In many ways, the imagined landscape of The Cornfield, a painting by John Constable, will look familiar to communities in Huntly. Instead of the fields of corn depicted in the painting, parks of golden barley, fluorescent rapeseed and grazing cattle surround our town, interspersed with swathes of sitka spruce and heathered moorland. Depicting a popular and ideal version of the countryside in 1826, we will take this painting as a starting point to explore local issues and cultures.

In this talk, National Gallery facilitators and local farmer and miller Sarah Morbey will join forces to explore how farming is represented in this painting and the reality of farming here and now in the North East of Scotland. Sarah will talk about her farm, Coldwells Farm in Insch, and how she has experimented with growing organic wheat for milling and sale. As one of the only farms in the immediate area growing wheat, Sarah will talk about why she started doing this, the challenges involved and the importance of growing this crop in the North East of Scotland.

We will end the talk with questions and discussion.