Will you come down the rabbit hole with me?

by Kenneth Keavey

Don’t take this the wrong way but I love chemicals.

So much so that I dedicated nearly 15 years of my life to studying and working with them, I worked for years on trying to figure how to make a new antibiotic, imagine life without antibiotics?

Without chemicals our life would be so much different and not for the better. But here is one other thing I learned whilst trying to develop a selective drug, a drug that would not have any side effects, and it was this: A 100% selective drug was impossible. Impossible as all chemicals taken into the body interact with different receptors in different ways and have side effects. This silver bullet is the holy grail of pharmaceutical research and is still some way off.

Have you heard of polyphenols? If you are interested in your health, you will certainly have heard this term. They are powerful antioxidants found in plants and may have a very positive effect on our health. More on these later.

So, in the super controlled environment of pharmaceutical development a drug that does not have side effects is impossible to produce. So, who in their right mind decided that we should take toxic chemicals and start spraying them indiscriminately on our food?

In the conventional food world now, we have farmers spraying nonselective chemicals on our food to kill insects and other plants. These chemicals kill both the target (ie the aphid) but also other insects flying around, devasting biodiversity.

Then there is the issue of these chemical being that toxic that they harm life, what do they do to us when we consume them on our food? Nothing good for sure, and there is plenty of literature out there on the damage they do.

So, let’s keep going down the rabbit hole now. Take this a step further, as some of these chemicals are “systemic” that means they are absorbed into the plant, brought inside and there they reside until harvest and eventual consumption on our dinner plates. Washing will do little to remove these as they are inside the produce.

So, we have these non-selective, systemic toxic chemicals being sprayed on our food and they are hurting us and destroying biodiversity. But there is an often-overlooked further issue here, and that brings us back to polyphenols.

These amazing compounds are produced by plants to defend themselves against disease and pests, these powerful antioxidants protect the plants, and guess what?  They protect us too, when we consume them. But here’s the issue, when plants are sprayed to remove pests then the plants have little need to produce polyphenols so not only are we getting chemically contaminated food, but the actual composition of the food is also being changed by the application of these chemicals, isn’t that just crazy?

It is so easy to ignore all of the above, as when we see produce on the supermarket shelf it looks amazing (and it is without doubt better to eat fresh produce than not), but if there is an option at all, and I understand for some this is not possible (But you can always try our rescue box, which is always sold at a greatly reduced price) then choosing organic is just always, always going to be better for you, if you can choose local organic then there are all the other benefits also of supporting a local food economy.

So please for your own sake and the sake of our fragile planet, if you can at all choose organic.

As always thank you for your support. 

Kenneth

Roasted Tomato & Pasta Soup

by Nessa Robins

Tomatoes are naturally high in lycopene, which is a powerful antioxidant. Cooking tomatoes not only increases the level of lycopene in the tomato but also makes it easier for the body to absorb. This is also a great dish to make if you’ve young chefs in the kitchen who’d like to help-out as it is so easy to prepare. It’s packed full of nutrients and serves well by the bowlful with chunks of bread on the side, or it transports well in a thermos flask for a lunch on-the-go. Enjoy!

Nessa x

Roast Tomato & Pasta Soup

Ingredients


Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/Gas 5.

2. Place the chopped tomatoes, garlic cloves and onion in an ovenproof dish. Drizzle over the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle over the smoked paprika and sugar, and season with a pinch of salt and some freshly ground pepper.

3. Using a wooden spoon, combine all the ingredients together. 

4. Roast in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. 

5. While everything is roasting, make the pasta according to the pack’s instructions.

6. In a large saucepan heat the stock, stir in the cooked roasted tomato mixture and simmer over a low heat for 15 minutes.

