COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT AND FOOD FAIRS

September 13, 2015September 13, 2015 | gaiainaction

This past week has been very busy for the people and businesses of Skibbereen. The yearly food fare has been in full swing. The Taste of West Cork festival, which is a week during which Artisan foods produced in West Cork are highlighted. Today’s event was a street market, closing off the main street of the town, lots of food stalls, among which locals and tourists were alike were enjoying the ambience, the more so as the sun was shining over us all. Some of the stalls would be quite familiar to those attending the local market on Saturday mornings at the Fair Green, but there were other stalls too and one could get quite a good oversight of what is available food wise locally, and what West Cork in particular is known for. It was lovely to see so many children and adults enjoying themselves. We were listening to the music and enjoying the dancing provided by the local branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann, an organisation which promotes Irish music and culture. We enjoyed some excellent songs and among others, a brush dance by a young lad which I found very entertaining.

This morning over our usual breakfast conversations, my partner and I were, once again, discussing rural development, it is a subject close to my heart. We do live rural, on the outskirts of a town with a population of about 2000. In recent years many people, especially young people have had to emigrate due to lack of work. Many businesses have closed, but the town is still surviving and with the recent addition of a larger Art Centre, there is a lot going on in this town. Cultural events, different courses being run, societies and organisations, theatre groups, concerts, festivals, local colleges, library activities, a splendid voluntary Tidy Towns group, sport clubs, a fantastic river, a community garden, and much more. Despite all this I can still see room for improvements in and around the town. I can see pedestrian areas, better parking so as to clear the cluttered streets and make the town more people friendly. I could go on. It is up to us all to do something about our towns and areas, and develop our communities.
Small towns in rural Ireland are very healthy places to live in and around, rather than see them go down. Many of us are now not even bothering to go to the larger cities to do our Christmas or other shopping as we like to support our local shops.

Looking towards the new Art Centre, and area that would be very suited to pedestrian walk way. A little tributary of the Illen river, it’s called the Caol Stream.

Irish dancing by the members of the local branch of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. And a Garlic food stall.

More music by members of Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann. And something for the children to enjoy too.

Artisan cheeses produced in several places in West Cork, and very tasty too.

WORKSHOP ON SAVING VEGETABLE SEEDS

September 10, 2015June 20, 2020 | gaiainaction

I spent a very interesting hour or two this morning at a seed saving workshop here close to the town where I live, it was held at the Brown Envelope Seeds farm, (which lies close to the Roaring water bay), in West Cork.
About a dozen of us listened intently as Madeline McKeever, the owner of the farm, explained how we could go about saving our own seeds. Giving an oversight of pollination, cross pollination, inbreeding, outbreeding, and F1 Hybrids, how to choose best varieties for seed saving, time taken to germinate, and seed coat dormancy. She demonstrated how to save tomato seeds, and explained how best to store seeds, to store them cool and especially dry which is in this climate not so easy, or at least needs special attention. I was interested to learn that the seeds of one particular type of lettuce are so easy to obtain, just letting the plant go to flower and seed, but that they need cold to start germinating, that is something to remember.

It was great to take a walk on Madeline’s farm and to see what she is growing. I liked the black dwarf beans, so easy to get at, low to the ground. I also noticed some different ways of trailing the peas, and beans, and even the courgettes, helpful for my own vegetable growing. Madeline is growing, among others, several types of beetroot in order to choose varieties for seed saving. Everywhere were piles of plant material drying out in order to harvest the seeds. Also interesting was it to see the corn grown here, according to Madeline, it has become smaller over the few years she has grown it, it has acclimatised to the West Cork climate we were told, makes sense too. So Madeline introduced a good heirloom American corn and sowed it among her local corn, this corn grows much larger, and the hope is that it will cross pollinate with the local corn and in doing so producing a good better local corn. Exciting when you think of it, all experiments.
Several of the attendants agreed that if something does not grow well for you, not to bother with it in future. So for example, growing tomatoes outside is just a total no-no around here, I have tried it and it did not work out, Madeleine agrees, the climate is not suited to it, no matter what tomato type you try. We were told that vegetables typically grown in South American thrive really well in West Cork’s climate, an interesting bit of information. It is the first time that I am growing oca, a Peruvian vegetable as far as I know, and I am really looking forward to see my harvest later in the year.
I bought two packets of seeds to take home and try out, one is Red Orache, a mildly flavoured spinach type, and the other is winter purslane, also known as Miners lettuce or Claytonia, I have been wanting to grow this, I will still sow these this autumn, for winter harvest.
It has been a very interesting morning, been well worth putting in the time and effort, and I know that I for one have a lot to learn yet.

