Home / Archived For January 2014

Good Herdsman Secures Large European Organic Meat Contract

Organic meat processor The Good Herdsman have secured a new organic babyfood contract in Germany worth over E2 million annually. This will involve almost 300 tonnes of Irish organic meat per year.

Former Minister Trevor Sargent, Josef Finke and John Purcell at an earlier Biofach 

The tonnage will be made up of 160 tonnes of beef, 100 of veal and 35 of lamb. This follows a trial run of 15 tonnes October last. This new arrangement has just been put into place this month, and may well begin to address the leakage of organic meat into the conventional sector.

Organic babyfood has long been a strong driver of the organic sector. As long ago as 1996, 60% of babyfood on the German market was already certified organic. Not only is the market very mature on the Continent, in countries like Italy and Russia, veal is very much sought after, especially for babyfood.

John Purcell of the Good Herdsman is understandably delighted with this new deal. “We need to keep weanlings in the organic system” he tells me, pointing out that as many as 3 to 4000 are lost to the conventional sector each year.

Indeed almost 7000 organic cattle are lost into the conventional system annually, despite prices that are considered high by European standards.

With such heavy loses, there is now a new opportunity to prevent leakage. “We're not aiming to take organic beef weanlings out of the system to supply this new market, we're aiming to prevent animals being lost to the conventional sector” Purcell points out.

To address these new needs for extra organic veal animals, The Good Herdsman will have monthly weigh days in Skibbereen mart, with payments on the day. One such mart is upcoming Tuesday 4th February. Cork has significant numbers of organic sucklers by national standards. 

Price wise, with an average of about E2.51kg for 8 month old Irish conventional veal animals, the organic price is likely to be about 20% above this conventional price.

Organic veal is not produced in confinement, nor is it bucket fed. The calves suckle their mothers right up to slaughter age, so the meat is red  rather than pink. They are essentially reared as normal calves up to 8 months, while the bull calves are not castrated.  

John Purcell tells me that “250 kg liveweight is ideal for veal, continentals such as Belgan Blues work well, while dairy calves can also work. We've killed Belgian Blues at 340 kg at 8 months. Calves can often be about 220 kg at that age, farmers should be aiming for 250kg”.

Purcell also recommends that “farmers start to prepare now.” He adds “if they are calving down in February or March, its worth having this veal option in mind.” If farmers opt for this, then they should “keep the bulls as bulls, and get in touch as soon as possible with the Good Herdsman, with ideally three to four months notice.”

Irish organic meat gets a great reception in Europe, due to Ireland's lack of a tradition of industralisation. There are also style differences between the Irish and Continental products; “In France there are a lot of dairy animals in the system, while in Germany bull beef dominates”  says Purcell.

“We’ve stand at Biofach in Germany from 11th of February, I'd encourage farmers to attend and get involved. Irish organic farmers can be more market led, the demand for organic food in most of Europe is immense.” 
He points to organic meat sales rising by 12% in Germany, 9% in Sweden and 13% in France.

“In France we had no market just two years ago, now we supply 16 five star hotels with striplions, and its growing every month.”

The future could be said to look bright then, for many segments of the Irish organic meat sector.


Easy-Easy Barely Roasted Zucchini & Yellow Squash ♥

Easy-Easy Barely Roasted Zucchini & Yellow Squash
Today's extra-easy vegetable side dish recipe: Big chunks of zucchini and yellow squash roasted but just barely, leaving some bite. Weight Watchers Friendly. Low Cal. Low Carb. Gluten Free. Paleo. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real". All that good stuff and did I mention yet, really really good, too?

So people, really, it is still January. Enough with the cupcakes! and the cookies! and over-the-top Superbowl party food! Enough! It.Is.Still.January.

And besides, isn't January food, you know, the food that we should eat "most" of the time, our "every day" food? And aren't all the bazillions of sugar-butter-flour combinations we come up with, even the so-called “healthy ones”) aren't these "December" food and "every once in awhile" food?

We each of us make our own food choices but I happen to love the spareness that is January. Doesn't it just feel good? Less food. Less-rich food. Less fussy food. January is a great food month, no deprivation in the least, the simplicity is much welcome.

And certainly there can be nothing simpler than this quick and inexpensive side dish! JW's daughter served it for dinner with roasted salmon filets a couple of weeks back and I've bought one bag after another of zucchini and yellow squash ever since. It couldn't be simpler. It couldn't be more January. Because yes, January food, it should be February food. And March food. And. And.