7. Add the basil, saving a few leaves for serving. Using a liquidiser or hand blender, blend the soup until smooth.

8. Divide the pasta between four bowls, pour over the soup and top with a few basil leaves. 

Roasted & Loaded Sweet Potato and Broccoli – Vegan

by Nessa Robins

This roasted sweet potato and broccoli bake is so tasty and only takes minutes to prepare. The sweet potatoes are coating in cornflour and seasoning which makes them deliciously crispy, while our broccoli needs little encouragement to shine as it is already so flavoursome and packed full of freshness. The toppings are another opportunity to add more goodness to the dish along with an added layer of tastiness. 

Enjoy!

Nessa x

Roasted & Loaded Sweet Potato and Broccoli

Ingredients

  • 2-3 tbsp olive oil
  • 500g sweet potatoes, well-scrubbed
  • 1tbsp cornflour
  • 1tsp smoked paprika
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 200g broccoli florets, cut in half

For the sauce

To serve

  • 1 lime
  • 1 ripe avocado, cut into chunks
  • 1 scallion, sliced
  • 1 red chilli, finely sliced
  • Fresh coriander leaves
  • Hot sauce

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C/gas 7. Cut the sweet potatoes into slices and place in a large bowl. Drizzle over two tablespoons of olive oil plus the cornflour, smoked paprika and season with a little salt and pepper. Stir well to combine and transfer to a large baking tray, placing the slices evenly on the tray. Drizzle over any remaining oil in the bowl. Place in the preheated oven for 10 minutes.
  2. Take the tray from the oven. Add the florets of broccoli. Drizzle with a little olive oil and place back in the oven 15-20 minutes, stirring once during this cooking time. 
  3. While the vegetables are baking, make the sauce by stirring together the yogurt, lime, nutritional yeast, garlic and a little salt and pepper, in a small bowl. 
  4. Once the sweet potato and broccoli are cooked, transfer to a platter. Squeeze over the juice of half a lime and serve the other half on the side. Top with dollops of the sauce, chunks of avocado, a scattering of scallion, red chilli and coriander, plus a drizzle of hot sauce. Enjoy straight away. 

National Organic Award, and rain…

by Kenneth Keavey

This week we got the news that our business and farm has been shortlisted for a national
organic award, and we are grateful and humbled by the acknowledgment.


I’m afraid Jenny my wife will stop talking to me if I don’t stop going on about the weather.
But I just can’t help it, maybe I have a condition, but it has been so bad. And to be fair to
me, I need to talk about the weather, I really do. I feel traumatised by the relentless
darkness and rain, I am sure I must not be alone, and somehow getting the knowing nods
that you are right and, in a group, (and for farmers there is nothing more conversation
worthy than the weather) that feel the same way is comforting, it changes nothing though.
True enough, I suppose there is little we can do about it, as the weather will be the weather,
the same cannot be said for what we mankind are doing to our climate…


The last time we had a summer this bad was last year! Two in a row. And before that I
remember 2012 being a summer where we saw virtually no sun, temperatures were low,
and it rained nearly every single day. We should be lucky I guess there are many that have
no water and here we are in the West of Ireland with enough for half of Europe. But luck
will not help our already late harvest of tomatoes ripen.


It has been 13 months now, in my slightly twisted view, it started raining last June and
hasn’t really stopped, has it? We have struggled recently and certain crops that love the sun
are not loving Galway weather at moment.


There is muck stuck to everything, the land is wet, saturated, we could give the “Tough
Mudder” race a good run for its money. Now, it is not all bad news, the leeks, celeriac,
parsnips, swede and brassicas are doing quite well, and we are certainly grateful for that. In
fact, Emmanuel is harvesting the very first of our parsnip crop this week, which is quite
frankly amazing! But the increasing unpredictability of our weather is another challenge in
an already challenging industry.


So it is with this backdrop that it is lovely to be acknowledged that we are doing some things right. To have external validation, that it is worth persevering, despite being a very small cog in a massive and unforgiving food machine.


