It’s about time don’t you think?

Back in 2011, we were paying our farm the same price we are paying our farm today for parsnips, and yet our cost of production has over doubled. 

The nature restoration law as it is called, is set to be one of Europe’s biggest pieces of environmental legislation, requiring countries to introduce measures restoring nature on a fifth of their land and sea by 2030. This is an amazing and ambitious commitment and here’s the thing, these environmental measures are critical to our health, our ability to produce food and the health of our planet. Ref a

However there has been fierce resistance to this new law and earlier this month, the European Commission withdrew a proposed law to reduce pesticide use and delayed the obligation for farmers to set aside more land for nature.

There is ample evidence that the pesticide industry lobby has acted as irresponsibly as fossil fuel corporations with regards to our common future on this planet. Stopping harm to biodiversity and ecosystems and addressing the climate crisis are one and the same thing. The lack of action is causing despair among scientists. “We know that ecosystems are collapsing, with major risks to us as well,” said Guy Pe’er, an ecologist at the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research. 

In the EU, pesticides are a lucrative business worth more than 12 billion euro annually. The market is concentrated in the hands of four major producers – Bayer, BASF, Syngenta and Corteva – that invest not only in pesticides but also in PR, spin and lobbying to make sure their profits remain high, and the ambitions of the Green Deal stay low. Ref 1

But why does it seem so hard to move away from intensive farming practices in the first place?

One: because our food system has become conditioned and reliant on chemicals as  result of pressure from big agribusinesses and two because it means more variety, more rotations, more complexity for farmers. And that means as farmers we need more skills, more time and more resource to manage it all. We grow over 20 different crops and it takes time.  

Some anti green deal protestors say green policies are not the problem, and instead it is cheap food imports that are the problem.

Farmers can’t bear all the responsibility for the increased cost of production.  The retail chain (aka the supermarkets) must share the responsibility, and this means paying a fair price for the food we eat.  Supermarkets must pay a fair price for the food they buy.

While all other items have increased in price, the price paid by supermarkets to veg growers here in Ireland between 2010 and 2021 has decreased by 8.5%. (see page 13) The sums don’t add up. 

So in my view the answer to get initiatives like the green deal over the line require fair prices to be paid to farmers for the food they produce and for the agri-companies with massive profits at stake linked to destructive chemicals to be silenced. Then we have a fighting chance.

We have a fighting chance to radically transform our food production system to something that really works with nature and provides us with amazing food to boot.

As always thanks for your support

Kenneth

PS, Happy St. Patrick’s day and thank you, we value each and every one of you our readers and customers, without whose encouragement and support we would have quit long ago. 

Zero tolerance will always be the way….

I grew up working on a farm, the man I worked for used to refer to soil as “good clean dirt”, he was of the opinion that no harm ever came from handling soil, and he was right.

At that time chemicals were just starting to creep into agriculture here in the west of Ireland and that was back in the early 80s. Food grown locally at that time was generally free from chemicals, with the exception probably and ironically of potatoes, which would have been sprayed for blight. Back then wild button mushrooms still grew in the fields, cowslips were plentiful and generally our fields were full of diversity. This is not the case today, and the funny thing is you never see why. The application of chemicals to our land and to our food occurs all the time but we are generally blissfully unaware that it is happening. They say once awareness dawns you can never go back, maybe that is true for food also, that is of course if we choose not to ignore the facts.

There are certainly more controls and checks and balances in Europe than in other parts of the world, but that doesn’t make chemical agriculture right. But with much of our food in this country being imported and as we don’t have the same visibility on what controls are implemented in foreign parts, (over 85% of all fruit and vegetables are imported) then choosing organic becomes even more important. Organic systems are not perfect, but they do offer an alternative, one that keeps chemicals off our food, and in doing so also helps protect biodiversity. It does sometimes feel ironic that it is the organic producer that must prove their credentials, go through the extra paperwork, and submit samples to prove that we are not doing anything underhand.

