Isn’t it funny that if you or I choose to grow our own food we will always, always choose to grow our own food without chemicals! Funny that this is a criterion in our own gardens but less of a consideration when it comes to choosing in a supermarket.
My Grandad grew peas, and turnips, and carrots and potatoes as did my dad. My mum had raspberry bushes, blackcurrants, and goose berries. We were picking and eating our own fruit and vegetables and that was in the 70’s and 80’s. What happened? Where did all the back garden growing go? Not only that where did all our commercial veg growers go?
In our 20 years we have seen so many changes to our food system we have seen the number of vegetable producers here in Ireland fall dramatically to just 60 commercial field scale producers, down from over 600 in the 90’s. Supermarkets have had a hand in this, squeezing the farmer to the extent that there is just nothing left. The consolidation of the packing and distribution process into the hands of a few middlemen has not helped either.
In the space of just one generation, we have become disconnected from our food. Where is our food grown, who grows it, how is it produced, how is it handled?
This disconnection is not our fault. We have had school kids come on to our farm and been completely mesmerised by the fact that carrots come from the ground, having thought they begin their life on supermarket shelves in the plastic packaging.
So it is that the shiny plastic packs that line the supermarket shelves give us the impression that our food system is unlimited, vibrant and fair, but of course this is not the case. The problems occur when we try to apply factory type controls to a natural system, but nature is not a factory, and the same rules do not apply.
Over the last few weeks, I have gone out to meet some of the organic farmers that are growing for us, Philip Dreaper growing amazing organic carrots, Donal and Cameron Treacy growing the amazing organic potatoes that grace your boxes each week. We are getting the very best Irish organic apples from Richard Galvin in Waterford. The first Brussel sprouts and savoy cabbage from Padraigh and Una in Beechlawn. Amazing salad and rocket from Mick and Audrey in Millhouse farm and so much more.
We here on our farm certainly know where our food comes from, and we know that it has been produced without chemicals.
When it comes to the apples though there is another special substance contained in each bite, a mini time machine, these apples will take you back in time. They certainly took me back to the orchard my grandad used to have in his back garden, the apples there which I picked as a young lad were full of flavour. I believe there is a distinct flavour and taste to an Irish apple, and Richard’s apples are that if they are anything.
It is exciting to see that our food and our food producers are becoming a revered part of our culture again, thank you so much for being part of that transformation!
Kenneth