To that end Simone and Lilly will both be in Dublin this weekend at Merrion square
for the national organic food festival, and I will be there for a few hours from about 12 on
Saturday if you would like to come along.


Not only that but we are having our first and only farm walk next Saturday the 7 th of
September starting at 11am, and all are welcome, you can book a free ticket here.
Hopefully see you over the next couple of weeks!
Thanks as always for your support.
Kenneth

Courgette Pesto ‘Pasta’ – Vegan

by Nessa Robins

Courgettes are rich in fibre and a good source of vitamin C. They’re currently in season, so it’s the perfect time to make the most of this versatile vegetable. This courgette pesto ‘pasta’ dish takes only minutes to prepare and it’s bursting with nutrients and delicious fresh flavours. I’m using a potato peeler to prepare the courgettes but if you have a spiralizer to hand this could be used instead. 

Enjoy!

Nessa x 

Courgette Pesto ‘Pasta’

Ingredients 

Serves 2

  • 2 small courgettes 
  • 1tbsp olive oil
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper 
  • For the pesto
  • 75g spinach leaves
  • 25g pine nuts
  • Handful basil leaves
  • 2tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 2tbsp olive oil
  • Juice 1/2 lemon

Method

  1. Cut the courgettes into thin strips using a potato peeler. Leave to one side.
  2. Make the pesto by adding the spinach, pine nuts, basil, nutritional yeast, olive oil and lemon juice to a processor and blitz for a few seconds, or until combined.
  3. Place a large frying pan over a high heat. Add a tablespoon of olive oil. Once hot, add the courgette strips, season with a little salt and pepper and fry for about two minutes, stirring continuously. 
  4. Take from the heat and stir through the pesto. Serve straightaway with some extra basil leaves and a few grinds of black pepper. Enjoy! 

OMG two very exciting announcements!

by Kenneth Keavey

I distinctly remember being encouraged to use Roundup as we embarked on our fledgling enterprise 18 years ago, “a touch of roundup” to use the exact phrase. Well, I nodded my head and went about my business, there was little point in trying to explain that in my view this was madness. Certainly, never in my lifetime will it be used on our little 20-acre patch of land in the west of Ireland. We are never going to apply a toxic weedkiller, no matter how easy that might make our lives.

This year and last year the weeds have got the upper hand, and the reason is straight forward: the rain. We have been challenged at ever turn, we have not been able to get the machines out into the fields to do our usual work as it has not stopped raining. There will be some casualties as a result, but I have to say if you look at the broccoli we are harvesting from our farm now, the weeds are certainly making no difference to the yield and quality, it is some of the best we have ever grown. You will be able to come and see for yourself on the 7th of September….. but you can meet us earlier too in Dublin, we’ll be at the National Organic Food Fair in Merrion Square on August 31st/Sept 1st!

Roundup provides a “Clean field” or an “Empty field” but in my view using it creates a landscape devoid of life, a landscape that could not be dirtier in terms of actual chemical contaminants.  I believe the organic approach to producing food is certainly more difficult, more challenging, but it gives you imperfect perfection, which may seem a little ironic, but it is true. Perfect vegetables, but maybe to the naked eye the scene in the field does not look perfect. Maybe the vegetables do not always meet the exacting criteria of supermarkets, but maybe the produce is perfect just as it is and what is missing is the chemical contaminates, this is what makes our produce and the produce of all the other amazing Irish organic farmers that supply us perfect.

You have to ask the question with the overwhelming wave of chronic and serious illnesses that are sweeping society today, could the increased use of chemicals in growing our food and in producing our food have a role to play (and there certainly is no one reason for sure). As a medicinal chemist I would have to say these chemicals are not improving the situation, and the cocktail effect of consuming hidden chemicals in our food is for sure having a negative impact on our health.  Just think if you saw a bottle with the description: irritant, toxic, harmful to aquatic life, carcinogenic, would you even consume a tiny bit of that. I certainly would not, would you? Chemicals that kill bugs and plants are toxic, they destroy life.

