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I work on a farm and it’s never a dull day I’ll be up at 4am feeding the cows and going into the sties to checkup on the pigs We’re currently doing the harvest so when the sun is shining we make hay And then there’s Jamie my husband He’s grown up on the land 2000 Acres in Somerset and his family have ploughed it for generations When it’s time to harvest Jamie takes a small amount of soil and puts it past his cracked lips tasting it He spat it out get the tractor it’s time to harvest But this year was different I saw his eyes flicker I knew we needed to start planting but the soil wasn’t quite ready We’ll be putting good money after bad I didn’t argue I remembered the drought of 2003 when his grandfather had sowed in vain and they’d been left with no crop and no cash They’d come within a whisker of having to sell the farm to the neighbouring Farmer Crockett We were waiting and waiting and the stress was building I could feel it in the joints and see it in the lines of my face It’s nothing immediate but I’ve seen enough seasons change on Brightworthy farm to know that eventually the leaves turn brown and wilt cascading in a lilting motion resting on a maroon bed that turns darker and darker with the fading of the light and shorter days I know this is natural whilst farming may not be in my blood it is in the blood of the man I’ve spent 30 years sharing a bed and a life with And in farming you earn it when you’re up at 4:30 feeding the cows 6 days a week when you’re weaning a sickly baby ewe and trying to get her mother to accept her these are the moments that you earn This is a way of life not another 9 to 5 But I am 57 now and as I said I can feel myself slowing it is showing in my body our two working dogs Dido and Didier used to look at me expectantly for walks I used to love walking them but over 2 years things have slowly changed My right knee has a throbbing pain that the local physio says is joint pain I’ve iced it and stretched it but it’s one of those stubborn niggles that I try not to think about there is so much going on on the farm I hate it when Farmer Crockett comes to visit Jamie doesn’t like it either but our farms are adjoined and we share a border of a good 20 hectares There are things to discuss fences, hedgerows the brook that runs through our land But there are whispers in the village as to who this man is behind closed doors that he is cold hearted and cruel It is something I have seen with my own eyes In the thickets on the north boundary I passed him on horseback Though it was winter his horse a young chestnut Stallion had no coat but heat was radiating from the 3 lines of deep gashes from its rump I saw this and then I saw Farmer Crockett’s riding whip The end was soaked in a dark red blood We treat our animals with love and respect Ours is a livestock farm as well as crops and we understand that to feed a nation with grass fed beef our cows will eventually have to go to market Farmer Crockett only sees profit there is no love for his cows no connection So when his land rover pulled up our muddied drive and parked next to outside the farmhouse I shivered I do not feel comfortable around men that treat animals badly He stayed for tea and eventually headed out into the closest field to discuss fencing techniques with Jamie It was getting dark and the temperature was dropping so I headed out with an extra layer for my husband You’re too loyal Jamie came the slurring voice of the west country farmer No reply but behind the thicket that led on to the field where the two men shared a dram of whisky I listened intently With a farm like this you could win the hearts of half the women this side of Yeovil Thank you but I love my wife and If she’ll continue to love me I’d gladly spend the rest of my life loving her I know my husband I’d know him just by the crevices in his hard working hands or the lines of worry on his forehead from many a year of poor harvest So why didn’t I feel relief There are men that come into your life that will derail it The ones who in their wicked selfishness pull on a select number of worries in exactly the right way They are craftsmen of the most evil kind Where Jamie can carve the most beautiful wooden sculptures and make drystone walls look like mosaics there are men like farmer Crockett who are artful in their destruction A tomboy from a young age I’d always been more interested in rolling up my sleeves and making myself useful than preening myself in the mirror But I must admit I found myself looking more Gradually at first the odd check in the mirror an inspection of the lines on my forehead to see if they had deepened Jamie noticed he’s the type of man who notices everything and in his own calm and controlled way speaks when he is ready and in as few words as possible Alex I’d like it if you were comfortable to do so to speak with Trisha I don’t think you’ve been yourself lately and I’d like you to talk about it if not with me then with an old friend I understand that some things are best shared amongst female friends And that’s how I found myself sitting in the cow pen with my oldest friend the woman that reminded me of my childhood in London before I fell in love with a man at a bar and my life changed forever Looking at Trisha I couldn’t help but marvel in her pencil skirt and blouse she looked every bit the successful publisher that she was But it wasn’t just the farm overalls that made me feel notably different Her skin had the glow of a woman who took care of it perhaps it was a life spent in the city out of the elements There I was ruddy sunburnt and with heavy lines on my forehead We talked about our kids our husbands our lives forks of the same river that had split in separate ways And then I asked her amid the mooing of cows How do you look so good She laughed more of a knowing chuckle Alex I think they’re trying to tell you something I looked around expecting to see farmer Crockett with his bloody riding whip That man has left me feeling on edge It’s the cows silly What do you mean I mean they’ve got collagen in them it’s made all the difference What’s that Well basically its responsible for maintaining your skin elasticity Collagen I’d spent thirty years pulling calves into the world at four in the morning And I’d never once thought about what was holding my own body together Trisha could see I didn't follow So she said it the way she knew I would understand Alex You of all people know that what an animal is fed ends up in the animal You’ve built your whole life on it Grass fed Pasture raised Raised right Well It’s no different with you And I sat with that in the cow pen with