“Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think? Alanis Morissette, to add our line to this great song “We have tonnes of fresh Irish organic produce and all our customers go on holidays, isn’t it ironic don’t you think?” We asked last week if you could help, and you certainly did, we were bowled over. Can you help again next week and continue to support us during the summer when we need it most?
It is Thursday the 25th of July as I write this. I have spent the morning in the farmyard grappling with one frustration after another, it is a fact of farming life when you have machines you are given near daily opportunities to practice patience. Today has been a great day for that practice. Our net machine that unrolls the nets to cover the crops and conversely rolls it back in when we need to harvest decided to stop working and after visiting a couple of places it was the kind help of a neighbour that hopefully eventually has set us on the right track.
Our planting machine decided it was time to break a drive chain, and again after visiting 2 fixer type shops it was the kind help of the individual in the second shop that set us straight and fixed the chain, enabling us to get on with the final tranche of brassica plantings.
Then there is the weeding machines. Maybe, it is just that July is so insanely busy or maybe it is that these machines pick their moments and they all go caput together, is it a planned assault on a farmers sanity? Our trusty and old intrarotovator came apart in the field, again it was the timely and very kind help of a metal working neighbour that put it back together and dropped it back to us all in the space of a day.
The final machine to play truant this week was our usually very reliable brush weeder, it hasn’t exactly broke, but because the conditions for weeding have been so exceptionally poor, wet and sticky, the brushes have worn away to nothing and we need to replace them, this we are still working on.
That is just this week! But I realised if it wasn’t for the connections we have with people and other businesses in the area and their willingness to help us in our time of need and get us the fixes that we urgently required everything would have ground to a halt.
I tell you this because you are one of those people, you helped us out in our plea last week. Your amazing support and help this week just gone kept our wheels turning so to speak, we saw over 300 extra orders and that has made an enormous difference to us. All the sharing, comments, orders, good wishes, it all matters, it saved the day.
Our weeks keep going, our harvest keeps coming in, our machines keep breaking and we keep going and whilst I was messing around with all these bits of machinery the farm team were busy harvesting all sorts of fresh lovely produce from our fields.
But next week is a new week, with new challenges and opportunities, we will still be here harvesting and working away on our farm, and if you can continue to support us over the week and weeks ahead it keeps us going especially for the ironic (loads of produce, not loads of customers) months of July and August.
You can watch my weekly Instagram update by clicking here.
Thank you as always for your support
Kenneth
PS I have just eaten our very first freshly harvested cherry tomatoes, over 1 month late this year, and I am not promising there will be very many next week, but we certainly have loads of other freshly harvested Irish organic produce, to see it all click here.