The trick – if you can even call something so simple and spare a "trick" – is to barely roast quite-large but still bite-size chunks of squash, this leaves them warm but also leaves some bite.
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Irish Seed Savers: some good news, more needed

As has been widely shared on social and other media, the Irish Seed Savers are in financial trouble. A campaign has developed to save the Irish Seed Savers, and it seems that progress is starting to be made. Here are two very recent examples.


After months of mild encouragement, GIY have, finally, started to stock seeds from the Irish Seed Savers. This is great news as GIY's reach is far greater than that of the Seed Savers.

Twice in written answers in the Dail this month, Minister Simon Coveney has announced a small change in funding for the Irish Seed Savers, (subject to EU Commission approval).

While the funding has been going down each year since 2011 - from E149,564 to E100,000 in 2013 - he announced a rise to E115,000, on two occasions, in the Dáil in recent days.

Here are his exact words: "my Department is positively disposed to continuing its relationship with ISSA and in this regard has provisionally set an increased allocation of €115,000 for the current year. However, funding under the Conservation of Genetic Resources Scheme, which includes payments to ISSA, is subject to EU State Aid rules. Confirmation of the renewal of State Aid approval for this Scheme is awaited from the European Commission and no definitive allocation can be made until this process is completed"

TD's Clare Daly and and Joe Carey asked these questions (23rd Jan and 16th Jan respectively - no link to Daly's question seems to be available yet, an email alert informed me, but in substance it is similar to Carey's quesiton. More importantly, the reply, both times, mentions the E115000)

While this is progress, nevertheless it is NOT ENOUGH to fully and comprehensively save the organisation. 

What can you do?

Visit the Irish Seed Savers page and sign up for something that costs money! Like a membership! Its that simple :-) 

Cork's Raw Organic Goat's Milk

In a very limited capacity, there is raw milk available in Ireland. Cloughjordan Community farm supplies its members with raw cows milk. In Cork, there is now raw goats milk available. Here's the story of a very rare consumer commodity in Ireland.

Joseph & Barry Desmond in Cork
According to the Census of Agriculture 2010, there were almost a quarter of a million dairy cows in Cork. All around father and son team Barry and Joseph Desmond in Ballinhassig are dairy farmers. Barry was a dairy farmer himself too, for a couple of decades. The land here is good, light deep clay soil.

So it’s not what you might call typical goat country. In fact, that same census lists 805 goats in the entire county of Cork. 

And yet, among the awards at this year's Blas na hEireann Irish Food Awards was a Silver medal for Barry and Joseph Desmond's Orchard Cottage's raw organic goats milk. So how did this cow county duo end up in the goat business? 

 In a way, it comes back to the end of the Celtic Tiger. “I was working in a car dealership in Cork five or six years ago” Joseph tells me, Needless to say, new car sales hit something of a brick wall around 2007.

So off Joseph went to the Organic College in Dromcollagher. There he tried to decide between horticulture and goat farming, and the latter won out.

He added some more courses and started small with a handful of goats on the family farm. This, Joseph reckons now, was the best way to begin.

“It would be too much to take on 150 or 200 goats straight off. If I started with 200 I don’t know if I would have stuck with it”

He’s getting close now, with 170 goats, 40 milking, on 110 acres of grassland. Their herd is made up of Saanen for yield (3lt) and Anglo Nubians (2lt) for creaminess- the friesian’s and jersey’s respectively of the goat world. Saanen too have easier, more regular births. 

But once you get him going on goats, there’s no stopping Joseph.

“Goats are more difficult to manage than cows, more hands on. You have to get to know them, and know how to work them out. They don’t like rain, they have to come in a bit, but they are good with cold temperatures. Foot management is important, they need to be trimmed 2-3 times a year, while there is also a lot of food bathing.”

Health can be an issue too, especially in organic, where it’s primarily about preventative. “You have to watch them for illness, especially pneumonia. Temperature changes really affect them. They can go downhill very quickly, it might only take a day, you have to be on the ball watching them. And as goats come in every night, you need more room”

They get to know you slowly it seems. “We hand reared all the kids, at the start they were bottle fed, they grow to trust you. One or two people only in contact with them is best, they are very inquisitive.”

Inquisitive, but choosy with their food too. “They are actually fussy and picky with food- they don’t eat everything! That’s a myth. If you change the diet, they know. Cattle actually eat what the goats don’t. Goats eat the young grass, the best of it. They love brambles and the herbs in the ditches. They actually start in the ditch, then go for the young grass. They are characters, each one is different – they love jumping and can clear four feet. They can be prone to worms though.”

Joseph at the Coal Quay farmers' market
As I said, he gets going on the subject of goats. 

