Lynn Cassells and Sandra Baer met while working as rangers for the National Trust in the UK and soon realised that they shared “a dream to live closer to the land”.
They purchased Lynbreck Croft in March 2016 with no farming experience but what they regard as a “huge passion for nature and the outdoors”.
Now they raise their own animals, grow their own produce and are as self-sufficient as they can be.
They have documented their journey in their book, Our Wild Farming Life: Adventures on a Scottish Highland Croft, which was published in March of this year.
They explain how and why they left their friends, family and jobs in England to travel north to Scotland to find a small piece of land they could call their own.
Lynbreck Croft
They had in mind keeping “a few” chickens, a kitchen garden and renting out some camping space.
But despite their intentions, instead, they fell in love with Lynbreck Croft—150-acres of wild Scottish Highlands “filled with opportunity and beauty, shrouded by the Cairngorm mountains”.
But they had “no money, no plan and no experience in farming”.
In Our Wild Farming Life, Lynn and Sandra recount their experiences as they rebuild their new home and work out what kind of farmers they want to be.
They learn how to work with Highland cattle, become part of the surrounding crofting community and begin to “truly understand” how they can farm in harmony with nature to produce “wonderful food” for themselves and the people around them.
Nature
Through their journey to becoming farmers, it is clear that nature and the health of the environment play a “central” role in everything they do, from planting 17,500 native broadleaf trees for wood pasture to setting aside 22 hectares for rewilding, a spokesperson said.
And through efforts like these, Lynn and Sandra have been able to combine regenerative farming practices with old crofting traditions to keep their own personal values intact.
Our Wild Farming Life is what happens when you follow your dreams of living on the land; a story of how two people became farmers —and how they learned to make a living from it, their way.
This is the true inspirational story of Lynbreck Croft – a regenerative Scottish croft rooted in local food and community – and two women in search of a new, wilder existence.
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