50 today and I wonder what my grandad would say ?

Today I am 50, and because of the day that is in it and because we have many new people here that may not know our story, I thought I would share it again.

The story of our farm began three generations ago, with my Grandad who was the head Gardener at the local castle.  This farm came to life in 1923, with the land act that allowed Irish tenant farmers to buy their own land for the first time.

It must have been a remarkable feeling, for the first time my granddad owned his own plot of land.  Up until then he had worked as head Gardener for the Blake family that owned Cregg castle.

He worked in the walled garden and by all counts had green fingers. He did not have access to chemicals or plastic. He grew amazing fresh organic produce for the Blake’s and for his own family. This was a time before everything was available all year round. It was a time when the first fresh new season produce was anticipated with much relish.

There is still a whisper of that anticipation left in our society today, at least for a short period that attends on the arrival of the first new season potatoes. A beautiful tradition handed down by the needs of our ancestors.

I remember my grandad growing peas, and rhubarb and apples, carrots and potatoes, turnips and cabbage all from a relatively small kitchen garden here on this farm.

My dad too had green fingers and he grew much of the food we ate in the early years. Drying onions on the roof of our shed, I remember being up there on the galvanise turning the onions in the beating sun so they would cure, before bringing them into the shed for the winter.

My interest in continuing this family tradition of growing food was not to be realised for some time. A defining moment of thinning mangles with plastic bags wrapped around my knees tied with bailing twine sent me as far as you could possibly get from muck, clay and growing food.

But something inside must have been stirred and disillusionment with a career in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry lead me back to the land. 18 years ago we embarked on this journey of sustainable food production.  

I wonder sometimes what my grandad would say seeing the fancy machines we use today to keep crops weed free.

I wonder what he would say about how growing food in this country has been devalued to the point of extinction.

Or about the cheap imports, of questionable ethical and sustainable origins and exploitative labour practices which mean the Irish farmer cannot ever hope to compete.

I wonder what he would say about the reliance on plastic and chemicals. Chemicals that mean the bees are dying; our biodiversity is disappearing; and our water ways once clean, pristine, and brimming with fish are polluted with chemicals and stifled with growth of toxic algae due to soluble fertiliser run off.

He would surely be dazzled by the choice and convenience of produce available 365 days of the year.

But I wonder would he think it was all worth it, to get food at the cheapest possible price?  I would like to think he would say not.

So, in that first year, as myself, Jenny my wife and my dad Michael packed our first boxes on some pallets supported by empty Guinness barrels I wonder would he have thought we were mad?

Probably, most others did.  But I have a sneaking suspicion that he would have been proud and happy to see the farm being used to grow sustainable local food and respected in the same way as it was in his time.

Thank you, granddad, and thank you dad, without their hard work and belief none of this would have been possible.

Kenneth

One Pot – Leek and Mushroom Risotto (VG)

Slowly cooked risotto is deliciously creamy and comforting especially on a crisp cold day in January. After the costly pinch of Christmas its great to have a few dishes that are easy on the pocket yet packed of flavour.

This is a plant based version, made with plant based butter and cheese.

Sweet Irish leeks are one of my favourite vegetables and they are the perfect partner to vitamin D rich Irish mushrooms in this one pot meal.

Gradually adding hot stock to the rice will create a perfect bowl of risotto. It’s always worth the effort.

Let us know if you try it we love to hear from you.

Lou x

Ingredients: serves 4

  • 1 punnet, 250g chestnut mushrooms, finely diced
  • 1 medium leek, cleaned and finely diced
  • 1 medium onion, finely diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, grated or finely chopped
  • 250g arborio risotto rice
  • 1 litre of hot vegetable stock (substitute 100ml stock for dry white wine if you wish)
  • juice 1/2 a lemon
  • A big knob of butter (30g), use dairy or non dairy
  • 1 tbsp. Nutritional yeast
  • Salt, pepper and olive oil
  • grated firm cheese to finish, use dairy or non dairy
  • optional topping: a handful of chopped fresh parsley

Method:

Method:
Step 1: Heat 1 litre of stock in a pan and bring to a boil.

Step 2: Meanwhile, in another pan, sautè the diced onion for 5 minutes in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and then add in the diced leeks and cook to soften. Next add the grated garlic and mushrooms cook for a further 10-15 minutes until cooked through.

