COLUMN: Farr Eats is more than just about food - it is about community
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I’m writing this column on the third anniversary of the lockdown.
The pandemic saw most people shut away from their usual life for months on end, with no bowls nights, knit and natter (or stitch n bitch), lunch and gardening clubs and all manner of sociable gatherings that occur in these small interwoven settlements.
All are habit-forming, and the glue that bonds communities.
It was a strange and slow return to normality with social distancing and masks no longer a requirement, and there are still folk who haven’t got back to pre-lockdown habits.
As a rural postie, it was a pleasure to continue working and keep life as normal as possible for my customers, helping them get their groceries, newspapers, prescriptions, and the odd home-cooked treat.
It was also good for me to almost continue as normal, apart from the mask! Staying by myself, with my dogs, cats, and chickens on Torrisdale, it would have been a very lonely place over those months if I wasn’t out delivering and helping others.
Being past retirement age and having mostly been lucky to have mainly my own teeth and good health, I have recently been beset by a problem with my right leg, from the knee down.
So far it has baffled medical science in that it remains undiagnosed after several weeks and almost every test known to man! I’ve given at least five armfuls of blood (Tony Hancock) and had two scans.
I’ve been on blood thinning tablets, penicillin, and water tablets that have seen me “cocking my leg” more times than the dogs.
When the folk on my round and other locals realised I was missing, I started getting texts, emails, phone calls and even several get well cards through the post. I have been touched by the spirit and feeling of inclusion in this community that I joined eight years ago.
Following the lockdowns, the community spirit felt a little lost for a while as folk ventured out warily, and with also losing a few older folks to Clachan and Skerray cemeteries over that time, the dynamic changed, but life goes on and folk adapt, luckily most traditions survived.
One of these traditions is that people care for others and help them out in times of need, illness and with friendship, but you have to have integrated locally to benefit.
Unfortunately, in the rush to escape built-up areas, lots of people suddenly wanted to buy, and pay sometimes stupid prices for any property “Up North” and because they have probably never visited the area, they haven’t the insight into how these communities work and don’t always blend in.
I know everyone is different and some folk want to be “alone”, but they won’t then have the comfort of feeling cared for during life’s trials, and that warm feeling when you realise people care about you.
A recently reinstated initiative to bring together and feed the community, is the Farr Eats format, that either delivers subsidised food to your home, or in fish n chip lunches at various local halls. I recently went to Strath Halladale Hall, with Penny the postie and what a fabulous time the small group had.
Even though Joanna and Hellie of The Store, Bettyhill, suffered the nightmare of a broken fryer and the food came out 50 minutes late, no one even noticed, because everyone was enjoying the craic.
And even though I’d never been there before, I found a connection with most of the folk, and even Pam, the wife of a Dounreay veteran, recounted what she used my Postie Notes for; but I don’t think it was pretty enough to share!
As in the M&S style - This is Farr more than just food – this is community. We missed it.
Mark Gilbert is a postal worker based in Bettyhill.
