Grace Noble

On her favourite month in the country

Photo by Polly Baldwin

Grace Noble farms Highland Cattle in the beautiful countryside of Aberdeenshire.

Her farming policy is one of complete transparency from field to fork, and she offers tours of her working farm to showcase her practices.

Grace is a well-known face at the local farmers markets and helped to keep fridges stocked throughout the lockdown period, too!

Over to you, Grace.

July is always a happy month, it’s holiday season, the sun shines and on a personal note I celebrate my birthday in July.

It usually means catching up with near and dear, the daylight is long, the countryside is fresh and green in colour and the rain showers are warm and refreshing.

On the farm we are on our second cut of silage and feeling proud to have made good hay for winter’s larder.

The migratory birds are chirping away in the rafters, feeding bugs to their hungry nests of wide open beaks. Covid has not stopped them from travelling to Scotland this summer unlike the coach-loads we are normally welcoming to the farm.

“Our hearts are heavy with the losses but momentary distraction from these thoughts is quickly lifted when you're helping to welcome a highland calf into the world - nature sees no difference.”

Or seeing your daughter open her certificate of award for studying agriculture and getting news she entered for the BSc course in autumn is a joy and happy thoughts of future achievements to come are heartwarming.

Standing at the farmers market and greeting a customer who is most complimentary about how much they enjoyed your highland cattle beef always brings a wide smile of gratitude and another feeling of warmth in a job well done.

Here’s to next July - July 2022!