Step 3: Stir through the rice. (If you want to add white wine add it now) Pour in a ladle of stock, stir gently and once all the liquid has been absorbed, pour in another ladle and repeat until the rice is al dente, or cooked to your liking. Continue stirring the rice so the starch is released and it becomes creamy.

Step 4: Stir through the nutritional yeast, butter, grate in some firm cheese and finish with lemon juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.

Serve with fresh chopped parsley, black cracked pepper and a good extra virgin olive oil.


Top 5 Savoury Recipes of 2023

Its hard to choose just 5 savoury recipes from all that we cooked and shared in 2023. Cooking with organic vegetables always makes the most delicious meal and just knowing they they were treated with care adds to the overall enjoyment.

The star vegetables here are courgette, butternut squash, beetroot, celeriac and delicious Irish potatoes.

We hope you try them out in 2024.

Lou 🙂

Tap on the dish below and it will take you to the full recipe.

  1. Courgette orzo – one pot 

2. Roast Squash Soup

3. Spicy beetroot Crepe

4. Lentil Pie w/ celeriac mash

5. Smashed potatoes 

Delicious Rosemary and Garlic Baked Camembert

Cheese and fruit platters are gorgeous ways to graze over the festive season. They are great for sharing and require minimum effort. We like ours when we have friends over or when we watch a family movie.

We stock some gorgeous organic bio cheeses like this wheel of camembert and with a little effort it is delicious baked for your cheese board. Baked with garlic and herbs bring it to the next level, your guests will love it. Serve along side our delicious mulled wine.

Lou 🙂

Ingredients:

  • 1 (250-gram) wheel Camembert
  • 1 tablespoon (15 ml) olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, finely chopped
  • pinch salt and pepper
  • 1 large garlic clove, sliced very thin
  • To serve: crackers/grapes/bread

Method:

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 180ºC.

Step 2: Most Camembert comes in a little wooden crate. Open the cheese and place in parchment paper and put it back into the crate. If there is no crate, place it on a baking tray.

Step 3: With a thin sharp knife, make grid like cuts in the cheese, 3 or 4 in each direction, about 1 inch apart and going about 1 inch deep into the cheese but without cutting through the bottom rind. Use your knife tip to “open” each cut and your fingers to press a little sliver of garlic into each cut. Combine the olive oil with the rosemary, salt, and pepper in a small dish. Spread thickly on top of the cheese.

Step 4: Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until the cheese is loose inside the rind. Serve immediately with crackers, grapes and bread.

Delicious Christmas Mulled Wine

Warm mulled wine is a great way to kick start Christmas. We have gorgeous Organic/Vegan wines that are perfect to warm and add some Christmas spice. You can make this ahead of time and reheat it when your guests arrive.

Cinnamon, orange, star anise, bay and cloves make for the most delicious mulled wine, a perfect drink for Christmas Eve.

Wishing you and yours a very peaceful Christmas.

Sláinte,

Lou x

Ingredients:

  • 750ml bottle organic red wine
  • 1 large cinnamon stick, or 2 small ones
  • 1 star anise
  • cloves
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 1 ring of fresh cut orange
  • 2 strips lemon zest, pared using a vegetable peeler
  • 4 tbsp brown sugar- 60g

Method:

Step 1: Cut the orange and stud with the cloves.

Step 2: Add the sugar, bay, star anise, cinnamon stick, studded orange, lemon zest and wine to a wide pot. Warm gently for 10 minutes, do not boil or all the alcohol will evaporate. Taste it is it sweet enough, if not add a bit more sugar. Then turn off the heat to infuse for 30 minutes.

Step 3: Serve warm in heat prof glasses.

Enjoy 🙂

Small is beautiful and HAPPY CHRISTMAS…

Many years ago, I had the good fortune to come across the book “Small is beautiful: A study of economics as if people mattered” by E.F. Schumacher.

A key quote from the book: “Modern man does not experience himself as a part of nature but as an outside force destined to dominate and conquer it” epitomises the reason we are facing the challenges we currently face on planet earth.

There is no greater urgency, or greater need than reversing the damage we have inflicted on our beautiful planet. The time for deliberation has come and gone, now we need action.

Schumacher goes onto say that we are rapidly consuming the capital our lives are built on whilst all the time focusing on the income. The idea that our planet is finite is a law that most self-respecting scientists accept and yet the business of retail and production is based on ever expanding consumption seemingly assuming the law does not apply to them.

