This frittata is bursting with flavour and rich in protein, vitamins, minerals, and fibre. Chard is such a versatile vegetable and can be used in place of spinach in many dishes. It’s packed with nutrients including vitamin A and C, while being an excellent source of vitamin K. When a calcium-rich food, such as cheese or milk, is paired with a vitamin D-rich food, such as eggs, the absorption of that calcium is made a little easier for the body. Vitamin D is well promoted as the vitamin to help with the absorption of calcium, but vitamin K plays a crucial role in optimising calcium use in the body, making chard a great addition to this tasty calcium-rich dish. This easy-to-make frittata is packed with nutrients to help boost ones bone health, and serves well for lunch with a big green salad.
To a large frying pan, over a medium heat, add the oil. Once hot, add the red onion. Cook on low for about 10 minutes, until soft and slightly coloured. Add the chard and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 3 minutes, stirring regularly.
In a bowl, whisk together the eggs with the milk. Season with a little salt and pepper. Pour into the pan, covering the vegetables. Add an even layer of the grated cheese.
Cook for 8-10 minutes, until almost set, then place under the grill for a couple of minutes until bubbling.
Garnish with some chopped chives and chive flowers, if you have them to hand, and serve with a green salad.
When you have good quality, fresh ingredients to hand, a recipe never needs to be overly complicated. A simple toastie with a plain green salad is instantly elevated by the quality of ingredients used. To start with, real bread, fresh and thickly cut. A good-quality Irish cheese, and while we wait for Irish tomatoes to return into season, some flavoursome sun-dried tomatoes can be used in their place. Plus a drizzle of a nice extra virgin olive oil is all that is needed for this sandwich to taste delicious. Irish, organic lettuce benefits from the quality of soil it is grown in, and this shines through in its flavour. A simple dressing with the addition of some nuts for extra flavour and a little crunch serves perfectly alongside the toastie.
When preparing a green salad in advance after washing the lettuce leaves it’s important to fully dry them. The best way to do this is with a salad spinner. Then add the dried leaves to a large salad bowl and cover with a damp tea towel or kitchen paper, and refrigerate until ready to use. To avoid the salad becoming soggy, only add a small amount of the dressing and toss through the leaves just before serving.
Wash the salad leaves and dry well using a salad spinner. If the leaves are large, tear into smaller pieces. Add the dried leaves to a large bowl and cover with a damp tea towel or kitchen paper. Refrigerate until ready to use.
In a small bowl, combine the dressing ingredients. Cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
Drizzle one side of each slice of bread with a little olive oil. Take one slice, olive oil side down, and layer on the cheese and tomato, and top with the other slice of bread, olive oil side up.
Place the pan over a medium heat on a hob and add the toastie. Press down gently using a clean saucepan lid. Cook for about 4 minutes on each side. Once the toastie is golden and crisp, and the cheese has melted, take from the pan, and cut in half.
Enjoy straight away alongside the green salad, drizzled with the nutty dressing.
Fibre-rich plants foods, such as fresh fruit and vegetables, seeds, nuts, beans, peas, and lentils are all packed with vitamins, minerals and fibre. Eating sufficient portions of these as part of our everyday diet will encourage a healthier digestive system. These nut clusters make for a tasty treat while still providing us with essential nutrients.
I’ve used a bag of mixed nuts, but any combination of plain, raw nuts can be used, and any chocolate of choice too; dark, milk, white, or plant based. They keep well in a sealed container in the fridge for up to five days; perfect to make today and enjoy as an afternoon pick-me-up for the week.
Preheat the oven to 190°C / fan 170°C / Gas Mark 5. Place the nuts on a baking tray and into the oven for about 7 minutes.
Take from the oven and once cool enough to touch, roughly chop the nuts and place in a bowl. Add the honey and sea salt. Stir well to combine.
Divide the mixture between a 12-case silicone bun case, or into a regular 12-case bun tray lined with bun cases. Bake in the preheated oven for 15 minutes. Allow to cool and set fully before removing from the tray.
Once the clusters are cold, remove from the tray and dunk in the melted chocolate. Sprinkle over a little sea salt and leave to set before storing in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days.
