we won a national organic award!

by Kenneth Keavey

You have heard the story about the frog in the pot of boiling water? He didn’t even notice, did he? and then it was too late, well it seems at least for now we are not that frog.

Minister of State, Pippa Hackett, Jim O’Toole, CEO Bord Bia and Kenneth Keavey, Green Earth Organics withat Bord Bia’s National Organic Awards which took place today at an awards ceremony this morning in the Bord Bia Global Hub, Dublin. Green Earth Organics was announced as the winner of the Direct to Consumer Excellence Award. For more information visit bordbia.ie

There are few wins in agriculture, it is a tough job, and retail as a small business selling fresh produce, is probably just about as challenging as it gets. But last week we won, and we won on the national level, making us one of only seven companies to receive a national organic award and we are delighted, over the moon in fact. It was amazing to receive the recognition that we are indeed getting some bits right.

It is only through the sheer determination, hard work and dedication of the people that work and support Green Earth Organics that we were able to come top of our category and receive such a prestigious accolade. To be in the same room with some of the big powerhouses of retail and agriculture such as Flahavans and Dunnes Stores and to come away with an award for best in category “Direct to Consumer” was overwhelming. It was a double win. Coming off the back of the two worst growing years in at least our 18-year history, and a retail environment where it is next to impossible to compete and succeed with the backdrop that the supermarkets paint, that we won. It is encouragement that couldn’t have come at a better time. I will forego modesty for this moment, it was an amazing achievement, and one that we are proud of and will relish. It is rare to know that you are not the frog in the boiling water, you know the story.

The awards showed us that we are not that frog. There have been plenty of times in the last 24 months, were we certainly felt like the water was heating, the increased costs of doing business and farming, the ravaging of our climate through man made emissions that is exacerbating our ability to grow crops. The difficulty in competing in a landscape where fresh produce is devalued and used as loss leaders. Throw into the mix six months of other challenges of our own making a new IT system that very nearly broke us, and you have the perfect storm.

For all of that, we have never been more committed to our mission of creating a more sustainable food system, one that respects biodiversity through the elimination of the use of chemicals and through the production of local food, to reduce our contribution to man-made climate breakdown.

It is through your support that we get to do this to stand up for the values: to protect our planet, and our land, and biodiversity, and to reduce plastic pollution and to ensure our food is free from chemicals.

As Margret Meade stated you are those citizens.“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”

Kenneth

Puff Pastry ‘Pumpkins’

by Nessa Robins

There is an abundance of Irish apples currently in season and turning them into a delicious dessert the whole family can enjoy is a lovely way to enjoy them. These little puff pastries are the perfect treat to make over the Halloween holidays. There is no doubt eating an apple raw is the best way to enjoy it nutritionally, however even when cooked they are still a good source of dietary fibre. Most shop bought puff pastry is dairy free, making it a great staple to have to hand for a speedy sweet or savoury dish. These pastries can be enjoyed hot from the oven with a scoop of your favourite dairy-free ice-cream or, when cooled, packed into a lunchbox to tuck into as a snack on an autumn walk.

Enjoy!

Nessa x

Puff Pastry ‘Pumpkins’

Ingredients

To serve

  • Icing sugar
  • Cinnamon sticks
  • Sage leaves

Method

  1. Take the pastry from the fridge and leave to rest at room temperature for 20 minutes before using. 
  2. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C /Gas Mark 6. Line a large baking tray with parchment paper.
  3. Unroll the pastry and cut into thin strips.
  4. Slice the apples and remove the inner core of each slice using the end of a piping nozzle to cut out a circle. 
  5. Add the caramel sauce to a small bowl. In another bowl, mix the sugar and cinnamon.
  6. Dip each apple slice in the caramel before coating well in the sugar/cinnamon mixture.
  7. Carefully, wrap the pastry strips around each apple slice. Place the wrapped apple slices on the baking tray. Brush with a little milk and sprinkle over some more of the cinnamon sugar.
  8. Bake in the preheated oven for about 20 minutes. Once baked place on a wire rack to cool.
  9. To serve, dust with icing sugar, and to make these little pastries resemble mini pumpkins, pop a cinnamon stick plus a couple of sage leaves into the centre of each one. Enjoy!

Mushroom Pâté – Vegan

by Nessa Robins

Mushrooms make for a nutritious addition to the diet as they’re a source of fibre, protein, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. This mushroom pâté can be made a couple of days in advance, and it’s best served with slices of lightly toasted crusty bread and crunchy vegetables. However, it can also be used as a delicious stir-in pasta sauce; simply stir through some hot cooked pasta with a little of the pasta cooking water, add a few gratings of black pepper, and you’ll have a speedy and tasty supper in minutes.  

Enjoy!

