TULLOCH TALK November 2005
Talk August 2005 by Mariina Dennis
At a sheep sale at Kingussie Auction Mart. in2 October, lambs were being sold for less than a tray of chops in Tesco. All the Tulloch crofters were there selling stock and we left a long and uncomfortable sale dismayed but stoical as usual. To add insult to injury, there were no loos and the catering van left early, having run out of water.
Speaking among ourselves, as the auctioneer fought for another 20 pence on lambs, we remarked how fickle public demand is. When sheep were brought to the Highlands in the early 1800s resulting, of course, in the Highland Clearances, it was the wool that was sought and made the money. The wool was used to pack the bulwarks of wooden battleships as it helped to absorb and stop cannon balls from penetrating further into the bowels of the ship and also wouldn’t easily catch fire. Wool was also required to make cloth for army uniforms for soldiers fighting all over the empire.
During the Second World War farmers were asked to feed the nation – and we did. Nowadays, especially in this area, we are being asked to deliver public benefits – that really means looking after the environment and allowing access to our land. In Tulloch we are swamped with Natural Heritage Designations and they all begin with the ‘S’ word. Everything is Special from birch to beetles. The landscape as we know it is chiefly a result of how our forebears managed their farms and crofts. That environment is now a product demanded by the public for their pleasure and enjoyment with little reward for land managers.
When I reflect on the lamb prices and receive yet more mail about farming, the environment and public benefits, which I am sick to death of hearing about, I think longingly of the days in Tulloch when we sold eggs, milk, honey and potatoes and made a small profit. In the past some crofters in Tulloch made as much from selling honey as they did from selling cattle and sheep. My great uncle, along with a neighbour, each had around 40 hives and enjoyed a robust trade most years. Both climate and demand were very different in those days with proper seasons and the hives being disease free. Currently the Varroa parasitic mite is a serious threat to beekeepers throughout Scotland. Demand is now met with imported, blended honey from all four corners of the world.
The custom of exchanging produce for goods has now completely died out but it was common here in Tulloch well within living memory. Many of the women here saved eggs for van day when George MacIntosh from Boat of Garten did a van round in Tulloch. Eggs were zealously saved to try to make several dozen but in winter, when most of the hens were off the lay, George would take whatever you had, sometimes just three or four eggs. Of course, it might cost you the odd dram when the frost was so intense that George puffed like a steam train when he spoke; but that was then. Today you are not supposed to sell eggs to the public in case they discover what eggs really taste like. And as for selling real, untreated milk the authorities would slap an Anti Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) on you without a second thought.
Talking of drams and van men, forgive me for telling a story from the west rather than Tulloch, although the scenario would not have been out of place here. I was told the tale first hand by a van man in Wester Ross. Every week he called on an old lady, who was bedridden but astute, and lived in a distant croft with her bachelor son. When my friend arrived with the van he always took the order straight into the old lady’s room. The son hovered around anxiously and fussed about so much that mother and son had words, in Gaelic, of course. The son then took the messages into the kitchen. My friend asked the old lady what was going on. Referring to her son, and thinking in Gaelic but speaking in English, she said – “It is for himself that the cat is purring.” In other words the son was over anxious to give my friend a dram when all the time it was himself who wanted one.
So if we can’t make a living from sheep what can we make money from? Well, looking about me there is birch, bog myrtle, mushrooms and juniper for a start. Many of us already harvest birch in the form of firewood so I suppose there is an income there, but not in the commercial sense. All the bog myrtle in Tulloch is on an SSSI so that nukes that idea. However, bog myrtle is an interesting plant an in-depth sustainable harvesting study was conducted at Fort William where, at one stage, over half a million stems of bog myrtle were harvested for the cut flower trade. The study concluded that it would be possible to increase collection to over 5.5 million stems following a strict cutting pattern.
Then there are mushrooms. Everyone on the planet comes to Tulloch to pick chanterelles before I can get to them. But they, too, depend on the weather, here today and gone tomorrow.
So that leaves juniper, prickly, needled bushes adept at sticking in sheep’s wool, making it a torture to clip and roll fleeces. The needles also knock pounds off the already meagre wool prices in penalties from the Wool Board. There are acres and acres of juniper in Tulloch; we have blooming forests of the stuff here. And I am going to have their berries because junipers owe me big time. Much of the juniper berries for the faddish cooking trade come from Croatia at great expense. So as far as I can see there is money growing on trees!
About Marina Dennis
My family have lived on a croft in Tulloch since being cleared from the Braes of Castle Grant in 1809. I am an active crofter both at a practical and strategic level having been a Commissioner at the Crofters Commission for 10 years as well as involvement in other land based agencies. Like most crofters I have other jobs which include running a very successful self catering business on my croft which gives me the opportunity to tell visitors about the history and culture of Tulloch.