direct sales

Showing posts with label direct sales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label direct sales. Show all posts
Saturday, 16 August 2014

Cloughjordan Weekender 23rd and 24th August: do visit!

The farm which provides me and my family with most of our food is doing lots of really interesting, fun things in August and September. Have a look below and maybe see you at one of these events! 
Cloughjordan Community farm is gearing up for its  appearance in the Global Green area of the Electric Picnic with Resilience Skills Share weekender 23rd and 24th August. 
As part of this, the farm will host a community farm brunch and talk on Sunday 24th August.
This will be a fundraiser for the Cloughjordan Community Farm, one of Ireland’s only community owned and operated farms. Currently over 50 local families are supplied with fresh veg and milk weekly from a farm they themselves own. The bright big marque will be up, lots of little stalls will festoon the farm's land, while, as you'll see at the end of this post, a great range of fun things will be doable, from DIY pallet furniture making to pop up meals.

Beginning at 11.30AM, this event, part of 2 days of events in Cloughjordan called the Resilience Skills Share Weekender, will feature Eliza Ward's multi award winning Country Choice on Tour.

Eliza's brunch, to be held on the farm's land at the Knocknacree side of the ecovillage, will showcase the very best of what's available in Cloughjordan and the region. Modelled on her Electric Picnic offering “The Cure” this brunch experience will feature produce from the Cloughjordan Community farm, Cloughjordan Woodfired Bakery, and a range of regional producers. These will include Crowe's Farm pork (Dundrum), The Apple Farm juice (Cahir) and Sunny Meadow Farm salad (Portumna). Eliza and her team will make up all the chutneys and jams to accompany the mains, with ingredients sourced from these farms.

A lighter breakfast option, comprising Ballybrado organic oats, Tipperary yoghurt and a beetroot blush made from Cloughjordan Community farm produce will also be available.

Killian Boyle will do tea coffee, bakes and his own ice cream brand - Boyle & co – at the Community Farm Brunch on the 24th.

Following the Brunch, Eliza's father, the inimitable and incontrovertible Peter Ward of Country Choice itself, will take to the stage in the brightly coloured marque on the farm's land, and give us his vision for how food could be.

The Resilience Skills Share weekend in Cloughjordan will feature a host of events, with talks, pop-up meals, the launch of a new teaching bakery school and more.

The farm is also hosting events on 20th and 21st September. This will include a talk and with another superb orator John Feehan (20th September) accompanied by a glorious banquet, as well as forager Sharon Green (of Wild Irish Foragers) and BBQ with Barry Bryan of Low Carbon Catering. These events will also be on the farm's own land, and in and around the fab cultivate Marque! More on these events soon!

Great, affordable accommodation available at Djangos' Hostel! 

See below for all upcoming events on 23rd and 24th.

RESILIENCE SKILLSHARE WEEKEND
This is an innovative three-day event on the Farm and around WeCreate that is hosted by members of the community in preparation for the Cloughjordan tent at the Electric Picnic. Immerse yourself in activities such as, growing food in a crisis, pallet furniture making, DIY Fab Labs and exploring collaborative approaches to housing and food production. 
WeCreate, Cloughjordan Community Farm

23 August 11.00 - 13:00 €donation
TOUR OF THE RED GARDENS
Tour of the 5 small scale Research, Education and Demonstration Gardens in the EcoVillage, which are being used to explore diverse methods of growing vegetables, followed by discussion about growing food for yourself. 
Hosted by Bruce Darrell on the RED Gardens.


23 August 12.00 - 14:00 €donation
INTRODUCTION TO COMPOSTING
Stop Food Waste Regional Coordinator  Mike Holden hosts this open session on composting at the new Community Farm Composting Station. Cloughjordan Community Farm. For info contact Mike on <recyclemichael@gmail.co>

23 August 13.00-14.00 €free
KICKING THE CRAP OUT OF BREAD
The launch of Riot Rye Bakehouse & Bread School
Real bread baker and campaigner Joe Fitzmaurice will tell you the truth about industrial and chemical based breads in Ireland, including soda bread. He will also introduce his concept and recipe for ‘The Common Loaf’ - a simple sourdough for all.   
Riot Rye Bakehouse & Bread School.  Contact: Joe  085-182 2777 or <cloughwoodfiredbakery@gmail.com>


23 August 15.00 - 17:00 €Donation 
WE’RE FECKED, WHAT NOW?
FEASTA- The Foundation for the Economics of Sustainability
What can a community do? A scenario planning discussion hosted by members of Feasta living in the EcoVillage, looking at the theme of collapse and possible community responses. Contact info@feasta.org
Hosted by FEASTA at the Resilience Centre


23 August 18.00 - 20.00 €TBA
WOODFIRED SOURDOUGH PIZZA NIGHT
Riot Rye Bakehouse & Bread School
Delicious pizza to take away, pre-book: <cloughwoodfiredbakery@gmail.com>
At the Riot Rye Bakehouse & Bread School.


