These are a treat to eat, really crispy and crunchy and deliciously healthy. My kids love savoury crackers and cheese or crackers and dips. We really enjoyed making these and its such a clever use of butter beans!
Will you try them? Let us know if the comments below.
Lou x
Ingredients:
240g tin butter beans – drained and patted dry 2 tbsp chia seeds 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 1 tsp nutritional yeast – optional 1/2 tsp paprika 1/2 tsp baking powder Salt and pepper to taste
**1 tablespoon chickpea flour or plain flour if needed
Method:
Step 1: Preheat the oven to 170C
Step 2: In a food processor, blend the butter beans, chia seeds, olive oil, nutritional yeast, paprika, baking powder, salt and pepper into a smooth paste. If the mix is really dry add a small dash of water, if it’s very wet add some chickpea flour or plain flour. The dough should come together and hold, it shouldn’t be too dry or wet.
Step 3: Line a baking tray with parchment paper. Spread the mixture and use another piece of parchment paper and a rolling pin to flatten to about the thickness of a 1 euro coin. Cut the mixture into cracker-sized pieces with a knife or pizza cutter.
Step 4: Bake for about 30 minutes until golden and crispy at the edges. Increase the temperature to 200°C for an extra 10-15 minutes to get them extra crispy.
Allow them to cool completely. Then break into cracker pieces. Enjoy with creamy hummus or use as a base for summer canapés!
Storage: These will keep for 1 week in an air tight container. A jar works really well.
Roasting vegetables for salads really intensifies the flavours. Sweet and bitter notes added with salty feta and sour lemon juice make this a really tasty salad.
Summer is all about gathering friends and family and sharing good food. This salad is perfect for a BBQ, a gathering or a picnic. Not to mention a healthy its also a healthy plate of food with organic vegetables, gut friendly beans and protein packed nuts and cheese.
We really hope you try it this summer.
Lou x
Ingredients:
1 courgette- sliced into 2 cm cubes
1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced into cubes
1 red onion, sliced into wedges
1 tin butter beans, drained 240g
1.5 tablespoon cajun spice (or a teaspoon each of paprika, chilli, cumin, coriander mixed)
100g feta cheese
a handful of leaves, spinach, rocket or similar
2 tablespoons olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste
Method:
Step 1: Preheat the oven 200ºC fan. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper. Put the courgette, red peppers, red onion, butter beans on the tray. Generously cover in the cajun spice. Drizzle with salt, pepper and oil, shake or rub to coat everything. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, checking half way through.
Step 2: Put the pecans on a separate tray and toast in the oven, along with the veg, for about 5- 10 minutes, check half way through- they may need more or less time.
Step 3: Let the veg cool for 20 minutes then crumble over the feta and top with the green leaves, sprinkle with pecans, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice, gently mix everything. Lift the parchment paper and tip into a serving dish.
Happy Summer solstice! It is amazing to see the length in the evenings.
I’ve just come back in from the fields, it is Thursday night and I had been attempting to sow our second crop of swede. It is very late in the season for this and as it turns out something went wrong with the seeding unit and I will have to take a closer look at it later, and I am not at all certain even this second sowing was successful.
The reason I was resowing swede was due to a tiny little black insect called a flea beetle. These little creatures’ prey on tender brassica leaves and as the first little swede leaves unfurled, they decimated them. To an extent it is our own fault as we should have covered the beds with netting as soon as we did the first sowing, but I didn’t. It was one little job that got away from us.
Anyway, as I was driving back to the farm shed in the tractor, I was thinking about the fundamental difference between organic and conventional. In the world of conventional production, a farmer can spray his crops with pesticides, these chemicals are not specific to one particular creature and can have devastating effects on biodiversity. The reality of conventional vegetable production is the routine use of herbicides, such as glyphosate, pesticides and fungicides. As organic growers we us no chemicals, and on our farm, I can categorically say we use zero chemicals.
