Well I've never written a blog before but with so much new stuff happening on the farm now, well it's just another new experience!
Life at Woodside is always a joy, two days are never the same and it's safe to say that we have been busy over the last few months.The fact that you are reading this means that our website is now operational, hooray, and we are now officially open for business. Since moving to Arran eighteen months ago we finally feel like we have found our home. It is such a beautiful place and the community is so welcoming. However, as a bit of a foody (I really do hate that phrase mind you) it has been frustrating just how little organic / wholefood produce is available on the island. This frustration plus years of studying and working within organic agriculture / health food industry has led us to here.
Woodside Arran may be currently focusing on getting our vegetable box scheme and rare breed pork products out to you guys the customer but long term we hope to grow into so much more. As Andy, my husband says a literal Health Farm! As both of us come from a background in health we have first-hand experience of the difference enjoying good food and time outdoors does for nearly all health conditions. So, while we are just getting started and really don't want to run before we can walk, that is the dream. We want Woodside to provide high quality, nutritious food for the people of Arran. To educate and inspire people to find out more about where their food comes from, how to grow, prepare and cook it themselves. Create a space were everyone feels welcome to come and experience what small scale agriculture means, in other words growing a real community farm. It's no small task, when I see it written down in black and white!
That being the dream, the long-term goal, where are we just now? Well with the launch of the website we hope to find a small group of account holders. Those with a passion for real, delicious food as strong as our own who will work with us over the next few months to trial the delivery system.This is the thing with community supported agriculture that I love. If you can take the experience of going to a supermarket and completely reverse it that is what we hope to provide. Rather than a faceless corporation, who's main goal is share prices where everything is packaged to an inch of its life, where providence is second to price. Community agriculture is about relationship. We hope you will get to know us as we deliver your produce, come to see how we work at our open days, experience the one to one customer service traditional grocers use to provide. Connection is the key really. Connection to your food, the place it is grown, the people who provide it, the community we live in. Maybe that the romantic in me, a carrot is just a carrot after all but as someone who has seen the joy in child's face when they pick their first, the determination in someone who is struggling with mental health issues to make it through a growing season, the friendships that can blossom around a table of good food. Well to us a carrot is a little bit more than just a carrot or it certainly can be.
This is what Woodside Arran is to us.The realisation of a decade of learning, working and growing. A farm with future and community in mind. But if you just want to buy a nice carrot it can be that too!
Thank you so much for taking the time to look at our website and please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions, ideas or just like to chat about food!
Cheers for just now, I better go and do some weeding!
Jenny