As I sit at the kitchen table at Dun Flashadder Cottage Croft on Skye, notebook open and pen poised, I'm already struggling to keep up. There have been three different tins of homemade baking opened, countless cups of tea poured from a pot wrapped in a handmade Hebridean wool tea cosy (made by Leaf), and a steady stream of stories about neighbours, mentors, friends and other crofters who have all played a part in shaping this place. It quickly becomes clear that it's impossible to talk about Dun Flashadder Cottage Croft without talking about the local community too. 

Jake jokes about the "community tax" of crofting – the understanding that if someone needs a hand gathering sheep, loading livestock or fixing a fence, you simply turn up. You want to support those around you. One day it's your turn to help; the next it's someone leaving eggs on your doorstep or a Joint of hogget as thanks. This mindset builds a powerful community. 

Before we’d even stepped outside, this story was already unfolding: fields offered up for grazing, their first flock of sheep passed on by a neighbour, a handwritten book preserving 25 years of the Orchards’ history and output, and countless quiet acts of kindness that had encouraged Jake and Leaf as they began their journey as new entrants. 

This was seven years ago now, and from the 30 Hebridean sheep they began with and few fields to graze, Dun Flashadder Cottage Croft is home to around ~160 sheep, six rare breed pigs, an established orchard, rows of blueberry plants, wool products handcrafted from their own flock, a butchery, self-catering accommodation and plans that continue to evolve.

Yet despite everything they've built, Jake is quick to play down his own expertise.

"We're learning crofters," he tells me. "Best piece of advice I've ever received? You win or you learn."

It's an approach that runs through everything they do.

Rather than forcing the land to fit their plans, they allow the landscape to shape their decisions. Hebridean sheep have been chosen because they suit the rough grazing and help improve biodiversity through careful rotational grazing. Rare breed Mangalitsa pigs were introduced in an attempt to tackle stubborn bracken on steep slopes where machinery can't safely operate. The pigs haven’t solved the bracken problem entirely, Jake admits with a smile, but they have produced exceptional pork and created one of Skye’s most sought-after products – homemade pork scratchings – so elusive and in demand they almost feel like contraband.

That same philosophy stretches well beyond the livestock. Earlier this year, Jake and Leaf purchased a mature orchard of around 1,000 fruit trees – one which they’d managed for the few years prior. Alongside it sits rows of blueberry plants, while bees will soon return to pollinate the orchard and surrounding land. At the bottom of the orchard there is a lovely little cottage in which Jake and Leaf proudly had their first paid guests staying the night before. The orchard isn’t simply a diversification project; it reflects the circular nature of their vision for Dun Flashadder Cottage Croft, where trees, bees, livestock, visitors and the wider community are all connected and each helps sustain the other.

It’s an approach reflects their wider outlook on life: that everything is connected. The orchard feeds the bees, the bees support neighbouring crofts and gardens, the fruit will one day become products to complement their own meat, and visitors will be welcomed into the story of it all. It feels less like building separate enterprises and more like carefully weaving another thread into the fabric of the croft.

That willingness to experiment, adapt and share the journey openly has become central to Dun Flashadder Cottage Croft. Through social media, school visits, workshops and conversations around the kitchen table, Jake and Leaf have quietly built a community that stretches far beyond the boundaries of their croft. They don't claim to have all the answers – quite the opposite – but they're generous in sharing the lessons they've learned, the successes and the inevitable setbacks.

Like many crofters, the work of Dun Flashadder Cottage Croft is built around the rhythms of full-time employment and family life. The crofting happens in the margins of time – early mornings before work, evenings, weekends and within precious annual leave. There is something about the image of feeding livestock before heading to work on a winter morning that stays with me, and I ask Jake what it is really like. He smiles again and answers with characteristic understatement: “Yeah, it’s not very nice.” It is a simple response, but one that hints at the long hours, dedication and resilience required to make it all work. Add in long journeys to the abattoir and butcher, complex crofting legislation that’s currently creating a barrier for them to security of tenure and access to grants, and the constant balancing act of building a diversified business, and it becomes clear why community matters so much.

