How Sustainable Kirriemuir volunteers are helping create a field of dreams in farm project
On the northern edge of Kirriemuir, a field of dreams is taking shape. And as dreich months gave way to this week’s sunshine, Sustainable Kirriemuir volunteers had an extra spring in their step.
Their hard work has created a market garden on Kinnordy estate which will be putting food on local plates within weeks. A vegetable box initiative is one part of the group’s ambition to double the project’s current two acres. Eventually they hope the entire 17-acre field will be used for food production, livestock and as a model of sustainability. When The Courier visited, the site was a hive of activity as the mercury rose.
Sustainable Kirriemuir was founded in 2019. Engagement officer Fiona Cameron said the support of Kinnordy estate owner Antony Gifford was instrumental in getting the market garden project off the ground.
It has received £230,000 worth of vital grant funding from organisations including Angus Rural Partnership, Angus Council, the Mushroom Trust, the Lang Foundation, Swire Charitable Trust and The Royal Society of Edinburgh. In addition, the community has generously donated money, time and in-kind support.
Sustainable Kirrie also still has a site in the heart of the town, which is mainly used for growing flowers. It’s responsible for a range of initiatives, including the town’s annual Tattie Day.
However, it is at Kinnordy where the energies of the charity’s farm manager Amandla Taylor and its volunteers have been directed for many months. Amandla joined Sustainable Kirrie in 2022. The experienced grower and educator brought a wealth of experience from projects in the likes of Dundee and Glasgow.
“We were ready to expand and Mr Gifford knew we were looking for ground,” she said.
“In agricultural terms it’s a perfect site and it is so close to the town. But we just came into a blank field so we had a lot of work to do.”
The first job was to build the site bothy – complete with recycled pews from Kirriemuir’s parish kirk. The site now includes two Polycrub growing tunnels – developed in Shetland to withstand the harshest of weather. In the farm’s other polytunnels, produce is popping through the rich Angus soil in advance of the first vegetable boxes being filled.
“We have asked people to sign up for a veg box a week for 20 weeks this year,” said Fiona. “We asked if people would pay up front so we have the security of income and most have been happy to do that. It’s a leap of faith but we hope that once people see it in practice they will be more willing to invest in it.”
Amandla says she also hopes it will return a seasonality to what will be grown for the veg boxes, something lost on the year-round shelves of supermarkets.
“They are also buying into the whole ethos of the farm and what we hope to achieve here in the long-term,” she added. “We are very lucky with our volunteers, they give us so much time, energy and skill. We have a volunteer day every Tuesday from 10am to 3pm, and once a month on Saturday morning.”
Webster’s High in Kirrie and Blairgowrie High School are also rooted in the farm project.
“It is a very ambitious project for two part-time staff and volunteers,” said Amandla. “We have learned so much in the past year and hopefully will need the rest of the 17 acres in the future, and perhaps see other groups and organisations get involved. We’re thinking about the circular economy. That’s the only way these projects survive, if we help each other.”
You can find out more about the group’s veg share project and sign up to it on the Sustainable Kirriemuir website.
This article appeared in the Courier on 26 April 2026