Q&A: Kat Goldin

Goldin was miserable living in the UK capital (growing herbs and vegetables in a window garden just wasn’t cutting it), so she and her husband, Kevin, spent the next decade moving further into the country. Two years ago, they ended up within the borders of the Loch Lomond and Trossachs National Park in Scotland. The couple – along with their three children ages five, six, and nine – are tenants in one of about 50 smallholdings on a 4,500-acre estate owned by Sir Archie and Lady Nicola Orr-Ewing.

Although Goldin’s day jobs are as a crochet designer and photographer, she and her husband manage around seven acres of what had formerly been a large working cattle and sheep farm. The family tends to a large vegetable garden, a flock of laying hens, meat chickens, geese, ducks, seasonal turkeys, and goats. This summer, a small flock of sheep are joining them, as are two bee colonies. If their lifestyle wasn’t old-school enough they also barter their excess produce with locals – eggs and chevre cheese for beer; their sourdough bread and foraged mushrooms for firewood.

Modern Farmer: Why do you consider yourself a modern farmer?

Kat Goldin: Our first consideration for the food we eat is always: “what can we make or grow ourselves?” and after that, is “what can we source locally?” The simple fact that our grocery store is at least an hour round-trip away is a powerful motivator to source as much as we can here. Plus, I suffer from the rather common psychological condition of DIYers called “I can do that.” With my only barrier being time, I figure I can make or grow just about anything – sometimes with truly disastrous results, but I am stubborn as anything and keep at it. Plus with a husband with a gift of the gab, if I truly can’t make it or grow it, he is bound to make a friend who can.

MF: Why is it important to you to support local agriculture?

KG: We are lucky to live in a verdant, fertile part of Scotland. Farmers big and small are our neighbors and friends. We have an amazing local wholesale vegetable market with the best vegetables outside of what we can grow (and honestly sometimes better). We have to spend money, and I would be ashamed to spend it in a big chain grocery store buying New Zealand lamb or German venison when I can buy the best of the best from people I know. I watched many of the family farms around me in Iowa be bought up by big corporations, and I while we can’t do much, we do what we can to support locals.

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MF: If you could grow or raise any food or animal, what would it be and why?

KG: Without a doubt it would be sweet corn. Being an Iowan, nothing beats sweet corn straight from the farmer by the bushelful, but with cool, short, wet summers here in Scotland, our attempts just never are up to the gold standard of Iowa corn. I also have my eye on some angora goats and alpacas, but don’t tell my husband!

MF: What’s your favorite vegetable?

KG: Not technically a vegetable, but tomatoes are hands down my favorite. I could eat them every single meal of the day. And as getting them to ripen in this climate is a bit of a pain, I have learned the secrets to a mean green tomato salsa.

[mf_pullquote layout=”right”]Don’t be afraid to look like a fool. [/mf_pullquote]

MF: If you could give other modern farmers any advice, what would it be?

KG: Don’t be afraid to look like a fool. When we first started out, we knew nothing, but were embarrassed to ask for help or seem like we didn’t know what we were doing. We were shy about talking to local farmers about their experiences, because we didn’t want to seem inexperienced. Every season, every animal, every crop has a new lesson to teach. Ask questions, even if they are stupid. Hang out where other farmers go and be open to advice.

MF: Do you have a farming/agricultural hero? Why do you admire them?

KG: It would be a straight up three way tie between Michael Pollen, Wendell Berry, and Barbara Kingsolver. The Omnivore’s Dilemma, The Gift of Good Land, and Small Wonder respectively shaped my outlook on nutrition, farming, and family, and I frequently go back to those books time and again.

MF: What was the biggest mistake you’ve ever made in regard to farming? How did you solve it?

KG: Before we brought home our first chickens, I checked out a book from the library about gardening with poultry. It seemed so gentle, as if the chickens and my vegetables could happily co-exist, with chickens providing manure and pest control, and just by being there they would take my veg growing up a notch. Fast forward about a week into chicken ownership, and the birds had eaten every single one of my tomato seedlings, dug up all of my chard, and pecked a hole in every single strawberry. I realized that gardening with chickens is remarkably close to war and now I have multiple fences between the veg and their free ranging.

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