Continuing instructions in one of the greenhouses.

Showing us different types of grains growing in Ireland, and types of tomatoes currently popular around here.

Coriander and lettuce seed heads.

Different types of beetroot.

AUTUMN JOBS IN THE GARDEN

September 8, 2015September 8, 2015 | gaiainaction

Today was tidy up day in the garden, among other things. I finished planting out the salad leaves, and beetroot. Then I sowed, also in the cold frame, curled parsley, and some winter lettuce, seeds that I had over from last year, we shall see what comes up. I followed this with tidying the garden, putting away a lot of summer things into the potting shed, also took measurements as need to get a light tar paper to attach to some of the outside of the shed. It is one of the jobs that I have had on the list for over a year but did not get around to. I finished outside with putting some stray pots of herbs like basil into the cold frame to overwinter. The table and chairs which we only used once or twice during the bad summer remain on the patio for the moment, not that I expect to use them to eat outside, but because there is a container of sweet peas on top and some other plants.

I am reading this brilliant memoir by Joy Larkcom, it’s a large work, so interesting. She fills the pages with so much information about the history of vegetable growing in Europe. She also talks about the year she and her young family spent travelling around Europe in the seventies, exploring what vegetables were being grown and used and writing about this, also collecting seeds and much more. I have now nearly read half of the book and am still enthralled and learning some bits. It is also interesting to see how the author discovered growing organically. At the moment, every night I go to sleep with my head full of these stories, it is a great ‘down to earth’ sort of thing to read after the long discussions with my partner about the current state of the world.

Soup being cooked, vegetables copped and heaped up with dandelion, nettles, garlic, cumin and other herbs and spices. Next the resulting goodness, very tasty, this is food I really like.

A calm moment after work outside. The poppies have almost all finished flowering and the seed heads are very decorative inside the house.

PRODUCTIVE DAY IN MY GARDEN

September 5, 2015September 5, 2015 | gaiainaction

What a most beautiful day here in West Cork, glorious sunshine and 20C, so excellent weather to work in. And a project was waiting to be done, so no better day than right now. Bought two cold frames early last spring, and they needed some repairs (storm damage) and also they needed to be fastened better (for the next storm). I got a loan of Ian’s electric saw, and cut some lengths of timber, and I had to screw these in so as to stop the plastic flying around at the bottom. I love using this little screwdriver, love the feeling of the screw going into the wood, as if the wood was butter, so easy. Anyway after a few hours of work, with rest periods in between, the work was done and the two cold frames are now ready for planting out young vegetables to harvest during the winter months. I have salad leaves ready to go in, also will probably plant in some of my young beetroots, and the black radish, it is about time I make up my mind about it, but what I really want from these cold frames are good honest down to earth vegetables to cook meals from, not fancy experiments like the bitter gourd that I tried to grow during the summer. Ok I will be trying out new vegetables again next spring, I cannot resist the temptation, but as for this winter I just want to fill the cold frames with food, it will be my first time growing stuff in a sort of greenhouse (which is what these cold frames are really). I shall be reading up on suggestions.

Meanwhile, though wrecked, I am really happy this evening about the work I was able to do, so satisfying to get it done.

My greatest tool, the screwdriver! And inside the cold frame sides all secured and closed off.

Ready for planting stuff in now, another job done to prepare for winter.

Teaching one of my grandchildren about ‘soil’ and it’s importance. And a super great caterpillar found and distributed to the wild fields.

