Pumpkin Risotto

by Liz Child

Halloween is long gone but pumpkins are still very much in season. Want some extra-flavoursome pumpkins? Add a few of our kuri squashes to your next order. But, if you’ve got some decorative pumpkins with tough skins that still need eating, cut them in half, scoop out the seeds and roast until soft. Then scoop out the flesh and make this tasty risotto. Risotto is the perfect one-pot, soothing, feed-a-crowd, mid-week-meal don’t you think?

Liz x

Ingredients (serves 6)

  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 onions, peeled and diced
  • 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 1 tbsp thyme
  • 400g risotto rice
  • the juice of a lemon or a large glass of white wine
  • 700g roasted pumpkin
  • 2 stock cubes dissolved in 1 lite of just-boiled water
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • nutritional yeast, pumpkin seeds and more olive oil to serve

Method

  1. Heat the oil and butter in a wide, heavy bottomed pan/pot.
  2. Add the diced onion and cook, stirring often with a wooden spoon until soft and starting to turn golden brown.
  3. Then add the garlic, bay leaves and thyme and stir until fragrant.
  4. Pour the rice into the pan and stir to coat it in the flavours and fat. Then add the lemon juice or white wine. Stir for a minute or so until the pan is nearly dry again.
  5. Start adding the vegetable stock, a ladle at a time, stirring pretty constantly until the stock is nearly all absorbed before adding the next ladle.
  6. Once half the stock is used up, add the roasted pumpkin and stir it in with another ladle of stock. Use the back of the wooden spoon to smoosh the pumpkin into a rough purée as you go. Keep adding stock until the rice is cooked through and creamy. You may run out and need to add water.
  7. Taste the risotto and adjust the seasoning if needed with salt and pepper. Then serve with a sprinkle of nutritional yeast and pumpkin seeds and a drizzle of good, peppery olive oil.

Sunshine Soup

by Liz Child

Sometimes in November a bowl of sunshine is just what is needed! Put our stunning root veg to use with this simple soup (or use up your Halloween pumpkins instead). We stock organic red lentils (in a compostable bag🙌) which gives this soup the most beautiful texture and provides protein, iron, potassium, folate, vitamin B1 and prebiotic fibre. Turmeric and black pepper are a delicious anti-inflammatory addition, and we have tins of organic coconut milk for a rich, creamy finish to the soup.

Liz x

Ingredients (serves 6)

  • 2 tbsp oil
  • 1 diced onion
  • 4 chopped garlic cloves
  • 750g diced veg (I used carrot and swede this time but any root veg or pumpkins work well here)
  • 1 tbsp ground turmeric
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 300g rinsed red lentils
  • 1500ml water (approx)
  • 1 tin coconut milk

Method

  1. In a large pot, sauté the onion with the oil until it softens and starts to turn golden brown.
  2. Add the garlic and diced vegetables, season well with salt, pepper and turmeric.
  3. Tip in the rinsed red lentils and cover generously with water. Stir then put the lid on the pot. Bring to a boil then immediately turn the heat down and simmer until the lentils and vegetables are soft (around 15-20 minutes). You should take the lid off and stir every 5 minutes to ensure there is no sticking or burning on the bottom of the pot. You may wish to add more water if the soup is looking a bit thick.
  4. Scrape in the coconut milk then blend until smooth with a hand held stick blender. Taste and adjust the seasoning if necessary. Then enjoy!

Pumpkin Srirawcha

by Liz Child

Sriracha is an absolutely addictive hot sauce which originated in Thailand. It’s so good that it has broken in to pretty much all food shops worldwide. If you’ve not squirted it over your noodles or rice or mixed it with mayo to dunk chips in, you are missing out. There are countless recipes online to recreate your own version, but being the ferment-obsessed chef I am, I make it raw and lacto-fermented. Sounds complicated, but it’s actually easier than cooking the sauce and it lasts better too! This seasonal pumpkin version is really really good. A fab way to use up your carved pumpkins shortly after halloween? Or for even more flavour just use any winter squash like butternut or our own grown Kuri Squash.

