win the award was unbelievable! We don't do what we do to win awards, but it is amazing to represent a farm built on working with nature being acknowledged in this way. It's also great for our business to get such positive attention as we hope it will help to inspire others to follow a similar path.
What’s clear to me and I hope to everyone else, is just how passionate Lynn and Sandra are about farming in harmony with nature whilst providing high quality produce to the local community all with a low carbon footprint. If you already follow them on social media then you can see for yourself the love and respect they have for their animals from the biggest highland cow to the smallest chicken. They are undoubtedly deserved winners of the Food and Farming Award, sponsored by the James Hutton Institute, and we wish them all the luck in the world for the future. I just have one request please, can you add West Lothian to your “Egg Club” cycle route (just for me) or is it just a wee bit too far away?