Nessa x

Mushroom Pâté

Ingredients

  • 1tbsp olive oil
  • 1 small onion, diced
  • 25g vegan butter
  • 250g mushrooms, sliced
  • Freshly ground pepper
  • 3 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 sprig of thyme, leaves only
  • 200g vegan cream cheese
  • To serve – finely chopped chives, rainbow carrots, radishes  

Method

1. Add the olive oil to a small saucepan over a low heat. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring regularly, for about ten minutes, until the onion is soft but not coloured. Take from the heat and leave to one side.

2. Add the butter to a large pan, over a medium heat. Add the sliced mushrooms, season with a few grinds of black pepper. Turn up the heat and fry, stirring regularly, for about 5 minutes.  Once the mushrooms are cooked, stir in the garlic and thyme, and continue to cook for about 1 minute, stirring continuously. Take from the heat and leave to cool. 

3. Once the onions and mushrooms are completely cooled, add them to a high-powered processor along with the cream cheese and blitz until smooth. Refrigerate for at least an hour before serving, and up to 3 days. Serve with a sprinkle of finely chopped chives, some crusty bread, and thin slices of vegetables. 

We won a national organic award!

by Kenneth Keavey

This blog has two parts this week, the first bit was an unexpected happy moment that occurred only yesterday:

We won a national organic award! We won the best “direct to the consumer” award and we are delighted. Thank you so much to Bord Bia and to all the judges for looking at our business and for giving us the thumbs up. It is absolutely a credit to everybody who works at Green Earth Organics that we won, the hard work and dedication, innovation and integrity of the whole team on our farm made achieving the award possible.

Against the backdrop of two very challenging growing seasons, and many growers opting to get out of the business altogether, the award couldn’t have come at a better time.

So, thank you to everybody who works here, thanks to all you our customers who keep us in business, and thank you to the judges for recognising it all. We are very grateful.

In Ireland in 2021 there were 3 million kgs of pesticides applied, and in that same year the dept of agriculture tested 1,039 fruit, vegetable and fungi samples mostly imported and found than 60% had detectable limits of pesticides, and 5.3% had higher levels that what was deemed safe.

It has always been clear to me from a young age that spraying chemicals indiscriminately in nature was wrong.  Now I can’t say I understood why I felt this way or why I felt that our planet needed to be protected from ourselves but that is the way I was programmed.

As a scientist I understand the role science plays in our lives and in facilitating the production of food for so many people. But we have been to an extent conditioned to think that we need all these chemicals to grow food, it is not unlike the pharmaceutical industries desire to have us taking preventative maintenance doses of some of their drugs for life.

So here is the thing we have a perfectly amazing way to reduce our chances of getting sick. Being healthy indeed can be our default setting, but it seems that not unlike our natural world we too have developed a deep sense of physical and mental malaise. We are in a word not well.

The common scientific perception is that chemicals in small doses are not harmful to life. There certainly is some validity in this statement and this piece is not about engendering fear, far from it.  It is about increasing awareness about how our food choices can have a remarkable positive effect on our lives and our environment.

So, taking low level doses on a daily basis of chemicals in our diet is not how at least I want to live my life. I get it that the scientists use terms like MRLS (maximum residue limit) to reassure us that our food is are, after all that is their job. But is it really? And how do they decide and who is they anyway? Well, they use all sorts of things like acute toxicity and extrapolations and lifetime consumption assumptions.

Talk of the gut Microbiome is everywhere these days and rightly so, its importance is only beginning to be understood. There is little doubt that the myriad of beneficial bacteria that inhabit our intestines play a major role in our health, from depression to inflammation.

So, it’s with interest that I discovered a couple of articles that link the constant imbibing of pesticides into our bodies not only damage our cells but also all the myriad of microbes that live in our gut and you guessed it it is not a positive feedback loop we are talking about here. You can if you are inclined read the article here.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9279132/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41396-023-01450-9

It is no coincidence then that these pesticides that kill plants or organisms and damage the microbial life in the living soil also damage and kill the good bacteria in our gut.

As always thank you for your support.

Kenneth

Yellow Vegetable Curry  – Vegan

by Nessa Robins

Pumpkins and butternut squash are from the same plant family and are both currently in season. They can easily be interchangeable in recipes and make for a nutritious addition to any curry or casserole. They are packed full of vitamins and minerals and are also a rich source of fibre, which is essential for optimal gut health. Preparing the pumpkin or butternut squash is the most time-consuming part of this recipe, so to aid with the preparation of an otherwise speedy curry dish, I normally peel and cube the squash ahead of time and store in a sealed container in the fridge until ready to use. It will keep perfectly when stored this way for up to three days. This curry tastes just as good the day after it is made, so keep a bowl aside in the fridge for the next day’s lunch. 

Enjoy!

