I hope the week has been good to you. It has been busy here on the farm and a strange week too. Life can be frantic, just this week I was reminded by the fact we are all on a clock, we all have a certain amount of time and that time is short. I was determined not to let this reminder slip, not to let this wake-up call fade away, but it does, life has a habit of coming in at full tilt and disrupting best laid plans.
The determination to savour every moment can at times be a little unrealistic and must I think, be coupled with a dose of realism. There is a need of course to be present (as best we can) to all that is going on around us. But in my experience it can be difficult to maintain a measured approach all the time, and the little annoyances of life can all too soon be elevated quite quickly into full blown emergencies! (Such as Marley our still young puppy coming in covered and muck and jumping up on the sofa which she knows she is not allowed on!) But coming back to ground zero and starting again over and over is I think what it is all about.
This week there was intense the pressure of change on so many different fronts and it made it difficult to maintain a focused outlook. Running through sticky jam (or mud!) is sometimes how it feels, expending loads of energy and feeling like you are going backwards.It can be frustrating but maybe that’s life telling us to let go, ease up, go with the flow, and stop falling into the same hole in the road over and over! At least I know the hole is there now. That’s where little moments like the one in the picture with Molly (my dog sadly no longer with us) are so important.
We are busy, very busy, we are planting leeks by hand, we are harvesting, we are weeding, and we are transplanting. It is that cross over time of the year, when the planting is not completely done, the weeding is bearing down on top of us and thankfully the harvest is kicking in full throttle. Just last night we got the final sowing of 6 different types of clover and wild flowers into the ground at 10.45 pm just before the rain came, that is timing for you.
Our first tomatoes are nearly ready and Ella (the younger of my two daughters) has been coming in with full bowls of nearly ripe tomatoes, I hope there will be some left for you guys! Soon very soon we will have plenty for everybody.
Philosophical ramblings aside, the fields are proving very bountiful now. So, we wanted to say a massive thank you to all of you good people who have been supporting our efforts to protect our planet through growing food by increasing the value in our set boxes. We have made an exceptional effort from next week to give more in all our boxes, to make sustainable food more accessible to everyone, to make our boxes even better value.
You will notice the difference; we have added extra farm produce to all our fixed boxes from next week and they will be overflowing with produce. When everything else is going up we have effectively decided to bring the price of our boxes down by giving you more produce for your money.
Not only that but we have some amazing news, nothing short of sensational news for all our customers who are getting boxes delivered to every corner of Ireland by courier, we are so excited about this one! We have managed to reduce our courier delivery charge to €4.50 by moving from DPD to Greenway, an electric van fleet! So not only will your delivery charges go down, but they will be emission free! AND we can now accept back the courier boxes too, not just our local routes boxes. They can only be accepted back by Greenway if they are neatly flattened so please do flatten and leave them out when you expect your next delivery.
Thanks for your support, please spread the word about our better value and better deliveries to your friends and family all over Ireland.
Kenneth