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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Something that really upsets me is the fact that supermarkets not only sell fresh produce for next to nothing, but they also reject perfectly good produce, leading to increased food waste.
Have you ever seen a head of broccoli like the one in this video that weighs close to a kilogram and looks a bit wonky on a supermarket shelf? You will not, I think. They will never allow something like that for sale. More than likely the broccoli you get in supermarkets will be imported, will always be 400g, probably won’t be that fresh and will be wrapped in plastic and will usually be sprayed with chemicals and be very cheap. Did you know that a broccoli plant is quite big and will produce just one head in its lifespan? It takes quite a bit to bring a broccoli plant to harvest.
During the week I had a conversation with our potato grower, Cameron from Battlemountain Organic Farm. We needed to discuss potato pricing, we had a frank discussion and came to a fair agreement for him and for us, one we were both happy with.
If that conversation had went differently and it could have, then that would have been the end of our relationship and would have caused hardship for his farm. It would not have been fair, and it is certainly not our way. We are growers and we know a little about the costs and the challenges involved in producing and selling fresh organic produce and believe in paying fairly.
Supermarket buyers take a different approach to paying for their produce and this has led to the decimation of the Irish horticultural industry. Only 2% of farms in Ireland now grow vegetables.
The most recent national field vegetable census showed that the number of field vegetable growers fell from 377 in 1999 to 165 in 2014. That is a contraction of 56%.
But supermarkets want it all their own way, there is few countries where fresh produce is as devalued as it is here in Ireland. It really bothers me, obviously it bothers me because it makes it so difficult to stay in business with this backdrop, but it also bothers me because it undermines our food security and has caused untold damage to our indigenous vegetable industry.
Supermarkets demand the cheapest possible price and the most rigorous specifications leading to hardship for growers.
It is a broken food system. The funny thing is it would take very little to fix it, what if for example the specification on broccoli was relaxed to be above a certain weight, and if there was a slight increase in the price of the product and that went back to the grower and not to the supermarket, then that would fix a lot.
Your support keeps us in business and supports not only our own organic farm but many other Irish organic producers too.
Only five store cupboard ingredients are needed for this delicious, gluten-free, plant-based treat. Peanut butter can be used in place of the tahini, however when making for school lunchboxes, peanut butter should never be included as most schools have a no-nut policy in place. These bars are packed with fibre and slow-releasing carbohydrates, making them a good addition to any lunchbox.
In a small saucepan, over a low heat, melt the tahini, maple and coconut oil together, while stirring all the time. Once the mixture is fully combined, take from the heat.
Place the oats in a large bowl, pour over the wet mixture and stir well to combine.
Transfer to a parchment paper lined 20cm x 20cm tin. Place some parchment paper on top of the mixture and firmly press into place using the palm of your hand.
In another small saucepan, make the topping by melting together the coconut oil, cocoa powder and maple syrup. Stir well and once fully melted and combined pour over the oat base. Swirl the tin to evenly distribute the topping.
Place in the fridge for a few hours before cutting into squares. Can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days. Enjoy!
*Note – Even though oats are naturally gluten-free, some can be contaminated with gluten due to where they’re processed etc. so ensure the oats you’re using say ‘gluten free’ to make this a gluten-free treat.
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
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
Cut the courgettes into thin strips using a potato peeler. Leave to one side.
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.
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.
Take from the heat and stir through the pesto. Serve straightaway with some extra basil leaves and a few grinds of black pepper. Enjoy!
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!
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.
Handful of fresh basil & oregano leaves, roughly torn
Zest of ½ lemon
Lettuce leaves
Method
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.
Stir through the garlic, smoked paprika, chilli flakes, and a little salt, and a good grinding of black pepper.
Add the orzo and lentils, and stir to combine with the vegetables, before adding the tomatoes and stock.
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.
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.
‘No chemicals ever in our food chain’ It was a pretty simple idea, and before the thought of having to get certified or go down that regulation route (which you must do if you are to use the word “organic”) that was the cornerstone of our belief. No chemicals because chemicals, (and as somebody once said on Instagram all things are chemicals, and that is true enough), so let me clarify no synthetic manmade, toxic chemicals that kill living beings, kill plants, kills insects and bees, and damage our health, none of those chemicals will ever be used on our farm because they hurt us and they hurt the environment, they hurt the living things we share this planet with and it turns out they even damage our microbiome.
During the last few weeks as we were waiting patiently for our field of wild clovers and phacelia (For the bees) to come into its own there was a distinct absence of insect life. But in one particular part of our farm where we have our brassicas planted there was an abundance of bees and flies and butterflies. In this particular patch of ground (about 3 acres) the previous year we had sown the same mix of wildflowers we were waiting for in another field this year. These flowers had reseeded themselves and came up with the crops of broccoli, and cabbage and kale. They were earlier to mature and to flower as the seed was already in the ground and now, they were providing food and homes to 1000s of insects and bees.
If we had started our year as many conventional farmers do, then the first step would have been to treat this field with Roundup to kill all the plant life that resided there. There then would have been applications of more herbicides to supress any plants that survived the Roundup, followed by multiple rounds of pesticides and fungicides applications. You certainly would have had broccoli and cabbage and kale, but nothing else, no bees no flies, no wildflowers, no weeds here and there that provide homes to all these amazing pieces of our biodiverse puzzle.
So, it is with chemicals they remove parts of our ecosystem, and they are exceptionally good at being nonselective. From my days studying pharmaceuticals, the silver bullet was the holy grail, a highly selective therapeutic that would only target the disease and not healthy cells. An impossible panacea with traditional chemistry, and here farmers are being Advised to go out into fields with bucket loads of toxic chemicals and unload them on our food and nature indiscriminately. And I don’t care one bit for MRLs (maximum residue limits, which are generally set in conjunction with the manufacturer) they don’t protect us. Current predictions estimate the market for these crop chemicals to be nearly $330 billion by 2030! When there is that much money involved lets me clear it is not the planet that these companies want to take care of, it is the same as the petrochemical industry or the tobacco industry.
So here is to food and a food system minus all these toxic destructive chemicals.
This loaf is packed with flavour, bursting with nutrients, and it’s plant-based too. We’ve lots of courgettes ready for picking on the farm and they make for such a versatile vegetable. Apart from their savoury uses, they add a delicious moistness when incorporated into cakes and bakes. The courgettes pairs nicely with the blueberries in this loaf. These blueberries are perfectly plump and are organically grown by Banner Berries in Co. Clare.
This loaf can be enjoyed as it is, by the slice, or served with a dollop of your favourite plant-based yogurt, a dusting of icing sugar and a few extra blueberries on the side.
Start by making the soy ‘buttermilk’ and the chia ‘eggs’. Place the soy milk in a mug and add the cider vinegar. Stir to combine and leave to sit for 15 minutes. Place the chia seeds in a small bowl. Add the water and let sit for at least 5 minutes to thicken and become gel-like. In another bowl, combine the caster sugar with the lemon zest. Rub together. Take 1 tablespoon of the lemon sugar and place in a small bowl, reserving it for the topping.
Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C /Gas Mark 6.
Place the flour, oats and all of the lemon sugar apart from the tablespoon for the topping, into a large bowl. Add the courgette and blueberries. Stir well to combine, before adding the soymilk mixture, soaked chia seeds, sunflower oil and vanilla extract.
Stir well to combine and transfer to a greased and lined 2lb loaf tin. Evenly, sprinkle over the lemon sugar. Place in the preheated oven for 65-70 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean.
Take from the tin and allow to fully cool before removing the greaseproof paper and cutting. Enjoy!