24 August 11.30-15.30  €15 (€10 brunch €5 talk) CCF fundraiser
COMMUNITY FARM BRUNCH & TALK 
This CCF event, as part of the Resilience Camp Out and Skills Share weekend, will feature the father and daughter team Eliza and Peter Ward. Eliza of Country Choice. This will showcase in a, hands on and edible way, what she’ll be bringing from the region up to the Electric Picnic, from Riot Rye breads to chutneys made from Cloughjordan Community Farm ingredients. Indomitable orator and ‘good food’ practitioner Peter Ward who will discuss some of his and Country Choice’s food ethos. 
In the Marquee on Cloughjordan Community Farm (part of the Resilience Weekend)


24 August 19.00 - 22:00 €pay-what-you-want
POP UP SEASONAL FEAST - FROM SOIL TO PLATE
RED Gardens, Bruce Darrell
"Food grown by me in the RED Gardens, prepared and cooked by me, and eaten by you in my house in the Ecovillage". A casual, pay-what-you-want event, but space is limited so contact Bruce at 087 2270359 or @cjredgardens to reserve.

Monday, 21 July 2014

Organic Republic: Tales of Kale & the Rise of Cork's Eastern European Consumers


With sales of Organic food increasing once again, I spoke to William Doherty and Caitriona Daunt. The couple run Organic Republic, an organic produce home delivery service, as well as their own stall at a number of farmers’ markets in Cork.  I spoke to Cathriona about their operation.


Oliver Moore: What’s your background Cathriona?

Cathriona Daunt: I studied French and Spanish in UCC, and then worked abroad. I also did a horticulture course here in Ireland when I returned. Work experience included a stint in a flower garden, and I was shocked at the amount of chemicals used. In fact, it was my job to spray them. I didn’t like that, and started to look around for different things. So I started working on stalls, selling olives and the like. Then I started buying veg from organic grower and importer Denis Healy to sell on, and finally, I started to go out on my own.  I was called All Organic. Willy, my now husband, was working for the Kerry branch of olive stall. He left and joined up with me after two years, and we became Organic Republic.  That was ten years ago, I’ve been doing this for 12 years. 

OM: Do you grow your own produce, or is it all other people’s?

CD: Our own land is in conversion at the moment, so we will be supplying our own soon. We’re growing  tunnel crops and a few outdoors too, and we’ve started doing wheatgrass too.
We’re near Macroom and we have a large polytunnel on one acre. We get a lot from other Irish suppliers, they meet the demand at present. Generally speaking, we don’t want to bring fruits and veg  too far, so we will supplement with our own.  You could say that we were growing  kids, but now were growing vegetables!

OM: Who do you buy from?

CD: We purchase from Beechlawn in Galway, Philip Draper in Offaly, Tony Miller and Kristin Laubach in Dunmanway, Jonathan Doig in Rosscarbery, Stuart Kingston Farnanes and then smaller suppliers with surplus. 

OM: Tell me about the direct sales- what’s involved?

CD: We have 80 customers at present. We have a default box as we call it – it’s basically what’s in season and what works for us to put together. The produce comes in on Wednesday, its packed Wednesday and Thursday and then delivered Thursday and Friday. We deliver in the city and out to Macroom and Mallow at present. Drops are direct to people’s homes or their places of work if that suits them better. Some businesses order from us for their canteen fruit baskets too.

OM: Does everyone go for the default box?

CD: No, though most do. What happens is people text, email or use facebook to tell us any changes they’d like. So I have to keep on top of it all. Our most popular box is 20E per week - that’s the main seller. They go up in 5E increments to E35 – people who juice buy the most. 

OM: You’ve been at this 12 years. What’s changed?