But the burden of responsibility to prove our organic credentials rests with us, it is up to us to pass in our case two annual inspections and to show the paper trail to demonstrate that we are adhering to the rules. There is no question though, organic certification is a good thing, and it clearly shows to you, that producers are indeed growing food safely and chemically free amongst many other things. You should always look or ask to see if food is certified organic.
But back in my grandad’s day all his produce was “organic” he didn’t have to fill out any forms or prove that he was not using chemicals; to be fair this was a time before farmers were routinely using chemicals in food production. But today that has all changed and now there is a massive industry that makes vast profits from selling chemicals that are used in our food that are toxic to us and are destroying biodiversity. Chemicals do not belong in our food system; I should know I spent my life studying and working with them.
How different the supermarket landscape would look, if instead of looking for “certified organic” all produce that had been sprayed had to have a label outlining the chemical treatments it received on its journey from seed to supermarket. How different then would our food system be? Imagine your carrot bag labelled with the following which were the top 10 applied chemicals on carrots grown in Ireland in 2015, the last year where there is data available.
Or you may remember that our kale was taken to be checked last Nov, and they checked for 870 chemicals. That is 870 chemicals that they thought could possibly be on our kale and as result are or could be used in conventional agriculture! The mind boggles.
For me and our business and farm, the journey for the last 18 years has always been about producing and supporting other organic growers who are doing their very best to grow healthy food whilst protecting biodiversity and never ever using chemicals.
As always thanks for your support.
Kenneth
PS Back by popular demand is the “Fresh Irish category” where you can see straight away all the local organic produce we have.
The smashed falafel wraps are a big viral hit at the moment! They are very quick and easy to make and taste delicious. The purists use dried chickpeas but I think tinned chickpeas work just fine. Add lots of green fresh herbs like parsley and mint.
This makes a great filling lunch loaded with green lettuce from our tunnels, tomato, pickles and red onions. The tahini dressing is the perfect dressing.
Enjoy,
Lou x
Ingredients: makes 3 wraps approx
For the falafel mix:
1 can chickpeas, drained
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1/4 red onion, diced
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
handful parsley, chopped
6 x mint leaves, chopped
1-2 tablespoons hot water
For the tahini dressing:
1/4 cup tahini
1 small clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
pinch salt
1 tablespoon maple syrup or honey
1 tablespoon olive oil
To serve:
3 wraps or flat breads
1 tomato, sliced
1/2 red onion, finely sliced
4 pickles, sliced
1/2 head lettuce, leaves washed
Method:
Step 1: To a food processor add all the falafel ingredients except the water, blend. Then drizzle in the water until the mix comes together to form a paste. Taste it, and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Step 2: make the tahini dressing, whisk all the ingredients together until smooth.
Step 3: Warm a griddle pan or frying pan on a medium to high heat. Spread the falafel paste onto a wrap evenly, use a spatula or the back of a spoon. Oil the pan, carefully place the warp falafel side down on the grill. cook for a couple of minutes to form a crust. Carefully flip over and toast the other side of the wrap.
Step 4: Slide the wrap onto a plate or board, add lettuce, tomato, onion, pickles, spoon over the tahini dressing, roll, cut in half and serve!
I found myself the other day sitting in one of our fields on a box, as you do, contemplating what to say in this weekly update.
To watch this post from a box in a field click here: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C8L39NDs9qi/?igsh=MmZxZ3lkdHAyejRn!
A couple of days earlier I had been attaching a slightly modified version of my grandad’s old stone roller to our tractor. He used this roller 2 generations ago to roll the land, pulled behind two fine workhorses he used to own, one of which I remember was called Snowball, because he had a white snout that looked like a “snowball”! I was rolling the land because we had just sown two and a half acres of wild-flowers, a mix of organic clover varieties, phacelia and flowers for the bees and for our soil. All that seed was certified organic which means even in raising the plants to produce the seed the land was treated organically.
