Party Food

by Liz Child

We are celebrating 15 years of business this week and we’d love you to celebrate with us! To say thank you for all your support we are offering a whopping 15% discount code to anyone who wants one until the 6th of June 2021. Just fill out this form to receive your code. (Please pass the form link on to your friends and family too. We’d be honoured to have them onboard this sustainable food journey.)

There’s never been a better time to treat yourself! Add some bottles of organic wine or chocolates to your order, some cheese and crackers, some pantry ingredients to make a cake… Here are a few recipes to inspire you if you are planning a party too! Just click on the titles to be taken to the recipe blog.

Liz x

Grazing Boards

Create a snack feast for the eyes as well as the tummies with a grazing board. Perfect to feed a crowd with drinks.

Devilled ‘Eggs’

These vegan devilled eggs are a bit of retro fun with a twist. Lightly pickled mushrooms filled with a delicious chickpea purée. Canapés anyone?

Easy Peasy Pizza Party

Make your party-planning life easier with our organic pizza bases (we sell a gluten free one too), jars of ready made tomato sauce, pesto, cheese, olives, capers and more. Perfect pizza every time!

Show-Stopping Salads

Create vibrant, fresh salads with our range of incredible, organic ingredients. The Jay & Joy range of vegan cheeses are just brilliant paired with juicy fruits and crunchy fresh leaves. Add some salty olives and fresh herbs and red onions and you’re in heaven.

Let Them Eat Cake

What’s a party without cake? There are loads to choose from on our recipe blog here. But these are my top 3 to bring out at a party!

Beetroot Chocolate Brownie

Raw Millionaire Shortbread

Classic Chocolate Celebration Cake

Chocolate Celebration Cake

by Liz Child

It’s our 15 year business-birthday and this classic chocolate cake recipe is the one I roll out for all our human-birthdays, so I thought I’d share it with you this week. It makes the best cupcakes too! I love having this recipe up my sleeve, it’s very simple to put together and completely indistinguishable from cakes containing eggs and dairy. The recipe is easy to switch to a vanilla cake too if you’re not in the mood for chocolate. Simply replace the cacao powder in the sponge with more flour and in the buttercream icing with more icing sugar and add some vanilla essence. Easy!

Liz x

Ingredients

  • 1 & 1/2 mugs plain flour
  • 1/2 mug cacao powder (replace with plain flour & 2 tsp vanilla if making vanilla sponge)
  • 1 mug caster sugar (or our whole cane sugar works well in a chocolate cake here too)
  • 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 1 pinch salt
  • 1 mug oat milk (of any milk you like)
  • 1/2 mug oil (neutral sunflower or rapeseed oil work well)
  • 1 tsp cider vinegar
  • 150g butter
  • 450g icing sugar
  • 50g cacao powder (replace with 50g icing sugar if making vanilla icing)
  • 2 tbsp oat milk (replace with 1 tbsp vanilla if making vanilla icing)

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 175C fan and line two sandwich tins with baking parchment (or pop 12 large cup cake cases into a muffin tin).
  2. Measure the flour, cacao powder, caster sugar, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
  3. Add the oat milk, oil and vinegar and whisk until you have a smooth, shiny batter. Do not over-mix though as this can make the cake come out a little tough!
  4. Divide the batter into the two tins (or into the 12 muffin cases) and bake until risen and cooked through. In 2 cake tins this takes 20 minutes or so, 1 deeper cake takes about 30-40 minutes, in muffin cases this takes about 8-10 minutes. Keep an eye on the cakes – they are cooked when an inserted skewer comes out clean.
  5. Let the cakes cool slightly in the tins before carefully removing them onto a cooling rack.      Allow the cakes to cool completely before icing. 
  6. Measure the butter into a large mixing bowl, let it come to room temperature and soften slightly.
  7. Sieve the icing sugar and cacao powder in the bowl then mash into the butter with a fork. This step just stops icing sugar from flying around your kitchen when you whisk it.
  8. Add the oat milk and whisk with an electric whisk until light, fluffy and creamy. You may need to add a touch more oat milk but be careful! Add just a tiny amount at a time, too much milk will make the icing too runny to spread.
  9. Spread the icing on the cake however you like. Use a palette knife or a piping bag and decorate to your liking. I like the combination of chocolate and raspberries so always add lots of fresh, juicy berries to my chocolate cakes. 
  10. Enjoy a big slice with a hot drink. The cake stays fresh in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days or in the fridge for 4-5 days. It freezes well for up to 3 months.

