Thoughts on Biodiversity

by Kenneth Keavey

It struck me today as I took the chance to get out of the office for a while, that there is a very real tangible benefit to doing business and farming in the way we and other organic farms do it.

There is pressure too as we don’t have the reliance on an armory of chemicals to cut the work to the minimum and to ease the pressure when there is a risk of disease.

But the pluses definitely outweigh the negatives, It is definitely worth it, 100%.  It is worth it when you take a walk around and you absorb the diversity we have here in abundance, and not just biodiversity we have diversity of people and plants, and animals and insects and even in you our customers that we have the privilege of being able to connect with directly we have diversity. Often marketers ask us who our customer is, and it is so difficult to define because people from all walks of life choose to support us.

But the biodiversity is the one thing that without fail always reminds me of the importance of changing the way we produce our food, and I guess the poster child for biodiversity is the bee. I don’t think I can count the number of different bumble bees I have seen in the last week.  They seem to come in all shapes and sizes and they just make me feel happy! But not only that they of course have a very real role as pollinators and without the bee we would be lacking for so much.

So, and it seems like deja vu, as we do this every year, so here we go again! I hope if everything goes according to plan by the time you have read this then we will have planted nearly 3 acres of wild flowers and clover. We do this to enhance the structure of the soil and to add nutrients too. But the most amazing benefit will be felt later on in the year when the color and the flowers and bees come in their thousands and for that I cant wait. A real gift of nature, but as with many things it is fleeting, but to be enjoyed while it lasts.

I also hope by the time you read this that we will have successfully sown our first parsnip, carrots and beetroot crops, that of course is by no means guaranteed as the weather the machinery tend to take on a life of their own. But what will be, will be, they do say you need to cultivate (and that was definitely not an intentional pun!) patience to do this job, and they are right.

I will of course keep you posted of our progress, and in that respect the farm team are making loads. The tomato plants look amazing, and there are flowers blooming on all the plants (over 1100) we also have fantastic harvesting going on for you over the coming days. The spinach, chard, lettuce and salad, coming from our own farm.  We are also receiving gorgeous rocket from Millhouse organic farm, and fresh herbs from Joe Kelly, amongst all the other usual Irish staples.  

We have this year put in place formal agreements with a number of small and not so small Irish organic growers as we came to two realisations.

  1. We simply cannot do it all ourselves, we have tried.
  2. This allows the creation of an amazing network of support for other small Irish organic farms. As this season rolls on watch this space for all the amazing Irish produce we will be growing receiving and delivering.

So, thank you, without you and you need to really understand that we really mean ‘without you’, we would not be here, the bees would not be here. You are making this possible, and you are getting the very best cleanest freshest organic food on the planet delivered to your door to boot!

So, thank you from all of us here.

Kenneth

PS Watch out for the signed note of who packed your order in all your boxes, you may not meet the guys who walk around our warehouse carefully putting your orders together but now at least you get to put a name to the person who does.

PPS So don’t forget to place your order, and if you are a courier customer, watch out for our amazing new FSC (Forest Stewardship approved) courier boxes, only ever packed with shredded waste cardboard! Also remember delivery is still FREE when you spend over €100.

Warm Aubergine Salad

by Lou Robbie

Fancy an exciting zingy extra tasty salad this summer? This is it!

Spongy aubergines love to be bathed in spice and charred until soft and caramelised. Chopped warm and added to the fresh cherry tomatoes and garlic they liven up to give a delicious tongue tingling flavour.

We used the air fryer to cook the aubergine quickly, but you can roast it in the oven at 180ºC for 30 mins or even char it on the BBQ.

Save this recipe and enjoy it on the warm summer evenings with great company. Head to our groceries for most of the ingredients.