So it is that I dig out this event of last November, when a piece of our kale was tested for 1 of 870 chemicals, it came back with a clean bill of health. The fact that there were 870 chemicals on that test list, means I imagine that there are 870 active chemicals that can be applied and are applied in varying amounts to our food. I was shocked, why else would they test for all of these?

It seems ironic that we may go to such lengths to get soil off our hands, we can see the dirt, and we can wash it clean, we can be obsessed with keeping our bodies clean, but how about what we put into our bodies. It is the unseen agents that often do the most damage, and generally a wash is not sufficient to get chemicals off our food, especially those that are systemic (Get absorbed into the tissue of the plant) in nature. These chemicals can’t be removed by washing, they are in and on conventional food and they will inevitably end up in our bodies.

You would have to wonder why sickness is so prevalent in our society today and while there is no definite one root cause and it is certainly a complex issue, there is little doubt that our diet can have a large detrimental effect on our health. Conversely if approached correctly what we eat can only contribute to a more positive well-being.

When we consume healthy fresh organic food, we are doing our body a great service, and similarly we are demonstrating a level of respect for the planet, that is aiding in protecting the amazing biodiversity we share this world with.

Here is to zero chemicals on our food.

Kenneth

PS, Power to all women in the world, without whose compassion and understanding, dedication and hard work we would be lost, happy international women’s day and happy mothers day in advance. I feel that a matriarchal led society would certainly be kinder to our planet too.

When all is said and done…

When all is said and done, we started out on this journey with one idea in mind: ‘to do everything in our power to help the natural word, to protect biodiversity and to manage to produce healthy food along the way.’

There was no other reason, it wasn’t to make money, it wasn’t even to create a business, it was just to grow food and protect the planet. It was driven by a powerful idea, and I am thankful for that; as without that belief we would not be here today. One thing these last 18 years of growing food naturally have taught me, is that you can take nothing for granted. This time last year we had our land ploughed and tilled and we were confident that we were ahead of the game, as it turns out it was the worst growing year of our 18 years. This year we are at least a month behind schedule because of the constant barrage of rain, and there is no sign of that changing anytime soon.

But from the beginning every year we put time, energy, money and land aside to invest in the natural world and one step we discovered in our very early days was leaving our kale to go to flower. This is a simple and powerful step that helps the natural world thrive.

Flowering kale is a miracle of nature, in fact the kale plant is a miracle of organic farming for West of Ireland organic farmers and for the little creatures we share our land with especially the bees. Right now, as I write, our green kale plants are forming a little flower head at the top of the plants, and in about 3 weeks they will burst into flower, or at the first sign of a little warmth.

We can continue to harvest right up to this point, but as the plants go to flower the harvest ends, it is a natural cycle every year without fail. As we have limited land, it would be tempting to cut down the kale plants straight away and start using the ground for another crop, but we never do that. The kale will produce a myriad of bright yellow flowers and the bees love it. So, we let it flower. It is in fact a critical food source for the bees and other insects at this time of year when there is very little else.

It may be a small step, but it costs us very little, maybe just the awareness to know that doing so really does make a difference. Not only does it attract bees, but birds follow the insects, and on a bright sunny day it is like a little natural kale rainforest right here in the west of Ireland, teaming with life. We will show you when it happens. So now we wait, we wait for the land to dry out, we wait for the kale to flower and we wait for the wheel of nature to turn.

As always thank you for your ongoing support.

Thank you,

Kenneth

The Big Lie

The big lie, do you think that genetically engineered crops and glyphosate are necessary and safe?


