Tacos are on trend at the moment, you can add just about anything in there but its hard to beat spicy smashed black beans. They’ve got to be crispy so give them a good fry and serve up with your favourite taco sides.
We are big fans of Mexican style food in our house its great family food to share and dip and mix and match. Add fresh salsa, guacamole, cheese and jalapeños.
Find all the orgainc beans and spices you need in our groceries.
Step 1: Make the spicy smashed beans. Add the oil to a warm frying pan along with the onions and garlic. Gently cook to soften. Add the chilli, cumin, paprika, dried herbs, a pinch of salt and tomato puree. Cook for 3-5 minutes.
Step 2: Tip in the beans, stir to coat in the spices pour in the water and simmer for 5-10 minutes until the beans cook down, add a squeeze of lime. Mash with a fork or a potato masher, transfer to a bowl and clean the frying pan.
Step 3: Spoon the mashed beans onto the tortilla wrap, add cheese and fold over. Heat the frying pan, add oil and fry the taco on both sides until golden and crispy. Push down with a weight or small pot to get better contact with the pan, flip and fry on the other side until crispy. Repeat.
Step 4: Serve hot with smashed avocado, fresh coriander and lime.
Quick, dairy free, vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free, kid approved, only 3 ingredients and very tasty! You need to try these cookies.
My kids are alway hungry and I like to have snacks on hand that have a bit of goodness in them. Almonds are a superfood and while my kids wont eat whole almonds they will happy munch on these cookies instead.
They may not look perfect but for a quick bake they hit the spot. They are crispy on the outside soft in the middle. If you’re feeling extra fancy drizzle some melted chocolate on top.
Step 1: Preheat the oven 170ºC. Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
Step 2: Melt the coconut oil in the microwave or in a small pot and stir in the maple syrup.
Step 3: Mix the coconut and maple into the ground almonds and work into a dough. Use your hands to form 10 small balls put them on the baking tray 1.5 inch apart.
Step 4: Use a fork to push the balls down and make a crisscross on the top of each cookie.
Step 5: Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes until golden. Cool on a wire rack.
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.
We simply cannot do it all ourselves, we have tried.
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.
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.
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.
Lighter, brighter days love lighter brighter dishes and we welcome all the delicious colourful organic salads. Make sure to arm yourself with some handy jam jar dressings like this one, make extra and store it in the fridge!
A jam jar dressing is very satisfying to make especially when you get to shake it up like a cocktail! Feel free to adjust and change up the flavours, you could add some dried herbs, chilli flakes, fresh grated garlic, lemon juice, pesto, or what ever you like.
Now you have your dressing sorted order some incredible organic produce for your salad www.greenearthorganics.ie Keep it simple like this feta salad full ingredients below.
To make the dressing: Add all the dressing ingredients to a clean jam jar, put the lid on and shake well. Taste the dressing and adjust the seasoning if needed, it may need more salt, honey or vinegar, keep tasting and adjusting until you are happy with it.
To make the salad pour half the dressing into a mixing bowl. Tear in the lettuce leaves, add the diced tomatoes, cucumber, feta cubes, zest the orange, and scatter in the olives. Gently toss through and pour onto a serving plate, top with mint leaves and serve.
Keep the other half of the dressing, in the fridge, for or another day.
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.
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 wildlife, we see the land thrive, just this morning 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.
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!
Beautiful green homegrown Irish broccoli! YES we are well use to it being the trusty side veg but it can be the start of the plate and with a bit of roasting and dressing and it is incredibly tasty. Its important to char it to get the subtle bitter notes that taste delicious with the sweet, salty and spicy dressing.
We used the air fryer to cook this but you can of course roast in the oven also.
Make this with the next head of broccoli that arrives in your Green Earth Organics box.
Begin by chopping the broccoli into 8 long pieces, keeping the stalks on.
Sprinkle the broccoli with salt and pepper and drizzle with oil.
To cook: If air frying you may need to cook the broccoli in 2 batches lay flat in the air fryer basket and cook for 8 minutes at 180c. If roasting in the oven, lay the pieces flat on a tray and roast in the oven for 15 minutes approx at 180c.
For the sesame seeds: toast in the air fryer or oven for 5 minutes until golden, keep a close eye as they can burn easily.
While the broccoli cooks make the tahini dressing: Simply whisk all the ingredients in a bowl until smooth and creamy, taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
To serve, spoon half of the sauce onto a plate and top with the roasted broccoli and spoon over the remaining sauce sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds.
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:
We are always on the hunt for the perfect ‘no bake’ homemade snack and this is one of the best yet!! They are cute, sweet, salty and delicious. We recommend keeping them in the freezer so they don’t disappear too quickly. They are incredibly moorish, a real treat.
The base is oat and ground almonds, centre peanut butter and coconut oil and top chocolate and coconut oil- with a bit of sweetness added.
If you’re a choc PB lover you’ll love these, we promise!
Make the oat base; add the oats and almonds to a blender, pulse to blend. Add the honey and 1 tablespoon of milk, blend again until the mix comes together, add more milk if needed. Spoon the base into the mini mounds and push down with the back of a small spoon.
To make the centre; melt the coconut oil in the microwave or small pot, stir in the peanut butter and honey, mix well. Pour on top of the base and chill for 1 hour.
For the top; melt the chocolate and coconut oil together and spoon on top, smooth over with a spatula.
Chill again for 15 minutes.
Pop the cups from the moulds, sprinkle with sea salt and tuck in.
They will keep in the fridge for 3 days or in the freezer for 1 month. Take from the freezer 30 minutes before eating.
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.
Chop into 4 long pieces and add them to a mixing bowl and toss in oil, salt and pepper.
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.
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.
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.
When the carrots are done, toasted the pumpkin seeds in the air fryer for 5 minutes at 200ºc.
Pour the whipped feta into a bowl, pile the carrots on top and scatter the pumpkin seeds over both.