Nessa x

Yellow Vegetable Curry 

Ingredients

Method

  1. Over a medium heat, add the olive oil to a large saucepan. Once it has heated through add the onion and turn down the heat. Sauté over a low heat, stirring regularly. Add the garlic and stir through, before adding the curry paste and a few grinds of black pepper. Stir to combine.
  2. Next, add all the remaining ingredients to the pot. Place the lid on the pot. Once it starts to bubble, turn the heat to low and simmer for 50 minutes, stirring regularly. 
  3. To serve, ladle into bowls, serve alongside some boiled brown rice, scatter over some fresh coriander leaves, and add a dollop of coconut yogurt.  

Why are all the Irish vegetable farmers disappearing?

by Kenneth Keavey

I remember distinctly our first year of growing, which was 20 years ago, it was before we officially started our business, it was my first year back in Ireland after spending 11 years in the UK, it was on a small vegetable patch in my grandads back garden, it was amazingly rewarding and to get food at the end of it was a bonus.

We have been growing organic vegetables here on our farm in Galway for nearly 20 years.

We have seen many changes over that time, but something that has never changed has been our commitment to sustainable local food. We are Irish and grow Irish and support Irish and always have since we started delivering our first boxes in 2004.

Something that has changed since then is the price that the supermarket pays for and charges for fresh produce in the supermarket, which has decreased. Since 2007 the average price paid for 1kg of fresh vegetables has decreased from €1.87/kg in December 2007 to €1.46 in August 2020. This represents a 21% decrease in price paid for fresh produce over 13 years when everything else has been going up.

Back in 2007 the minimum wage was €8.65, that has since risen to €13.50 in 2025, representing a 56% increase in the cost of labour alone. This is one cost of many that has increased, fertiliser, energy, packaging, general farm inputs have all increased dramatically over that time, and yet the retailers have consistently and unrelentingly driven down the price paid for produce.

It is also a fallacy to state that the retailer takes the hit on the price promotions in stores, there and it is the added impact of driving down the price a farmer can get for his or her produce elsewhere.

There is a glimmer of change driven by consumer demand for Irish produce, where Irish producers can now demand a little more for what they are producing. The reality when you walk into any of these large supermarket stores is that they are promoting supporting Irish when mostly the produce is imported, have a look at our video or check it out for yourself when you are next in a supermarket.

The pressure and race to the bottom have driven a lot of good growers out of business, and now as the supermarkets feel the pressure from the consumer and sense the marketing opportunities to show themselves as the saviour of the industry, they are promoting with all their vigour the support for the Irish vegetable farmer.

It’s the sad reality that after 20 years of hollowing out the industry they now want to turn the other cheek, but only ever so slightly, not too much, and not enough in many cases. Any increase in price paid must still be fought for tooth and nail, and after years of devaluing the produce it looks like a very poor effort indeed.

But any change in mindset is being driven by one thing and that is completely down to you,

you the consumer demanding more local Irish produce.

We have growers all over the country of Ireland, from Joe Kelly in Mayo, To Padraigh Fahy and Una Ni Bhroin in Beechlawn in Galway, to Enda Hoban and Orla Burke in Galway, Audrey and Mick in Millhouse organic farm, Cameron in Battlemountain organic farm, Philip in Coolnagrower organic farm in Offally, Richard Galvin with his Irish organic apples in Waterford. Banner berries with their amazing blueberries in Clare, Donnelly with his organic cherries in Dublin, then there is Garynahinch mushrooms, McArdles mushrooms, and leeks from Roy Lyttle in Antrim, plus Joachim and Jeanette in Galway also. And of course, our own amazing organic farm where Emmanuel and his team grow a whole range of fresh Irish organic produce. All of these growers are Irish, all are organic, and all are committed to growing sustainable produce. With your support we get to bypass the juggernaut of the supermarket buying machine, and all the damage it leaves in its wake, and we get to support ourselves and all these amazing other growers, but only and very much because of your support.

Thank you.

Kenneth

Mushroom Burgers – Vegan

by Nessa Robins

It’s now peak mushroom season in Ireland, and we’ve a great variety of them available to pick up in our online store. When preparing mushrooms for cooking they should never be washed, as they are porous and will retain this water which will interfere with their texture and flavour when cooked. However, their ability to retain fluids works perfectly for this recipe as the mushrooms are marinated in a flavoursome mixture which adds an extra level of deliciousness to these burgers. I’ve made a simple plant-based burger sauce, which works nicely with the cooked mushrooms, along with a layer of lettuce and slices of our juicy tomatoes. 

Enjoy!