Liz x

Ingredients

  • pumpkin or winter squash – roughly 300g
  • natural salt – 3% of the pumpkin weight so 3g for every 100g pumpkin
  • chilli – to taste, I used 6 red chillies
  • garlic – to taste, I used a whole bulb
  • ginger – optional and to taste, I used a thumbs worth

Method

  1. Ensure you have a clean work surface, large mixing bowl and glass jar. You will also need a clean chopping board, knife, grater and small blender.
  2. Grate the squash into a large bowl. Weigh how much you have grated then work out what 3% of that weight is.
  3. Add the 3% weight of natural salt and mix it well into the grated squash.
  4. Remove the chilli stalks and peel the garlic. Then blend the chilli, garlic and ginger into a paste in a small blender or smoothie maker. You may need to add a splash of water to help it blend.
  5. Using a utensil or gloved hands, mix the chilli paste into the grated, salted pumpkin.
  6. Then tightly pack the mixture into a large jar. You want to avoid creating air pocked in the mix so use a spoon or a rolling pin to ensure everything is squished in nice and tight.
  7. Add a ‘follower’ and a weight to hold the mixture below the brine and prevent exposure to air. A good example of a follower is a cabbage leaf and you can use a glass ramekin or a small water glass to weigh it down.
  8. Put the lid on the jar (or if it doesn’t fir over the weight then cover with a tea towel and secure with an elastic band or piece of string) and allow the mixture to ferment at room temperature for at least 1 week.
  9. If your lid is secure, you will need to ‘burp’ your jar once or twice a day to allow gases to escape. Simply loosen and re-close the jar. If you are using a clip top jar it will self-burp. Remove the rubber ring to help it breath easier.
  10. After a week your sriracha will be tangy and facto-fermented. Scrape it out into a clean blender or a jug and blend into a smooth sauce.
  11. Pour into a squeeze bottle or any vessel you prefer and refrigerate. The sauce should last well in the fridge, at least 3 months.
  12. Enjoy on everything that needs a spicy kick!

Less is More

by Kenneth Keavey

Fuelled by the supermarket model of loss leaders and fresh produce devaluation, cheap food has a lot to answer for. When food is cheap those who deserve respect do not get it, from the farmers to the planet to you the consumer. 

We produce high quality food, food that is safe, that tastes like our grandparents remember food tasting, and is a big part of the solution to the appalling state of our planet. 

When it comes to agriculture we can do so much more, there are so many simple opportunities to make a difference. Food can be a large part of the solution rather than a big part of the problem. Because solutions are necessary and urgently so.

A few years back on my way to the ploughing championships a strange creature running in a field caught my attention. I stopped the van to catch a better glimpse and right there amidst a herd of cows was an ostrich! Ostrich farming was once a viable enterprise here in Ireland, and if that is possible then surely anything is. 

This was September 2018 and a day later the event was cancelled because of storm damage. Just 12 months earlier hurricane Ophelia hit Ireland and 6 months later the “beast from the East” caused widespread disruption and empty supermarket shelves. Three months after the snow we had an intense drought that caused us to lose crops.  Three intense major climate related events in less than a year, this is a taster of what may be to come if action is not taken right now on man made greenhouse gas emissions.

Are we waking up?  Are leaders and businesses wide awake to what is happening because they need to be. The days of acting like ostriches are over. We need change now. We need to reduce our material consumption immediately. We need to decarbonise our whole energy system.  We need to eat less meat; our whole agriculture ecosystem needs to change.

I get frustrated by the slow progress on reducing emissions, I know frustration will not help. I get angry with the seeming lack of urgent concern of those in power. I also understand that even though reducing emissions seems simple it is not, it is a complex global problem. 

It is a sad fact we as a civilisation are still intensely reliant on fossil fuels, but there has never been a better time for transitioning to a clean zero carbon future. It will not be easy, but it is infinitely doable and well within our grasp.

