Wow, it’s hard to know what way is up at the moment. The last two months have been crazy. We have been bouncing around from one calamity to another and last week was off the scales, storm Éowyn left us reeling as it did most people across the country, a once in a lifetime climate event (They seem to be happening an awful lot recently…). I hope wherever you are that you are safe and that you have the power back on and a bit of heat.

In the aftermath on Friday morning last week I went to have a look around at about 10am as I tried to survey the landscape. I found myself wandering around not really sure what to do (as a friend recently said) “it was like being in the zombie apocalypse”, nobody was really sure what just happened or what to do and everything seemed to have changed. The road into our farm was blocked, a massive tree had come down and there was a huge crater in another part, caused by an equally massive tree falling. There were trees down everywhere. Old trees that were majestic and beautiful around Galway there were thousands gone over night.
We had lost one of our tunnels, and several doors. Power was gone but through some sheer miracle we still had broadband. I know this may not be the top of the priority list, but for us it meant we wouldn’t have to close the farm and the business for the week which was a giant worry lifted.
But as we came to grips with the carnage, a funny thing happened. People happened. On Friday several of us pitched in together and spent several hours clearing trees and filling holes, neighbours you may only ever say hello to, you were now working side by side with. Strangely or maybe not strangely at all, it felt good.
Apart from Ophelia in 2017 followed by the beast from the East followed by one of the most intense droughts ever in the summer of 2018, the last 2 months have given the climate related disaster calendar a good run for its money. Storm Darragh was powerful and caused carnage including the closure of one our main trading routes with the UK and Europe, with the damage and closure of Holyhead. Then there was the ice and snow warning in early January, followed by the most powerful storm to hit our coasts ever, all in less than 2 month.
We now have more extreme weather events climate change is afoot and at a pace never seen before here are some very recent facts just released by the Irish CSO (central statistics office)
2023 was the wettest year ever recorded here in Ireland.
2023 was the warmest year ever recorded here in Ireland, ever.
Globally 9 of the 10 warmest years since 1850 occurred in the decade since 2014.
Many small organic producers had their whole operation wiped out in a few short hours last week, tunnels blown, down, sheds destroyed, so many. The extreme weather is now something we must adapt to, and it is only going to get worse.
With this backdrop, we have been busy with the farm planning and I am wondering what lies ahead for us in the season to come. I would like to think we are due a reasonable summer that is not a replica of the last two. For the sake of our farm, our food and many other farmers and food producers we are hoping for a break. Time will tell I guess.
As always thank you for your support.
Kenneth
PS It seems small businesses are contending with a lot of increased costs, and we are certainly feeling that pain in an industry that is highly labour intensive, and low margin. We have had a substantial increase in our wage bill over the last few weeks, and there are many extra financial pressures being put on businesses and farms. I am sure the bigger companies can take these cost increases on the chin, but for us, we just cannot. Unfortunately, we must put up our prices a little, it will only be on our boxes and fruit bags that will increase a little. We hope you can understand why we need to do this, we would rather not, but at the same time we find ourselves with very little choice.