CD: There is more of a focus on local produce – that wasn't such a concern during the boom. 10 years ago people didn't asked about seasonality, today they do.  We’d love to get more Irish fruit: at the moment it’s just rhubarb, gooseberries and apples really .We’re also buying in mushrooms – it would be great to get Irish organic mushrooms delivered.

People love kale now too, and Kohlrabi is getting popular too. We’re selling a lot of beetroot to east Europeans, in fact, people from eastern Europe are a growing market for us - maybe 20% of our customers. Also, people into fitness, coming from gyms, and the juicers are regulars now. Both the markets and deliveries are less of a middle to upper class sort of thing these days too.

Organic Republic markets: Tuesday Macroom; Thursday Mahon Point; Friday Bantry; Saturday Midleton and Douglas. Find them on facebook.

Thursday, 24 April 2014

Feeding Ourselves a Method too: how conferences can be

The third annual Community Food conference – Feeding Ourselves – was held in Cloughjordan last weekend.  I was one of the organisers, along with Ivana, Davie Kevin and loads more in Cloughjordan. Food producers made up a significant proportion of the attendees.

Along with this cohort, communities setting up or already running community food initiatives, educators and residents from Cloughjordan’s ecovillage made up most of the rest.

Community food initiatives are about people coming together to try to organise how some aspects of their food happens. This can mean, for example, that they form a group, make contact with farmers and/or growers and make a reasonably long term purchase arrangement with the farmer or grower.

In the case of Cloughjordan’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiative, 50 or so families contract a farmer (milk, meat) and a pair of growers (vegetables) to produce for them. Unusually, this is a member owned and operated initiative – most CSAs are organised by farmers looking to access more stable, committed and understanding markets. So they seek out consumers who understand that seasonal veg supply means produce is constrained some of the time, and abundant some of the time, but that farmers or growers need revenue all year round.

Duncan Stewart outlined his work on trying to develop community food and energy co-operatives. He is using a competition called “Get Involved”, in partnership with the local newspapers, to try to drive this on. He pointed out just how reliant our communities are on importing food and energy, and how this could easily be so different.

Noreen Byrne of UCC’s Centre for Co-Operative Studies pointed to the real potential for community owned shops to take off. A recent conference in the Horse and Jockey – called Counter Revolution -  was attended by dozens of communities all thinking about doing what is quite normal in the UK. There, there are hundreds of community owned shops, which provide focal points for communities and add to the livelihoods of local suppliers. In the case of Tipperary’s Loughmore community shop and cafe, 16 different local suppliers are paid monthly, for the eggs, veg, crafts and whatever else they provide. A post box is the newest addition to Loughmore, thanks to the shop/cafe.

The methods used to run the event was very participatory, so everyone who attended contributed. This was a crucial difference between this event and most other conferences held. Usually a few experts, who’s work can always be read at any time anyway, dominate proceedings. From the perspective of attendees (for that is all they all – attendees not participants) the front table seem mostly committed to working out ways to reduce the input from the floor. One or two questions after the expert are about the maximum, and the clock is “always against us.” 

Instead, this conference was participatory from the start. Voices from the field invited succinct contributions from the floor on who people are and what they are doing; special interest groups were formed, for growers (2 groups), educators and communities/consumers.  The data from these hour long meetings was harvested for presenting to all afterwards. The content for maps of community related food initiatives were developed collaboratively, with digital mapping experts offering their services (for free) to turn this into real maps.  A panel from a wide range of significant areas – academia, distribution, production - took this morning’s info and further developed what it might mean in the afternoon.

Let's let the pictures do the talking....












 This whole process is respectful of the genuine on-the-ground, working-in-the-real world expertise of those who attend these conferences. It also makes the best use of a large, unique collection of people. Why most conferences aren’t run like this is beyond me.


More

A great detailed feature from Dee of Greenside up on this event and a whole lot more!

Previous features on this conference 2012 and 2013

All of Grace's pics

Cloughjordan Ecovillage


Wednesday, 2 April 2014

Full Programme & Info Feeding Ourselves

Full programme, useful info and biogs for Feeding Ourselves 2014 below; for more info on our participatory methods see previous blog post. Price: €30 (Unwaged, students and CCF members €25). Our Community Farm is recovering from the recent big storms which destroyed all of our polytunnels. We are resilient though and are in the process of replacing the polytunnels for this season. By attending this conference you will be helping us do this.