It’s Our Birthday!

by Kenneth Keavey

15 years ago, on the 26th of May 2006 we delivered our first thirty boxes. In truth the journey began long before that in the endless summers working with my dad in our vegetable garden. 

It has been an epic journey one that has pushed us right to the edge on many occasions, but it was our founding vision for the business which never changed, and never will that got us through. 

“To protect the environment and improve people’s health by inspiring people to reconnect with their food and how it is produced.”

If not for our vision we would have quit, I have little doubt of that, it was just too hard, we didn’t have the know how to grow food, we didn’t know how to run a business, we didn’t know how to deal with customers, in essence we didn’t really know what we were doing at all, but we knew WHY we were doing it!

In our first year we had a visit from the local Garda to check that we were growing ‘only’ vegetables in our new ‘fancy’ polytunnel, if you know what I mean. We were told by several people that we were crazy (we were), it couldn’t be done (it could), that you had to use Roundup (you didn’t), that it would be so hard (it was, still is) that we would be better off going back to our jobs (we never considered it and we had very good jobs!). 

At the same time, it was the encouragement of our friends and family and our early team members that pulled us through on the dark days, and made the bright days seems all the brighter.  My Dad helped us so much, he never said no, was always there, he entrusted us with his dad’s farm.

In the early days Jenny and I and my dad did it all, we packed, we farmed, we harvested, we delivered, we raised a family, we build a house we went through some pretty intense and harrowing times. We seem to have survived a major recession and year on year growth and here we are today 15 years later, who would have thought?

Now our team has grown there are nearly 40 individuals supported by our business.

In the early days many decisions were taken without due consideration or analysis, there simply wasn’t the time or the resource for it, it was a go with your gut feeling, take a chance, plant a new crop, take on a failed business, build a new packing shed, invest in solar panels and rain-watering harvesting, expand our farm, add new employees, just do it. 

But always there was the idea that we were doing this for a bigger cause, something that was so much bigger than any of us, something that was worth going through the pain for.

Now it is you, our customers, you are our supporters now. You supported us when we needed it most, you support us now, you are contributing to our continued success, you are contributing to so much more, because in the end you are supporting our vision. Which I guess is also your vision and we need you, and the planet needs you more than ever before. 

The reality is you can make a difference, your decisions do make a difference, your voice can change the world, your support allows us to continue doing all the things we do, so THANK YOU SO, SO MUCH, we couldn’t have done it without you, and we look forward to another fantastic 15 years!

Kenneth

Support our small, sustainable business by setting up a repeat order here of the tastiest organic fruit and veg we can grow and source. We source locally when in season, then from our organic farm contacts from further afield. We never airfreight! Add organic groceries to your order for convenience, we deliver to every address in Ireland!

Ultimate Green Smoothie

by Liz Child

Green smoothies are not a punishment! Mine is sweet, creamy and deliciously refreshing! Give it a try, it’s full of goodness!

🌱SPINACH is high in iron, calcium and vitamins C and K.

💪TAHINI is a great source of healthy fats, protein, B vitamins and vitamin E.

🍌BANANAS are an excellent source of potassium, B6 and energy-giving carbohydrates. They’re also a brilliant prebiotic with a high fibre content.

🌴DATES are a natural sweetener, high in fibre, antioxidants and minerals.

🌾OAT MILK is environmentally friendly, high in fibre and deliciously creamy.