Lou 🙂

Ingredients: serves 2

  • 1 aubergine
  • 150g cherry tomatoes
  • 2 tsp cajun spice (or a mix of cumin, chilli, paprika)
  • 3 tablespoons olive or rapeseed oil (divided)
  • 150g greek style yoghurt
  • 1 clove garlic
  • juice and zest 1/2 lime
  • 8 torn mint leaves
  • 2 teaspoons sesame seeds
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

  • Preheat the air fryer or oven 180ºC.
  • Step 1: Slice the green top off the aubergine, then cut in half and chop into long pieces, about 8.
  • Step 2: Mix together 2 tablespoons of oil and 2 teaspoons of cajun spice, season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Brush this onto the aubergine pieces.
  • Step 3: Line the basket with parchment paper and air fry for 18 minutes at 180ºC and check and turn half way through. (If using the oven it may take 30 minutes)
  • Step 4: Chop the cherry tomatoes into quarters and add them to a mixing bowl. Finely grate the garlic clove and add this to the bowl, add the zest and juice of half a lime, 2 tablespoons of olive oil a small pinch of salt and pepper. Tear in the mint leaves. Chop the warm aubergine into 1 inch pieces and add this to the bowl, mix.
  • Step 5: Spoon half the greek yoghurt onto each plate and top with the warm aubergine salad sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
  • Enjoy.

Ladybirds and biodiversity

by Kenneth Keavey

We had a decision to make recently, in the grand scheme of things it may not have seemed like a very big one. But if we chose wrongly then it would have taken us away from our core value of biodiversity protection.

We had decided to put in an extra access road on our farm. There was a wall that could easily have been knocked which would make access easier and would have reduced the cost, so from a purely financial perspective it made sense to knock the wall and the growth around it. But as I was discussing this over with Emmanuel, nature gave us the nudge we needed in the right direction.

While we were standing there a giant bumble bee flew past us to nestle right into the grass and brambles at our feet, two little birds flew out of the bushes and as we continued to look we noticed a ladybird. One at first, then Emmanuel pointed out another and another there must have been 10 or more. There was a family of little red helpers there in that wall. This was in a tiny little space full with the vitality of nature.

The decision was made for us, and I was a little ashamed that I had been contemplating knocking the wall in the first place. So, the wall will stay, and we will work around it.

A small price to pay for the richness of nature that calls that little corner of the field it’s home.

This was a clear-cut decision.

When it comes to chemicals the effects can be much more difficult to spot. When chemicals are applied to fields and crops, they don’t just affect the targeted crop. There is no magic bullet, if the years spent studying chemistry thought me anything, it is that the magic bullet does not exist (The idea that a drug or chemical will only target a certain disease or pest without side effects).

So it is with chemicals that are routinely sprayed in nature. These chemicals are broad spectrum insecticides or herbicides. They do damage and they hurt biodiversity. The neonicotinoids for so long proclaimed safe for bees were as it turns out not safe for bees. Glyphosate which heralded a new in weed control has been shown to be a ‘probable carcinogen’ and it is everywhere in our environment now. 

These chemicals are the unseen freebies we get with our food, and they hurt our health. But even more importantly they hurt our land and the life we share this planet with too. 

Would that little corner of the field have been so rich and vibrant if we were applying chemicals to our fields? Absolutely not. So, with your support for our business you are supporting many little corners of land right across Ireland, whether it be here on our farm, or Joe Kelly’s farm in Mayo, or Padraigh Fahy’s farm in Galway, or Vincent Grace’s farm in Kilkenny, or Roy Lyttle’s farm in Antrim or Richard Galvin’s farm in Waterford or Cameron’s farm in Kildare or Philip Dreaper’s farm in Offaly and many more.

We all share the same belief that there is a better way to produce food that there is a safer and happier way to farm.