Our new electric van is partly powered by solar panels on our packing shed roof, pure clean energy and we use it for delivery, it is possible.

I would like to say that I have a deep stirring of positivity as we head into winter, both for the farm and for the planet. I want to believe that we may be turning a corner and for the first-time people everywhere are rising to the challenge but are our leaders? Are our businesses doing what is necessary? Of this I am not so sure.

Will ours be the generation that will see an end to climate change? I want to believe it will be.

Thank you for your continued support!

Kenneth

Get sustainable shopping delivered to your door here.

A Halloween Party Table

by Liz Child

Here are some fiendishly fun and easy ideas for your Halloween table. There is a 100% guarantee that there will be a LOT of sweets being guzzled at the weekend, so this table is a fun way to balance out all that sugar. Delight and disgust your guests with this grisly spread of ‘finger food’. See what I did there?

Liz x

Freaky Fruit

Use sunflower and pumpkin seeds, nut butter and celery sticks to make some freaky fruit platters. We stock a wide variety of organic fruit all year round and have organic seeds in compostable bags to add to your order here.

This is so fun to make with the kids:
– Peel clementines and poke little slivers of celery through the centre to make ‘pumpkins’.
– Use pumpkin seeds to make the faces on banana ghosts.
– Make apple monsters. Cut apples into quarters and remove the core. Then carefully cut a wedge out for the mouth. Fill with nut or seed butter, sunflower or pumpkin seed teeth and eyes and return a bit of the apple for the tongues. To stop the apples turning brown, rub the cut sides with a wedge of lemon.
– The kiwi Frankenstein’s monsters are so cute. Carefully peel off the bottom 2/3rds of the kiwi leaving a head of ‘hair’. Poke thin celery sticks into the sides for bolts and use pumpkin seeds to make the face.

Green Skeleton Man

Use fresh green veggies and guacamole to make this spooky skeleton snack platter. Our organic celery crop is huge this year. Get them discounted while they’re in season now here.

Finger Rolls

Veggie sausages cut with nails and knuckle marks with ketchup in a roll? Finger lickin’ fun! We have a few different veggie sausages to choose from here and a really nice organic ketchup in a glass bottle.

Pumpkin Puke (Hummus)

Is it even a party if there is no hummus? Whip up this simple pumpkin version to go with your obligatory Jack’O Lantern. It’s delicious scooped up with the green man skeleton or tortilla crisps! We have organic chickpeas, tahini, olive oil and more in the grocery section of the shop.

Ingredients

  • 1 x 400g tin of chickpeas, drained (reserve the aquafaba for another recipe)
  • 250g roasted pumpkin (use a kuri or butternut squash for extra flavour, or use up the flesh from a carved pumpkin)
  • 1 clove of garlic, peeled
  • 3 tbsp tahini
  • the juice of 1/2 a lemon
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin (optional)
  • 1 heaped tsp of salt
  • 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 ice cubes

Method

  1. Place all the ingredients except the olive oil and ice cubes into a food processor and blend until pretty smooth.
  2. Taste and adjust the seasoning if needed with more salt or lemon juice.
  3. Then add the ice cubes and olive oil and blend again until silky smooth. The ice cubes are a secret ingredient which really helps lighten and whip the hummus into a gorgeous texture.
  4. Keep the hummus in a container in the fridge until you are ready to serve. It should last for 3 days maximum.

Pizza Fingers

Pizza dough stuffed with cheese and tomato purée, baked with an almond and dipped in a simple tomato sauce? This is perfect finger food if you can get past the squeamish feeling that you are eating trolls toes! We stock tomato purée, flour, yeast, cheeses, almonds and more in our grocery section.