Summer salads have been catapulted back to the dinner table and I for one am glad they are here to stay, especially as the stunning sunshine we have been enjoying is set to remain in Ireland for the foreseeable. This salad is high in fibre and rich in protein. It’s packed with vibrant vegetables, and the creamy, zesty dressing brings everything together so perfectly. Serve it alongside any barbecue dishes, or simply with a nice bread, crackers, or tortilla chips. It’s best eaten on the day it is made but will store well for up to three days in a sealed container in the fridge.
Preheat the oven to 220°C/fan 200°C /Gas Mark 7, or if using an airfryer set to 200°C.
Add the chickpeas to a bowl with the olive oil, maple, paprika and a little salt and pepper. Combine well and place on a baking tray and into the preheated oven for 20-22minutes, giving the tray a shake every so often. Leave to cool fully before adding to the other salad ingredients.
Add the finely prepared vegetables to a large bowl with the cold chickpeas.
Make the creamy dressing by adding the dressing ingredients to a mini chopper and blitzing gently for a few seconds to combine.
Pour the dressing over the vegetables and chickpeas. Stir well to combine. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Enjoy!
My feeling when it comes to pesticide residues in our food is that the only safe limit is a zero limit. If I were to tell you that 50% of the food you eat contains pesticide residues, how would you feel?
My Grandad farmed on this piece of land that we now farm organically. He had a mixed family farm and grew much of his own food as did many in the locality back then. This food was more nutritious, it tasted better, it was fresher than food today, it was free from chemicals, and it was local and seasonal.
Today our food system is a complex web of producers, processors and logistics. When we walk into a supermarket, we don’t have time to think too much about where our food comes from our how it was produced, the shiny plastic packs of produce give us the impression that our food system is limitless, vibrant and fair. Indeed, this very supermarket system and the global food corporations that supply it have disconnected us from our food and have been complicit in devaluing our most valuable commodity: food.
Since my grandad’s time in the early 1950’s agriculture and food have changed unrecognisably. It has undergone a green revolution. Ironically this “green revolution” has left our current food system broken. GMOs, giant monocultures, pesticides, herbicides, artificial fertilisers and factory farms dominate our global food supply system, all hidden behind those shiny plastic packs on the supermarket shelves.
The term “green revolution” was always something that struck me as a bit odd, especially when you consider what green means today, this was a revolution that switched our agricultural system from a natural approach to a chemistry centred approach.
I am an organic farmer, but I wasn’t always. In fact, and again ironically, I was an organic chemist, I have a Ph. D in chemistry from Cambridge University. I spent nearly 15 years working with chemicals, pharmaceuticals and in the biotech industry, so I know a thing or two about chemicals.
Today chemicals are used to force nature to behave in the way they want, they have tried to impose factory type controls onto the natural environment that we rely on for our food. But nature is not a factory, and the same rules do not apply, you cannot indiscriminately apply chemicals to our food and not expect a fall out.
A report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has found that nearly half the food they tested from almost 81,000 food samples had pesticides in them. Strawberries and lettuce are the most likely to exceed safe limits, the agency found. They are especially sensitive to fungus and bugs and so undergo considerable spraying with pesticides.
More than one in four (27.3%) of the food samples contained traces of more than one pesticide.
The food we put into our bodies is one of the most valuable investments we can ever make. The simple fact is you can taste value, and if you have ever tasted a freshly harvested tomato, warm from the vine, free from chemicals, full of life and nutrition, then you will know what I am talking about here, that is real value. I think my grandad instinctively knew that, but then again that was all there was back then.
Here is to the best value food in the world.
As always thank you for your support.
Kenneth
Link to report below.
A new report by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has found that more than 97% of foods contain pesticide residue levels that fall within legal limits. Strawberries are the most likely to exceed safe limits, the agency found.
About 55% of the samples evaluated by EFSA were free of detectable traces of these chemicals, the agency said.
This means nearly half of food products in Europe contain residues of pesticides.
The highest rate of exceeding safety limits was for strawberries (2.5% of the sample), followed by lettuce (2.3%). They are especially sensitive to fungus and bugs and so undergo considerable spraying with pesticides.
