Crofters dig in to keep Scotland’s age-old tastes alive

CROFTERS have succeeded in having the humble Shetland cabbage and North Ronaldsay sheep, along with a number of other traditional foodstuffs, added to an international catalogue of threatened produce.

They join delicacies such as Albenga violet asparagus from Liguria in Italy and French Sarteau pears on the Slow Food movement’s Ark of Taste, which promotes artisan produce and livestock breeds threatened with extinction and the cultural traditions they represent.

Intensive farming methods, red tape and consumers’ dependence on supermarket chains has led to many traditional foods dying out. Campaigners estimate about 75 per cent of varieties in Scotland and throughout the UK have been lost forever in the past 100 years.

As well as Shetland cabbage and North Ronaldsay sheep, the other three products crofters have had accepted on to the list include Shetland kye (cattle), reestit mutton and Shetland black potato.

A sixth product, native lamb from the breed Shetland sheep, is about to be rubber-stamped by the organisation’s international committee of experts.

The drive to get Scottish foods on the list came after delegates from the Scottish Crofting Federation (SCF) attended a Slow Food conference in Turin. Carol Anne Stewart, projects co-ordinator for the SCF, said: “People don’t realise that crofters are the indigenous people of the Highlands and Islands and have been using some of the same farming and growing methods for hundreds of years.

“We thought Slow Food would be a great vehicle for promoting our food and reaching an international audience.”

The SCF decided to concentrate mainly on Shetland produce in the first instance and submitted four products and one from Orkney (North Ronaldsay sheep). Foods must be traditionally produced and historically linked to a specific area to qualify.