Clean Dirt

by Kenneth Keavey

What is hiding in our food? 

Simone’s oranges picked in Italy contain nothing but a good helping of Italian sunshine and healthy nutrients from his soil. Our parsnips contain nothing but a good helping of Irish rain and the healthy nutrients from our soil. What then about their conventional cousins? Hmm well as it turns out, the story there is very different.

Dirt, clay soil the stuff that gets stuck under your fingernail is good for us. It is actually pretty healthy to get it on your hands, in fact research has shown that getting your hands stuck in clay may actually ease depression. (Mycobacterium vaccae the bacterium is found in soil and may stimulate serotonin production is currently under study)

Some of our produce comes with dirt on it and we are pretty proud of that, we know it takes a little more effort in the kitchen and time can be in short supply, we know when you have a busy household the last thing you want to do is to wash dirty carrots or parsnips. We get that, I know the feeling and sometimes I reach for that bag of washed carrots and am just thankful they are washed!

But here’s the thing we are not hiding anything, you can see the dirt and it has a very important function. It is a natural preservative, it keeps the veg fresh, it keeps the flavour in. You can smell the freshness when you wash one of our dirty parsnips. Crucially leaving dirt on your veg actually helps reduce food waste!

The great thing of course about soil is it can be washed off.

This unfortunately is not the case with chemicals. Many are systemic in nature, (simply put they get inside the plant or food and stay there). 

Some chemicals are applied to the skins of fruits and vegetables to preserve them. The most commonly known ones are the fungicides mixed into the waxes and applied to citrus fruit. 

We stumbled upon some pretty eye-watering facts during the week. It turns out that one of the big supermarkets are now kindly putting the names of the chemicals mixed in with the waxes on their loose citrus fruit on their website. Have a look see for yourself. (Check out the description on loose lemons on this retailer’s website. I’ll give you a hint the name of the multinational supermarket begins with T.)

This is what is found on your conventional (Non organic) LEMONS:

Here is the list we found (Depending on country of origin, the treatment varies)

Spain: Imazalil/Thiabendazole/Pyrimethanil & Wax E914, E904 

Morocco:  Propiconazole/Pyrimethanil/Imazalil & Wax E914, E904 

Egypt: Imazalil/Thiabendazole & Wax E904, E914 

RSA: 2,4 D/Imazalil/Thiabendazole & Wax E914, E904 

And if you were wondering what these wonderful preserving chemicals may do to us unsuspecting humans here are some fun facts:

Imazalil is a suspected carcinogen and a probable endocrine disrupter (compounds that mimic or inhibit the body’s hormones, generally not good for us)

Thiabendazole is a probable endocrine disrupter 

2,4-D falls into a class of compounds called endocrine-disrupting chemicals. 

Here is another fun fact, the amount allowed in a piece of fruit is set by something called the MRL (Maximum residue limit) and this is generally set by what works to kill a pest and not what is safe for human consumption. (Recently The EU proposed reducing the MRL for Imazalil to 0.01mg/kg  for citrus from 4mg/kg, but this was overturned by growers, so what is the safe limit?)

So, unlike the dirt on our parsnips which is harmless, and could be argued is actually improving our health, extending shelf life, locking in flavour and can be seen, these hidden compounds reside on much of the conventional fruit that is purchased in supermarkets and is bad for our health. It is refreshing to see at last that there is some transparency creeping into our food supply chain. 

Kenneth

https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/citrus.php

Food Waste & Fussy Pigs

by Kenneth Keavey

Food waste has always upset me and I think I get that from my mum.  Pre-covid my mum was a regular in our packing shed, salvaging any waste produce for a variety of charities, she was the ultimate food waste champion. 

Her generation was not one to waste anything. 

It wasn’t until the plastic clad, sell more, always on, supermarket culture took over did we as a generation decide it was ok to dump food. Or was it really our decision? I think not. It was the supermarkets that decided for us and made it ok to waste food and to grade out perfectly good produce based on how something looks.

In our business we try really hard to keep food waste to a minimum. It can be challenging as we are dealing with so many different fresh items, and we have harvests and deliveries arriving everyday. We run 5 different cold rooms, and we run some at different temperatures to ensure the optimum temperature is maintained to keep produce fresh.  We have also committed to not using plastic.  