The big lie is the idea that if you lie big and continue to repeat the lie enough it will eventually become so common that it is accepted by society.  
As we choose our wild open pollinated flower seed for part of our rotation for the year ahead and wait for our bees to wake up from their winter slumber, it would seem we are a million miles away from the big agribusinesses that dominate our food supply chain. 
These businesses are not in the business of altruism, they are in the chemical and life patenting business, a business which it seems gives them the right to own seeds (to own life itself) and make vast sums of money from the sale of these genetically modified seeds and the chemicals necessary to bring them to harvest. 
One example of a big lie was the use of neonicotinoids in agriculture, we were told they were safe for the bees, they were not, and now after much research they are banned.
Another example is the idea that GM crops and the chemicals used on them are safe, are necessary, and bring benefits to nature, the farmer, and the consumer.  Is this true? Here are a few facts that may help you decide for yourself.

  1. In 2015, 180millon Ha of GM crops were grown.
  2. Of this area, 4 key crops accounted for 178million Ha.
  3. Of these 4 key crops, soya 52%, Maize/corn 30%, cotton 13%, canola/oil seed rape 5% accounted for nearly 100% of all GM crops grown. (read the report here)
  4. All 4 crops have been engineered to allow them to be resistant to glyphosate allowing more of this chemical to be sprayed on the crops, meaning they will all contain higher levels of glyphosate.
  5. GM crops are banned in Europe, but GM products find their way into our food and remember because they are GM they will have been sprayed with significantly higher levels of glyphosate (A potential carcinogen).  Some soybeans have been showed to have as much as 100mg/kg, the maximum residue limit is 40mg/kg in the US, in 1999 a supplier of both glyphosate and roundup considered 5.6mg/kg to be “extremely high”.  (Read the report here)
  6. Many of these crops are grown to feed animals, and many of the by-products of these crops such as high Fructose corn syrup have made it into the ultra-processed foods on supermarket shelves. All are drenched in glyphosate.
  7. This combination of chemicals and plants both owned by agribusiness, makes these companies very rich and gives them a lot of power. Revenue from one leading agribusiness was $26 billion in 2022.
  8. Roundup ready crops do not improve the yield. 

The development of this technology is not about feeding the world, it is about control of our food system, and making vast sums of money, it is about feeding a factory farmed food industry that is making us sick. So, are we to think then that altruism, safe food and doing right for the farmer, for the planet and the consumer are the driving forces behind these mega businesses? I will leave you to decide. With your support we support the very opposite of points 1-8 above.  Thank you,

Kenneth

7 tonnes in 7 years, what am I talking about??….

“Adopt the pace of nature her secret is patience” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

They may be slow but composting 7 tonnes in 7 years is quite frankly amazing, but what am I talking about?

I always knew these creatures were pretty spectacular, but I had no idea they lived for so long or could do so much. They are the hardworking unsung heroes of farming. I would go so far as to say that they are as important to our food production as the bees, we ignore their welfare at our peril. Charles Darwin thought they were important enough to spend 40 years studying them!You don’t hear so much about them, you don’t see them and I suppose they aren’t quite as photogenic as the honey bee, but they are extremely important and I love them.

What am I talking about? ………. if you haven’t guessed already, it is the humble earthworm. These amazing little creatures take organic matter in the soil and convert it into food and nutrients for plants, by way of the worm castings they leave behind. They help aerate the soil, which allows for better water filtration and oxygenation of the soil for other microbes to thrive. This aeration prevents water logging and increases fertility. In a nutshell we would be in a pretty bad place without our underground friends.

The soil beneath our feet is thriving with a beautiful complex interconnected myriad of life. It is a shame, that many of the methods used to grow food in today’s large industrial agricultural systems end up destroying the very biological organisms we rely on to sustain our environment.

It is hard not to bring the debate back to glyphosate. It is everywhere and in everything e.g. in non-organic food, wine, beer, in tap water, in urine and it has even been recorded in breastmilk.

So much of the stuff is used and with such frequency that it is compromising our health and the health of our food chain and ultimately our planet.

