Highland Foodways

Regional

The Highlands: poor acid soil, high rainfall, a short season, and a food system built on OATS, BARLEY, cattle, sheep, deer, fish and what could be gathered. CROFTING — small tenancies with shared grazing, legally protected since 1886 — potatoes, kale, the peat fire, and preservation by smoking, salting and drying because there was no other way. ⚠ AND THE CLEARANCES: from the late 18th century through the 19th, tenants were removed in favour of sheep and then deer forest, which broke the food economy, drove emigration and is the reason much of this land is empty. Recorded as history, not as scenery.

What is recorded

The Highland Clearances removed tenants in favour of sheep farming and later deer forest from the late eighteenth century through the nineteenth, breaking the crofting food economy and driving emigration; crofting tenure was given legal protection by the Crofters Holdings Act of 1886. The Highland potato famine of the 1840s was less lethal than Ireland’s but was severe and a major driver of emigration. documented

The Highland Clearances: tenants removed in favour of sheep and then deer forest, breaking the crofting food economy. documented

The Crofters Holdings Act gives crofting tenure legal protection. documented