A few words from Burnside Game

Johnny Rutherford and daughter Evie

A trip to stay with my aunt and uncle who live near Sarlat in the beautiful Dordogne in France during the early eighties was the inspiration for me to start Burnside Farm Foods. Initially I reared free-range guinea fowl, this then led to me rearing Gressingham duck on contract.

As competition increased from abroad on guinea fowl and duck it made these products unviable which led to the move to increasing the offering of wild local Scottish game. It was around this time in the late 90s that I started working with Fred. A few years later my wife Susan joined me in the business and our core focus now is on supplying the finest of wild game from the Scottish Borders.

We have been supplying Fred and Betty for many years with wild Scottish game. It started in Glasgow and carries on today in Edinburgh at l’escargot bleu. To keep such a long work relationship going needs good communication and understanding by both parties, which I believe we have! 

Flexibility is key in the game industry as products become available in different seasons and restaurants have to adapt and try to fit in with the seasons if they want to showcase the best Scotland has to offer. Fred has always been willing to do this. How Fred and Betty have adapted to Covid with their take-away menus has been very inspiring.

This has been a very unusual game season like no other. In the countryside shoots have started and stopped much like the hospitality trade, supply has been inconsistent and little has been shot since the last lockdown with the pheasant season ending on the 1st February. Those that have shot, have tended to have the birds processed and kept for their own consumption. On the farm even though the pheasant season has finished, this does not mean that feeding wild game and wild birds should finish. 

All our game is sourced within a 30 mile radius of the farm. We supplement this with game from our own estate, which incorporates Burnside Farm and Rutherford Farm. We only source game from shoots that have good welfare and cold chain protocols, thereby providing a better quality product and full traceability.

On reception at Burnside Farm all roe deer is individually inspected and stamped by an approved Food Standards Scotland vet before it is processed. The small game i.e. grouse, partridge, mallard, pheasant, and wood pigeon is also inspected to ensure only fit and healthy game enters the food chain.

There are only a handful of game processors regulated to this level in Scotland and the UK. We believe we are the only ones in Scotland who still process small game birds and roe deer on the farm, amongst the fields that supply Scotland’s finest game, ensuring our philosophy of nature to plate. It may surprise you that it is estimated that only 30-40% of wild game that enters the food chain is inspected, or to put it another way, 70% of game enters the food chain without inspection or the regulations we endure, so we appreciate very much chefs like Fred who support us and buy from an approved game handling establishment. We may not be the cheapest but we hope we supply the best that Scotland’s wild larder has to offer.

I have a passion - my wife may call it an obsession - about reviving our indigenous wild grey partridge population and creating wild habitats on the farm for all the wild birds and animals. This could be in shaping hedges to create safer nesting areas, to wild margins that create bug life for wild birds at nesting time.

It is no coincidence that we have a huge wild brown hare population, more so than rabbits, a thriving roe deer community and an increasing grey partridge population. Our conservation practices over the generations have never changed, thus we have a huge natural abundance of wild food for nature to thrive on.

We complement the wild food with feeding wheat through to May and June to help all the wild birds be in as good a condition as possible for laying, hatching and looking after their broods.

Many conservationists judge the wellbeing and habitat of land and nature by how wild animals thrive, and especially how the wild brown hare population exists and thrives. They can rest assured that in our little part of the world they are positively booming and will soon be seen sparring and boxing in the fields as the mating season approaches and we see “the Mad March Hare!” (see them soon on our Instagram!)

I think Fred likes working with us due to our knowledge of wild game, working with the changing seasons, the quality and consistency of product we can offer, that we can have a bit of a joke and laugh, and have a love for great food and wine. Something we all need in these difficult times. Santé!

Thank you again Fred and Betty for buying from us in these challenging times and of course to those buying from l’escargot blue. By supporting Fred and Betty and their team you are also supporting the artisanal supply chain which we very much appreciate!!

Johnny & Susan Rutherford, and our team at Burnside Game.

Visit the website: https://www.burnsidegame.com/