Glyphosate is toxic not only to the plants it kills, and the humans which consume the plants but also to earthworms. Studies have shown that glyphosate is damaging to earthworms, reducing their reproductive rates and reducing the rate at which they turn soil over and they avoid soil contaminated with glyphosate. We can learn a lot from these little creatures. They quietly go about their work, improving our soil, helping us grow food and they know instinctively that glyphosate is something to be avoided. Maybe we should take a leaf out the earthworm’s book and avoid glyphosate too. The good news though is that organic farming does not use glyphosate (or any chemicals) so you are not only helping the environment, but your own health too! Earthworms live for about 7 years, and in their lifetime will compost about 7 tonnes of organic matter! That is AMAZING! That is the magic of nature.

Thank you for your support, we really appreciate it.

Kenneth

Two polytunnels destroyed in storm Isha….

January has been the warmest January on record, and the season has kicked off with spectacular ferocity. We have already lost 2 polytunnels and 14 polytunnel doors to storms, our fields are under water and there is no sign of that changing any time soon. The remaining parsnip crop is waterlogged and machine digging or any digging for that matter is impossible.

This has followed on from a 2023 which in my recent meanderings into this world of farming over the last 20 years, has been without any doubt our worst growing season. The early drought that caused poor and erratic germination of seed crops such as parsnips and carrots, was followed by excessively wet weather for the rest of the season which meant it was nearly impossible to get crops to grow and to control weeds.

I believe it was no easier for conventional growers, as their herbicides, were immediately washed off the plants they were meant to kill. Ironic that we were on a more even footing as a result of the weather for a change.

We too are blessed (and cursed, it is tremendously hard work) as we do a lot of our harvesting by hand which meant during the wet months we could continue to harvest.

But as the season wore on and we wore out, it was with much desperation that we looked to the events unfolding around the rest of the world, with wildfires and droughts making it the worst year on record for olive oil production amongst many other climate related emergencies.Last year was the warmest year on record in Ireland (and globally having breached the important 1.5C threshold each month continuously since Feb 2023) and one of the wettest. Summer saw the warmest June on record on land and at sea; the wettest July on record with 17 stations here in Ireland having over 200 per cent of their average monthly rainfall.

An “unheard of” marine heatwave – a period of persistent anomalously warm ocean temperatures – was recorded off the coast of Ireland and the UK, raising sea temperatures by a scarcely believable 4-5°C.“Johnny Ward” for the ‘Currency’ interviewed me amongst many others for an article on climate change and its impact on Irish agriculture.

His article is comprehensive and well researched and made me stop and think about what kind of future we want for ourselves and our children.

So, as we embark on another growing season, we are wondering want to expect. We know for sure we need to be smarter in our growing choices, we know we need to tackle our sowing and harvest in different ways, we know we need to drop some crops in favour of others that are more tolerant to the changing weather conditions and are more suitable to our farm. We know to expect the unexpected. We know that seasons mean very little anymore as they all blur into one long mix of wet mild windy conditions with the occasion severe drought thrown into the mix for good measure.

But as we pass the 1.5C threshold of warming (Read this recent report from the BBC) set as the critical limit by the Paris agreement in 2015 we face an uncertain future. We certainly know we must adapt and change what we grow and how we grow it and we need to do this for ourselves and also for the biodiversity we share this planet with.

With your support we will.Thank you,

Kenneth

PS: We start harvesting our own kale again next week after a break for January, and still have an amazing array of Irish organic produce, such as McArdles chestnut mushrooms, Beechlawn organic farm leeks, red cabbage and savoy cabbage, Battlemountain organic farm potatoes, Philip Dreaper’s organic beetroot and carrots, our own kale, parnsips, swede and soon purple sprouting broccoli, lovely parsley from Millhouse farm, and of course the amazing organic milk, cheese and yogurt from Mossfield organic farm and organic eggs from Butlers organic farm. You can find all our fresh Irish organic produce here.

Through pain, we learn to grow….

Nature is precious, and we are all called on to protect it. We share this planet with a vast diversity of living beings, and it is our obligation to thread softly and nurture the land.