(Incidentally, just this week it has been shown that despite the Supermarkets railing on about it, plastic does not actually reduce food waste, it can actually increase it!)

But back to our story, we need to make sure you our customer gets the most amazing quality.  Everything piece of produce gets inspected, and while sometimes the odd one gets through,  we work really hard to deliver on our promise of only delivering amazing quality produce to your door.

“Grade outs” : produce that we know will not make it to you our customers in first class condition, are left on a shelf in our packing shed and are generally used to make staff boxes and our team can help themselves. Finally, what is left, the stuff that we don’t eat ourselves usually ends up in Florence and George’s bellies (our rescue pigs!)

I always thought pigs would eat anything. As it turns out I was wrong. Pigs do indeed have some serious food preferences. I know because just over a year ago we took charge of two rescue pigs George and Florence. They have the run of an acre of mostly forested land and will live out their long and leisurely lives here on our organic farm. (Incidentally pigs can live until they are 20!).

Who would have known that pigs are fussy eaters? Well, I can tell you that they will not eat broccoli or kale, they are not partial to courgettes and apparently mushrooms do not tickle their palettes either.

It would seem then that they know what they like and what they don’t like. But when it comes to wonky shapes, and blemished skin they see only food. 

I don’t know that supermarkets take food waste seriously.  A couple of years ago, a person who would know told me about 12 pallets of pineapples that were dumped as a result of a supermarket quality inspection failing them because of some blemishes. This happens.

Maybe being that little bit more mindful of our food can go along way in reducing our food waste, and the funny thing is it can actually end up saving us quite a bit of money too.

Here’s to less food waste!

Kenneth

Who We Are

by Kenneth Keavey

We (Jenny & Kenneth Keavey) started Green Earth Organics in 2006. Our organic farm is situated 8 miles from Galway City. Originally the land was Kenneth’s grand-father’s and then his father’s and finally we took over the farm 14 years ago. We put the farm into conversion for organic status in 2004.

Currently we are farming on 40 acres of organically certified land. Another 10 acres is split between a wild life biodiversity area, native woodland forestry (7000 trees) and red clover/grassland. We are certified organic by the IOA (Irish Organic Association) – please note that EVERYTHING we sell is organic.


You can order online direct from us. We deliver to every county in Ireland – click here for more details about the ordering deadline and delivery days. 

Our Commitment to Sustainability 

Our aim at Green Earth Organics is to minimize the impact of our farm on the environment. We do this by growing our produce in an organic and sustainable way, by generating our own electricity using solar panels, and by harvesting the West of Ireland rainwater to wash the freshly picked veg and to water the plants in our tunnels.

As a business, we are striving to be carbon neutral and we’re actively looking for ways to reduce and eliminate the small amount of plastic packaging remaining in some of our boxes (this is mostly from grocery items – we are always looking to expand our plastic free grocery options so keep checking back on those).

All our set boxes are PLASTIC FREE, we use compostable bags for salads and greens.
All of our other fresh produce is packed either loose or in brown paper bags which we take back and re-use every week. 

We also have a box that contains 100% Irish Veg which you can order here. Thank you for your support – we really appreciate it. 

Currently there are 45 employees in total across the farm, packing team and administration team. We also take on students and interns and employ seasonal workers at certain times of the year. You can check out our vacancies here.


We have 6 polytunnels and grow a wide range of crops both indoors and in the field. Over the course of a year, a typical seasonal box will contain 80% local, organic produce.
We buy produce from other Irish suppliers and we also import organically certified veg and fruit in order to be able to offer a full selection of produce year round. We never use airfreight!

At Green Earth Organics, we care deeply about the environment and believe that people should be able to choose foods that are grown as nature intended, taste fantastic and add to their wellbeing.

Sustainability and health is at the centre of all business decisions we take.

A Very Irish Christmas

by Kenneth Keavey

Against all my best inclinations I have decided I am not going to launch into a rant about the damage the supermarket food culture has wrought on our land. I have decided to instead embrace the positive this week, to celebrate the little wins and the amazing things our people, suppliers, and you our customers are doing.

We have the most amazing suppliers, the best in the world, and they are local, Irish and sustainable. Just today I met Titta from Lilly’s eco clean, she exudes positivity and is dedicated to the sustainable cause. Yesterday I had reason to speak to Franck, our local native Galwegian French man who supplies us with his amazing organic wine, he is always in good form.