Add the certified organic ingredients to your next order here. We deliver to every address in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Liz x

Ingredients

  • spinach or kale – rinsed, one large handful per person
  • banana – half of one per person (chopped and frozen for an extra creamy texture)
  • dates – pitted, 1 or 2 per person for added sweetness
  • tahini – 1 heaped tsp per person
  • oat milk (or any milk you like) – 1/2 a glass per person
  • optional ice – especially good if your banana is not frozen
watch the easy method here or read on below

Method

Add all the ingredients to a strong blender and blend until smooth.

Pour into glasses and drink immediately.

TOP TIPS: *If you don’t have frozen banana, add a couple of ice cubes per person to the blender too for a chilled smoothie. *If your blender is not very strong, soak the dates before blending to help them break down faster.

Steamed Artichokes & Asparagus with Wild Garlic Butter

by Liz Child

I love perennial vegetables and think we should all be eating more of them! Perennials are vegetables and fruits which are planted once and come back year after year. They could be a key solution in the fight against hunger and climate change. Perennials develop longer, more stabilising roots than annual crops. That and the fact that there is no digging once they are planted means they are the best crops for soil health. Their long, undisturbed root systems have also been shown to sequester carbon in the soil. Undisturbed crops like artichokes, especially organically grown ones, create wildlife havens and putting back a balance of biodiversity in any agricultural land is so important!

So add perennials like asparagus and artichokes (rhubarb, fruits, nuts, olives…) to your order whenever they are in season to show your support to this climate friendly type of farming and to enjoy the incredible flavour and nutrition that comes along with them. Here’s my favourite way to enjoy these two crops every spring. It’s so simple and so delicious.

Liz x

Getting close to the tender heart of the artichoke

Ingredients (serves 2)

  • 2 globe artichokes
  • 1 bundle of asparagus
  • 2 slices of lemon
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 2 bay leaves
  • wild garlic butter (wild garlic blended with butter)
  • toast and cheese (I used my fermented cashew cheese)

Method

Rinse the asparagus and artichokes and get a pot of water under your steamer basket on the hob. I like to add lemon slices, garlic and bay leaves to the steaming water to infuse into the vegetables.

Prepare the artichokes. Slice an inch or so off the tops, remove any small leaves on the steam and trim the steam leaving a good inch or two still attached to the flower head. Use kitchen scissors to cut the spiky top off all the outer petals. You can also use a potato peeler or a sharp knife to peel the stalk.

Put the artichokes into the steamer basket, replace the lid and allow them to steam for at least 20 minutes. They are done when you can easily pull a petal off.

Prepare the asparagus spears by simply snapping off the woody ends. Carefully bend the end and it should break off just past the dried out, tougher woody ends. Those can go in the compost bin or into the freezer to be used in a homemade veggie stock.

Once the artichokes are steamed, add the asparagus spears to the steamer and cook them for just 3-5 minutes or so until they are tender but still with some bite.

Serve with melted wild garlic butter or your choice of dip (aioli, salsa verde, hollandaise, vinaigrette…) and some toast and cheese. I melted a slice of wild garlic butter for each of us and can highly recommend it.

Eat the artichokes by pulling off one petal at a time and dipping it in the melted butter. Then scrape off the tender part with your teeth and keep going until you reach the heart.

On top of the heart is a fibrous, hairy ‘choke’. Scrape this off using a teaspoon or a knife.

Then eat the delicious heart and as much of the stem that is tender.

The petals and choke can then be composted. Have a bowl on the table to collect them in as you go.

The asparagus is also incredible dunked in the wild garlic butter. Enjoy!

Kimcheese

by Liz Child

So you’ve made my kimchi and you’ve got a lot of brine left over in the jar after eating it up. Here’s one delicious way to use up that potent, beneficial bacteria infused liquid. Whatever you do, don’t throw it away! If you don’t fancy making this fermented cashew nut cheese with it, drizzle it over rice or noodles or add it to your Bloody Mary in place of tabasco!