Here’s how to make 16 pizza fingers:

Dough

  • 500g spelt flour
  • 7g quick yeast
  • 10g salt
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 325ml warm water

Filling

  • 16 sticks of cheese
  • tomato puree
  • 16 almonds
  1. Mix the ingredients above into a sticky dough then knead on a clean work surface until smooth. You may need to add an extra dusting of flour if your dough is too sticky to handle.
  2. Form into a ball and cover with a clean, damp tea towel. Leave to rise until doubled in size – depending on the temperature in your kitchen, this should take around 1 hour.
  3. Divide into 16 even balls. Turn the oven on to 200C. Find a large baking tray and line it with baking parchment.
  4. Stretch each ball of dough into a rectangle. Smear a 1/4 tsp of tomato purée along the middle then add a cheese stick. Fold the dough around the cheese and pinch to seal. Roll the parcel into a finger and pop it seal-side-down onto a lined baking tray. Repeat with all the balls of dough.
  5. Then dip the almonds into tomato purée and stick them on the ends of the doughy fingers. Use a butter knife to make knuckle marks.
  6. Then pop the tray into the hot oven for 20 minutes or until the fingers are golden brown and cooked through. Serve with a simple tomato dipping sauce (recipe below).

Sauce

  • 1 onion, peeled and diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • Italian style herbs (I use a bay leaf, a few fennel seeds and a pinch of dried oregano)
  • 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
  • salt and pepper to taste

Sauté the onion in the oil until soft and starting to take on some colour. Add the garlic and herbs and stir until very fragrant. Then add the tin of tomatoes and season well. Simmer until the sauce is rich and delicious. At least 10 minutes but the longer the better. Alternatively use pesto as the dipping sauce or a jar of ready made pasta or pizza sauce. We stock a few option in the shop which can be added to your veg order.

Trick AND Treat Brownies

Didn’t get to go trick or treating this year? Here’s a spooky brownie recipe that is both a treat AND a trick!

Our Food Shouldn’t be Scary!

by Kenneth Keavey

Our organic farm is situated is in rural Ireland and it is beautiful in its own way. It’s vibrancy is defined by a myriad of greens, that supports an amazing array of biodiversity.
 
Over the last couple of months have you noticed fields with the now all too familiar bright iridescent yellow of dead vegetation?
 
These fields are yellow because multinational global corporations have forced their tendrils into every aspect of our food system and they do not have the good of you or I or nature at the heart of their operations.
 
These companies make it their business to ensure their profits grow whatever the expense even if the cost is our health and the health of our planet. These yellow fields represent what we are told is best practice by advisers. This is complete rubbish, it is anything but best practice.

Over the last couple of months, I had forgotten how grounding growing food is. On a sunny day walking through the crops, you feel alive.  It’s the vibrancy of nature that recharge us, don’t we have a duty to protect this fragile system of life?
 
Using chemicals to fight nature will never work. In the short term it may give a temporary reprieve from a certain disease or pest, but that pest will come back stronger and more resistant next time. It is in a way a self-perpetuating industry.

I spent a good percentage of my early life studying and working with chemistry and I am thankful for the many benefits modern science makes possible, but synthetic toxic chemicals have no place in our food chain, end of story.
 
The active ingredient in Roundup: glyphosate is the most widely used herbicide in human history, nearly 10 billion kg have been used globally.  It is a probable-carcinogen and it now contaminates most non-organic food stuffs. It has caused the dead yellow fields that you may have seen.  The pinnacle of this madness is the application of this chemical to wheat crops right before they are harvested to be ground to make flour. It stays in the flour that is used to make our bread.
 
This invisible cocktail of chemicals in and on conventional food is not good for our health.  It damages our health and does untold damage to nature and biodiversity.

Organic agriculture is much more than saying no to the use of chemicals, it represents a holistic approach to working with nature, to our land and to our food. It means taking care of the soil and the land and it means producing food that tastes fresh and good and crucially is safe and good for our health and for the environment.
 
If we want to have a resilient agricultural landscape for future generations to enjoy, that can withstand the pressures of climate change, then conventional chemical wisdom is not the way.
 
Here’s to fresh organic food.
Kenneth

Look after yourself and your loved ones with organic food. We deliver to every address in Ireland and Northern Ireland. Place your order here.