We have had to give the harvest of our own leeks a little break until after Christmas and therefore I was on the phone to Roy Lyttle one of our amazing potato and leek suppliers. Cameron from Battlemount organic farm supplied us just a couple of weeks ago with his own freshly pressed organic apple juice from apples in his own orchard and the most amazing potatoes on this island.

Ralph Haslam and I go back along way and he supplies the gorgeous organic cheese, yogurt and if milk (I believe the best milk in Ireland) you may know his products better as “Mossfield Organic farm”. There is of course the cultured food company and Synerchi kombucha, and the Little Milk Company and Bunalun Organic, all great IRISH companies. Yorg from Solaris teas makes his tea right here in Galway and Blakes Organic roast their coffee in Leitrim, the fantastic McCabes coffee roast their organic coffee beans in county Wicklow.

Then there is all the other Irish organic growers that supply us at times during the year such as Audrey and Mick from Millhouse organic farm. Joe Kelly in Westport, Padraigh Fahy in Beechlawn organic farm. Philip Dreaper in Coolnagrower organic farm and many more.

But the best supplier of all is our own farm and the amazing hard-working team of individuals that work tirelessly on our farm. They grow the best tasting, healthiest food you can buy anywhere. Our farm is the centre of our business, it is the heart, it is our cornerstone, it keeps us grounded and it keeps us deeply connected with our food, it never lets us stray from the right path.

That is not to say that we do not have the most amazing teams of packers and drivers and customer service people because we do, the very, very best. So we really understand and appreciate the hardwork and effort of all our other suppliers, they are all amazing, struggling with the ups and downs of running and owning a small business and working extremely hard to produce great IRISH products and make their business work especially during the last two years.

This brings me to our last stars, the real hero’s of our story and I guess you may know who that is? That is, you. Your support, your purchases, your positive (and constructive negative feedback) keeps us going, it puts money in our bank account to pay for all of the above. But and this is the big one, it keeps a strong growing sustainable system of food production going. So aside from the very best healthy and (we have no shame in saying) the most amazing tasting produce you are supporting an idea for a better food future.

Thank you and have a very merry, Irish Christmas!

Kenneth

Our Broken Food System

by Kenneth Keavey

Do you like carrots? Have you ever caught the aroma of a fresh carrot as you wash the dirt from it’s skin? How about crunching into a fresh sweet carrot, the taste grabs you, it is enlivening. Our grandparents took the taste of food for granted, it was what they expected. Funny that the opposite is true today. 

Those carrots of our grandparent’s generation are a long way from the plastic clad, washed supermarket carrots imported from foreign lands. What do they taste of? Very little indeed.

Not only have carrots lost their taste, but they have lost their goodness. A carrot today will have 75% less copper and magnesium and nearly 50% less calcium and iron that’s its relative 50 years earlier. These are sad facts, published by the British Medical Research Council. Our food system now produces food that is depleted in vitamins and minerals, how can this be?

The answer it seems lies in how we treat one of our most precious resources, our soil. Our one-time rich soils have been depleted by the constant barrage of chemical fertilisers, and the life in them as been destroyed by the persistent use of a cocktail of chemicals. The result: food that is as lifeless as the soil it was grown in. If this is mankind’s ingenuity, I want no part of it.

Have we become too smart for our own good? We all want to believe that modern technology will lift us out of the hole we are in, a hole of our own making, but will it? Look at what we have done to our soil. We don’t need modern technology to fix our soil, we need a thoughtful skilful approach to growing our food. A balanced approach that does not extract every last drop of vitality the land has to offer but leaves something for other life to flourish. 

Mother nature doesn’t particularly care about our degree of cleverness, she is hurting, and the question is are we smart enough to recognise our own absurdity and to take action to rectify the damage we are doing? 

“It is the degree to which a species is suited to its environment, not its cleverness, that ensures it’s survival” Charles Darwin.

For many generations now we have lived more or less in harmony with nature but in the last 50 years the havoc we have wrought on our home has become more and more obvious, when will enough be enough?

I can only talk to what we are doing, I know we can grow food that tastes like food. There is magic in that taste. That taste tells you something very important, it tells you a story, a story of a soil that was cared for, it tells you that the birds and bees and all the other little fellas running around were respected, it tells you that what you are eating is real food with no free hidden chemical extras. 

