Heart escalopes are different – and quick to cook

Fred Berkmiller wants to help Scotland re-connect with food by breaking the stranglehold of supermarkets and teaching people to cook unusual cuts of meat. Berkmiller also uses cuts of meat such as ox cheek or pigs’ trotters. This too is an ethical choice as the meat would otherwise be wasted. But it also tastes good:…

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A recipe with a difference – have you tried horse meat?

When Fred Berkmiller first suggested putting horse meat on the menu in his Scottish restaurants 20 years ago, he was laughed out of town. Now his customers can’t get enough of unusual cuts of meat. ‘If I’d tried to serve heart, horsemeat or lambs’ testicles in the 1990s, I would have been told no chance,’…

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Spring has sprung as the little lambs appear

They’re synonymous with springtime, so perhaps that’s one of the reasons that the sight of the first lambs of the year always makes us smile. It’s certainly hard not to be enchanted by the carefree little bundles of wool that clearly take so much joy in hopping around and playing together in their fields. In…

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Get your hands on spiders and cockroaches

When visitors to Almond Valley go to pick up animals, they normally meet cuddly chicks, fluffy bunnies and lovely lambs – but not this month. Almond Valley’s small animal encounter sessions – and home-grown pumpkins – have been taken over this Halloween by some very creepy crawlies, where they can meet the creepy cockroaches, miserable…

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From sceptic to an organic farming champion

This Organic September, Soil Association licensee David Finlay, who farms beef, sheep and dairy in Dumfries and Galloway, takes us on his journey from sceptic to champion of organic farming. I took over the family farm in 1987, but before that I was working as a farm advisory consultant. I was very dismissive of organic…

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Plenty going on this Easter in Almond Valley

Who says egg hunts are just for humans? Lambs at Almond Valley, in West Lothian, are getting stuck in looking for their own eggs to kick off the Easter Eggcitement celebrations. With spring in the air and new life on the farm, there really isn’t a better time to visit Almond Valley than at Easter.…

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