The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Smallholding => Crofting => Topic started by: fiestyredhead331 on January 14, 2014, 12:49:03 am
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After 5 months and several phonecalls we have finally been told we can use the produce mark on our croft produce, the delay was blamed on the relaunch of the scheme apparently but at least we can say we have it now :excited:
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Congratulations! Do you simply have to be a registered croft or are there other criteria?
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Thank you Rosemary
as well as being a registered croft, you need to adhere to standard welfare practice and that what you are producing is produced on/from your croft. They were trying to persuade us to join QMS but as all our meat is QMS checked and stamped at the abattoir I dont see why we should which they seemed to accept.
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Congratulations, great news for you and the scheme. I hope it helps boost your sales!
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Thank you Hamish, not sure if it will actually boost our sales as we label everything as being locally reared/ produced anyway but its nice to have some kind of official stamp and will hopefully raise awareness that great things are happening despite the big supermarkets best efforts ;D
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I hadn't heard of this. This could be a useful add on for our cheese. We shall start making goats cheese on a small scale this spring and could possibly qualify for this produce mark.
Thanks!
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After hearing nothing for 2 weeks we emailed the cofting federation to find out what the delay was onky to receive an email today telling us our application had now been refused as we're not QMS members, which frankly we can't afford and there is also the question of me not being the 'registered crofter' despite me paying the croft rent and being the registered keeper of the animals!
Awaiting a response from them now before I decide whether not to give this up as I haven't got the energy or money to waste on an organisation who, from my personal experience, claim to be there to promote traditional crofting practices but are then tying you up in needless red tape.
Frustrating when we have had samples of produce tested by Environmental Health come back extremely positive etc
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After a prompt phonecall from the cheif executive of the SCF, we have put our case across and been told that we are exactly the kind of small scale local producer that they want to encourage so once again we have been told that our welcome pack is in the post.......we will wait and see what happens :fc:
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Hope it works out this time Feisty!!
Rgds
Sskye
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We are finally registered southernskye but what a palaver, miscommunication between SCF staff mostly but we got there in the end and have our produce mark and number ready for this seasons markets :thumbsup:
we've already had one regular order placed from a b&b who had been following us for a while but once they saw our crofting produce mark they placed their order for the season so it does make a difference.
will be interesting to see how tourists react as they seem to love anything that has a label declaring its local etc
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Well done, you got there in the end!
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Thanks hamish :thumbsup:
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glad it worked out.
is the QMS expensive to join?
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We didnt have to join QMS, we successfully argued the point that we are small scale croft producers and the cost of joining QMS would make what we do financially unviable. I thinks £400-500 to join and meat is just one of the things we produce. We have happily agreed to inspections at any time and adhere to welfare policies and our meat is QMS stamped at the abattoir and each animal is vet inspected before slaughter.