Watching Jake talk about producing food, however, it's clear what drives him isn't simply running a successful business. There's a genuine sense of responsibility that comes with producing food well, caring for the land that produces it and leaving it in better condition for the next generation. A recent visit from Nature Scot to analyse the land they are crofting confirmed this.

Perhaps that's why bringing others along for the journey matters just as much as producing the food. Whether it's welcoming local schoolchildren onto the croft, hosting WWOOF volunteers from around the world or sharing honest glimpses of crofting life online, Jake and Leaf want people to understand what lies behind the food on their plate. Not just the work, but the responsibility, the mistakes, the learning and, above all, the island community that makes it possible.

I counted myself lucky to have experienced Jake and Leaf's welcoming home, a tour of the croft and their patience as I asked endless questions. From the moment I arrived, I was swept up in the energy of Dun Flashadder Cottage Croft: wandering through the orchard, feeding the pigs out-of-date vegetables from the local shop, checking in on the pet lamb and exploring the felting workshop.

As we walked and worked together, I heard more about Jake and Leaf's vision for the future, and it was genuinely inspiring. More than simply building a successful croft, they wanted to share the process, the challenges and the learning along the way. As Jake explained, "A big part of it is bringing people along with us. We want people to understand what we're doing, why we're doing it and feel part of the journey."

It is a philosophy that feels woven into everything at Dun Flashadder Cottage Croft. As I left later that day, that was the impression that stayed with me. Yes, it is a croft producing exceptional hogget, pork, eggs, wool and fruit. But more than that, it is a reminder that crofting is a tapestry woven together through neighbours, shared knowledge and countless unseen acts of support. It is a reminder that crofting thrives because people work together – something NFU Scotland's Crofters Committee is committed to supporting for generations to come.

From gathering sheep and sharing grazing to mentoring new entrants and passing around home baking at a kitchen table, those connections remain the bedrock of Scotland's rural communities. You can follow Jake and Leaf's journey at @dunflashaddercroft.

The most important thing in crofting is working out a way that fits around the life you want to live as a family. A hundred people will tell you the same thing, but fifty different ways to do it. The way you do it isn't important – it's finding what works for you.

You win or you learn. We've made mistakes, we've got things wrong, but you move on and learn from them.

There isn't just one. Living on an island brings its own challenges, whether that's long journeys to the abattoir, transport costs or accessing services. Then there's the complexity of crofting legislation, which is difficult to navigate, especially for new entrants. On top of that, most crofters are balancing the croft alongside other jobs and family life. It's a constant juggling act, but that's the reality for a lot of people.

The people around us. If we need help, we know people will be there, and I hope they know we'd do exactly the same for them. And then there's the feedback – whether it's someone saying it's the best hogget they've ever eaten, people enjoying our workshops, or simply taking the time to comment on something we've shared online. Those little things really do lift you.

It's an opportunity to make sure crofters' voices are heard. For me, it's another chance to learn too. You get to sit around the table with people from different parts of the country, hear about the challenges they're facing and share experiences. Every croft is different, so those conversations are incredibly valuable – as is the network and support you get being involved. If I can bring something from our own experience at Dun Flashadder Cottage Croft, while taking ideas back that help make us better crofters, then that's a good thing. 

At the moment, it's the Crofting Agricultural Grant Scheme (CAGS) payments being released to crofters, small producer derogation for the whole farm plan, and creating our own Crofting Development Plan to lead and inform the work we do within NFU Scotland.

I’d say get involved. If you’ve got an opinion or there’s something you want to see changed, you have to be willing to roll your sleeves up and play your part. Agriculture needs you and these things don’t happen by themselves – progress comes from people getting around the table, sharing their experiences and putting the work in.

Lambing. It's exhausting and it can be heartbreaking, but it's also incredibly affirming. Seeing healthy lambs out on the hill makes everything worthwhile.

To keep growing in a manageable way, produce really good food, look after the land and keep putting value back into the crofting community around us.