Of course, as gardeners and farmers we need to produce food, but at what cost? Surely it is possible to create healthy food that fills our bodies with energy and vitality without hurting biodiversity and our planet?

“We have forgotten how to be good guests, how to walk lightly on the earth as other creatures do” Barbara Ward.

Our current food system is broken, a new study predicted (Click here to read this very insightful research, and a big thank you to the customer who sent this my way) a business-as-usual approach would leave 640 million people underweight by 2050, while obesity would increase by 70%, if this is not truly the definition of madness, I don’t know what is.Not only that but our current food system is responsible for a third of all global carbon emissions, more than all the transport emissions in the world. The retailers and the big global food corporations’ profit from our and our planet’s pain. It is in their interests that the status quo is maintained.

This same report has demonstrated that the hidden costs of what we grow, what we eat and how it is grown is over €10 trillion (these are the quantifiable hidden costs of destroying nature and our health), a saving that could be made if we transition to a more sustainable model of production. Our current agricultural system is underpinned by a payment support system that here in Europe consumes one third of the bloc’s entire budget. Everybody knows it has got to change, but there is a real danger here, as we can see with the farming protests right across Europe, that any change which is not managed with care will cause great hardship to both farmers and consumers.But Change must come, if it is not change we initiate, it will unfortunately be change that is forced on us by climate breakdown

.There is no doubt that change is painful, but it is also through pain that we learn to grow, and in this case, I believe we have an opportunity to evolve a new food system that can nourish our health and our planet and truly be a force for positive change.

This fledgling food system is already alive and growing, it is developing on the edges of our conventional retail and production systems and is just waiting for it’s time, I have to believe it’s time is now. We have the power to change it, we really do.

As Margaret Meade said :“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

”What we eat and how it is produced can be an amazing force for good, enhancing our health, providing decent jobs, rather than being an exploitative race to the bottom. It has never been clearer to me (and I have been talking about this for 20 years) that now is the time we need to change what we eat and how it is produced.

Your support means we are changing the food system together! Stick with us on this journey for there can be no greater achievement that leaving our planet in a better state than that which we found it in.

Your support means we can breathe a little, it means we can plant trees, it means we can rest the ground and allow it to recover between crops, it means we can support biodiversity on our farm. It means we can give the attention to producing healthy happy food for you.It means we have got each other.

Thank you for allowing us to be there for you.

Kenneth

PS: Did you know that systemic chemicals, are chemicals that are sprayed on our food (not our food, but conventional food) that are absorbed into the plant and reside in the tissue of the plant that we eat. We will never ever spray our food, and all the food that we source is chemical free and certified organic, so you can rest assured you are getting the very best safe sustainable produce dropped directly to your door!

Yellow fields, St. Brigid, Hope and Cocktails?!?

As the official start of spring approaches, I wonder what St. Brigid would think of agriculture in our country today. Brigid’s cross as tradition would have it, was supposed to protect you from illness and bad things happening, it is certainly something we could use in our food system right now.

Our organic farm is situated in rural Ireland, and it is beautiful in its own way, as Spring evolves its vibrancy is defined by a myriad of greens, and flowers and it is overflowing with life.

Once upon a time, flowers and mushrooms were commonplace in fields of grass around our lovely country, not so anymore. I don’t know about you, but the sight of a cowslip flower transports me back to a time when the fields next to our family home were full of these beautiful flowers.

Sadly, today, these flowers are not to be found in most farm grasslands, they have all but disappeared (as have the button mushrooms that also used to be commonly found in meadows).

The reason sadly: the common use of artificial fertiliser and herbicides. Many of these fields are sprayed to remove anything that is not grass, depriving the land of variety, variety being the cornerstone of all life. Such is the way of much of our production systems these days, large monocultures, engineered to produce at all costs.

The one common theme that can be found in all of these food systems generally starts with an application of the chemical glyphosate.

Glyphosate was approved for another 10 years of use in November of 2023, Ireland was one of the countries that voted in favour of keeping it.