Saturday

10.00 - Opening - Oliver Moore and Majella O’Connor from Cloughjordan Community Farm welcome guests.
10.10 – Voices from the Field. Short presentations on different cooperative approaches to growing and distributing food. The aim of this session is to provoke conversation in the café discussion.
11.00 - Collective Wisdom - Small Group Conversations for Producers, Communities & Consumers
Producers: For farmers and growers interested in finding new markets, networking with other producers and finding out about best practice in agronomy.
Communities: How can cooperative food projects strengthen the resilience of our communities? How do we get started and maintain them?
Consumers: Or pro-sumers, civic food actors, bloggers, food writers, food solidarity activists
12.00 - Conversation Harvest - Sharing the ideas from the conversations and discussing in the whole group
13.00 - Lunch – A Taste of Cloughjordan.
14.30 - Networking Session
15.00 - Presentations from Duncan Stewart
15.45 - Break
16.00 - Feeding Ourselves Discussion
Featuring Noreen Byrne UCC, Duncan Stewart EcoEye, Claire O Connor , Manna, John Feehan and Aine ni Cheartigh Limerick Community Grocery and of course you. Hosted by Davie Philip from Cultivate
17.00 - Close
17.15 - Farm Walk

22.00 - Cloughjordan At Night - DJ Party in The Railway Bar (with me - see poster over there!)



Sunday

10.00 - Farm Meitheal
13.00 - Community Meal on The Farm
15.00 - Ecovillage Tour - Leaving from the bookshop
16.00 - Close

Accommodation

To Support the “Feeding Ourselves” conference, during the event, rooms in Django’s hostel will be on discount prices.
The hostel is right at the heart of the eco-village, and like all the other homes there it has been built to the very highest ecological standard. The design, building materials and energy systems used here are all state-of-the-art for green living.
For more information visit:



Lunch - Saturday 5th of April (Optional)

During the event a local catering company "Low Carbon Catering" will organize a lunch for the participants of the conference. All the produces that are used are organic and most of them are coming from our farm. The meal will cost 10 Euro including starter, main course and drinks (tea/coffee and biscuits)

Please book your meal at least two days before the conference on: lumakovska.ivana@gmail.com

To Book your place for the conference please fulfill this online form:

For any further information and questions please contact Ivana on: lumakovska.ivana@gmail.com

Biogs


Duncan Stewart is an architect & environmentalist  specialising in ecological design and energy. He has worked extensively in Europe and the USA before establishing his architectural practice in Dublin. Duncan is also well known for his work as a TV broadcaster & his environmental series on RTÉ, including “Eco Eye”, “The State We’re In”, “Wood From the Trees”, “Engine Earth” &“The Changing Face of Dublin”.


 Noreen Byrne is a Lecturer at the Department of Food Business & Development and a researcher at the  Centre for Co-operative Studies (www.ucc.ie/ccs). The Centre was founded in the early 1980s and is the only University research centre on the Island of Ireland which focuses on research and training on co-operatives. The centre is  involved in postgraduate programmes on co-operatives such as the MBS in Co-operative & Social Enterprise (E-Learning) and the Postgraduate Diploma/MSc in Co-operative Organisation, Food Marketing and Rural Development.


Claire O'Connor owns and runs Manna Organic Store in Tralee with her husband Thomas O’Connor. They live on their 25-acre organic mixed farm on the Dingle Peninsula where they grow vegetables, fruit and salads and raise chickens, ducks, geese and pigs. They are both actively involved in the greater community through Transition Kerry, The Organic Growers of Ireland, the Irish Organic Farmers and Growers Association and other local community groups.

Monday, 24 March 2014

Limerick Community Grocery: Connecting up Producers & Consumers


Its taken a long time for new routes to market for farmers and growers to develop in Ireland, but the Limerick Community Grocery hopes to be the start of something new. Member owned and operated, it is the first of what may be the next generation of outlets that put the civic back into the shopping experience.


Bill Kelly and a few others set up their unassuming spot on the Ballysimon road, in the old Esso garage, last Autumn.(See its fab new facelift in the pic above!)

Bill's Box at LCG 
“We invited the Mondragon coops from Spain to Limerick in 2011” Bill tells me. “We also spent a week out there in the Basque region with them. They put us in touch with coops in the US and UK. A lot of them started out simply as buying clubs, where 5-6 started buying produce together” 

He continues “we deal primarily in local produce, organic and non-organic. Its ordered on line up to 10 pm on a Wednesday night, picked on a Thursday, delivered Thursday evening or Friday morning, and then available for pick up and also for sale on Friday.”