There is very little raw milk for sale in Ireland, yet alone raw organic goat’s milk.  Though planning to expand next year, currently they just “sell 60 litres per week of the goat’s milk” Joseph tells me. All is sold in Cork: the farmers’ markets in Mahon Point, Cornmarket the Coal Quay market, An Tobairin health food store shop in Bandon and Quay Food in Kinsale.

This milk is thus one of the most exclusive retail products in Ireland, making foie gras in Donnybrook Fair seem common.

They also sell their own cheeses – 60 to 70 jars, in equal volumes of 100g and 150g jars, boilie (balls) in sunflower oil.  Along with these, catering tubs of plain goats cheese for a lucky restaurant and “about 40 litres of yoghurt” are sold each week by Ballinhassig’s Orchard Cottage Dairy.

Raw organic goat’s milk is perhaps the most unusual of their range. The milk costs E2.50 per glass bottle. “We’ve kept the price competitive with conventional goats’ milk. People also love the glass bottles. It seems to keep fresher – for 6 or 7 days in fact - and people do prefer the taste from the bottle.”

some of the product range

 Health, it seems, is one of the main drivers of this product.

“People do come miles for it, and the health food stores have waiting lists for it” according to Joseph. He says that his customers tell him that doctors are starting to recommend goat’s milk to people with a range of conditions, including in particular eczema.

The thinking is that “the fat globules are smaller, easier to digest, closer to human milk” Joseph Desmond says. This then makes it more apt for the human body to process. So for at least some consumers, goat’s milk just works better, when it comes to digestion, how the skin reacts, and other areas it seems.

Along with this, there’s the fact that it’s raw. By not reaching that very high boiling point involved in pasteurization, good bacteria are kept intact. This too is attractive to some consumers – gut micro flora are an emerging positive area of research for human health. While still a nascent area of study, the signs thus far are positive. But what about safety?

As well as all the standard tests, “we have the milk tested every 6-8 weeks, and the department tests it too” says Joseph. Luckily, he’s just a 15 minute drive from Enva in Ringaskiddy, where both the milk and the cheese are tested, at a cost of less than E20 a sample. “We’re happy to do this for our own piece of mind too.” 

“After that” he adds “it’s just about maintaining good hygiene standards”. The issues with raw in goats milk are similar to cow’s milk. However goats don’t get TB as much as cows, they are quite resistant to it.”

Another unusual element to Orchard Cottage’s milk is its mild flavour. Goat’s milk has a reputation for being strong, so why is this milk so mild?

“I’m not sure actually! It must be the place, the surroundings, the grass” he laughs. Pondering on it a little more, he adds “Also most commercial herds are indoors a lot, which would affect the flavour too. Ours are out and about; they wait at the gate to go out after being milked.”

Interesting to wonder just how rich, mild and sweet lots of goat’s milk might be, if it came from the kind of land Joseph and Barry Desmond have here in Ballinhassig, the kind that’s usually reserved for those one million dairy cows.




Vegetable Chili with Sweet Potatoes & Chipotle ♥

Vegan Vegetable Chili with Sweet Potatoes & Chipotle
Today's vegan vegetable chili recipe: A confetti of colorful vegetables warmed with chili spices. Weight Watchers Friendly. Low Cal. Gluten Free. Paleo. Vegetarian. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

What is it about chili, anyway? My recipe calendar reports that this kitchen has produced eight pots of chili since the weather turned cooler. We've made eggs and oatmeal and salads more often but other than that, if it's a food race, chili wins, hands down.

With a freezer full of meat and more on the way, no surprise, our chilis tend toward meaty affairs. But ever since tasting the Three-Bean Chipotle Chili from The Wolf, a fun little scratch-cooking spot not far from here, my taste buds have longed for another all-vegetable chili, a small bowl for lunch, a spoonful or two on the side of a poached egg in the morning, a small measure spread on a Mexican Pizza (Oaxaca Tlayuda). I've toned the heat back, waaaaay back in fact, but this is a chili that's easy to dial up or down, aiming for that sweet spot – spicy spot?! – that suits your mood or your taste.