Trick AND Treat Brownies

by Liz Child

These deliciously dark, squidgy brownies are an absolute treat (and shhh! contain a few tricks too). Make these for the little monsters in your life and trick them into eating beetroot, sunflower seeds and black beans. Hahahahahaaaaaaa! *evil laugh*

This tricky treat is packed full of plant protein and fibre. It is gluten, nut, dairy and egg free, but most definitely not flavour free! So it’s perfect for everyone to enjoy at your Halloween party. These are seriously good, let us know if you make them. All the ingredients can be added to your next order. Did you know we have compostable bags of nuts, seeds, oats etc in the grocery section of our shop? We deliver to every address in Ireland. Happy Halloween!

Liz x

Ingredients

  • 100g sunflower or pumpkin seeds
  • 100g porridge oats (gluten free if needed)
  • 100g sugar (or your choice of sweetener)
  • 100ml oat milk (or any dairy free milk)
  • 1 tin of black beans (including the liquid)
  • 5 tbsp oil or butter
  • 6 tbsp cacao powder
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • a pinch of salt
  • 250g cooked beetroot
  • 250g melted dark chocolate

Method

  1. Preheat your oven to 180C and line a baking dish (I used a 20x28cm one) with baking parchment.
  2. In a food processor, blend the sunflower seeds and oats into flour.
  3. Then add the rest of the ingredients except the melted chocolate. Blend until smooth.
  4. Mix in the melted chocolate then pour the batter into the dish. Even it out, getting into the corners, then bake for 40 minutes or until cracked on top and still a little wobbly.
  5. Allow the brownie to completely cool in the dish. Then remove onto a chopping board to decorate and slice as you like.

I Am Angry

by Kenneth Keavey

Have you ever felt you just do not fit in, you seem to be going against the grain, that you are different?

This thought struck me as I spotted a lonely white cabbage amidst a sea of black kale today.  Not too dissimilar to ourselves I thought, an outsider, not quite in the right place, definitely not fitting in, being different and not really caring what others think.

Of course, the cabbage is just being a cabbage (and probably not thinking a whole lot about anything, it would be wrong of me to suggest otherwise!), but it started me thinking.  

I continued on my crop walk through the fields and I spotted the most amazing intricate display of spider’s webs on one of our kale plants, it seemed that nature was vibrating and shouting look, look at me I’m doing my thing and I am beautiful.

Nature just works. And we have so little idea of how this amazing and complex interwoven web of life works.  All of the natural world links together and works, it just does, and it is truly amazing. Nothing is forced, it all flows, a natural cycle of life and death, always moving always flowing.

Who are we to impose our will and ideas on this beautiful planet without due consideration for all that we share it with? Who are we to extract all that we can by processes that are clearly exploitive, driven by profit? The price is simply too great and is not acceptable.

When will we realise that our habit of constant and increasing consumption are doing irrevocable damage? That our actions are taking away something beautiful, something we all need to be sane in an increasing insane world and only when it is gone will we notice and then sadly it will be too late.

Some days I get so angry, and I am past caring what people think (I guess age brings certain benefits.) But I am angry, and you too have a right to be angry too with the way we as human beings exploit this gentle and strong and beautiful energy that is our Earth.

We cannot compromise in our decisions, and to an extent this is why, even though I am inextricably linked to the world of business, I don’t have to like it.  Practising mindful, conscious, ethical business in a world that is driven by excessive consumption and low prices is difficult, but it is possible, and we do it. 

We have always committed to growing food in the most sustainable manner possible and only sourcing food from the most sustainable suppliers and paying them fairly.  We have always maintained that this is the only way to farm and to do business.

Like the cabbage in the field of kale we are most definitely outsiders, most definitely the underdog. We have a long way to go, we don’t always get it right, we struggle with the challenges but every day we try a little harder and face the challenges and pain head on.

So, for the sake of our planet let’s get a little angry together and make some changes.