Here’s the simple method. If you don’t have your own homemade ferments to inoculate the nuts, then we sell raw, unpasteurised, organic, Irish ferments here which you can add to your next fruit and veg order. You don’t have to use kimchi brine, any left over brine from a fermented product will work.

Liz x

Ingredients

watch the easy method here or read on below

Method

No need for exact measurements. Just put a volume of cashews nuts that you want in your strongest blender.

Add brine from a ferment. It doesn’t really matter how much you add, as long as it is raw and unpasteurised it should have enough bacteria to kick start the fermenting process. Adding more brine will create a stronger flavour of the ferment and a looser, creamier cheese. Less brine will create a thicker cheese.

Blend the nuts and brine until completely smooth and creamy. Taste and add salt to your liking.

Then scrape the cashew cream into a very clean jar. Try to keep it tidy, use a flexible spatular to scrape down the sides and a piece of kitchen paper to wipe around the sides.

Put the lid on the jar and leave it at room temperature in a shady part of your kitchen to ferment to your liking. This could take anywhere between 12 hours and a week depending on how active your starter brine is and how warm your kitchen its. Just keep an eye on it. You’ll notice air bubbles forming as it ferments.

Give it a taste and if it’s sufficiently tangy then it’s ready to be stored in the fridge for about 2 weeks. Use it on crackers, toast or bagels, wraps and sandwiches, as a dip with salad and crudités… anywhere you like soft, creamy, tangy cheese. Enjoy!

Jambalaya

by Liz Child

Jambalaya is a delicious one-pot rice dish from Louisiana, a cultural melting pot with French, Caribbean and African influences. It’s a little like a paella but some of the ingredients and seasonings are different. Rather than saffron, the main flavours are cayenne pepper and thyme with smokiness from the sausages and smoked paprika.

We just added these new vegan smoked sausages to our shop so I just had to try them in a jambalaya and they work perfectly! Head to our shop and add them to your next fruit and veg order to give them a try. Liz x

add organic groceries and extra veg to your regular box order – we deliver all over Ireland

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 2 tbsp olive oil (plus extra for drizzling)
  • 1 onion
  • 3 sticks of celery
  • 2 peppers (any colour of a mix)
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • 2 packs of smoked sausages (or substitute with mushrooms and red beans plus some extra smoked paprika)
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 heaped tsp smoked paprika (plus extra)
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste)
  • 3 tsp dried thyme (or fresh is even better)
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 mug basmati rice
  • 1 tin chopped tomatoes (or 4 chopped fresh tomatoes)
  • 2 limes
watch how it’s made here or read on below

Method

Pre-heat your oven to 200C and find an oven and hob safe pan with a lid. Alternatively you could use a baking dish and some tin foil or a baking sheet. Instead of sautéing on the hob, the base ingredients can be roasted in the oven.

Start by dicing your onion, celery and peppers and sautéing them with the olive oil until just starting to soften.

Then chop the garlic and add it to the pan.

Cut the smoked sausages into bite size pieces and add them to the pan too. Then sauté everything together, stirring often, to seal the ingredients and so they start to caramelise and take on some colour. This takes about 10 minutes.

Add the herbs and spices to the pan and season with salt and pepper – stir to combine.

Rinse the mug of basmati rice and add it to the pan along with the tin of chopped tomatoes. Add two tins of water then stir to evenly disperse all the ingredients. Taste the broth and adjust the seasoning if needed with more salt or spices.

Put the lid on the pot and let it come up to a gentle boil. As soon as it is hot and bubbling, move the pan into the oven, lid on, so that the rice can bake and absorb all the liquid. This should take about 20 minutes for white rice.

Once the rice has absorbed all the liquid, remove the lid and you can serve it as it is or return it to the oven for a further 5 minutes with wedges of lime, a drizzle of olive oil and a sprinkle of smoked paprika. This creates a delicious crust on the rice and lightly charrs the lime wedges, making them sweet and extra juicy.