Lisa's Box at LCG
In the Limerick Community Grocery, neat pre-made boxes await the customers each Friday. Others come in just to shop, while some both shop and pick up their pre orders.

“Our co-op colleagues in the US, UK and Europe have been extremely helpful, they have built up sustainable businesses over 20 and 30 years” he adds.

The membership growth rate is fast for the Limerick Community Grocery. “four or five join each week” Bill points out.

Recently, Saturday has been added too, as has a wider range of products again.
Organic Grower & LCG supplier Jim Cronin

As often is the case with these sorts of initiatives, organic producers are strongly represented. Both Jim Cronin and John Millane, organic growers from Clare, supply the Limerick Community Grocery. Cloughjordan wood fired bakery brings in their award winning breads, while local conventional veg is available from two suppliers also.

When I visited, Lisa Kennedy, an intern who works on Jim Cronin's farm, was there to met the customers. “orders are growing week on week” she enthused “its a very good sign for the co-op and for us”

Áine Nic Cháirthaigh is one of the regulars. “I joined a few months ago, I love the fact that its around. We have organic and more price sensitive produce, but I love having the organic produce available. I'm really interested in the fact that its a new way of shopping, that the members own it, and can make decisions about where their food is coming from. They know that they are getting good quality food,  its keeping employment in the local area, and building up the local economy. It's a great bunch of people really”

As well as being an organic grower, Jim Cronin teaches horticulture courses at his farm near Bridgetown in Kilaloe. “Every year there is something of a general theme, a motif, something that the growers attending the course have really honed in on. This year, a lot of them are very concerned about the multiples.”
One of Jim Cronin's Workhouses

Certainly the power expressed by the multiples over the horticulture sector last Christmas was noted. Maybe the Limerick Community Grocery is the start of another way for cities to engage positively with the growers around them.

“We should be talking to the IFA” Bill says pointedly, in a way that sounds like he intends to do so soon. “Having a grocery store that is owned by the community, retaining wealth in the community, and providing wholesome food at affordable prices. That's what we're about”

Moreover, they are ambitious with their plans and vision. “We're about providing ownership and participation to everyone. This is a practical expression on the high street of what we want to do. Ordinary individuals can become involved and have ownership. Ideally we'd like to see Limerick branded as a cooperative city. Today retail, tomorrow engineering, thereafter banking.”

Monday, 13 January 2014

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.




Thursday, 22 August 2013

FARM CAMP CLOUGHJORDAN 6-8 SEPT!


EcoLearn - FARM CAMP A Taste of Building Community.

6th, 7th and 8th of September Cloughjordan Community Farm & Ecovillage, Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary 

This weekend event will give participants an opportunity to find out more about community supported agriculture, explore how we as communities can provide our food and build resilience.  The event will highlight the ecovillage, offer workshops, talks and opportunities to share our skills and stories, as well as celebrating the harvest and eating together.  

Full weekend pass €50 (excludes barbecue and accommodation) 

Friday 6th 
No Cost  
14.00 - 16.00 Farm Meitheal - Join our producers Pat Malone and Kevin Dudley on the field. 
19.00 - 22.00 Community Meal and Night Market - An opportunity to share, barter and gift. 

Saturday 7th 
Day pass €30 (Includes all events except barbeque) or each session is priced separately. 

€5 morning programme  
11.00 - 12.00 EcoLearn - Launch of new Ecovillage Trails Guide and Welcome Centre. Presentation on the ecovillage project from Sustainable Projects Ireland. 
12.00 - 13.30 Tours - See the Ecovillage, the Community Farm, the Cloughjordan Woodfired Bakery or take the biodiversity trail. 