So, As I was sitting there on my box, I was thinking about all your support over the last couple of weeks and I just wanted to say a huge ‘thank you’. I also thought that maybe it might be nice to explain the impact or the reality of what that support actually means. So that 2.5 acres of wildflowers, which are doing so much for local biodiversity would not have been sown without your orders. Just behind the box I was sitting on, I had just sown a bed of wildflowers to allow a proper bee corridor to run the length of our farm.
Emmanuel and his team were out the other day, and they planted several thousand brassica and celeriac plants, all of this was done without the use of artificial fertilisers, which are highly water soluble and when it rains they end up in our waterways and lakes, leading to eutrophication and pollution. Of course, everything here is planted without the use of herbicides and pesticides, these chemicals cause cumulative damage to our biodiversity and our health. Your support means these chemicals do not touch our soil and do not interfere with all the biodiversity on our land.
The trees that we have planted over the years, and there are thousands of them would not have been planted, the hedgerows that house a myriad of life would not be thriving, the two pigs Florence and George would not have been rescued, without your support. The 8 polytunnels would not have been constructed, the 700-800 tomato plants would not have been sown, fresh Irish organic tomatoes (if we ever get any proper heat this year) are only 5-6 weeks away, none of these things would have happened without your support.
All of these things are happening because you are buying from us and placing an order each week. Whilst you are supporting a new system of food production, you are also getting the best, freshest and chemical free produce in Ireland.
Your patience with our new IT system is so much appreciated and I can only again apologise if your experience has been less than positive. We are nearly there on this journey, and we hope in the next couple of weeks to have ironed out many of the issues and glitches and we hope then we can finally look to really introduce you to all the amazing features this new website provides. This is our portal to connect our produce and the produce of other Irish organic growers and so many amazing sustainable groceries direct to you, our customers.
As always thank you so much for your support and now I feel it is time to pack up my box, my seeds and go home.
Kenneth.
PS We have amazing Irish organic produce now, just use the little filter on each page to see what is Irish.
Thank you so much to everybody who ordered from us last week, we were blown away by the level of support, it made a massive difference. When you buy with us, we notice, supermarkets don’t, but we do. So, thank you so much from everybody here.
We had three little remarkable surprises this week (not counting all your amazing orders), we received Irish organic cherries (Can you believe that!) from Darragh Donnelly in Dublin. Emmanuel our farm manager found a small robin’s nest in our farm shed and finally after 18 years of picking stones we found a solution to our stone problem! The cherries are amazing, and I guarantee that you will not find their like in any supermarket shelf, so thank you Darragh.
As to the robin, he or she, I certainly can’t tell, (can you tell?) chose a very inconvenient location to build (I will go with a she) her nest: right in the middle of where we are coming and going all the time. But we are going to be careful and the three little eggs that are in the nest will not be disturbed.
The stones have been, and I have to go a little further here than calling them an inconvenience, they have been a devastation for so, so long. But completely by chance this week I got the number of a contractor that has a stone crushing machine for farms, yes there is such a thing, and it is quite remarkable. So, in the space of 12 hours, this very nice fella and his tractor crushed all our stones, releasing vital nutrients back into the soil.
Afterwards we tried making some vegetable beds, this usually can be quite a fraught process, shaking the machine, destroying tines, and frequently lifting the whole machine out of the ground when you hit a big stone leaving the bed in less than an ideal shape. But the bed forming in our “new, stoneless” farm was quiet and smooth, and just nothing short of amazing.
Watch a little video from our fields here.
So, stones and robins making nests in odd places, two inconveniences, can we live with them? The robin yes, but the stones, they just had to go! This is the issue with our approach to agriculture these days, we aim to eliminate anything that is inconvenient, and there is a long list of these inconveniences. Weeds, eliminate them with a quick spray of roundup, aphids reach for the next can of spray and so on and so forth, it doesn’t stop; hedgerows, take them out if they are taking up valuable space, trees cut them down make way for production. What is this madness? The shortsightedness, the relentless focus on extracting the last cent from the land to the detriment of all the other aspects of our living world that we need. WE NEED BIODIVERSITY it is not and optional extra!