That taste tells you; you are eating the very best food you can buy and you are taking one very important step to protecting our land and your health.   

That the taste reflects a deep respect for the land. 

As always thank you for your support

Kenneth

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.

Don’t Look the Other Way

by Kenneth Keavey

How often do we look the other way? How often do businesses and governments look the other way? Which is worse? Not knowing, or knowing and doing nothing?  As they say ignorance is bliss.

But what about re-framing that idea? What if we know something is good for our health our soul and the planet and we choose that path? What if that means we do the right thing because of the knowledge we have, then we are travelling down a very bright road indeed.

Ella went foraging for blackberries yesterday evening. She felt great for being outside in nature, she felt great for the satisfaction and the pure pleasure of finding and harvesting them and her health will certainly thank her for eating them. She did the right thing, she may not have thought about it much, but she felt it.

On our organic farm we have left the brambles, they provide wonderful homes for all sorts of life and their blossom is an early source of food for the bees, the best advice given to many conventional farmers is to spray burn and clear them! Why I say?!

We as farmers can do the right thing too, mostly we have the knowledge (although the food system and many professional advisers lead farmers down a factory farming and chemical laden approach to food which is unnecessary and inhumane) so hiding in ignorance will not wash.

At the other end of the scale, we have the conscious deception by multinational agribusinesses and large food corporations with billions at stake. They certainly have the knowledge and the resources to do the right thing, and yet they actively engage in measures to create a food system that involves not only looking the other way but one that damages our planet and our health while intentionally misleading consumers about their food choices.

Martin Luther King’s famous quote was most probably not targeting these corporations, but it is fitting in this context.

Never, never be afraid to do what’s right, especially if the week-being of a person or animal is at stake. Society’s punishments are small compared to the wounds we inflict on our soul when we look the other way.

Martin Luther King Jr.

There is so much we can do to reengage with a positive food culture. Building a positive healthy eating routine is the first step.  Taking a closer look at what we eat and where we source our food can transform our diet and collectively help transform our world.

There is little doubt that eating more organic vegetables and fruits sourced locally is the very best thing we can do for our planet and our health.

So, step out into nature, and if you do get the chance, blackberry season is upon us, it is short, so grab a bowl or two and get picking. They freeze amazingly well and are a fantastic addition to smoothies.

Kenneth

Explore our range of sustainably grown and sourced fruit, vegetables and groceries here. We deliver to every address in Ireland and Northern Ireland.

Hummus

by Liz Child

A lunchbox essential! Spread into a wrap or a sandwich, or packed in a little tub with some sweet, crunchy carrot sticks, everyone loves hummus! Hummus is not only delicious but incredibly nutritious too! Who knew this humble spread contains all of the following:

👉Chickpeas provide fibre, protein and essential, energy-giving carbohydrates.
👉Tahini is rich in healthy fats and minerals including copper, selenium, calcium, iron, zinc and phosphorus.
👉Raw garlic retains more beneficial compounds (like allicin) than cooked garlic.
👉Olive oil is a healthy fat and contains vitamins E and K and is rich in antioxidants.
👉Lemon is a great source of vitamin C.

It’s so easy to make your own hummus from scratch. Especially using our organic tins of cooked chickpeas. We also sell organic tahini, garlic, lemons and olive oil! Add some of our organic pantry essentials to your next veg order here.

Liz x

Ingredients

  • 1 tin of chickpeas
  • 1 clove of garlic, peeled
  • the juice from 1/2 a lemon
  • 2 tbsp tahini
  • 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • optional extras like more olive oil, smoked paprika and sesame seeds to top the hummus

Method

  1. Drain your tin of chickpeas over a bowl to reserve the aquafaba. (You can use some of it in this recipe and the rest to make vegan meringues, mayonnaise or cakes. Use the search bar above to find our aquafaba recipes.)
  2. Put the drained chickpeas into a food processor with the S blade attachment. Add the garlic, salt, tahini, lemon juice and olive oil then pulse into a thick, rough paste.
  3. Taste the paste and decide if you’d like to adjust the seasoning. Perhaps more lemon juice or salt?
  4. Then loosen the paste into a creamy hummus by blending again with a couple of spoons of the reserved aquafaba or a couple of ice cubes. Ice cubes make a really fluffy, creamy hummus.
  5. Spoon into a jar, tub or bowl and either enjoy immediately or refrigerate and eat later. Homemade hummus should be eaten within 3 days.