Thanks for joining our movement, let us be the channel for your energy.

Kenneth

Let us deliver sustainably grown and sourced fruits, vegetables and groceries to your door if you feel angry too.

Autumn Minestrone

by Liz Child

This humble half-soup, half-stew (stoup?) is so delicious. One of those perfect easy, one pot, mid-week meals that soothes and satisfies. Smooth, blended soups are great but this Autumnal twist on a minestrone is all about the combination of textures. Crunchy, delicate cabbage, floury, hearty beans, nutty, sticky brown rice (or swap with pasta) and melt-in-the-mouth pumpkin, all suspended in a silky broth.

All the ingredients can be delivered by us to your door. We have an abundance of autumn vegetables coming out of our fields at the moment. Why not cook up a few batches of this soup and freeze for a rainy day?

Liz x

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 small leek, rinsed & chopped
  • 250g kuri squash pumpkin, diced
  • 250g celeriac (or celery), diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, peeled & chopped
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp dried thyme (or herbs of your choice)
  • 1 tbsp dried mushrooms, chopped
  • 100g short grain brown rice (or 200g pasta)
  • 2 x 400g tins of white beans
  • 1/2 a Savoy cabbage, rinsed & sliced
  • 1/2 a lemon, juiced (or 1 tbsp vinegar)
  • salt & black pepper to taste
  • pesto/cheese/olive oil/pepper to serve

Method

  1. In a large pot, sauté the leek, pumpkin and celeriac/celery with the olive oil until the vegetables start to soften.
  2. Add the garlic, thyme and bay leaves, season generously with salt and pepper and stir for 2 minutes.
  3. Then add the dried mushrooms, rice (or pasta) and cover with a litre and a half of water. Stir briefly then put the lid on and simmer until the rice (or pasta) is cooked through.
  4. Add the beans along with their starchy cooking liquid, and the chopped savoy. Brighten with the lemon juice (or vinegar) and add another litre or so of water so you reach the consistency you prefer.
  5. Taste and adjust the seasoning with more salt if needed. Reheat to wilt the cabbage and serve.
  6. This is delicious as it is or give it a little lift with a drizzle of good olive oil or pesto over each bowl. For added richness and flavour add grated cheese (or a sprinkle of cheesy nutritional yeast flakes if you want to keep it dairy free).

Quick Cabbage & Potato Curry

by Liz Child

For a warming bowl of hearty food in a hurry, try this quick curry. Cabbage and potato are made for each other aren’t they? With the addition of some warming curry spices and creamy coconut milk, these humble ingredients can really sing! Of course you can tweak the recipe as you like with the addition of cooked chickpeas and some cauliflower/romanesco florets etc. Let us know if you tried it in the comments or over on our community facebook group.

Liz x

Ingredients (serves 4-6)

  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 white onion, diced
  • 4 cloves of garlic, sliced
  • 8 small/medium potatoes, chopped
  • 1/2 a savoy cabbage, sliced
  • fresh chilli to taste, sliced
  • 1 heaped tsp each: brown mustard seeds, turmeric, curry powder, salt and black pepper
  • 1 400g tin coconut milk
  • *optional extras* – cooked chickpeas, cauliflower/romanesco florets…
  • Indian chutneys and natural yoghurt to serve

Method

  1. In a large, heavy bottomed pan (which has a lid), fry the onion and garlic with the vegetable oil until golden and soft.
  2. Add the potatoes, spices and seasoning and sauté until fragrant. Add a small glass of water then put the lid on and allow the potatoes to steam cook for 8 minutes or until tender. Test with a knife.
  3. Then add the cabbage, coconut milk and chilli to the pan, return the lid and let the cabbage wilt for 3 minutes. (Here’s where you can add the cooked chickpeas if using.)
  4. Then stir the vegetables together, taste and adjust the seasoning if needed with more salt/pepper, return the lid one last time for a further 3 minutes and your curry is done!
  5. Serve in warm bowls with Indian chutneys and natural yoghurt. Enjoy!