We all get sick sometimes

We all get sick sometimes, but when something serious comes along how we define what is important to us can change significantly. There is little doubt that without our health we have very little. All it takes is to be laid up in bed with a serious dose of the flu to know that being sick can be serious. The prevalence of chronic disease in our current age is frightening, it is unfortunately a reflection on how we as a society have evolved. Our eating habits, working habits, exercising habits, have steadily changed and not for the better over the last 50 years.


But what has happened to our food is very concerning. Obviously, the ultra-processed
rubbish that is designed to be irresistible is very unhealthy, and we would in all seriousness
be better off eating cardboard. But it is often said that it is not what we do occasionally that
is the problem it is what we do every day that causes the benefit or the damage. Those
things we eat everyday are one of the keys to our health.
Our bodies are amazing machines and when we are young, we can cope at least for a
while with just about anything, but as we grow older things start to take a greater tole on our
health. So it is with our food, at least in my opinion the chemicals on conventional food must
over time do damage, they hurt us on the inside and they do it gradually over years. I
remember years ago my biology teacher telling me if you irritate something for long enough
you will cause cancer.
I know I am fortunate and can afford to consume organic food as I have it all around me, I
don’t take that for granted. Ironically, for health reasons I have a restricted diet and one of
the things I can eat are blueberries. Over the last couple of weeks, we haven’t been able to
source organic blueberries as we do not buy airfreighted produce. So, I bought some
conventional blueberries in a shop. I think they tasted a little odd, I ate them anyway. But I
decided to investigate this a little and here is what I found:
In 2024 Pesticides were found on 90 percent of conventional blueberry samples, compared
to 81 percent in 2014.  80 percent of samples had two or more pesticides, versus 70
percent in 2014. A single sample of blueberries could have up to 17 different pesticide
residues, compared to 13 in 2014. Reference here.

This information is relevant to the US, but many of the blueberries on Irish supermarket
shelves come from all over the world and could have the same residues. The most
troubling pesticides found on blueberries were phosmet and malathion, chemicals known as
organophosphate insecticides. They kill many types of insects and are toxic to the human
nervous system.  

Not only are conventional blueberries on the list of items to source organically if you can,
but green beans, peppers, and kale were also singled out. We have sourced organic
blueberries again, the first new European harvest from Spain. I write this piece to once
again highlight the difference between conventional food production and organic. Don’t we
deserve to known about these unseen extras?
So anyway, I am looking forward to getting the first new season organic non airfreighted
blueberries next week. They won’t be as good as the Irish ones we had a few weeks ago,
but they will be pretty good.


As always thank you for your support


Kenneth

Will you come down the rabbit hole with me?

Don’t take this the wrong way but I love chemicals.

So much so that I dedicated nearly 15 years of my life to studying and working with them, I worked for years on trying to figure how to make a new antibiotic, imagine life without antibiotics?

Without chemicals our life would be so much different and not for the better. But here is one other thing I learned whilst trying to develop a selective drug, a drug that would not have any side effects, and it was this: A 100% selective drug was impossible. Impossible as all chemicals taken into the body interact with different receptors in different ways and have side effects. This silver bullet is the holy grail of pharmaceutical research and is still some way off.

Have you heard of polyphenols? If you are interested in your health, you will certainly have heard this term. They are powerful antioxidants found in plants and may have a very positive effect on our health. More on these later.

So, in the super controlled environment of pharmaceutical development a drug that does not have side effects is impossible to produce. So, who in their right mind decided that we should take toxic chemicals and start spraying them indiscriminately on our food?

In the conventional food world now, we have farmers spraying nonselective chemicals on our food to kill insects and other plants. These chemicals kill both the target (ie the aphid) but also other insects flying around, devasting biodiversity.

Then there is the issue of these chemical being that toxic that they harm life, what do they do to us when we consume them on our food? Nothing good for sure, and there is plenty of literature out there on the damage they do.

So, let’s keep going down the rabbit hole now. Take this a step further, as some of these chemicals are “systemic” that means they are absorbed into the plant, brought inside and there they reside until harvest and eventual consumption on our dinner plates. Washing will do little to remove these as they are inside the produce.

So, we have these non-selective, systemic toxic chemicals being sprayed on our food and they are hurting us and destroying biodiversity. But there is an often-overlooked further issue here, and that brings us back to polyphenols.

These amazing compounds are produced by plants to defend themselves against disease and pests, these powerful antioxidants protect the plants, and guess what?  They protect us too, when we consume them. But here’s the issue, when plants are sprayed to remove pests then the plants have little need to produce polyphenols so not only are we getting chemically contaminated food, but the actual composition of the food is also being changed by the application of these chemicals, isn’t that just crazy?