The late spring, early summer season brings with it the return of many Irish-grown vegetables. Irish mushrooms are a constant as they thrive in darkened conditions allowing them to grow year-round, but luscious salad leaves and herbs are always encouraged by the better weather. I’d happily serve a plain green salad alongside any meal, but when a little light balance is required on a plateful of indulgent bites Irish salad leaves, simply dressed with some lemon and olive oil, are always well placed.
These crispy garlic mushrooms make for a gorgeous starter or light supper. They can be prepared early in the day, and stored in the fridge, until ready to bake. I like to use the flatter, portobello mushrooms, but chestnut mushrooms can be used either in their place. To serve, I’ve mixed together some mayonnaise with a crushed garlic clove, a little lemon juice, black pepper and freshly chopped chives, as a flavoursome accompaniment.
Carrot cake is such a classic dessert, making it an instant crowd-pleaser at any get-together. Even though this carrot cake looks incredibly indulgent it’s rather light. Due to the wet ingredients in the batter, it’s also deliciously moist. I’m using a good-quality Irish yogurt, combined with icing sugar and vanilla extract as the creamy topping, before adding a good sprinkling of chopped pecans for that extra crunch. I’m using a 28 x 18cm brownie tin for the timings below. If using smaller or larger tins, adjust the baking time accordingly.
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/ fan 180°C/gas mark 6. Line a 28 x 18cm tin with greaseproof paper.
Sieve the flour, sugar, cinnamon, and baking powder into a large bowl.
Add the carrots and stir well with a wooden spoon, until thoroughly combined with the dry ingredients.
Add the eggs with the oil, and yogurt. Stir well until all the ingredients are well combined.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and smooth the top with the back of a spoon.
Bake in the preheated oven for 35 minutes, until it is risen and golden. To test if the cake is cooked insert a metal skewer into the cake, and if it comes out clean the cake is ready.
Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire tray.
While the cake is baking, or cooling make the topping by combining the yogurt with the icing sugar and vanilla extract. Place in the fridge to firm up slightly, or until needed.
When the cake has completely cooled, place on a serving plate and cover with the icing and sprinkle over the chopped pecans.
Store in the fridge, in an airtight container, for up to three days. Take it out of the fridge and allow to stand at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving.
The next time you drive down the motorway, check your windscreen, it will be devoid of insect splatter, only 20-30 short years ago that used to be a completely different story. Here is something different to think about when we think about the disappearing insects, of course the insecticides are destroying whole ecosystems, but what about herbicides?
The dandelions are up in force. But consider this, next time you see a field of grass that is generally being grown to be fed to dairy cows, see how many dandelions you see, or in fact see how much of anything other than grass you see. I think you will find that there is very little. Grassland is produced to be a giant monoculture, and it is considered best practice to remove all diversity from these fields, to feed Ireland’s massive dairy industry.
But it didn’t always used to be like this, dairy cows in a not-too-distant past fed on mixed pasture. The irony of course is that a diverse array of plants access different levels of the soil and so bring up different nutrients and give a more balanced diet to the animals, providing a virtual plant salad bar for animals and supported a whole ecosystem, one a ryegrass-dominated monoculture never will.
The diversity today is removed by spraying herbicides, a typical spraying regime for grassland will involve an array of different chemicals. One that is actively used right here in Ireland goes by the tradename “Thurst” and it contains: 2,4-D + Dicamba. You may have heard of herbicides like 2,4-D before, it is one of the most common chemical weedkillers used in conventional farming. It’s designed to kill broadleaf weeds like dandelions without harming the grass. While it works effectively, it comes with a history and environmental impact that we’re not comfortable with.
👉 Did you know? 2,4-D was one of the ingredients in Agent Orange, the defoliant used in the Vietnam War. While modern formulations don’t contain the toxic contaminants that caused so much harm back then, 2,4-D is still a synthetic chemical. It can linger in soil and waterways, and it’s been classified as “possibly carcinogenic to humans” by the World Health Organization.