Thank you for your support, and for supporting our mission:

“Better for you, better for the planet”

Kenneth

Air Fryer Honey Roast Carrots w/ Whipped Feta

by Lou Robbie

Carrots are super versatile, economical and tasty! Carrots as a kid were boiled and boring but roasted with a bit of sweetness and spice they make a delicious sharing dish. We are hitting all the flavour profiles with this plate, sweet carrot, salty feta, bitter toasted pumpkin seeds and sour notes from the lemon zest!!! Try it out and get your taste buds tingling.

Serve up as a tasty snack, have it with a green salad or with some toasted sourdough..yum.

Try it soon and let us know what you think.

Lou 🙂

P.S. If you don’t have an air fryer simply roast the carrots with oil, s & p, for 15 minutes @ 180ºC then add the honey and cumin and roast for another 5 minutes.

Ingredients: serves 4 as a side dish

  • 500g carrots (about 5 medium)
  • 1 tablespoon honey or maple syrup
  • 1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
  • 2 teaspoons oil
  • pinch salt and pepper

For the whipped feta

  • 150g feta
  • 100g greek yoghurt
  • 1/2 lemon zest
  • pinch black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil

Plus 80g toasted pumpkin seeds

Method:

  1. Scrub and peel the carrots
  2. Chop into 4 long pieces and add them to a mixing bowl and toss in oil, salt and pepper.
  3. Add a 1/4 cup of water to the bottom of the air fryer basket. Place the carrots on the rack and air fry for 15 minutes at 180ºc, shake half way through.
  4. While the carrots cook, make the whipped feta, simply add all the ingredients to a mixer and blend until really smooth. I used my Ninja smoothie maker, any small powerful blender will work.
  5. Back the carrots after the 15 minutes are up, drizzle over the honey and sprinkle the cumin, give the carrots a shake and cook for a further 5 minutes at 200ºc.
  6. When the carrots are done, toasted the pumpkin seeds in the air fryer for 5 minutes at 200ºc.
  7. Pour the whipped feta into a bowl, pile the carrots on top and scatter the pumpkin seeds over both.

Loss leaders and multitasking

by Kenneth Keavey

I am sitting here on our tractor at the bottom of the farm as I write. The tractor ironically being the noisy beast it is, is a great place to find peace. There is something highly satisfying about tilling the land.

As much as there is a business to be managed, the luxury of being in the field at least on occasion is something that really grounds and reconnects a person to nature. Whilst margins and spreadsheets and efficiency ratios are all important all of these things can sometimes cloud the real reason of why it is we do what we do.

Don’t pay enough attention to those variables of course and the tiling of the land is nothing but an idle dream. Pay too much attention and you run the risk of getting lost and losing track of “The why”. It was brought to our attention last week by ‘the traveling stoic’ on Instagram that ‘the restrictive practices order 1987 prohibits the sale of grocery products at below net invoice price’ but this law does not include fresh produce! It is deemed permissible to allow loss leading on all things fresh, and that includes you may be surprised to learn not only fruit and vegetables, but also milk, meat, and fish.

All our primary producers are essentially being told: ‘We don’t value what you do and we will sell your produce for less than the price of production.’ This is upsetting on a number of levels, but especially when you consider the time, energy and care each producer puts into their produce. It is demoralising and financially unsustainable. We know we cannot possibly compete with supermarkets.

As I was writing this on my phone, for some mad reason spell check but in ‘cartels’! maybe that is a more apt description of these institutions!Supermarkets can afford to squeeze the producers, they have all the power, they can dictate terms. This approach has led to more and more growers saying enough is enough, and sometimes over the seemingly paltry sum of 5c per piece.

That is a sad situation. Those skills especially when it comes to vegetables as there are fewer and fewer of us are gone for ever. Many moons ago we decided that we would quit supplying supermarkets for good. It was a decision taken in the heat of the moment, which usually are very poor decisions indeed. We were told one Monday morning that unless we reduced our pricing and became responsible for the waste in their stores we should look elsewhere for custom.

I can’t say here what I said then, but we never supplied those supermarkets again. It was rash, but it meant we doubled our efforts at making a successful business of growing our own food and supporting other Irish growers and delivering direct to you, our customers.