Maybe there is no other way, while the cost of produce continues to be so devalued, maybe that is the true price that must be paid. The price you or I pay at the till for the plastic clad supermarket produce absolutely does not reflect these sacrifices the natural world makes for our convenience.
So, the question is: can we afford these inconvenient truths? Is it worth it to get the very cheapest price possible? Well, I will leave you to decide, and judging by your support for us last week and hopefully in the week and weeks ahead again you have already made your decision.
These are so quick and easy to make and bake. Once baked and sliced you can make up a snack plate with the fruit from your weekly box! If you make these as often as I do you’ll soon memorise the recipe like me.
We love snacks like this because they have few nutritious ingredients, taste great, they are a quick bake, they are cheaper than shop bought snacks, we can make them with organic ingredients and they can be fully plant based if thats what you like.
I served mine up with apple and orange slices. It makes a super nutritious snack, great for kids too.
Step 1: Preheat the oven 180ºc. Line an 8in square tin with parchment paper.
Step 2: Mash the bananas and add them to a mixing bowl along with the peanut butter and oats. Mix well and transfer into the baking tray. Scatter the chocolate chips evenly on top.
Step 3: Bake for about 20 minutes, until golden brown. leave to cool then slice into 12 squares.
This is a fabulous way to celebrate bread and Irish organic beets! I made this a few times last summer to share with visitors to the Green Earth Organics farm walks and it was a huge hit.
The focaccia is a super simple no knead recipe – the dough develops and slowly proves in the fridge overnight. The next day, smear it in beetroot puree and bake. It looks amazing and has heaps of sweet and savoury flavour.
Make sure you save the recipe and serve it alongside our gorgeous green lettuce this summer.
Lou x
Tips:
Tips for getting this right: ✨This bread needs time in the fridge to prove. ✨Use strong/bread flour. ✨Make sure the dried yeast is in date. ✨Use a neutral olive oil, or rapeseed oil not extra virgin ✨Try not to knock too much air out of the dough when you add the beetroot puree and make the dimples.
Ingredients:
Makes one focaccia -500g strong flour/bread flour -2 teaspoon salt -1 (7g) sachet dried yeast -430ml lukewarm water – made up by mixing 130ml boiling water with 300ml cold water (it should be body temperature, 36ºC) butter for greasing -4 tablespoons olive oil
*Steam or boil and peel the beetroots. Cool and keep in the fridge ready to make this bread.
Step 1: Pour the dried yeast into the lukewarm water and let it sit for 15 minutes then stir. Measure the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl and stir to combine. Pour in the yeast and water and mix with a wooden spoon to form a sticky ball. Oil a second mixing bowl and transfer the dough into it. Using your hand lightly oil the top of the dough – the oil is important to stop it drying out. Cover the bowl to make it airtight with a lid, cling film or a damp tea towel and put the bowl in the FRIDGE for at least 12 hours (ideally overnight).
Step 2: Prepare the baking tin 9inc x 13inc. Line with parchment paper or grease really well with butter, this is really important to stop the focaccia from sticking to the tin. I recommend using parchment paper. Now oil the baking tin with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Oil your hands and scoop the dough out of the bowl and put the dough straight onto the baking tray. Rub the oil over the dough and smooth and push it into the corners of the baking tray. Cover the tray with a clean plastic bag, or cling film and let the dough rest for 3 to 4 hours to warm up and double in size
Step 3: Make the beetroot puree, add the beetroot, chopped garlic, salt and oil in a small powerful blender. Blend until smooth.
Step 4: Preheat the oven 220ºc. Pour the beetroot puree over the dough and rub lightly with your hands, using your fingers press straight down to create deep dimples. Bake for 25-30 minutes, until cooked through and the bottom is golden brown. Transfer to a cooling rack. Brush with some olive oil. Cool for 10 minutes before cutting and serving.
Storage: This will keep in an airtight box for 3 days or in the freezer for 3 months.
