Podcast: Helen Stewart, the unexpected farmer, fair feast and dealing with the unexpected

Helen Stewart grew up believing there was one thing she definitely wouldn’t become: a farmer.

As the youngest child and a girl, she had always been told that the family farm near Pitlochry would pass to her brother. So Helen headed to Glasgow to study English Literature, discovered an unexpected fascination with distilling along the way and had plans for a very different life.

Then everything changed.

Within the space of a week, Helen found herself with a newly opened distillery and responsibility for a family farm that dates back to 1599.

In the October episode of Blether Together, Helen joins Sarah Stephen to talk about finding her own way into farming, family succession, the pressures of keeping a farm going and the series of events that led her to establish Fair Feast, a social enterprise turning locally culled venison into food for people who need it.

There are some big subjects in this conversation, but plenty of laughs too, including an encounter with a badger that Helen certainly wasn’t expecting.

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Helen Stewart farms at Knockbarry Farm near Pitlochry in Perthshire, a hill sheep farm that has been in her family since 1599.

Coming home to become a farmer was never part of Helen’s plan. While studying English Literature at the University of Glasgow, she began working at a distillery to help fund her studies. Fascinated by the process, she eventually raised funding to open a small distillery on the family farm, intending to employ someone to run it before returning to Glasgow.

The week it opened, Helen’s brother decided farming wasn’t for him. Suddenly, the future Helen had imagined looked completely different.

She talks to Sarah about adjusting to that change, working alongside her parents and the complicated relationship between family, work, home and identity that can come with farming.

As Helen puts it, on a family farm, your heritage, community, job, home and finances can all become tied together.

The moment everything changed

Taking on the farm was only the beginning. Helen soon realised it was facing serious problems. Grazing was disappearing, livestock numbers were falling and eventually the family had to sell their cattle. Then Helen started looking more closely at the hundreds of wild red deer coming onto the farm.

What followed was a six-year journey to find a way of managing the deer and protecting the future of the farm. When Helen eventually became responsible for managing the deer herself, she was faced with another question: what should happen to the venison?

The answer eventually became Fair Feast.

Helen began talking to rural food banks about what they actually needed and learned that simply donating venison wasn’t enough. It needed to be turned into familiar, practical food that families could easily use, including mince, burgers and sausages.

That idea has since grown into a social enterprise processing local venison and distributing it through food banks and community organisations.

But one particular visit to a food bank brought home to Helen exactly why the work mattered. She recognised people in the queue. People she had grown up with. People who had worked locally. People whose circumstances had changed through illness, bereavement or the rising cost of living. It’s a moment she hasn’t forgotten.

Lessons learned along the way

Don’t decide too early what your life has to look like
Helen’s path from English Literature student to distiller, farmer and social enterprise founder wasn’t planned. Her advice is to stay open to where life might take you rather than becoming too fixed on one route.

Farming isn’t for everyone, and that’s okay

Helen reflects openly on succession and the pressure that can come with the expectation of taking on a family farm. Her experience has taught her that people need the freedom to find what they actually want to do.

Ask questions when you don’t know the answer
When Helen knew very little about deer management, she started researching, speaking to people and famously turning up at meetings armed with a bright pink ring binder full of questions.

Giving can give something back to you too

Fair Feast has distributed more than 25,000 portions of venison, and Helen describes the work as one of the most unexpectedly fulfilling things she has done.

Looking after your wellbeing

Helen readily admits that although people often think she appears relaxed, there can be rather more going on beneath the surface.

With a farm, Fair Feast, contract distilling, a shop, family life and a young son all competing for her attention, finding ways to switch off matters.

Her favourite way to reset is remarkably simple.

When things feel particularly stressful, Helen waits until it gets dark and heads out onto the farm road with one of her dogs. Away from the noise and activity of the day, she finds the cool, dark and quiet surroundings help her mind slow down.

It also gives her a chance to appreciate the place she fought so hard to stay on.

Helen also shares one of her favourite places on the farm: a secluded waterfall and meadow where she swims, picnics with her family and spends time with her young son.

Her story also touches on one of Farmstrong’s Five Ways to Wellbeing: Give. Through Fair Feast, Helen has discovered just how much helping others can contribute to her own sense of purpose and wellbeing.

Listen to the October episode of Blether Together to hear the full story of Helen Stewart, Knockbarry Farm and Fair Feast, including how an overwhelming farming problem became an opportunity to help people across rural communities.