Protection of our capital in this case our home planet earth must be given as much weighing as the income we derive from it, otherwise we may find sooner than we would like that the goose who lays the golden eggs is gone.

This is heavy going for the final letter before Christmas, but I think it may be justified.

I know that it is difficult to make the choice to spend more on food, so thank you.

I know that you have chosen to do just that. You have made a conscious choice and invested effort to source your produce from us. We may not always get it right and there is always more to be done, but we have never wavered in our commitment to protect our planet no matter what else comes our way.

So, thank you for your continued support, for your good will, for you cheer and encouragement, for spending your hard-earned euros with us.

We have had the busiest Christmas in our history as a farm and business, and for that we are eternally grateful. There have and continue to be plenty of challenges but at least for now for another while we can keep going. We have planned our planting season for the year ahead we look forward as we always do to a new growing season, and we hope that we can get more things right that we get wrong.

Thank you so much, you may not really feel it, or realise it, but you truly are making a positive difference to our world.

We hope you have a lovely, happy, peaceful and healthy Christmas 

Kenneth and all the team at Green Earth Organics

PS:  Our Farm shop is open tomorrow Saturday the 23rd from 10am-5pm, H91 F9C5, and there is still time to get all your Christmas produce. 

We are closed all next week, there will be no deliveries and our office will be closed.  Our new box contents are already live on our website and you can place your orders at any time over the next week for delivery week commencing Tues the 2nd of January

Incredible Nut Roast – Parsnip, Mushroom & Blue Cheese

This is a wonderful nut roast bursting with flavour. This is a recipe I came across in the Guardian newspaper many years ago and I’ve made it many times since. It’s a great one to make ahead of the big day. After cooking it will keep in the fridge for 3 days. Cut slices when its cold fry on a frying pan to sear and then heat through in the oven.

Someone recently said a nut roast is like a posh stuffing and I guess it really is. This one is a celebration of some of the gorgeous organic vegetables available at this time of year, cabbage, mushrooms and earthy parsnips with kicks of sweet and sour cranberry and salty Cashel blue from Co. Tipperary.

We really hope you try it.

Lou 🙂

Ingredients:

  • 2 large parsnips, peeled and diced
  • Salt and black pepper
  • Oil, to grease
  • 1 savoy cabbage, 6-8 outer leaves only
  • 1 onion, finely diced
  • 150g chestnut mushrooms, finely diced
  • 150g toasted hazelnuts, chopped
  • 40g butter, reg or vegan
  • 40g dried cranberries
  • 100g breadcrumbs
  • 1 small bunch fresh sage, leaves picked and finely chopped
  • 100g Cashel Blue Organic Bio (or vegan-friendly cheese of your choice), optional
  • ½ tsp mixed spice
  • 1 egg, or 1 flax egg (to make 1 flax egg mix 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed with 3 tablespoons water, leave for 15 minutes then use like an egg)

Method:

Step 1: Boil or steam the parsnips and mash them when they are soft, set aside to cool.

Step 2: The cabbage leaves will line the loaf tin. Prepare the leaves by cutting off the stems and blanch them in boiling water, remove from the pot and run under cold water. Dry thoroughly. Oil a loaf tin, line with tin foil, oil the foil, then line the tin with the cabbage leaves, leaving no gaps.

Step 3: Meanwhile, sauté the onion in the butter until soft, then add the mushrooms, a pinch of salt and pepper and cook until they become dry. Stir in the chopped hazelnuts, cranberries, breadcrumbs, chopped sage and mixed spice. Stir in the cooled mashed parsnips, the beaten egg and break in the blue cheese if using. Season and then carefully fold the mixture together but keep the lumps of cheese intact. To check the seasoning fry off a small piece and taste, adjust if needed.

Step 4: Spoon the filling into the lined loaf tin, push down with a fork. Cover with the cabbage leaves, and finish with tin foil.

Step 5: Bake in the oven for 45 minutes. leave to set in the loaf tin for 20 minutes then slice. Or cool completely in the loaf tin, store in the fridge overnight and slice the next day. If serving the next day fry on a pan and warm through in a hot oven. Serve with Christmas veg and gravy.

Christmas Crumble w/ Apple & Cranberry

It’s so lovely to combine Christmas flavours at this time of year. Cranberries are delicious served with savoury food but equally delicious bakes in a sweet pudding. The tart crimson fruit works really well with our delicious sweet organic Irish apples.