Careful What You Wish For

by Kenneth Keavey

It is ironic, I sometimes think, that the time of the greatest local bounty coincides with the least number of customers.  So, if you can at all do not forget about us, take us with you if you are going on a staycation or better still, let us deliver to you there. Please tell your friends, neighbours and families about us as every extra box helps us survive the summer.

During the height of the stress of the pandemic there was no time, and we were busy to the point of breaking, but now with a little space to think the realisation that we have run a marathon without the training is hitting home.

I have harvested a sum total of about two cucumbers so far this season. Thankfully, the farm team have been doing epic work and that has allowed me to be jumping around between so many different things.

Now we are trying to catch up with the growth. Thinking and putting the structures in place that will allow us to stabilise and grow is more important than ever.  Conscious change is harder than change that is forced upon you, this is thought lead, painstaking change, it requires a great deal of energy and like all change it is hard and takes time. Ultimately though, it is a good thing.

We as a sustainable food producer now have an opportunity to make a big difference in our corner of the world. This opportunity to have a real positive impact on the environment has been handed to us by you. To that end we have an obligation to make it work. 

There is absolutely no question that the easiest route is to leave things as they are and keep doing things the way we always have. But this approach means we are not innovating in how we grow food or in how we get the food to you. Without constant forward motion we cannot hope to compete or survive against the supermarkets and their consistent devaluation of fresh food.

Often the price of growth is having to do things you do not necessarily like or want to do
(at least initially), it can pull you away from what you love and that is a big sacrifice.

I love being out in the fields watching the crops, understanding what is going on and if I am honest, I love driving the tractors (who would not I guess) but recently there has been little time for that. So, is the price of progress worth it?

On the farm it is clear. The price is worth it, and it is seen in better crops, improved biodiversity, more trees and hedgerows and strangely more people.  Because of the innovation we have a better farm and this year we have even more to harvest and some of the best crops ever. Now the time of full harvest is upon us, and we are so busy in the fields.

This week we have had 10 people in the fields. We have been weeding, planting, preparing ground, tying up cucumbers and tomatoes and of course harvesting. It is local people (this year we have loads of local teenagers join the team) harvesting local food. 

As always thank you for your support.

Kenneth

Scramble, Kale Pesto & Miso Mushroom Toast

by Liz Child

Weekends are for brunching and here is one of our favourites. The combination of fresh, vibrant green pesto, soft, wobbly scrambled tofu and juicy, umami mushrooms is just perfect!

You can make your own pesto very easily if you have a food processor or blender – I used my kale and pumpkin seed pesto that I’m making on repeat this time – or you can of course use a ready made one for ease. We sell a few organic jars of pesto in the grocery section of our shop. The scramble is simply a gently sautéed pack of organic silken tofu seasoned with salt, pepper and some chopped sun-dried tomatoes. And those gorgeous, meaty mushrooms are marinated with our new packs of umami paste then grilled.

What’s your favourite brunch? Are you a sweet or savoury person? Let us know in the comments.

Liz x

Ingredients (serves 4)

Method

  1. Cut bread and pop it in the toaster ready to go. Heat up a griddle pan (or fire up the grill in your oven).
  2. Slice the mushrooms in half and mix them with the umami paste and a drizzle of olive oil in a bowl. Then push them onto skewers and place them in a hot griddle pan (or on a tray under your grill) to cook whilst you get on with the scramble.
  3. Heat up a knob of butter (or tbsp of olive oil) in a medium-high heated frying pan. Open your pack of silken tofu, drain off any excess liquid and then pop it in the pan. Break it up gently with a wooden spoon or a spatular.
  4. Season the scrambling tofu with salt and pepper and then add the chopped sun-dried tomatoes. Keep the scramble moving and cook it for 5 minutes or so until it’s warmed through, but don’t break it up too much. It’s nice when there are still some larger pieces.
  5. Meanwhile turn the mushrooms in the grill to cook the other side and then toast the bread.
  6. Spread the toast with a thick layer of pesto, then divide the scramble and mushrooms between the plates.
  7. Enjoy whilst hot!