‘Community Supported Everything’
€15 Saturday afternoon programme (Farm members €10) 

14.30 - 16.00 - Hear what is happening in the field of community resilience and sustainable agriculture with the ‘Voices from our Field’ session. There will be an introduction to the Community Farms plans for a GIY Community Food Hub; a facilitated discussion on new cooperative approaches to building community; and an exploration into how we creating livelihoods and strengthening the local economy.  
16.00 - 17.30 - Optional Sessions and Conversations 
· Farm Meitheal - Learning on the field with the farm producers
· Foraging 
· Nutritional Resilience - Bruce Darrell 
· FabLabs and Agriculture - WeCreate introduction digital fabrication
· Mixed farm systems-Learn how to evaluate your plot and get the best out of it in terms of fertility, productivity and cost effectiveness by integrating crops and livestock. Tour & walk with Lilly (Smallholding Ireland)
· Harmonica Recycling Workshop 

18.00 - 20.00 - The Farm Barbeque - A taste of the community farm out on the field. €7.50/8.50 (Separate cost, not included in day price)

Saturday Evening Programme
€10 for both sessions or (€7.00 for the talk only and €5 for the celebration. 
20.00 - 22.00 - The Gift of Community 
A conversation with Mark Boyle author of the Moneyless Manifesto. 

22.00 - late - The Harvest Celebration
Sharing tunes, songs and stories. 

Sunday 8th
Day Pass €20 (Includes all events)

10:00 - 12:00 A Makery Morning - Coffee  and cheese making workshop - €5 (suggested donation) morning programme

Farm Meitheal - Back out on the field harvesting 
€15  afternoon & evening programme 

15.00-17.00 Community & Agriculture - An ‘Outstanding in Our Field’ presentation and walk with John Feehan (€8.50 Standalone)

18.00-21.00 A Community Harvest Meal - Preparing and sharing the food we harvest from the community farm. (€8.50 Standalone)

Django’s Hostel in the ecovillage is fully booked already. Basic camping on the field is available for a maximum of 20 tents (€10 per night per tent). Informal B&B is available from some Ecovillage members (prices from €20 for single and €40 for double room per night.

Places are limited! Contact: Ivana for accommodation options and general enquires on:  lumakovska.ivana@gmail.com or tel. 085 249 6675

Cloughjordan Community Farm is one of Ireland’s leading CSA Community Supported Agriculture projects, which is based in Cloughjordan Ecovillage. Using biodynamic farming methods, Cloughjordan Community Farm supply fresh produce weekly for over 50 member households in the Cloughjordan area.

The Cloughjordan Ecovillage is being developed by Sustainable Projects Ireland, a registered educational charity and national NGO. Its purpose is to develop a sustainable community that can serve as an education, enterprise and research resource for all.

Mark Boyle also known as the moneyless man will share his experience and talk about his way of living. Mark is a writer and activist best known for the founding the online Freeconomy community, and for living without money for two years.

John Feehan is an Irish geologist, botanist, author and broadcaster. He is a renowned, award-winning environmental communicator whose work is driven by a deep commitment to the maintenance of rural biodiversity and cultural heritage, and the sustaining of rural community.




Sunday, 28 April 2013

ORGANIC MARKET IN IRELAND THE UK 2013




How is the organic market faring in Ireland, the UK and elsewhere? Oliver Moore delves in.

The future is online, when it comes to organic sales in the UK. That's according to the most recent organic market report 2013 from the UK's Soil Association.

The majority of Irish organic produce exports still go to the UK. Despite increases in the EU and indeed tentative increases in the global markets, the UK is still both dominant and vital for Irish organic exports.

Incredibly, an online only retailer now has larger sales of organic produce that either Morrisons or even the Walmart-owned ASDA.


On line retailers Ocado are now the 4th largest organic retailer in the UK. In a noteworthy move within the on line category, Riverford and also Abel and Cole, primarily vegetable box schemes, also saw massive sales growth.

Combined, Ocado, Abel & Cole and Riverford saw a 10.3% increase in organic produce sales overall.

About 10% of organic produce is now sold through on-line retail outlets, nearly twice the rate of conventional sales.

Riverford are an innovative social franchise, where farmers sell with just one main intermediary. This Riverford franchisee (the intermediary), is employed by the mark up generated by the delivery system.

Supermarkets have, however, fallen out of love somewhat with organic. Taking a bottom line only approach, it seems they have failed to take account of potential loyalty to organic food those customers have. Thus, many lines have been discontinued by the UK's multiple retailers in expectation of declines in sales.

Overall organic sales in the UK are down 1.5%, as supermarkets do still dominate the distribution and sales of organic of produce. Sales are down 2.4% in Supermarkets, when counted as a distinct retail outlet. Sales of supermarket own-label ranges fell by a whopping 11.2% in 2012, with only the high-end Waitrose showing a small increase (1.1%).

