Diversification Farmer of the Year

Dairy farmers Jonny and Dulcie Crickmore were struggling to make a profit when prices slumped, so they decided to cut out the middleman and sell their milk directly to the public.

The Crickmores were the first UK farmers to install a vending machine selling raw milk at the farmgate.

They have built a loyal customer base – it’s not unusual for customers to embark on round trips of more than 100 miles to buy milk from the farm.

But they haven’t stopped there. Jonny has diversified into making milk, cheese and butter from their cows’ raw milk.

Jonny consulted French cheese expert Ivan Larcher to ask him how to make Brie to rival the French. He travelled to eastern France and imported a herd of Montbeliarde cows, whose milk is renowned for making outstanding cheese.

Source: FW Awards 2017: Diversification Farmer of the Year – Farmers Weekly

All the Poets (Musicians on Writing): Patti Smith

AFTER DECADES as a major force in punk rock — dating back to her shows at CBGB’s and her 1975 LP Horses — Patti Smith has earned a considerable reputation as a literary figure as well. She has introduced books of poems by Blake and Rimbaud, published several volumes of her own verse and song lyrics, and won the National Book Award for Just Kids, her 2010 memoir about her crucial early years with photographer Robert Mapplethorpe.

Smith’s new book is Devotion, a slim volume that is — at once — an ode to her favorite French writers, a short story or fable about a mysterious young ice skater, and a meditation on the creative process. (It is based on a speech Smith gave at Yale and is part of Yale University Press’s Why I Write series.)

Read full interview: All the Poets (Musicians on Writing): Patti Smith – Los Angeles Review of Books