It is so easy to ignore all of the above, as when we see produce on the supermarket shelf it looks amazing (and it is without doubt better to eat fresh produce than not), but if there is an option at all, and I understand for some this is not possible (But you can always try our rescue box, which is always sold at a greatly reduced price) then choosing organic is just always, always going to be better for you, if you can choose local organic then there are all the other benefits also of supporting a local food economy.

So please for your own sake and the sake of our fragile planet, if you can at all choose organic.

As always thank you for your support. 

Kenneth

Roasted Tomato & Pasta Soup

Tomatoes are naturally high in lycopene, which is a powerful antioxidant. Cooking tomatoes not only increases the level of lycopene in the tomato but also makes it easier for the body to absorb. This is also a great dish to make if you’ve young chefs in the kitchen who’d like to help-out as it is so easy to prepare. It’s packed full of nutrients and serves well by the bowlful with chunks of bread on the side, or it transports well in a thermos flask for a lunch on-the-go. Enjoy!

Nessa x

Roast Tomato & Pasta Soup

Ingredients


Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C/Gas 5.

2. Place the chopped tomatoes, garlic cloves and onion in an ovenproof dish. Drizzle over the olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Sprinkle over the smoked paprika and sugar, and season with a pinch of salt and some freshly ground pepper.

3. Using a wooden spoon, combine all the ingredients together. 

4. Roast in the preheated oven for 25 minutes. 

5. While everything is roasting, make the pasta according to the pack’s instructions.

6. In a large saucepan heat the stock, stir in the cooked roasted tomato mixture and simmer over a low heat for 15 minutes.

7. Add the basil, saving a few leaves for serving. Using a liquidiser or hand blender, blend the soup until smooth.

8. Divide the pasta between four bowls, pour over the soup and top with a few basil leaves. 

National Organic Award, and rain…

This week we got the news that our business and farm has been shortlisted for a national
organic award, and we are grateful and humbled by the acknowledgment.


I’m afraid Jenny my wife will stop talking to me if I don’t stop going on about the weather.
But I just can’t help it, maybe I have a condition, but it has been so bad. And to be fair to
me, I need to talk about the weather, I really do. I feel traumatised by the relentless
darkness and rain, I am sure I must not be alone, and somehow getting the knowing nods
that you are right and, in a group, (and for farmers there is nothing more conversation
worthy than the weather) that feel the same way is comforting, it changes nothing though.
True enough, I suppose there is little we can do about it, as the weather will be the weather,
the same cannot be said for what we mankind are doing to our climate…


The last time we had a summer this bad was last year! Two in a row. And before that I
remember 2012 being a summer where we saw virtually no sun, temperatures were low,
and it rained nearly every single day. We should be lucky I guess there are many that have
no water and here we are in the West of Ireland with enough for half of Europe. But luck
will not help our already late harvest of tomatoes ripen.


It has been 13 months now, in my slightly twisted view, it started raining last June and
hasn’t really stopped, has it? We have struggled recently and certain crops that love the sun
are not loving Galway weather at moment.


There is muck stuck to everything, the land is wet, saturated, we could give the “Tough
Mudder” race a good run for its money. Now, it is not all bad news, the leeks, celeriac,
parsnips, swede and brassicas are doing quite well, and we are certainly grateful for that. In
fact, Emmanuel is harvesting the very first of our parsnip crop this week, which is quite
frankly amazing! But the increasing unpredictability of our weather is another challenge in
an already challenging industry.


So it is with this backdrop that it is lovely to be acknowledged that we are doing some things right. To have external validation, that it is worth persevering, despite being a very small cog in a massive and unforgiving food machine.


To that end Simone and Lilly will both be in Dublin this weekend at Merrion square
for the national organic food festival, and I will be there for a few hours from about 12 on
Saturday if you would like to come along.


Not only that but we are having our first and only farm walk next Saturday the 7 th of
September starting at 11am, and all are welcome, you can book a free ticket here.
Hopefully see you over the next couple of weeks!
Thanks as always for your support.
Kenneth

OMG two very exciting announcements!

I distinctly remember being encouraged to use Roundup as we embarked on our fledgling enterprise 18 years ago, “a touch of roundup” to use the exact phrase. Well, I nodded my head and went about my business, there was little point in trying to explain that in my view this was madness. Certainly, never in my lifetime will it be used on our little 20-acre patch of land in the west of Ireland. We are never going to apply a toxic weedkiller, no matter how easy that might make our lives.

