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Masters degree in Organic Horticulture in Lissard
I was delighted to be invited to the presentation of Belling awards to two students at the UCC run Masters degree in Organic Horticulture in Lissard, last week. Kitty Scully and Michael are two of the...
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Well here goes....
I am going to take up The The NewFarmerette's Challenge and write a blog a day for April. I probably start one in my head everyday anyway. One that has started in my had several times and never got any...
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Overwintering Lettuce for market or for seed.
We didn't get any lettuce seed last year, mostly because we lost the plastic off the tunnel the year before, and didn't over-winter it. So, it was sown in the spring, flowered during the soggy season,...
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Hot Bed
The mornings start off calm these days, but the cold north easterly wind starts to pick up during the day and puts me off outdoor jobs. The tomato and pepper plants need potting on and its just too...
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Home Made Chilli Sauce
Who would have thought there would be seed Saving in April. Here, there is some seed saving every month when you include the squash which are seeded as we eat them. This morning's seed saving exercise...
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Propagating from Seed
There is a workshop on Propagating from Seedat Brown Envelope Seeds today at 2pm. Cost €20, (but will also accept marmalade, foot massage or two hours of weeding) In case you can't make it Here are the...
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Rotavating the 'Million Trurnip' field
The field was barely dry enough to rotovate on Friday, but having looked at the weather forecast, I decided to do it anyway. Here are before and after photos. There were potatoes on the piece this...
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Vavilov and Masterkabin
One of my teachers in college was D.A.Webb, who not only taught us taxonomic botany but also a course called 'The origin of cultivated plants'. In it, he introduced us to Nikolai Vavilov the Russian...
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The evolution of the gardener.
Phase 1 Ape. Small children we do not plan for the future, they eat what they find - like the jungle apes we evolved from. Phase 2 Hunter As they become teenagers, children start to venture out with...
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Meitheal at Martin and Yvonne O'Flynn's farm
Once a month, usually on a Sunday, we join a group of friends to help out on one of our farms. We have been doing this for a couple of years now and it means we get a group of about eight people here...
View ArticleLetter to the Irish EU Commissioner regarding: Draft Proposal for a...
Dear Ms Geoghegan-Quinn, I am the owner of one of Ireland's few commercial seed production businesses. I am very concerned about the Draft Proposal for a regulation of the marketing of plant...
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Useful table of germination temperatures
Those of you who remember when summers were always sunny, and potatoes came in stones, will be able to convert Farrenheit to Centigrade, and be able to understand this. For the youth, 68 is the...
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Soil temperature is the best indicator of when it is the right time to sow...
Norfolk farmers allegedly dropped their trousers, and sat on the soil to see if it was warm enough to sow crops. A soil thermometer is probably as accurate. Below are the Met Eireann soil temperature...
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Cost of Compliance Rant
I have already spent a morning, this week in Teagac, rearranging my farm map, for the area aid, because not every square inch of my farm grows grass. Here and there there are gorse bushes and even...
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Saving seeds for beginners
Here is an article I wrote for the GIY magazine 'Grow'.Saving seeds for beginners What makes us different to the other apes is our tendency to mess with food. We cook it, ferment it, dry it, grow it...
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Spring Foraging
Ahead of the Slow Food foraging day we are doing here on Sunday, I have been doing my homework. Here are a few of my favourite wild, or semi wild, plants growing within 100yds of the house. (There is...
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Brief Glas rant.
When Joe McNamee asked if I would do a rant in the garden tent at the Ballymaloe Litfest, the first thing that sprung to mind was the new Glas scheme. This is the new environmental scheme brought in to...
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Open Source Seed Initiative - Wonderings
I have signed Brown Envelope Seeds up to be a part of OSSI. I did this because I sell some varieties developed by Carol Deppe, and she asked me to. I have huge respect for Carol who is an independent...
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Happy Christmas, end of 2015, or whatever you are celebrating yourself
Dear Friends,Thank you for your support in 2015. It has been a great year here, I am so thrilled to have my daughter Holly working at Brown Envelope Seeds two days a week. She is also studying for a...
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My Dad would be ninety five today. Here is his essay "Managing a Modern Farm"
Marcus McKeever was the third of four boys born to Samuel McKeever and Helena ne Telford. He is the one astride the donkey, with his older brother Dermot (standing) and younger brother Robert, the...
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