Corn rigs were ploughed, harrowed, sown and harrowed again, then when it had sprung it was rolled.

In May, peats were ‘casted’ – 4 people worked for a day to get enough peats for a year’s burning.  After 2/3 weeks they were raised, followed by another 2/3 weeks when they were turned, then brought home at the end of August.

In June, Plantie crubs were delled and sown. With the hill sheep – lambs were marked, gimmers and yield sheep clipped.

The neeps weren’t sown until after the 13^th June (to try to avoid the worm).  Two kinds of neeps were sown: Tankards (a big, long neep for animal feed – also good for neepie lanterns) and swedes – for feeding and also used for cooking.  The neeps were hoed, singled, and then hoed again.

Towards the end of July, the rye grass was mown.  I mind my father and uncle mowing with sythes wearing their white canvas caps and singlets. 

The summer months were otherwise taken up with curing hay, ‘wherving’, coling, and then dessing – a job which neighbours helped each other with. I remember the weather seeming really good, as were the raspberries that grew below the plantie crub.

In September, corn was usually cut with a sythe and gathered into sheaves, but a binder did come around on some years.  They were set into sixes, stooked then hirdid, and built into skroos (stacks) in the yard along with the desses of hay.

In October, the kye were given kale blades gathered daily for them and the neep shaws were cut off and fed to them.  Towards the end of October and into November, wir folk riped the tatties just by digging them up by hand.  In the same month, we bedded the neeps.

The winter months were spent feeding rye grass to kye in the morning, kale in the middle of the day and sheaves of corn at night – when the coo would have been milked.  Kale was taken to the house and cut at night for feeding the lambs at the lambhouse the next morning.  They had hay and water at night.

Early years of growing

Raised on a croft in nearby Upper Urafirth, Carol says that she doesn’t remember a time when she didn’t grow vegetables and flowering plants.  With informed guidance from her father, she was helping to grow a range of vegetables in their yard from an early age – including tatties, carrots, neeps and kale. 

“I enjoyed growing then, and I still enjoy growing now”, says Carol.  “It was always about just ‘giving it a go’ and accepting that with growing, sometimes you get good years and sometimes not so good years”.

In the mid-nineties, Carol and her partner, James, moved to their croft in Swarthoull, where Carol was able to continue growing vegetables and flowering plants.  Given her passion for growing – along with having the space and potential shelter to grow there, she had her first thoughts of how she might look to turn this hobby into something more.

Development of Da Barn

Fast forward several years to 2016 when Carol and James’ bairns were grown up, this ambition became a reality when they started ‘Da Barn’, a horticulture and market garden.  Their business became operational after starting off with one polytunnel that summer, followed by two more tunnels in 2017.

Whilst polytunnels made the most economic sense for the business, the ferocity of the Shetland winter gales was a concern.  Fortunately, however, they were able to erect the polytunnels directly behind their croft’s barn, which protected the tunnels by providing good shelter from the strong northerly winds.  Therefore, given the barn’s importance to the sustenance of the business’s polytunnels, their horticultural business was consequently named ‘Da Barn’.

Had it not been for the low barrier to entry I think I may not have even tried.

Once my seeds were planted I enjoyed watering them and watching them sprout and grow.  When I cut my first bunch of lettuce (see image below) to have with our tea I was hooked.  I had no idea the satisfaction I would feel from eating home-grown veg. 

Work then began on the task of improving the soil and planting on some areas – a big project in itself, given the poor quality of the existing soil.  Whilst work on the garden then dwindled slightly for a few years, community interest in the garden was then kick-started by the development of the Shetland Croft House Garden in 2008 – a story which originated nearly 1000 miles away at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show. 

Inspired during a trip to Shetland, the idea of entering a Shetland Croft House Garden in the show came from Martin Anderson MBE – co-founder of the Motor Neurone Disease Association – with the intention to raise funds and awareness of MND.  The initial garden idea was then designed by Nottingham Trent University lecturer and garden designer Sue Hayward, and developed along with staff and students from the university. 

The garden, which was inspired by a typical 1940s Shetland Croft garden and one of nine courtyard gardens at the event, was awarded a Gold Medal at the event, as well as winning the ‘BBC’s RHS People’s Award for Best Small Show Garden’.  It attracted thousands of admirers, including the Queen. 

Following the tremendous success of the garden at the Show, there was a strong desire to ensure that it could be preserved at a suitable location over the long term.  Consequently, a huge community effort led to the Shetland Crofthouse Garden continuing life at the Nort Trow Community Garden.  The Garden group obtained the plants after the Show and reconstructed the garden, with Martin Anderson and Sue Hayward very helpful in providing plans and photographs of the original design.

The plants travelled from Chelsea to North Roe via a Streamline container and the first job was to construct the crofthouse façade, before planting could begin.  Members of the garden group gathered and moved over 17 tonnes of stone by hand – no mean feat!  A team of Shetland stonemasons built the façade.  Local volunteers also constructed the wrackwid fence.