One of the poppy’s a single one this time, still quite a few flowers in bloom this autumn.

MY GREAT LITTLE HELPER

September 2, 2015November 10, 2015 | gaiainaction

Wednesday afternoon is always interesting, apart from all sorts of things happening in my garden, I take care of my five year old grandson, Ruben just loves helping in the garden and today we planted out the winter beet leaf plants. Ruben then gave them plenty of water, but he also dug the holes, so he is a real help. Then we always take rest and have a cup of tea, and today Ruben was pleasantly surprised to meet our new tenant, the robin! This little bird came to pick up crumbs that had fallen on the carpet in the conservatory to the delight of Ruben. There was lots more to be seen and done, there was a caterpillar, and there were herbs to gather and put to dry, and tools to clear up and much more. Ruben, who has just yesterday started big school is a delight to have around. He likes to go for a walk to see the horse in a nearby field too, and playing hide and seek with his amma (that’s me). We laugh and laugh and have the greatest fun, meanwhile Ruben is learning all about gardening and about little creatures which he is very gentle with (even lowering his voice when near them). A wonderful, gentle and delightful boy!

Yet another crop of calendula, and chives flowers and stalks. They are drying now for use this winter.

On our walk along the boreen, there were seeds on the violets. And hawthorn berries starting to ripen.

Our resident robin who spends more and more time inside with us.

A caterpillar on the petunia, and another fresh crop of yarrow, to dry for making tea in the coming winter months.

YOUNG ROBIN AND PLANTING OUT FOR WINTER

August 31, 2015 | gaiainaction

For some weeks now we have a new friend, and she is becoming more and more familiar with us, coming inside and exploring, hovering up any crumbs under the table. When I am in the garden she comes very close. Nice to see wildlife in the garden, it’s such a joy.

This morning it was already 20C in the sun and the day has not disappointed, if we get an Indian summer this will be very much appreciated by both humans and plants!

In between some showers during the afternoon I found some energy to plant out 10 salad plants for the winter months, and some rocket also. Hopefully the slugs will only take one or two. The garden is very full up with all sorts of vegetables and it is a pleasure to see it all grow so well. Ireland is never sort of rain water and even while we get much less sunshine than everywhere else, there is still good enough growth. The winters are mild also. Several vegetables, herbs or flowers will give a second crop during the long growing season. For example, my lemon balm, nettles, dandelions and comfrey plants are on to there second show of lush leaves. Flowering broccoli also is giving a second show, and the marigolds are flowering fully again too. I put lots of my dried leaves into jars today and labelled them with name and date. Used up last years dried nettle in the soup too today.

It is reassuring to see the profuse harvest of all sorts of foods coming in from such a small garden.

TREES SO MAJESTIC

August 30, 2015 | gaiainaction

Trees are among the more beautiful, majestic and interesting wonders of nature. I have always had a good relationship with trees. My first memory ever was of walking or being pushed in a pram along a wall, and what I could see were trees, it was winter so the branches were stark, and I heard the bark of a dog. It is a good memory. While going to kindergarten I remember running across a yard lined with trees, it was a little scary at that time. After that our family moved into a street that was lined with wild chestnut and poplar trees, this was wonderful, we kids would use the leaves in our daily play, not only leaves were used but any pine cones or conkers we would find too, these were lovely natural items to use for play, I’m happy we had those. Another scare happened when a huge branch of a poplar tree fell through the roof of our bungalow during one winter’s storm, I was shaking with fright. Quite a few years later my sister and I went to school in Antwerp city, again a strong connection with trees was made in the inner yard of the convent school, beautiful trees. And it is in autumn that trees seem to come into their own, the scents of the leaves, the colours, the wind blowing through the branches and the leaves falling and falling. After coming to Ireland eventually, I got to know the awesome ancient oak trees in Glengarriff forest. I would not walk in that forest on my own then as I felt such a strong presence of the trees, too powerful.

During my life so far, trees have enthralled me, scared me, fascinated me, given me much joy, and I have loved them always.