This year and last year the weeds have got the upper hand, and the reason is straight forward: the rain. We have been challenged at ever turn, we have not been able to get the machines out into the fields to do our usual work as it has not stopped raining. There will be some casualties as a result, but I have to say if you look at the broccoli we are harvesting from our farm now, the weeds are certainly making no difference to the yield and quality, it is some of the best we have ever grown. You will be able to come and see for yourself on the 7th of September….. but you can meet us earlier too in Dublin, we’ll be at the National Organic Food Fair in Merrion Square on August 31st/Sept 1st!

Roundup provides a “Clean field” or an “Empty field” but in my view using it creates a landscape devoid of life, a landscape that could not be dirtier in terms of actual chemical contaminants.  I believe the organic approach to producing food is certainly more difficult, more challenging, but it gives you imperfect perfection, which may seem a little ironic, but it is true. Perfect vegetables, but maybe to the naked eye the scene in the field does not look perfect. Maybe the vegetables do not always meet the exacting criteria of supermarkets, but maybe the produce is perfect just as it is and what is missing is the chemical contaminates, this is what makes our produce and the produce of all the other amazing Irish organic farmers that supply us perfect.

You have to ask the question with the overwhelming wave of chronic and serious illnesses that are sweeping society today, could the increased use of chemicals in growing our food and in producing our food have a role to play (and there certainly is no one reason for sure). As a medicinal chemist I would have to say these chemicals are not improving the situation, and the cocktail effect of consuming hidden chemicals in our food is for sure having a negative impact on our health.  Just think if you saw a bottle with the description: irritant, toxic, harmful to aquatic life, carcinogenic, would you even consume a tiny bit of that. I certainly would not, would you? Chemicals that kill bugs and plants are toxic, they destroy life.

I digress, roundup and all modern herbicides are used to destroy life. They destroy any vestige of plant life that all other biodiversity relies on for their homes. What then? Where will the insects live? Where will the birds find their food when there are no insects? And how indeed will whole ecosystems survive when we remove all the critical natural environmental pieces of life they rely on? The answer is simple, they won’t.

We need to urgently look at how we are growing our food, I am not saying that organic is perfect, it certainly is not, but it does at least put environmental considerations at the centre of the food production journey.  That was and is and has not changed in 18 years our central mission, to protect our beautiful biodiversity, and protect the environment whilst producing clean healthy imperfectly perfect food.

Thanks you for your support,

Kenneth

PS We are harvesting amazing broccoli amongst many other things, click to see them all here: IRISH SECTION HERE.  

PPS: VERY EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENTS!   

Announcement 1: We are going to be in Dublin for the national organic fair on the 31st of August and the 1st of September, please come by and visit our stall in Merrion square, more info here.  

Announcement 2: We are having our first and only farm walk to mark the essence of the Irish harvest season on Saturday the 7th of September, put the date in your diary, details to be announced closer to the day! 

No Chemicals. Ever.

‘No chemicals ever in our food chain’  It was a pretty simple idea, and before the thought of having to get certified or go down that regulation route (which you must do if you are to use the word “organic”)  that was the cornerstone of our belief. No chemicals because chemicals, (and as somebody once said on Instagram all things are chemicals, and that is true enough), so let me clarify no synthetic manmade, toxic chemicals that kill living beings, kill plants, kills insects and bees, and damage our health, none of those chemicals will ever be used on our farm because they hurt us and they hurt the environment, they hurt the living things we share this planet with and it turns out they even damage our microbiome.

During the last few weeks as we were waiting patiently for our field of wild clovers and phacelia (For the bees) to come into its own there was a distinct absence of insect life. But in one particular part of our farm where we have our brassicas planted there was an abundance of bees and flies and butterflies. In this particular patch of ground (about 3 acres) the previous year we had sown the same mix of wildflowers we were waiting for in another field this year. These flowers had reseeded themselves and came up with the crops of broccoli, and cabbage and kale. They were earlier to mature and to flower as the seed was already in the ground and now, they were providing food and homes to 1000s of insects and bees.

If we had started our year as many conventional farmers do, then the first step would have been to treat this field with Roundup to kill all the plant life that resided there. There then would have been applications of more herbicides to supress any plants that survived the Roundup, followed by multiple rounds of pesticides and fungicides applications. You certainly would have had broccoli and cabbage and kale, but nothing else, no bees no flies, no wildflowers, no weeds here and there that provide homes to all these amazing pieces of our biodiverse puzzle.