Have you ever been driving and noticed fields that have an iridescent yellow hue? These fields have been sprayed with glyphosate, this sickly bright yellow/orange tinge of chemical intoxication has destroyed all life, all the plants are dead, all the bees are gone, all the insects are gone, and all the birds are gone.

For me this is the polar opposite of how our land  should be.

This is the reality for how most conventional crops begin and this is just the start of the story, most crops will receive several applications of different chemicals as they are grown. This of course makes life easier for weed control, for disease control and for pest control, at least in the short term. For example, as many as 20 different chemicals can be applied to wheat.

When we look the impact of all of these chemicals that are used on our food system as single parts, we may not be seeing the whole story, there is also an argument that is gaining more traction now and makes a lot of sense called the “cocktail effect”.

This is the combined effect of multiple chemicals that is greater (or in this case worse) than each chemical taken in isolation. So, for instance the impact of glyphosate and other chemicals applied to fields can have a combined increased negative impact on biodiversity and on our health.  To read an interesting and detailed report on what exact chemical residues are to be found in our food and the impact of the cocktail effect click here.  (It makes for interesting and sobering reading)

But there is a another way. Organic production tips the scales in favour of thriving biodiversity and of food that enhances our health and well-being chemical free sustainable food. 

So, as we look forward to the year ahead, and finalise our planning and rotations, and wildflower and clover plantings, as we fix our tunnels that have the damage by storm Isha over last weekend, and as wait patiently for the land to dry out, we are thankful for your support which allows us to grow healthy sustainable food and for the opportunity to return something to nature.

Thank you,

Kenneth.

No more olive oil…?

A couple of days ago, I had a very interesting conversation with Nicolas who supplies us with amazing, single estate organic Greek olive oil. He came to tell me due to the impact of climate change his farmers do not have any oil for him for the rest of this year, and olive oil could become extremely scarce as the year progresses. This was to be his last delivery to us. 

 
He also advised that we try and source some oil now from a reputable supplier as the price has inflated so much that there will be sleights of hand in the olive oil industry, and what we think we are getting may not be what we are actually getting.

Our food system has become so convoluted, and as climate change puts more pressure on our production systems, more and more corners will be cut as retailers and farmer get equally desperate to survive. 

Pressure to change our food system is coming and must come, but just this week gone by, we have seen protests in Germany from farmers who are not happy with the pushing of an environmental agenda. I feel their pain, for years governments and the food industry has been encouraging a certain way of doing business, and now that must change. 

This change is inevitable, but it will require a very steady hand on the tiller, and a fundamental change in mindset when it comes to primary food production. An agenda no politician will touch.  Who wants to be the advocate for paying a little more for our food, when our whole system is based on the lowest possible price and not value, because low price does not always mean value.  

There, is no question that the supermarket model devalues fresh food. 

We have just finished the planning for the year ahead and looking at the performance of the farm in 2023 has been a depressing affair. 

I feel we may not have paid ourselves a fair price for the food we sell.  If we do pay our farm more, we will not make enough to run our retail business, as we must keep our prices as low as we can to try and compete with supermarkets, it is a tough space to be in.

But there is no question now in my mind as we head into 2024 with fresh purpose that our farm needs to be fairly compensated for the food it grows. There is a cost to produce high value food.

But there is also a very real, unseen cost attached to the selling of 1 Litre of olive for less than €4. This is the unseen, disconnected cost, the price of a level of agricultural industrialisation reliant on chemicals and ultra processing that removes any remnants of the original olives from the olive oil, all the goodness that was once there is gone.  This is the price we pay for our modern-day food system.

As climate breakdown amplifies, we may find ourselves increasingly seeing empty supermarket shelves where we expect the food to be.

Of course, there is a different path we can thread here, one that is brighter, better, filled with wholesome, chemical free nutrition, one that protects, enhances, helps and does right by our people, health, and planet. That is the course we are holding steady to.

Thank you for being with us on this one.

Kenneth

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