This is just one of a handful of chemicals that are used to keep grasslands, green, full of grass, and absent of biodiversity. Giant monocultures whether they be GM soya crops grown in the US or giant fields of grass grown in Ireland are food deserts for insects, there is nothing for them there, no weeds, no flowers, no food. The chemicals themselves that act on the plants are removing a crucial piece of our ecosystem that has a knock-on effect all the way up the food chain. We hear a lot about bees, and bee populations have been devastated over the last 20 years, but the bees are a bell weather for the insect population as a whole. If insects and bees go, well then the omen is not too good for us humans.
But there is hope, farmers more and more are incorporating clover into their grass swards and there is increasing demand for organic food which protects not only our health but biodiversity too. Our food choices matter, keeping chemicals out of our food matters, and they make a huge difference, they send a powerful message and can effect real change.
As always thank you for supporting our farm and business.
Kenneth
p.s We would ask you to support us over Easter week if you can. Thank you to everybody who did this week it made a real difference. And we hope if you ordered bread that you enjoyed the amazing Carraig Rua breads that we will have every week from now on!
A crispy biscuit base, topped with caramel, sliced banana, softly whipped cream, plus a few little chocolate eggs, makes this Banoffee Pie a deliciously indulgent dessert to serve this Easter.
To aid with the setting of the biscuit base, I like to bake it for just a few minutes. The dairy-free caramel is thick and creamy, and few ingredients are needed, but it is essential to blitz well for a few minutes to achieve that smooth consistency. While the topping of white billows of softly whipped cream looks so impressive, a light dusting of cocoa powder and a few Easter treats makes this the perfect pie to enjoy over the Easter holidays.
Using a food processor, blitz the digestives until fine. Stir through the melted butter until well combined. Tip into a well-greased 23cm loose bottomed tart tin, and cover the base and sides with an even layer, pressing into place with the back of a spoon. Place in the preheated oven for 8 minutes.
While the base is in the oven, make the caramel by adding the caramel ingredients to a high-powered blender and blitz until completely smooth, which will take a few minutes.
Once the base is taken from the oven, evenly spread the caramel over the base and leave to completely cold and set before moving on to the next step.
To assemble, top the cooled caramel with the sliced banana, then evenly add dollops of the cream, before dusting with a little cocoa powder and adding a few little chocolate eggs. Cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. This pie is best eaten on the day it is made.
The fine weather is a welcome blessing, and we are getting loads done of the farm, including, planting lettuce, spinach, rocket and beetroot. We have all our fields ready for planting now and have been working really hard to make the best use of the sunshine.
The downside of both the good weather and Easter is we will see a large drop off on orders, this affects us very much as nothing much changes for us from the cost side. So, if you can at all especially as we head into Easter, don’t forget about your sustainable food 😊 place an order if you can as it makes a massive difference to our small sustainable organic farm and business.
Monsanto spent millions on deceptive communications strategies to convince the public that the world’s most widely used herbicide, Roundup, is “as safe as table salt.” Yet its main ingredient, glyphosate, was flagged as having the potential to cause cancer as far back as 1984 by a scientist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
We deserve to know what is on our food. I don’t care that limits are set that are supposed to protect us, these are called MRLs (maximum residue limits). Bear in mind that these limits as with Glyphosate can change over time to allow for more of a chemical to be applied.
In 1990, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had established the maximum residue limit (MRL), or tolerance, for glyphosate residues in or on soybeans at 6 parts per million (ppm). During the late 1990s, Monsanto lobbied to raise permitted glyphosate levels in soybeans, successfully convincing both the U.S. and UK governments to increase the MRL to 20 milligrams per kilogram (mg/kg), equivalent to 20 ppm. So 6mg/kg was the safe limit we could not exceed in the early 90s, but as the application of the chemical increased the limit was increased nearly 4-fold, and this new level was now the “safe” limit. Of course, this increased limit meant more of the chemical could be sprayed on the crops.
Glyphosate has increased exponentially since the early 90s and it is toxic, does damage our microbiome, and facilitates the production of masses of ultra processed food. The incidence of which would also have rocketed from the 1990s onwards.
But if nothing else, spraying a chemical that kills everything in its path, destroys biodiversity, damages our microbiome, and facilitates large corporations to make billions, whilst contributing to disease in the world, surely that must stop?
