We were delighted to receive a letter from Scottish Agritourism last month informing us that Ardross Farm Shop is being recognised in the Scottish Agritourism Sector Recognition Awards for twenty years of the farm shop. To be recognised within our sector with a Scottish Agritourism Award makes the whole family incredibly proud.
We can hardly believe that the shop has been open for twenty years. What started as a pipe dream of Rob and I’s has changed everything we do on the farm. Rob took one of our cattle beasts up to the abattoir at St.Andrews (which is no longer there) and I scrubbed the old cart shed, stripped the white wash, painted the walls and prepared two freezers for the returning beef. We thought that if we could sell a couple of animals direct it would make all the difference to our business. It all seems a very long time ago.
What we didn’t realise was that slowly other farming families were thinking about alternative income streams and I loved reading about the other agritourism businesses being recognised this year in the Scottish Farmer yesterday.
Read here —-> Scottish Farmer
Farms are very good at changing, although change takes time, just like crops take a whole season to grow. Farmers are resilient and resourceful and sadly with farm incomes, in real terms, remaining largely flat, or even declining, since the 1970’s, agritourism is becoming a big part of many farm businesses. Many farms were ahead of this agritourism trend, years ahead of us, with some businesses being established for 25, 35 and even 55 years in business. We are incredibly honoured to be among those being recognised at the Scottish Agritourism Conference at the end of the month.
A huge congratulations to those businesses also in the Scottish Agritourism Sector Recognition Awards. We are incredibly lucky to call most of them our friends.