EARLY AUTUMN PLANTING AND GARDEN JOBS

August 29, 2015August 29, 2015 | gaiainaction

What a beautiful sunny day it was here in West Cork. A great day for the market and for buying some more plants for the winter plot. I have found that reddish salad leaves are less prone to slug attack, and they are hardy too, so got some of these, together with beet leaf and rocket. Realising that it was high time that I made the cold frames ready to withstand high winds, I purchased twine and screws and made a start at securing the frames, the plastic is to follow.

I also bought some seeds of the round black radish. I have never grown these black radishes before. I do remember making hutsepot long time ago in Belgium, but in that stew we would have used round white radishes with a slightly sharp taste. While checking out the black radish I read that they need a well manured soil and should not go short of water (never a problem in Ireland), they are fast growing and should be used while young and tender. I just checked Pinterest for more uses and recipes of these radishes, and there are many, they can be used raw or cooked. One recipe talks of a creamy black radish soup with rice cream, sounds good enough to me. It is a good vegetable to explore as it can be grown here right through the winter, and that is my main interest at the moment with my garden, how to fill it with food for the winter months. It will be another one of my experiments.

A FEELING OF AUTUMN

August 27, 2015August 27, 2015 | gaiainaction

These last few days have been very autumn-like around here, high winds, rain, cool evenings, but also quite a bit of sunshine in-between, a real feeling of autumn in the air.
While checking over the garden there is a lot to be seen that is going well. I even found a French bean plant in flower that I had all forgotten about, it has been growing in-between the profusely flowering sweet peas. The winter vegetables I planted out weeks ago are growing fast with all the rain they are getting, good to see this happening as I take the supplying of vegetables during the winter very seriously (and it’s fun).

And in-between the leeks there is yet another crop of young dandelions growing, the third crop this year so far!

The courgettes though, have not been doing so well, finally I will be able to harvest one, all the others rotted while still small. Then there is the rhubarb, this is a young plant, started off during the summer, and now being covered with the leaves of the silver birch tree that is towering above it. It promises to be a good rhubarb producer for next year, so the making of rhubarb jam will be on the agenda. During this summer there was very little fruit for sale at the market, probably due to the lack of sunshine there was little fruit around, but having said that, my sister-in-law had kilos upon kilos of strawberries in her garden, so I could be wrong. I do not have enough space to grow a lot of fruit that is why I like to buy it from organic local producers. Last year I made a lot of jam, we are still eating from it, this summer I made none.

The few flowering broccoli plants that were left over, once I got a handle on my slug control, did rather well, we ate some already. Today I found some caterpillars on one of the plants and removed them. No harm done.

The sprouts are starting to get too large to grow under the netting so I will have to remove that this week. I will also be harvesting beans and peas to dry for seeds. Then to mulch the soil with the leaves and branches that are left over as good for the soil.

There is other work to do too before the weather really gets bad (but I am actually expecting an Indian summer soon). I need to tie down the cold frame before I put the plastic back on, wind can get very high here and I don’t want to lose the frame. On Saturday market I will buy some more plants to go in there for the winter. I have plants ready, beetroots, to plant out too in another week or two.

And so the early autumn time is still busy, much is happening, love this time of the year too. Schools starting next week, my grandchildren are all getting ready for that. Almost unused garden furniture is about to be stored for another winter. A few checks have to be made to secure and maintain other things in the garden, and birdhouses have to come out.

And I have a project inside the house to do and am slowly but surely getting ready for that (next real rainy day). Trying my hand on a bit of DIY. I like to be really self sufficient, but I have a good adviser in my partner, thank goodness for that.

Round courgette doing well first one after many flowers rotted from the rain.

Discovery of a French bean plant I thought had died, and seeds of the sweet peas appearing

Kale and more kale for this winter, and the rhubarb plant covered in birch leaves already falling.

Flowering broccoli and little visitors which I caught today, before too much damage was done.

Sprouts and leeks for the winter months doing well.

More kale growing fast at this stage, and the garden how it is beginning of autumn 2015

agoyvaerts

To observe, to be enchanted, and to enjoy the simple stuff in life, is truly a delight.

Author: gaiainaction