the mud drying on my boots She told me collagen is the scaffolding Skin hair the deep tissue in your knees and joints that keeps a person moving And that from your mid twenties on your body makes a little less of it every single year I thought about the leaves on Brightworthy About how everything living renews a bit slower than it used to I’d known that about the land my whole life I’d just never turned that truth on myself She said the one she used she’d found after a long time looking Most collagen she explained is just cheap industrial byproduct Boiled down at high heat from indoor factory farms The vital nutrients ruined before it ever hits the pouch But she’d tracked down a British company called Nutrition Geeks And they did it the slow proper way They sourced their collagen from pristine pastures in Brazil From cattle that spend 365 days a year completely outdoors under the sun Free roaming Purely grass fed Raised the exact way we raise ours Not the way Farmer Crockett raises his She told me it was Type 1 and Type 3 collagen the exact two types your skin and joints lean on the most And it was triple filtered Cold processed so the proteins stay entirely whole Nothing hidden in it No fillers No synthetic nonsense Near enough tasteless you stir it into your morning tea and you’d never know it was there And I’ll be honest with you It was the 365 day outdoor pasture part that got me Because I know what it means when an animal is raised with true care I’ve spent my life on the right side of that line And I wasn’t about to start putting the wrong side of it into my own body I’ll tell you plainly I didn’t expect a thing I’m a farmer’s wife Not a fool I’ve watched enough miracle cures come through this village to know better I just started stirring a scoop of it into my morning tea That was the whole of it Two minutes Before the cows The first few weeks nothing I could put my finger on Then somewhere in the second month the morning wait changed I hadn't consciously decided to start walking Dido and Didier again I just found myself reaching for the leads of an evening the way I used to before the throbbing in my knee made me think twice The stubborn niggle was just quiet Jamie noticed before I said a single word He always does He didn't make a big fuss out of it He just started leaving his working boots by the door Next to mine Now I’m not going to sit here and tell you it erased thirty years of farming from my face I’m 57 I’ve earned every single line on it and I intend to keep them What I’ll tell you is that I stopped checking the mirror That’s the absolute truth of it The lines had softened slightly Just as winter eventually gives way to spring I’d just stopped going looking for them Because what Crockett had done what men like him do was get me seeing myself through his cold eyes Instead of Jamie’s And somewhere in those weeks stirring that pure powder into my tea before the sun was up feeling a little more like myself with each morning I got my own eyes back You’ll want to know what became of Farmer Crockett That chestnut stallion the young one with the scars got loose one night in November Through a broken boundary fence Crockett had never once bothered to mend because it didn't directly serve his profit A neighbor found the horse on the road at first light Knew whose it was And finally everyone saw what those marks meant Word travels fast in a place like ours The right authorities came And then they came again By spring the whispers weren’t whispers anymore The men who used to share a dram with him stopped drinking with him The community simply turned its back And the farm he only ever saw as a line on a ledger and never as a home he put it up for sale And he left Cruelty is its own kind of harvest in the end You reap what you sow Every farmer knows it He just thought he was the exception A lovely young couple have the land next to ours now They keep sheep They’ve already named a prize ewe after me But that's a long story for another day I’m telling you all of this because you might be exactly where I was Fifty something Slowing quietly Feeling your body renew just a little slower than it used to And maybe you’ve let the stress of the seasons get you looking at yourself the wrong way There is a massive difference between the doctor’s lane and your lane The doctors handle the charts But the way you actually feel walking through your own kitchen the scaffolding that holds your joints and skin together that part is your lane I’m not going to promise you a miracle Bodies are different I’m a farmer not a doctor But if you’ve been feeling less like yourself lately this is the pure stuff 365 day outdoor cattle Type 1 and 3 Triple filtered Made right The same deep care we put into our land put into you for once Give it sixty days Stir it into your tea of a morning before the day takes you The link to find Nutrition Geeks is right below this video There’s a full quality guarantee that comes with it I found myself again in a cow pen You might just find yourself again in your own kitchen before the sun's up I hope you do P.S. I want to be entirely transparent with you about patience I didn't feel a single thing change for the first three weeks My friend Trisha told me to expect that Your body needs time to rebuild its scaffolding I felt a little lighter by week five and truly back to myself by the second month Give it time Put the jar right next to your kettle so you don't forget P.P.S. Because Nutrition Geeks likes to keep things direct and honest they don't waste money on flashy over the top corporate retail markups They source the raw collagen directly from those outdoor Brazilian pastures and batch filter it in small clean runs Unlike corner cutters, they are the ones in the UK to triple filter the collagen for purity To prevent running out between batches they offer a multi pack bundle option on the page below which saves you a good bit of money P.P.P.S. If you look at that bundle option you'll see they also have a value stack that includes their plant based Biotin I didn't mention it before but biotin is what finally sorted out my hair and nails after they’d gone completely brittle over these last couple of harsh winters It’s a brilliant little addition if you decide to stock up and take care of the whole ecosystem P.P.P.P.S. Jamie came into the kitchen yesterday morning while I was stirring my tea The sun wasn't even over the thicket yet He didn't say a word about how I looked or about my knee or about the mirror He just looked at me smiled and handed me my outdoor coat The land is recovering beautifully this season I think we are too The link is below if you're ready to start your own ritual