I digress, roundup and all modern herbicides are used to destroy life. They destroy any vestige of plant life that all other biodiversity relies on for their homes. What then? Where will the insects live? Where will the birds find their food when there are no insects? And how indeed will whole ecosystems survive when we remove all the critical natural environmental pieces of life they rely on? The answer is simple, they won’t.

We need to urgently look at how we are growing our food, I am not saying that organic is perfect, it certainly is not, but it does at least put environmental considerations at the centre of the food production journey.  That was and is and has not changed in 18 years our central mission, to protect our beautiful biodiversity, and protect the environment whilst producing clean healthy imperfectly perfect food.

Thanks you for your support,

Kenneth

PS We are harvesting amazing broccoli amongst many other things, click to see them all here: IRISH SECTION HERE.  

PPS: VERY EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENTS!   

Announcement 1: We are going to be in Dublin for the national organic fair on the 31st of August and the 1st of September, please come by and visit our stall in Merrion square, more info here.  

Announcement 2: We are having our first and only farm walk to mark the essence of the Irish harvest season on Saturday the 7th of September, put the date in your diary, details to be announced closer to the day! 

One-Pot Tomato Orzo – Vegan

by Nessa Robins

This flavoursome one-pot dish is packed full of heart-healthy ingredients, thanks to the vegetables, plus the wholesome store cupboard ingredients included. While Irish tomatoes are in-season I would add them fresh to this dish, otherwise a good-quality tin of tomatoes can be used in their place. There is currently a lovely variety of lettuce available from the farm, and the tomato orzo serves well on a bed of crisp leaves, while adding an extra nutrient boost to the overall meal.  

Enjoy!

Nessa x

One-Pot Tomato Orzo

Ingredients

Serves 4

  • 1 tbsp olive oil 
  • 2 red peppers, diced
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 1 courgette, diced
  • 100g mushrooms, diced 
  • 2 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • ½ tsp chilli flakes
  • Salt & freshly ground black pepper 
  • 200g orzo
  • 1 tin lentils, drained and rinsed
  • 400g tomatoes, diced
  • 500ml vegetable stock
  • To serve
  • Handful of fresh basil & oregano leaves, roughly torn 
  • Zest of ½ lemon
  • Lettuce leaves

Method

  1. Place a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add the oil. Once hot, add the peppers, red onion, courgette, and mushrooms. Stir to combine. Sauté for about 10 minutes, stirring regularly.  
  2. Stir through the garlic, smoked paprika, chilli flakes, and a little salt, and a good grinding of black pepper.
  3. Add the orzo and lentils, and stir to combine with the vegetables, before adding the tomatoes and stock.
  4. Gently bring to the boil then turn down the heat to low, cover and leave the pot to simmer for about 25 minutes. Stir regularly to prevent the pasta from sticking to the bottom of the pan. 
  5. When ready to serve, stir through a handful of roughly torn basil and oregano leaves, and lemon zest. Divide the lettuce between four plates and top with the tomato orzo and a few more basil and oregano leaves. 

Where have all the insects gone?

by Kenneth Keavey

It was on a very rare occasion that we used to make a trip to Dublin from Galway. Back in the 80s it was a long journey, there were no motorways back then and the all too familiar bottle neck in Athlone could often cause long delays, but it was always exciting. Stopping along the side of the road to eat homemade sandwiches also gave us a chance to clean the windscreen of the mass of insect debris, that would at times stop my dad from seeing ahead. Cleaning of the windscreen was expected and was an inconvenience, how things have changed in 30 years.


If the level of insect splatters is a measure of the health of this very important ecosystem, then by all accounts today it is only one step from total annihilation. Test it for yourself, next time you drive down the motorway, how many insects splatter on your windscreen? Virtually none you will find. So, what has happened and where have they gone?