We, only with your help are still here today 18 years later and we are thankful for that. I think Emmanuel (our farm manager) may be getting a little concerned now, not having seen our tractor move for some time. Writing and tiling are very difficult endeavours to multitask at! So, I think it’s time to put the phone down and get back to it.

Until next week thanks for your support.

Kenneth

2 Ingredient Chocolate Mousse (Chocolate & Butternut Squash)

by Lou Robbie

Chocolate mousse with hidden butternut squash, we couldn’t wait to try this one!! An indulgent chocolate mousse that is made mostly of healthy stuff sounds too good to be true.

This one pass the test with my kids and the butternut squash went undetected! The mouse is delicious on its own but if you want to give it a lighter texture try folding whipped cream through it, this is how I served it to my kids.

TIP: For a really tasty mousse its important to use a good quality chocolate.

Will you try it?

Lou 🙂

Ingredients:

  • 700g raw butternut squash – peeled and cubed
  • 400g good quality chocolate, chopped (you can use your favourite milk or dark chocolate)
  • Serve with a dusting of cacoa powder, whipped cream or cremé fraichê and toasted hazelnuts or almonds, banana or raspberries would be delicious too

Method:

  1. Peel, deseed and cube the butternut squash. Put it in a medium sized pot cover with cold water. Put on the hob, bring to a simmer and cook until completely soft, 20-30 mins.
  2. Melt the chocolate in a microwave or on a double boiler on the hob.
  3. When the butternut squash is cooked, strain and add to a blender along with the melted chocolate.
  4. Blend until silky smooth.
  5. Pour into a large bowl or individual bowls. Leave to cool on the worktop then transfer to the fridge to set for at least 4 hours, overnight if possible.
  6. Dust with cocoa powder and serve!

A funny story about a lorry and a field

by Kenneth Keavey

Four Guinness Barrels and some scaffolding planks, that was our first makeshift packing table. My dad myself and Jenny used to pack all the boxes and then load them into the back of our small Peugeot partner van. I would head out do the deliveries and the packing week would end with a bottle of wine at about 12am on a Wednesday night, all deliveries done.

Life seemed Simpler then, but our mind often plays tricks on us, remembering the sunshine and forgetting the rain: who remembers summers that were hotter drier and longer when we were kids? (Or were they?).  There was little money for anything, we made do with whatever we had. Jenny was working full time and that was our income.

Our packing week may have finished on Wednesday, but the working week never actually finished. We didn’t have the luxury of somebody to look after quality or packing or the farm, it was all done by us. Now we have great people doing amazing work, the care that goes into the packing each one of your orders certainly puts my early days of packing to shame.

I remember those days of not having a cold room to store our produce and of going out to the local pub carpark to meet the trucks to hand ball and unload some of our bought in produce.

There was one very funny, (well funny now, not funny then) incident where an artic truck came onto our farm, despite insistent communication that there was no way to turn a truck of that size. As I was eating my dinner one evening there was this giant truck parked right outside our house and the delivery driver waving in at me!

The driver decided on his own initiative to turn in our front field, needless to say this monstrous truck got stuck in the muck. Luckily through the kindness and help of two neighbours with very big tractors did we manage to get the truck out of that field.

These were the trials and tribulations of starting out in farming and business and making it up as we went along. But when all was said and done, we did what we did because we wanted to produce and sell sustainable food grown without chemicals, we wanted to do it whilst respecting nature and biodiversity and doing what we could for our planet in our own little corner of the world.

We did that and planted trees and hedgerows and food and got through those first few tough years. It struck me as the bean counters were totting up the figures for last year that although we are bigger now, we are back to the point of having to make difficult decisions to ensure we keep the farm and business afloat.