This crumble can be made and stored for 3 days in the fridge ready to bake on the big day. It also makes a gorgeous dish to take to a festive dinner party.

Enjoy the festive flavours,

Lou x

Ingredients: serves 6

For the crumble

  • 100g plain flour
  • 40g rolled oats
  • 40g sugar
  • ½ tsp mixed spice
  • 100g butter, cut into cubes (vegan butter will work too)

Method:

Step 1: Preheat the oven 190ºC and use a square or round deep dish 22cm approx.

Step 2: Pour the peeled and chopped apples into the dish along with the fresh cranberries, mixed spice, cinnamon and sugar, mix with a wooden spoon.

Step 3: In a separate mixing bowl measure in the plain flour, oats, sugar and mixed spice, stir to combine. Add the cubed butter and work into the dry ingredients with your fingers. When it looks coarse and crumbly its ready.

Step 4: Sprinkle the crumble topping over the apple mix. Bake in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

Serve with ice cream, custard or fresh cream

You really need to read this one…

GMOs in our food, no thanks. 

“Just because we can do something, doesn’t mean we should”.

We all have a right to know how our food is grown, what is in and on it, and more fundamentally whether the genetics of the plants and food we are eating have been messed with in a lab.

The idea of modifying food for the betterment of society is a good one and in principle it seems straight forward.  But the promised results from genetically modified crops have not been realised, such as crops resistant to drought or pests.

The long-term impact of eating genetically modified plants is not well understood, nor is the impact on the environment. But setting that aside, it is the greed and the desire to patent and control our food system that tells us all we need to know to make the right decision when it comes to GMOs. In my view the right decision is to keep genetically modified crops out of our food system.

It is clear that the driving force for genetically modifying our food is driven by the desire of a handful of giant agri-corporations to control our food chain.  Manipulation of the genetic makeup of crops allows these corporation to patent “their” crops and hence own a piece of our food system whilst making billions of dollars in the process. (as has already happened around the world with “Roundup Ready Soya”)

To think that we can replicate the careful complex modification of plants, through thousands of years of evolution by nature, in a lab, in the space of months, by splicing pieces of foreign DNA or modifying the plants own DNA is ambitious and/or insanely arrogant.

Apart from conferring increased resistance to a toxic weedkiller, the promised benefits have not yet been demonstrated and there are large safety concerns about releasing untested genetically modified crops into nature.

The release of these plants into nature then becomes an uncontrolled experiment and one that may be difficult to roll back if the outcome is not as we would like.

Up to this point genetic engineering has in the main, been used to confer herbicide resistance to a few key commodity crops, hence allowing larger amounts of Roundup to be applied, adding to the toxic load in our food and on our planet.

There is no argument that can justify owning the rights to our food system, end of story.

There are currently strict EU rules on the authorisation and labelling of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). They allow farmers, food producers and consumers to choose and to opt for GMO-free food.

However, the European Commission wants to scrap this legislation and allow a new generation of GMOs, to enter our food system, without any labelling or safety checks. Essentially, they will be treating these “New genomic technique” modified crops the same as conventional crops.

I for one like to know what is in and on my food, I like to know its origin and I want to know that the food I am eating has not been genetically modified, if you are of a similar opinion then please sign this petition to help the EU politicians to take the right decision in this case and continue the ban of GMOs in our foodchain.

Thank you for supporting a sustainable food system.

Kenneth

PS It’s been a busy week, and we are ramping up for a manic packing and delivery week, next week. Thank you to all who have placed an order, and if you still have not there is plenty of time.

Please get your orders in over the weekend, but you will have up to your normal delivery deadline to get you orders in, if you are unsure of when that is you can click here to find out.

ALL DELIVERY DAYS AND DEADLINES REMAIN THE SAME FOR THE WEEK AHEAD! THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT, IT KEEPS US IN OUR JOBS AND KEEPS OUR FARM AND OTHER IRISH ORGANIC FARM’S FUTURE SAFE.

PLACE YOUR CHRISTMAS ORDER NOW FOR DELIVERY NEXT WEEK

MAKE YOUR CHRISTMAS MEAL A SEASONAL LOCAL ORGANIC ONE! 

Christmas recipe roundup

It’s almost Christmas, so let’s get all the lovely christmassy recipes into one place! Here’s some inspiration for a meat free christmas dinner and so much more.