This week there has been plenty of room at times for few choice expletives and having a bit of a tantrum, especially when it comes to machines. Each year when certain machines leave our farm shed they illicit a sense of foreboding. They put whatever patience we may have remaining, in this business of growing vegetables, to the test.
This was to be the case this week, we have three or four machines that “should” work but often “decide not to comply” with our ideas of what they should do. This week the machine that lays our compostable biolayer took us to the brink of giving up, but right at our breaking point we managed to bend it’s will to our way of doing things!
There is also our planter, it is temperamental, old and cranky and every year there is a requirement to find mutual common ground between farmer and machine, this year that ground has been hard to find and has led to moments of promising our faithful machine that its days are truly numbered. (Of course, we didn’t really mean it, all was said in the heat of the moment!)Nevertheless, if farming has thought us anything and it teaches a lot, is that perseverance is an absolute requirement to succeed no matter what happens. In the end we know we will produce beautiful healthy sustainable food.
But there are some who say organic farming will not feed the world, that it is an idealistic pursuit and just won’t work.I imagine that the same people who say these things are busy buying up the world’s seed bank and patenting the seeds they genetically modify. The same people who make quite a lot of money from selling an idea of how our food system should be and on the back of that selling the chemicals and making quite a lot of money, and in the end gaining control of our food system.
Once a diversified market, Corteva, BASF, Syngenta, and Bayer four enormous corporations now dominate the seeds sector. These industry giants have seized power quickly and currently hold more than half of the seed market. Furthermore, they control almost 67% of the world market for agrochemicals.Did you know four firms or fewer control at least 50% of the market for 79% of the groceries. For almost a third of shopping items, the top firms controlled at least 75% of the market share.Couple that with the fact that four corporations’ control 75% of the worlds global grain supply, and we see that the future of our food, our health and our planet lie in the hands of a few.
We think our food system should not be controlled by the few, and in our own little way we have been doing what we can to make that happen. We have been very busy planting and sowing and supporting other Irish organic farmers that are doing the same. For the last number of weeks we have been planting kale, cabbage, Romanesco, broccoli, lettuce, and celery. We have been sowing, salad, beetroot, spinach, chard, carrots, and parsnips, not to mention the nearly 1000 tomato plants that are finally starting to make some headway.
There is no way to rush nature, we need to have patience and get our timings right, take good care of our crops and the nature around as the crops grow, and the harvest will come.
So, we work, we wait, and we harvest, and we know that sustainable food is our future.As always thank you for your support.
Kenneth
PS Thank you to everybody who took the time to login and place an order last week. Every week with our new system, we are improving and again this week we will have offers and as usual the very best of Irish organic produce anywhere, so please if you haven’t yet do login and place an order. We think you will be pleasantly surprised. Keep an eye on your inbox over the weekend for extra special offers! Thank you so much without you we would not be here.
Such a simple but delicious summer pudding. Perfect for a family gathering or to finish a delicious meal. I made the only apple version last summer and this year I’ve added tasty organic blueberries. Our Irish eating apples are crisp and delicious and are great to bake with too.
We’re looking forward to all the seasonal Irish summer fruit. We like to keep it simple and effortless to make the most of its natural goodness and flavour.
Step1: Preheat the oven 180ºc. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper – you may need two baking trays.
Step 2: Peel the 3 apples in half and scoop out the core, fill the hole with blueberries.
Step 3: Mix the sugar and the cinnamon in a bowl.
Step 4: Divide the pastry into 6 equal squares.
Step 5: Spoon the cinnamon sugar onto the tray, you want 6 mounds of sugar. Carefully place the apple, with the blueberries, flat side down on each of the sugar mounds. Put the pastry over each apple half and use your hands to cup the pastry around the apple half.
Step 6: Place in the oven and bake for 35 minutes. Let the pastries cool for 15 minutes, use a wide spatula to slide under the caramelised apple and lift it off carefully. Serve warm with toasted almonds, fresh whipped cream and fresh blueberries.