Serve with the roasted lime wedges to squeeze over the rice and a simple green salad. Enjoy!

Rekindling our Connection with Food

by Kenneth Keavey
Bees and other pollinators enjoying the kale we leave to flower each year

The art of producing food is marvellous and tough, and on sunny days it is a privilege.

We talk about food all the time here, we grow it, we sow the seeds, we watch the plants grow, we fertilise the soil, we control the weeds and hope we have the right mix to ensure the plants grow healthy and pest free.

We spend the time in between managing the crops, maintaining the land, planting trees, growing hedging, sowing wildflowers for the bees, harnessing the power of the sun, these are all things we do.

We see first-hand the connection between the fresh produce and the cooked food on our plate. We can see how the process of growing healthy food from healthy soil creates local employment and impacts on our locality positively. Sustainable agriculture is good for all and it benefits the environment immeasurably.

Natures’ pest control – a healthy balance on predators and prey naturally occurs on organic farms

We see more bees, and flies, and insects on our farm and we feel there is a balance as we rarely see an out-of-control pest issue. We see more birds, and wild life, we see the land thrive, just this week I saw a giant hare saunter past one of our polytunnels.

Not only that, but organic food is so much better for us, of course it hasn’t been sprayed and so is free of harmful chemicals, but it is also just better nutritionally.

Weed burning rather than spraying chemicals before we plant out this years’ crops

A comprehensive study carried out by David Thomas has demonstrated a remarkable decrease in mineral content in fresh produce over 50 years, comparing food grown in 1941 to food grown in 1991. To the extent that today you would need to eat 6 apples to get the same nutritional value you got in 1941 from eating 5 apples. In some cases mineral levels have dropped by as much as 70%.  

The use of highly soluble fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides and the intensive production of food has led to land that is lifeless and food that is less healthy and less nutritionally dense, this reflects the remarkable connection between our food and the health of our soil. 

There is no way we could know this, as a population we are in danger of losing our connection with the land and our food. This is not our fault, the food system that is championed by supermarkets and giant food producers has made it this way. 

Imagine though if we could see the impact of our positive choices, if we could somehow rekindle that connection with our food? Over the past year it seems we have been remaking that connection.

We are reconnecting with our food by cooking and touching and smelling and seeing how our food is grown. We are redeveloping that connection with nature and this is something we can pass onto our children, we can show them that there is a great, fun and fantastically positive way to live and eat. Although from what I have seen recently it is the children who are teaching us!

Kenneth

Wild Garlic Butter Parathas

by Liz Child

Wild garlic is in season now and abundant in the woods around Galway. Do you have any growing near you? It’s one of my favourite things to forage and it’s long, pointed green leaves, white flowers and garlicky aroma are pretty much unmistakable. But, as with all foraging, please make sure you know what you are picking before you head out! Never pull the plant out by its small bulb, simply pinch off the green leaves and leave plenty for wildlife and biodiversity.

This year I made my usual batch of wild garlic pesto along with dehydrating some and turning it into a powder, blending some with salt and dehydrating it to make wild garlic salt, any flower buds that made their way into my bag were pickled and I blended a few handfuls with a couple of blocks of vegan butter which is absolutely incredible! I have used it in baked potatoes, roasted mushrooms, garlic bread and now this, our new obsession – parathas!

Parathas are laminated Indian flatbreads, flakey, buttery and oh so delicious! Here’s my easy recipe which we eat alongside red lentil dal and Indian pickles. Give the recipe a try and let me know what you think! Liz x

Ingredients (makes 8 parathas)

  • 2 mugs of plain flour plus a little extra for dusting/rolling etc (you can use plain flour, strong bread flour or an authentic atta flour)
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 mug of water (or enough to make a soft dough – different flours have different rates of absorbency so add a little at a time and adjust with more flour/water as needed)
  • Optional extras like a tsp of nigella seeds, cumin seeds, brown mustard seeds, turmeric and black pepper are nice to add if you like
  • butter/wild garlic butter/coconut oil – melted

Method

Start by making your dough. Measure the flour and salt (and optional extra spices – we used nigella seeds this time) into a large bowl and mix to combine.