Nessa x

Mushroom Burgers

Ingredients

  • 2 large portobello mushrooms
  • 1tbsp soy sauce
  • 1tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1tsp olive oil
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper

For the sauce

To serve

Method

  1. Prepare the mushrooms by removing the stems and lightly brushing away any dirt. In a bowl, combine the soy sauce, balsamic vinegar, olive oil and garlic, along with a little salt and pepper. Whisk to combine, before adding to a bag along with the mushrooms. This allows the mushrooms to better soak up the marinade. Place in the fridge for about an hour.
  2. Make the sauce by combining the mayonnaise, gherkin liquid, gherkin, mustard, and garlic in a small bowl. Place in the fridge until ready to use.
  3. Place an oven-proof griddle pan over a medium heat. Add a drizzle of olive oil, once hot add the mushrooms. Cook for about 5 minutes on each side. 
  4. Preheat the grill. With the mushrooms underside up, place a slice of plant-based cheese on top. Place the pan under the grill for about two minutes, until the cheese starts to bubble. 
  5. Remove straight away and layer into the toasted bun with the burger sauce, lettuce, and slices of tomato. 

We all get sick sometimes

by Kenneth Keavey

We all get sick sometimes, but when something serious comes along how we define what is important to us can change significantly. There is little doubt that without our health we have very little. All it takes is to be laid up in bed with a serious dose of the flu to know that being sick can be serious. The prevalence of chronic disease in our current age is frightening, it is unfortunately a reflection on how we as a society have evolved. Our eating habits, working habits, exercising habits, have steadily changed and not for the better over the last 50 years.


But what has happened to our food is very concerning. Obviously, the ultra-processed
rubbish that is designed to be irresistible is very unhealthy, and we would in all seriousness
be better off eating cardboard. But it is often said that it is not what we do occasionally that
is the problem it is what we do every day that causes the benefit or the damage. Those
things we eat everyday are one of the keys to our health.
Our bodies are amazing machines and when we are young, we can cope at least for a
while with just about anything, but as we grow older things start to take a greater tole on our
health. So it is with our food, at least in my opinion the chemicals on conventional food must
over time do damage, they hurt us on the inside and they do it gradually over years. I
remember years ago my biology teacher telling me if you irritate something for long enough
you will cause cancer.
I know I am fortunate and can afford to consume organic food as I have it all around me, I
don’t take that for granted. Ironically, for health reasons I have a restricted diet and one of
the things I can eat are blueberries. Over the last couple of weeks, we haven’t been able to
source organic blueberries as we do not buy airfreighted produce. So, I bought some
conventional blueberries in a shop. I think they tasted a little odd, I ate them anyway. But I
decided to investigate this a little and here is what I found:
In 2024 Pesticides were found on 90 percent of conventional blueberry samples, compared
to 81 percent in 2014.  80 percent of samples had two or more pesticides, versus 70
percent in 2014. A single sample of blueberries could have up to 17 different pesticide
residues, compared to 13 in 2014. Reference here.

This information is relevant to the US, but many of the blueberries on Irish supermarket
shelves come from all over the world and could have the same residues. The most
troubling pesticides found on blueberries were phosmet and malathion, chemicals known as
organophosphate insecticides. They kill many types of insects and are toxic to the human
nervous system.  

Not only are conventional blueberries on the list of items to source organically if you can,
but green beans, peppers, and kale were also singled out. We have sourced organic
blueberries again, the first new European harvest from Spain. I write this piece to once
again highlight the difference between conventional food production and organic. Don’t we
deserve to known about these unseen extras?
So anyway, I am looking forward to getting the first new season organic non airfreighted
blueberries next week. They won’t be as good as the Irish ones we had a few weeks ago,
but they will be pretty good.


As always thank you for your support


Kenneth

Spicy Peanut Noodles – Vegan

by Nessa Robins

These spicy peanut noodles are so delicious and packed full of nutritious ingredients. I’ve used udon noodles in the recipe, but any noodles of choice can be used. This dish only takes minutes to assemble, and even though it is best enjoyed on the day it is made, it will keep well in the fridge for up to two days. 

Enjoy!

Nessa x

Spicy Peanut Noodles

Ingredients

  • 300g udon noodles
  • 1 carrot, grated
  • ½ courgette, grated
  • Handful of kale, finely chopped
  • Handful coriander leaves
  • 2tbsp peanuts, roughly chopped
  • 2tbsp sesame seeds

For the sauce

To serve

  • 2 scallions, finely sliced
  • 1 red chilli, finely sliced

Method

  1. Cook the noodles according to the instructions on the pack. Once cooked, add to a colander and rinse well under cold running water. 
  2. Roughly grate the carrot and courgette into a bowl. Using a paper towel, press down on the grated vegetables to soak up any excess water. 
  3. Add the grated carrot and courgette to a large bowl along with the cooled noodles, kale, coriander leaves, peanuts, and sesame seeds.
  4. To make the sauce, add the peanut butter, vinegar, soy sauce, honey, sesame oil, sriracha, and a dash of boiling water to a bowl. Whisk together using a fork. Pour over the noodles and vegetables and stir well to combine. 
  5. To serve, top with the sliced scallion and chilli. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two days. 

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