However Sainsbury’s saw its online organic sales increase by a remarkable 48%.

Overall UK sales were down 3.4% according to the previous Soil Association report. After the highs of the 2000-2008 period, 2009 saw a major crash in sales in organics in the UK. The latest two years of figures, along with other reports, such as the Co-op report in December 2012, point to overall organic sales approaching stability.


Other positives for the organic market include:

  • European and global market increases: global organic market is up 25% over the past three years.
  • The under 35s significantly increased their average spending on organic products in the UK in 2012.
  • The organic dairy sector, non-food and catering are also showing a positive uplift.
  • The food service sector is opening up rapidly in the UK, especially through the Food for Life Catering Mark.
  • Box scheme, home-delivery and mail-order sales increased by 4.4% to £174.3 million, while independent retailers grew slightly, to now command £480.6 million of the overall £1.64 billion UK organic market.


And then there is the effect of scandals. Traditionally, the organic sector has always grown when a conventional food scandal occurs. It seems the ongoing horsemeat scandal is no different.

Monthly figures supplied by Kantar Worldpanel show in February 2013 that total UK supermarket organic sales increased to their highest level in 9 months. February sales increased 8.4% over January.

Some independent organic meat suppliers in the UK have also reported an increase in sales of up to 20% over the past month.

All of these dynamics, when taken together, point to supermarkets jumping the gun on the supposed end of organics in the UK, and most other sectors benefiting.

In many cases, the producer benefits from a rise in these more direct routes to market.

And in any case, few producers will shed a tear to see supermarket power over the organic sector decline, however slightly. (Though Irish exporters find UK supermarkets easier to deal with for scale product)

How does all of this compare to the organic market in Ireland?

Ireland mirrors the UK in many ways, for a variety of historical, cultural, economic, geographic and demographic reasons.

Organic food and drink sales are no different. Unlike the rest of Europe, the UK and Ireland have seen sales stall and then slightly decline over the recession years.

Slowly but steadily, more and more Irish organic produce is being sold not in the UK but in mainland Europe.

For this reason, a real emphasis has been placed on Biofach – the annual organic food and natural living trade show - the biggest of which is held in Germany each Spring. Thirteen Irish organic food and drink producers participated in February, and this has been the 5th year of Irish companies attending the trade show.

According to Eileen Bentley of Bord Bia, Biofach generated “approximately €400k of new business was generated by exhibitors on the Irish stand” in 2012.

For 2013, “we wait 6 months to do the new sales tally - typically, this is the earliest period business leads will translate into new sales post a trade fair. However, there was good interest in the organic seafood offerings in particular and a majority of exhibitors felt the show was an important platform for them to meet existing customers and potential new buyers.”

She adds “Maintaining existing business through participation at the event is an important objective for many exhibitors also”.

I asked about data from Irish organic food and drink exports. As agri-food in Ireland is so export focused, surely its important to understand how this market is actually developing?

“I don't have an overall figure for the value of Irish organic exports” she tells me. “At present, we have not broken organic down into a category in its own right within Bord Bia's annual export review...We would need to survey current organic exporters to get a topline figure of export values. If the Organic Focus Committee prioritise this for the coming year, we will undertake this on their behalf.”

Closer to home, Kantar Worldpanel figures for organic sales in Ireland for the year ending 2012 show an overall market value of almost €100 million. The market declined in value by 3.5% compared to the previous year although yoghurts, fresh meat and biscuits gained market share and demonstrated growth versus 2011.

Organic yoghurt has increased from 17% in 2010 to 24% of the overall Irish organic market. This reflects marketing spend and availability, both of which are considerable for the category.

Organic vegetable market share is up slightly on 2010, while organic milk market share is down.

Like in the UK, overall market decline was very significant in the earlier years of the recession (2008/2009), but this decline has slowed. Sales were almost E105 million at end of year 2010, E103.5 million 2011, and just over E97 million in 2012.

According to Kantar data pre-family, older dependents and empty nesters are the key demographics for organic food sales in Ireland now. This most likely reflects the recessionary squeeze on families, though young families are increasing their percentage again from 2011 to 2012, after a decline in 2010. Families in the 40+ category have declined each year since 2010.

