An Eyebrow-Raising English Language Learning Experience?
One of the more unusual English language learning experiences we offer at our independent English language school is a red deer feed at Clathic Farm (in between Crieff and Comrie).
I say unusual because I am willing to bet that most English language schools don’t offer this, but in fact, for our region, it really wouldn’t raise any eyebrows.
Perthshire is famous for its food and drink produce. It’s known as Scotland’s larder. At Blue Noun, we have many strong partnerships with local producers. We love showing off the food and produce in Perthshire: sharing it with you and taking you to visit its source as part of our Meet the Makers English Immersion experiences.
Meet the Makers | Crieff Food Company
We also always make sure that you visit the Crieff Food Company – our local high street shop which stocks and celebrates local and regional produce.
It has a superb cheese counter and butcher and a huge range of local and specialist products.
The butcher stocks Clathic Farm venison – no real surprise because Jamie & Miranda, who are the farm owners, also own this shop.
(Jamie & Miranda also offer Blue Noun English language guests accommodation as homestay hosts – find out more here).
Monarchs of the Glen
We think it is superb that you can follow the process of the meat from field to table.
The red deer on Clathic Farm are raised organically, with no human & medical intervention until it is their time to die.
They are culled in the field (so obviously avoiding the horror of transportation and abattoir).
If you choose to eat meat, Scottish venison is one of the most ethical and environmentally friendly choices you can make by quite a long shot.
Although they live a very wild life, during winter months the red deers’ diet is supplemented with grain. It is this feed that Clathic Farm is inviting Blue Noun English language guests to witness.
The red deer (around 200) come down from the hills to feed (the estate is so big that otherwise, you need an off-road vehicle to get around it to have a chance of seeing them otherwise).
It’s a rare chance to get close to one of Scotland’s most famous creatures – the stunning red deer referred to often in Victorian art and culture as the ‘Monarch of the Glen‘.
A quick note from the author
We began the Blue Noun blog back in 2019, when we called ourselves a ‘language school’ (we now call ourselves a language hub) and we were building up our business completely from scratch.
Our first few months were spent making friends in the community, researching homestay hosts for our language guests and finding out about all the good local places and activities to take our language learning guests.
In 2021 we moved the Blue Noun website to a different platform. We had the option of deleting these old blogs – they are very different form our current, more pedagogic style of posting, but I think they are quite charming to see how our young business grew, turning from a language school run by an artist – into a language hub which really began to focus on coaching artists in English by immersing them in creative environments.