Pillars of Hercules organic farm cafe, shop and campsite by Kristina

What an oasis this place is!

Firstly, the campsite. With its campgrounds nestled in amongst the trees and shrubs you benefit from the well regulated temperatures below the trees. We emerged from our little haven this afternoon and experienced the baking heat out in the open before heading down into the local forest. Watching the bumble bees busying in and out of their nest right next to us today, finding a ground wasp nest on the other side of the trees near us and the wasps completely disinterested in us because they've got much richer things around them to explore, listening to the birds and small mammals rustling, flapping,  singing, it makes you realise how much we can live within nature instead of trying to separate ourselves from it. 
Next, the shop. A shop filled with food, household items and books all produced with as little impact on the environment as possible while catering to our lifestyle. And fruit and vegetables all loose or packed in compostable packaging, and labelled clearly as to where it's sourced - many items from the farm. 
And the cafe. A lovely outdoor cafe with a covered area and tables on a wooden decking, with open access to the cottage garden and its beds of herbs and flowers. Plenty of picnic tables in the orchard, a play area with a willow den. And delicious cakes! Packaged in compostable packaging. 
And the farm. We didn't see the full extent of it today,  but Olly and I were allowed to wander around the polytunnels and see how the plants were grown together,  calendula in most of the polytunnels (for it's 'pest' control properties I'm guessing),  a whole load of clover growing in one, helping fix nitrogen into the soil. We chatted to a couple of the folk working on the farm, about sustainable farming practises, and how there's a slow move now away from ploughing and tilling the earth, and a recognition of the need to let the soil retain its nutrients, and help give nutrients back to the soil. 

A welcome rest day,  and a truly wonderful place to spend it!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts from the onward journey by Heather, Lente and Philine

Image
We safely made it onto the train to Newcastle. No fuss when we were getting on the train. I look back at our wonderful cycle. It will be one of the highlights of my life. Can't wait to tell my family about the cycle.   Lente and me are playing a game that we have to hold are breath in the tunnels. Haven't been on a train for ages. It goes so fast! Memories of the cycle are still in my head. The main ones: Playing in the river with Freya at Dunkeld, building a pier when we were wild camping near Loch Garry, Walking in the woods at Pillars of Hercules campsite (highly recommended by us) and when we arrived at the Scottish Parliament and bumped into some friends and swam in the pools in front of the Scottish parliament. By Heather Going over  the fourth road bridge, we saw lots of jellyfish and trains, I really enjoyed that. It was very busy in Edinburgh, with all the trams and trains and buses. I liked the first hotel in Edinburgh because it had a phone to call the people who wer
Read more

Day 8: Bikes on trains😡

Image
I'm writing this sitting next to Freya and Olly on the train, seeing Fife from a different perspective. I'm raging inside. I did wonder if we'd have difficulties getting our bikes on the train, and, sure enough,  we did.  We stayed in student accommodation last night, and cycled to the train station escorted by Philine this morning, to get the only train we'd been able to book two bikes on this weekend (weeks ago), thereby missing out on a bit of time in Edinburgh.  Philine was allowed onto the platform to help us, and when we found the conductor he told us there were already two bikes on the train, so we couldn't get on. I explained our situation, I showed him the printed email from Scotrail customer relations (one of a long trail of emails I'd had to send in organising this one, simple thing).  I explained our journey and it's purpose. He sent and spoke to the couple who had put their bikes on the train. It turns out they'd been told by Scotrail just t
Read more

Day 6: Pillars of Hercules organic farm campsite to Inverkeithing

Image
OK, so the plan today was for a shorter day and an early finish, a catch up with an old uni friend in Dalgety Bay, a bit of time at the hotel in Inverkeithing and an early night. Only one of those things actually happened.  We left the oasis of the Pillars of Hercules reluctantly after one more trip to the shop and around the cottage garden. Somehow I was persuaded to buy two books in the shop, against my better judgement, and added them to the load in the trailer. One (the book on British wildflowers) proved very useful later on when we were having a debate on whether the huge hogweeds lining the path around Loch Leven were actually giant hogweed (they weren't). And we found out from the book that the mature stems, being hollow, make very good pea shooters. Hence, Olly ended up carrying a few pea shooters the rest of the way! And on that note, how did I end up with yet another stick in the trailer to carry home? Every outing seems to add more sticks to the collection outside our f
Read more