Other key facts from the Kantar data include:

  • Shoppers buy organic food on average 21 times a year
  • 91% of the population have bought organic with the majority buying an organic yoghurt
  • Organic Vegetables are the largest single market worth over €25 million. Organic Fruit is worth just over €8.5m.
  • The typical spend on organic over the year was €66.40 - €1.80 less than last year
  • In terms of retailer performance and organic food, Aldi, Tesco and Supervalu have all achieved organic sales growth over the period.

Monday, 18 February 2013

GROWING IN A DIFFERENT CLIMATE: organic growers gather




“Growing in a Different Climate” is the theme of this year's Organic Growers of Ireland (OGI) conference. The event, to be held in the County Arms Hotel, Birr, is on Wednesday 20th of February.

“Climate change is very pertinent to growers and also something that had not been looked at in any great depth” says Jason Horner of the OGI, organiser of the conference.

(pic copyright Oliver Moore)

“We always try to be practical when we are looking at what information growers will benefit from and rather than speaking about climate change as something that is being looked at in the future maybe we should start addressing it in the present, in that it is already here.”

He adds: “The last time we held a conference it was all growers this time it is all academics and people associated with the industry so it is a different emphasis.”

Topics for presentations include impact of climate change on pests and plants, opportunities presented by climate change to grow new plants, resilience for weather extremes, agroforestry, alternative distribution systems and finally growing well in a bad season.

Cathriona Duffy's research, which opens the event, is the most academic of the offerings.

“The consensus within the scientific community is that our global climate is changing” she tells me. “Over the course of the last century global average surface temperature has increased by approximately 0.74°C. Further temperature increases are projected, as well as more seasonal rainfall and increased frequency of extreme weather events.”

These changes will have an effect on what organic growers can do. “Despite the physical link between agriculture and climate, there has been limited work conducted on the potential impacts of projected temperature, precipitation and atmospheric CO2 changes on economically important agricultural pests in Ireland” she says.

Her talk “will provide a general overview of the potential impacts of future climate change on insect pests, drawing on both international and national examples.”

She continues “Potential changes in plant physiology and phenology in response to increased temperatures and resultant changes in current Irish pests will also be reviewed,” will her talk “concludes by highlighting how changes in the biology of insects in Ireland as a result of climate change will impact organic production, with a view to informing adaptation policy in the future.”

Another presenter is Peter Jones. Jones is a Professor in the School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences at University College Cork. He is joint Co-Ordinator of the MSc in Organic Horticulture based at Liss Ard Estate outside Skibbereen in West Cork.

Jones’s research interests focus on improving disease resistance and stress tolerance in crops, by both breeding better cultivars and by using natural products such as seaweed extracts and composted crabshell to switch on defence strategies in crops.

According to Jones “What I intend to describe will be the predicted effects on Irish climate over the coming decades: increasing temperatures in winter and in summer (especially inland), a longer growing season with fewer frosts; altered rainfall patterns with wetter winters, especially in the west and drier summers especially in the east.”

He continues “Ireland should fare better than the countries which are currently the main crop producers of the EU such as France, resulting in new market opportunities for Irish growers.”

“There will be changes in the way we farm” the Welsh native says, “earlier cattle turnout dates, need for irrigation of potatoes in the east. Also, changes in the range of crops we grow, with crops currently associated with Mediterranean-type climate, such as tomatoes, vines, doing much better.”

“Grain maize will begin to take over from the other cereals in Ireland, while forage maize will become a cost-effective alternative to silage. In the latter half of this century, soyabean will become an important crop in Ireland.”

Ever the optimist, event organiser Jason Horner concludes: “With the EU recently advising consumers to eat fruit and vegetables that are not standard shapes, and national promotional campaigns to support local growers, lets hope that 2013 is kinder to our food producers.”
Friday, 25 January 2013

FEEDING OURSELVES : COMMUNITY FOOD

CHECK OUT THIS UPCOMING EVENT IN CLOUGHJORDAN

Bookings here

Feeding Ourselves - How communities can benefit from cooperative food systems. 

EXTRA: suprise gig Saturday night too....more details to follow, but twill be fab!

Discover how a cooperative approach can strengthen and build more resilient and sustainable food systems, while at the same time supporting our communities and local economies.

If you want to create and support jobs in your area, help secure your food supply, are part of a community that wants to strengthen its local economy, or are a grower looking for a rewarding and potentially profitable way of supplementing your income, this event is for you.

Weekend Ticket only € 50 - part booking also available.