As Teagasc published another report detailing the pressures facing primary vegetable producers this week, with some farms closing their doors for good, and the amount of land area being farmed for vegetables decreasing due to the financial strain, it makes me wonder when will the value in good healthy fresh food be realised. When will the devaluation of fresh food by supermarkets end, when will they see the “value” rather than the “cost” in healthy fresh food.

As we look to the year ahead there is uncertainty. We are not sure what is to come, nobody is. This is our first ‘normal’ year in three years and for a business and farm it is hard to know what will be thrown at us, but whatever happens we will never compromise on our values.

Thank you for your support.

Kenneth

Cauliflower recipe roundup

by Simone Kelly

Cauliflower doesn’t just taste great, it’s also really good for you. It’s high in vitamins C and K, and is also a good source of folate, which supports cell growth and is essential during pregnancy. On top of that, it’s high in fiber, calcium and potassium.

Here are a few ideas if you’re unsure what to cook with cauliflower. Click on the bold part to go straight to the recipe.

enjoy x

Solidarity

by Kenneth Keavey

We all like to feel that we belong to something. At the very least we are all members of the human race, we have a nationality, we are from this county or that. There is of course much more to it than that, and on this day of all days, it seems relevant and right to speak about it.

The great Irish green wave can be seen far and wide on St Patrick’s day, a day when we celebrate being Irish and there are many things to celebrate, and food is certainly one of them.

Ireland is a nation of food producers; you would be forgiven then for asking the question why is it we import more than 70% of our vegetables. There are some pragmatic reasons for this. Next week we will come to the end of our Irish carrots, and we must import to fill the gap, the season is over. Seasonality is a major factor in supply. But when in season there should be no reason not to source Irish vegetables.

The Irish organic vegetable sector is a small niche within the overall Irish vegetable sector, which in itself is small. But there is something that makes the Irish organic sector special.

In my experience the Irish organic vegetable growers that I know are doing what they are doing because they believe in a better food system. They have no interest in putting chemicals on our food, they are interested and actively looking to improve conditions that help biodiversity thrive.  They plant trees, they manage and look after their soil, they are interested in protecting our planet and ensuring that they are doing what they can to mitigate climate change and finally they all want to produce healthy happy food. This I think is a shared and common belief.

Because when it comes down to it, why on earth would anybody start growing vegetables on a small scale in Ireland? Why, when it is impossible to compete with supermarket prices, when it is hard work for little return, there must be a bigger guiding principle.

These growers are opting to take the path less travelled because they believe it is the right thing to do.

The same could be said for you, you may be sitting at home or in your car or wherever you are reading this, you too are choosing a different path. We know it is more convenient to pick up your produce in the supermarket, we know you take the time and make the effort to read our little posts and order from us, some weeks, every week or once in a while.  This makes you part of a community of people that are taking action and making positive changes for our planet, because you value biodiversity and you value eating healthy food.

Earlier this year we planned out our farm, and I wrote about how we have cut back on growing certain crops.  We have passed on the responsibility for producing these crops to others organic growers here in Ireland, we know too that they share our values. At the time this was a difficult decision but now as I look at this in a new light I realise that in essence we are stronger together and that hopefully this small step will lead to a better stronger more resilient Irish organic vegetable sector.

So for the day that is in it, I would like to raise a glass to you for your continued and appreciated support, and to all the other Irish organic vegetables farmers out there, grappling with exactly the same challenges as us, we are all in it together!

Here’s to a greener future!

Kenneth

Swede recipe roundup

by Simone Kelly

A beautiful winter root vegetable, yet often overlooked – the humble Swede! Swedes are an excellent source of potassium, calcium, magnesium, and vitamins E and C. They also contain a moderate amount of folate, a B vitamin that’s important for metabolism, protein synthesis, and DNA replication. So they’re not just versatile and tasty, but really good for you! We grow swede each year right here on our farm, from seed. It’s beautiful to see them grow.

Here’s our Swede recipes – klick on the bold parts to get directly to the recipe page.

Enjoy x