This year on our farm up until relatively recently there has been a noticeable absence of butterflies and bees. The decline in butterfly populations and diversity is well documented.  Not only that but Experts estimate that flying insects across Europe have declined 80 percent on average, causing bird populations to drop by more than 400 million in three decades, these are astounding figures. Insects are also the world’s top pollinators — 75 percent of 115 top global food crops depend on animal pollination, including cocoa, coffee, almonds and cherries.


In his 2022 book titled ‘The Insect Crisis’, journalist Oliver Milman set out the grim scenario of how our actions as humans are causing catastrophic destruction of this critical world.  Milman describes the insect kingdom as “the tiny empires that run the world”, they are the starting point for all other higher life forms, without whose existence entire ecosystems would collapse.


Did you know that it is now relatively standard practice to eliminate all competing plants from grasslands for dairy production, leaving vast monocultures. The use of herbicides to clear plant diversity followed by pesticides to destroy insect diversity leaves very little for these amazing small creatures to flourish on. If the insects disappear what do the birds eat? What about all our pollinators? What happens to the food crops that rely on these? This typical short-term approach to intensification of global food production will hurt us all in the long run.


The good news is that reestablishing these insect populations before it is too late is easy, it requires some effort, but it is easy. Leave diversity in our fields, don’t spray everything in sight to within an inch of its life. Let’s be clear we don’t need to anyway, all this chemical spraying is quite frankly ridiculous and unnecessary.  Plant hedgerows, plant an acre of phacelia and clovers to enrich the fertility of the ground but also the fertility of the local ecosystems and biodiversity. 


It was when we started planting wildflower strips that we noticed an astounding level of bee life return to our farm. There were honeybees and several different types of bumble bee, and all sorts of other flying insects. We had created a floral reef for insects! On a sunny evening there are hundreds of thousands of bees and insects humming away, and if you stop and listen, it is then that you truly appreciate the magnificent of these little flying creatures and the amount of life a relatively small piece of land can sustain if it is given a chance.


As always thanks for your support
Kenneth

Fresh Spring Rolls with Chilli Dipping Oil – Vegan

by Nessa Robins

There is a wonderful variety of Irish vegetables currently in season. These fresh spring rolls are packed with spinach, carrots, cucumber, scallions, cabbage and a variety of fresh herbs. They serve perfectly as a tasty, nutrient-rich snack and are bursting with vitamins, minerals and fibre. A diet rich in fibre is essential for optimal gut health as it aids digestions while promoting regularity. It is also an important dietary choice for keeping ones cholesterol in check, as soluble fibre can bind with cholesterol to move it out of the body before it has been absorbed into the bloodstream. Fruit and vegetables are rich sources of fibre, and the World Health Organisation recommend we consume at least five portions fruit and veg daily, so these delicious spring rolls are a great way to top up our daily consumption.

The chilli dipping oil only takes minutes to make and is a delicious accompaniment for the spring rolls. It can also be enjoyed drizzled over stir fries or as a topping over some avocado and toast. Enjoy!

Nessa x

Fresh Spring Rolls with Chilli Dipping Oil

Ingredients

For the chilli dipping oil

For the fresh spring roll

  • 50g vermicelli rice noodles
  • 75g spinach
  • 75g sweetheart cabbage, finely sliced
  • 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin batons
  • ½ cucumber, cut into thin batons
  • 2 scallions, finely sliced 
  • Handful of coriander, mint and basil leaves
  • 10 spring roll rice wrappers