So, it is with chemicals they remove parts of our ecosystem, and they are exceptionally good at being nonselective. From my days studying pharmaceuticals, the silver bullet was the holy grail, a highly selective therapeutic that would only target the disease and not healthy cells. An impossible panacea with traditional chemistry, and here farmers are being Advised to go out into fields with bucket loads of toxic chemicals and unload them on our food and nature indiscriminately. And I don’t care one bit for MRLs (maximum residue limits, which are generally set in conjunction with the manufacturer) they don’t protect us. Current predictions estimate the market for these crop chemicals to be nearly $330 billion by 2030! When there is that much money involved lets me clear it is not the planet that these companies want to take care of, it is the same as the petrochemical industry or the tobacco industry.   

So here is to food and a food system minus all these toxic destructive chemicals.

Kenneth

Where have all the insects gone?

It was on a very rare occasion that we used to make a trip to Dublin from Galway. Back in the 80s it was a long journey, there were no motorways back then and the all too familiar bottle neck in Athlone could often cause long delays, but it was always exciting. Stopping along the side of the road to eat homemade sandwiches also gave us a chance to clean the windscreen of the mass of insect debris, that would at times stop my dad from seeing ahead. Cleaning of the windscreen was expected and was an inconvenience, how things have changed in 30 years.


If the level of insect splatters is a measure of the health of this very important ecosystem, then by all accounts today it is only one step from total annihilation. Test it for yourself, next time you drive down the motorway, how many insects splatter on your windscreen? Virtually none you will find. So, what has happened and where have they gone?


This year on our farm up until relatively recently there has been a noticeable absence of butterflies and bees. The decline in butterfly populations and diversity is well documented.  Not only that but Experts estimate that flying insects across Europe have declined 80 percent on average, causing bird populations to drop by more than 400 million in three decades, these are astounding figures. Insects are also the world’s top pollinators — 75 percent of 115 top global food crops depend on animal pollination, including cocoa, coffee, almonds and cherries.


In his 2022 book titled ‘The Insect Crisis’, journalist Oliver Milman set out the grim scenario of how our actions as humans are causing catastrophic destruction of this critical world.  Milman describes the insect kingdom as “the tiny empires that run the world”, they are the starting point for all other higher life forms, without whose existence entire ecosystems would collapse.


Did you know that it is now relatively standard practice to eliminate all competing plants from grasslands for dairy production, leaving vast monocultures. The use of herbicides to clear plant diversity followed by pesticides to destroy insect diversity leaves very little for these amazing small creatures to flourish on. If the insects disappear what do the birds eat? What about all our pollinators? What happens to the food crops that rely on these? This typical short-term approach to intensification of global food production will hurt us all in the long run.


The good news is that reestablishing these insect populations before it is too late is easy, it requires some effort, but it is easy. Leave diversity in our fields, don’t spray everything in sight to within an inch of its life. Let’s be clear we don’t need to anyway, all this chemical spraying is quite frankly ridiculous and unnecessary.  Plant hedgerows, plant an acre of phacelia and clovers to enrich the fertility of the ground but also the fertility of the local ecosystems and biodiversity. 


It was when we started planting wildflower strips that we noticed an astounding level of bee life return to our farm. There were honeybees and several different types of bumble bee, and all sorts of other flying insects. We had created a floral reef for insects! On a sunny evening there are hundreds of thousands of bees and insects humming away, and if you stop and listen, it is then that you truly appreciate the magnificent of these little flying creatures and the amount of life a relatively small piece of land can sustain if it is given a chance.


As always thanks for your support
Kenneth

Fresh Spring Rolls with Chilli Dipping Oil – Vegan

There is a wonderful variety of Irish vegetables currently in season. These fresh spring rolls are packed with spinach, carrots, cucumber, scallions, cabbage and a variety of fresh herbs. They serve perfectly as a tasty, nutrient-rich snack and are bursting with vitamins, minerals and fibre. A diet rich in fibre is essential for optimal gut health as it aids digestions while promoting regularity. It is also an important dietary choice for keeping ones cholesterol in check, as soluble fibre can bind with cholesterol to move it out of the body before it has been absorbed into the bloodstream. Fruit and vegetables are rich sources of fibre, and the World Health Organisation recommend we consume at least five portions fruit and veg daily, so these delicious spring rolls are a great way to top up our daily consumption.

The chilli dipping oil only takes minutes to make and is a delicious accompaniment for the spring rolls. It can also be enjoyed drizzled over stir fries or as a topping over some avocado and toast. Enjoy!