Add the water and mix into a sticky dough. Then tip out onto a lightly floured work surface and knead well until the dough is smooth and stretchy. Add more flour/water if needed to get the right consistency. Put the kneaded dough back into the bowl and cover it with a damp tea towel. Let it rest in the fridge so that it is easy to roll out – 30 minutes to an hour is normally sufficient.

Then divide the dough into 8 even balls and roll them out into long oblongs.

Melt your butter/wild garlic butter/coconut oil and brush it all over the surface of the dough.

Then roll up the dough lengthways and coil it into a spiral. This way you have created loads of layers of fat in your dough which will make a flaky, layered flatbread.

Sit the coils on a platter covered with a tea towel ready to roll out. Heat up a frying pan to medium-high and melt a little oil or butter in the pan.

Then roll out the first coil on a lightly floured work surface into a thin, layered flatbread. Swirl the fat around the pan to evenly coat the bottom then add the paratha to the pan. Fry until golden brown and starting to blister then flip and fry the other side.

Keep stacked up on a plate covered with a tea towel. Then warm them up in the pan when you are ready to serve. Tear and eat – scoop up dal, chutneys etc. Enjoy!

Sustainable Growth

by Kenneth Keavey

During the week I had a very big decision to make and as with all big decisions it is never black and white. It may seem as you look in from the outside that it is, but rarely when looking in from the outside does one see the whole picture. But having a vision and idea of what is important can help make those decisions a little easier. 

We have spent 15 years this May creating a business from nothing. The team and the people who have come and gone over the years have worked hard, and there is no question in my mind that Green Earth Organics would not be where it is today if it wasn’t for these people, the long hours and hard work.

The farm and business have grown a lot over the last 15 years, and we are proud to say that a culture of empathy and respect has also grown. There will always be times when we do not get it right (and no doubt there has been plenty of them, more often than not some would say), but the intention of the business is genuine and pointing in the right direction.

The idea of environmental preservation and respect for our fellow human being has always been right at the heart of what matters here. This can sometimes get stretched when you are faced with the harsh financial pressure of the world of business, and it is true that out in this world the bottom line is all that counts. 

We would be forgiven then for thinking that profit and the bottom line is all that matters. But we would be wrong because therein lies the seeds of greed. It is this thinking that has landed the planet in the precarious situation it is currently in.   

And yet, it would be extremely naive to think that profit does not matter and that it is all about picking wild-flowers and lying in the long grass. Simply put, without a healthy, profitable business our little community would not exist.

I know, as does anybody who has ran a business (or a household for that matter), that there is constant pressure to succeed and deliver and that at times there can be intense financial pressure. But there can also be times of remarkable reward in feeling satisfied of a job well done or having done your best despite the odds.

Green Earth Organics was born out of the need to do right in the world and love for the land and our vision is pretty simple:

“Using food as a force for positive change by putting the well-being of our environment at the centre of every decision we make.  We believe that producing food with respect for nature and for the multitude of creatures we share this planet with is the only way to farm. We believe that we can do this by providing an alternative to the mainstream, by growing and providing healthy sustainable food, by conducting our business in an ethical and sustainable way, with respect for all at its heart.”

We could not do any of this if it were not for your support.

Thank you!

Kenneth

PS We have some amazing, exciting changes to tell you about.  We have listened to what you said and have reduced our minimum spend to €30, we have also added FREE delivery for all orders over €100 always – so stock up on your organic groceries with us and get everything you need delivered to your door in one, efficient delivery. Finally, you will see our website has changed and now you can create a regular repeat order and never forget to order again!