To serve

Sesame seeds

 Method

  1. To make the chilli oil, add the chilli flakes, sesame seeds, garlic, sugar and salt to a heatproof bowl. Stir to combine. Add the sunflower oil to a small saucepan over a medium heat. Heat the oil for about 3 minutes, when it should be hot but not yet smoking. Carefully, pour over the chilli mixture. Stir well to combine. Allow to cool fully before pouring into a sterilised jar. Refrigerate for up to two weeks and always mix before serving. 
  2. To make the spring rolls, cook the vermicelli noodles according to the pack’s instructions. Once cooked, drain and rinse with cold water.
  3. Prepare the vegetables and herbs, and place on a plate, ready for filling into the wrappers.
  4. Fill a shallow, wide-rimmed bowl or tray with cold water. Quickly dip the rice paper wrappers, one at a time, into the water and let soften for about 30 seconds, but don’t soften them completely, allow them to remain a little stiff. Gently, place on a chopping board. 
  5. Layer the fillings onto 1/3 of the wrapper, starting with a couple of spinach leaves, then some noodles, carrot, cucumber, scallion, cabbage, and top with a scattering of herbs.
  6. Beginning with the edge closest to you, roll the wrapper halfway, then fold the shorter side in and continue to roll until it’s sealed. 
  7. Repeat with the remaining wraps and fillings.
  8. Sprinkle the spring rolls with some sesame seeds and serve straightway with the chilli dipping oil. Enjoy!

Gardening, smoking a pipe, a penknife and our food……….

by Kenneth Keavey

I doubt my grandad spent any great deal of time thinking about food provenance. But eating fresh healthy food was part of his life. It was excruciatingly hard work producing food back in the 50s, backbreaking, without the aid of machines or modern technology, but the food they grew was healthy and free from chemicals.

If you would like to listen to my little story this week from one of our fields CLICK HERE!

He worked as the head gardener in Cregg castle, and he most definitely as did my dad had a flare for growing vegetables. Now although I am sure food wasn’t something for the after mass discussion on a Sunday it would have been on their minds. Certainly, though there was no need to discuss what was sprayed on the food, was it wrapped in plastic or not, where it came from, was it sustainable, was it healthy, was it ultra processed, as none of that was relevant back then.

I do remember his garden as a child, I distinctly remember certain things such as the little seat he had, where he used to smoke his pipe, and the penknife he always had with him (incidentally an indispensable tool to even the modern organic farmer). He used to make raised beds behind the hayshed and sow all sorts of things, from potatoes to carrots, but he also sowed sweet peas on a trellis and had apples.

Another memory and not altogether a pleasant one I have is of having jam jars from the trees in the summer with water and residual jam to trap the hoards of wasps, and stop them from eating the gorgeous sweet apples.

My other grandad used to come out from town for a bucket or two of potatoes and this was part of the sometimes-weekly trip to the country side. Either that or he would visit the farmers market on Saturday in Galway, back then it truly was a farmers’ market, rough and ready though it was.

Food too was celebrated such as the first new potatoes, this we still do today and we have just started with our own amazing organic new season potatoes from Cameron in Battlemountain organic farm. A point to note here is that the prices we are paying for these potatoes is up 50% on last year.

But what has happened over the last 70 years, how has such a large chasm opened up between the person eating the food and the food itself. Giant retail businesses have grown and made it their business to create this great divide it serves a purpose of control and it drives enormous profits into the hands of investors. The shiny plastic wrappers deflect from the reality, the faces of the smiling farmers, the special offers, it all hides secrets of our food system that we are never privy to. The big mechanics behind the scenes that move vast quantities of food around the world, the hidden corners that are cut, the environmental atrocities that are committed, this is all brushed under the shiny carpet.

It does seem strange to think that the food we put into our bodies, probably one of the most important things we buy, we probably know least about and is frequently relegated to the bottom of the priority list. The connection between what we eat, our health and the health of the planet is clear, and rekindling the connection with our food could be one of the most important steps we take to improve our own health and protect our world from further environmental devastation. It is also the one thing we absolutely have control over and can change.

Thank YOU for making that change.


Kenneth

PS We are right in the middle of full harvest season and having your support during the summer is more important than ever as we always see a marked drop in orders, leaving us with a surplus of our own and other Irish organic farmers produce, please support us for the month of August if you can, click to see our IRISH SECTION HERE.