Nessa x

Fresh Spring Rolls with Chilli Dipping Oil

Ingredients

For the chilli dipping oil

For the fresh spring roll

  • 50g vermicelli rice noodles
  • 75g spinach
  • 75g sweetheart cabbage, finely sliced
  • 2 carrots, peeled and cut into thin batons
  • ½ cucumber, cut into thin batons
  • 2 scallions, finely sliced 
  • Handful of coriander, mint and basil leaves
  • 10 spring roll rice wrappers

To serve

Sesame seeds

 Method

  1. To make the chilli oil, add the chilli flakes, sesame seeds, garlic, sugar and salt to a heatproof bowl. Stir to combine. Add the sunflower oil to a small saucepan over a medium heat. Heat the oil for about 3 minutes, when it should be hot but not yet smoking. Carefully, pour over the chilli mixture. Stir well to combine. Allow to cool fully before pouring into a sterilised jar. Refrigerate for up to two weeks and always mix before serving. 
  2. To make the spring rolls, cook the vermicelli noodles according to the pack’s instructions. Once cooked, drain and rinse with cold water.
  3. Prepare the vegetables and herbs, and place on a plate, ready for filling into the wrappers.
  4. Fill a shallow, wide-rimmed bowl or tray with cold water. Quickly dip the rice paper wrappers, one at a time, into the water and let soften for about 30 seconds, but don’t soften them completely, allow them to remain a little stiff. Gently, place on a chopping board. 
  5. Layer the fillings onto 1/3 of the wrapper, starting with a couple of spinach leaves, then some noodles, carrot, cucumber, scallion, cabbage, and top with a scattering of herbs.
  6. Beginning with the edge closest to you, roll the wrapper halfway, then fold the shorter side in and continue to roll until it’s sealed. 
  7. Repeat with the remaining wraps and fillings.
  8. Sprinkle the spring rolls with some sesame seeds and serve straightway with the chilli dipping oil. Enjoy!

Gardening, smoking a pipe, a penknife and our food……….

I doubt my grandad spent any great deal of time thinking about food provenance. But eating fresh healthy food was part of his life. It was excruciatingly hard work producing food back in the 50s, backbreaking, without the aid of machines or modern technology, but the food they grew was healthy and free from chemicals.

If you would like to listen to my little story this week from one of our fields CLICK HERE!

He worked as the head gardener in Cregg castle, and he most definitely as did my dad had a flare for growing vegetables. Now although I am sure food wasn’t something for the after mass discussion on a Sunday it would have been on their minds. Certainly, though there was no need to discuss what was sprayed on the food, was it wrapped in plastic or not, where it came from, was it sustainable, was it healthy, was it ultra processed, as none of that was relevant back then.

I do remember his garden as a child, I distinctly remember certain things such as the little seat he had, where he used to smoke his pipe, and the penknife he always had with him (incidentally an indispensable tool to even the modern organic farmer). He used to make raised beds behind the hayshed and sow all sorts of things, from potatoes to carrots, but he also sowed sweet peas on a trellis and had apples.

Another memory and not altogether a pleasant one I have is of having jam jars from the trees in the summer with water and residual jam to trap the hoards of wasps, and stop them from eating the gorgeous sweet apples.

My other grandad used to come out from town for a bucket or two of potatoes and this was part of the sometimes-weekly trip to the country side. Either that or he would visit the farmers market on Saturday in Galway, back then it truly was a farmers’ market, rough and ready though it was.

Food too was celebrated such as the first new potatoes, this we still do today and we have just started with our own amazing organic new season potatoes from Cameron in Battlemountain organic farm. A point to note here is that the prices we are paying for these potatoes is up 50% on last year.

But what has happened over the last 70 years, how has such a large chasm opened up between the person eating the food and the food itself. Giant retail businesses have grown and made it their business to create this great divide it serves a purpose of control and it drives enormous profits into the hands of investors. The shiny plastic wrappers deflect from the reality, the faces of the smiling farmers, the special offers, it all hides secrets of our food system that we are never privy to. The big mechanics behind the scenes that move vast quantities of food around the world, the hidden corners that are cut, the environmental atrocities that are committed, this is all brushed under the shiny carpet.

It does seem strange to think that the food we put into our bodies, probably one of the most important things we buy, we probably know least about and is frequently relegated to the bottom of the priority list. The connection between what we eat, our health and the health of the planet is clear, and rekindling the connection with our food could be one of the most important steps we take to improve our own health and protect our world from further environmental devastation. It is also the one thing we absolutely have control over and can change.

Thank YOU for making that change.


Kenneth

PS We are right in the middle of full harvest season and having your support during the summer is more important than ever as we always see a marked drop in orders, leaving us with a surplus of our own and other Irish organic farmers produce, please support us for the month of August if you can, click to see our IRISH SECTION HERE.

Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think….?

“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.