CHILI WITH MAC 'N' CHEESE Yum! Who else loves to pair spicy chili with something warm but definitely not spicy? Chili with mashed potatoes? Years back, Iowa farm wives used this combination to extend chili fed to hungry farm workers for noon dinner. Chili with cubes of cornbread? My personal favorite! Until now! Chili with mac 'n' cheese? Back in November, we headed to Texas with my dad to visit my sister and her family, then drove down to the Hill Country to celebrate the Marine Corps Birthday in Kerrville where our friends Pat and Keri Wilt own a wine bar and restaurant called Grape Juice. I was in total heaven with a big bowl of "crack"eroni 'n' cheese with cabrito chili. Since, I've served chili with mac 'n' cheese for family here and oh! it goes down easy!
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Rustic Tomato Basil Soup ♥

Rustic Tomato Basil Soup, vegan soup on the table in 45 minutes.
Today's vegetable soup recipe: It's Tomato Basil gone all rustic, showing off its pretty red, green and – hey! what's that orange stuff? - colors. Weight Watchers Friendly. Low Cal. Low Carb. Gluten Free. Not just vegan, "Vegan Done Real".

Across the country, lots of people are seeing "white" this weekend. Me, I learned two things, not bad for just coming off the holidays, eh?!

Our new glass-on-two-sides kitchen is a lovely during a snowstorm: warm and cozy inside, so white and windy outside, like being out in the middle of a snowstorm but warm and dry with a cup of hot cocoa in hand. Keep it comin,' Old Man Winter, today was a good day!
Yeah, yeah, I know, the basil came from a pricey plastic package. But even for a committed seasonal cook, to my taste Tomato Basil Soup is a winter soup not a summer soup. Usually, it's blended until smooth but I found the tomatoes and carrots and basil so pretty, I left it in its natural rustic state. What do you think, isn't it pretty?

And I'm smitten when a dish hints at what's inside. Left rustic, it’s obvious there are carrots in this tomato soup! Why? The sweetness of the carrots helps balance the acidity of the tomatoes, they really make a difference.
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"Widespread Uproar" Over Organic Fee Increase?


A lobby group representing some 150 organic farmers, many in the Roscommon and Galway region, claim that there is “widespread uproar among organic farmers” over what they describe as “a very serious issue that has arisen regarding Certification Body costs.”

The Organic Farmers’ Representative Body (OFRB) state that “an additional charge has been imposed on farmers this year, by both Certification Bodies which is totally unacceptable.” The organisation continues “this cost was imposed at the very last minute without any consultation with farmers or representative bodies.”

They “have asked Minister Hayes to intervene to force the Bodies to reverse this unfair and unwarranted charge. This issue is very urgent as the new Certification Fees are due by 6th January 2014.”

Of the two certification bodies queried on this, the Organic Trust responded.

They said “The Organic Trust did not increase membership fees since 2009 despite significant additional expenses being incurred between 2009 and 2013”.

These expenses were listed as:  
·         EN45011 accreditation and maintenance of accreditation (which added between 15- 20K to our annual costs)
·         The introduction of a new standards manual on 01.01.2012 and the dissemination of this manual to all OTL members (cost circa €33K including postage charges)
·         The provision of free nationwide training seminars to all members in 2012 to convey the requirements of the new standards
·         Significant increases in professional indemnity and other insurance costs
·         Significant utilities expense increases in this period.

They added “all of the above expenses were absorbed by the Organic Trust Ltd through a range of cost saving measures introduced across the board; this included reductions in manpower resources and other cost saving measures.”

The Organic Trust also claims that it is thus “unique in not having imposed any fee increases during the period 2009 to 2013”. 

Compounding the strained cost situation, sampling costs have increased. Helen Scully of the Organic Trust pointed out “One of the specific reasons for the increase in fees for 2014 relates to the requirement under Regulation 392/2013 to carry out residue and other sampling on a minimum of 5% of all Organic Trust members.  This effectively will add an additional circa €18-20K to our costs as the previous sampling requirement was on the basis of specific suspicion of wrong-doing”. 

She continues “however, the new requirement requires no such suspicion and is a mandatory obligation on 5% of all operators certified by us which very substantially increases the numbers of samples taken for analysis.  The organisation simply could not absorb such additional costs hence the very modest increase in our membership fees for 2014.”

Helen Scully also pointed out that “the Organic Trust is a not-for-profit organisation and our members are represented by a voluntary unpaid Board of Management who accepted the need to impose a modest increase in fees for the reasons stated.   The Board took the decision to spread the costs of such additional sampling across all members as opposed to sending invoices to those individuals from whom samples were collected – this means that everybody shares the additional regulatory burden equally and no specific members have punitive additional costs imposed as a result of this regulatory change.”  

 It seems then that changes have been imposed on the organic certification system, and that the costs of these changes are trickling down to ordinary organic farmers.

The OFRB claim to have only found out about this fee increase in the lead up to Christmas.With the fees due in by 6th of January will be challenging for quite a few in the organic sector. Welcome to 2014.