Traditional cures - or I should have known better

Well, that'll teach me! No sooner the intention to get stuck into the house and garden than first I disappear off on holiday and then I go down sick messing up the whole of traditional Christmas with the grandchildren and all the New Year getting stuck into house and garden. And then its setting up a new fundraising plan for Sonairte and all the fun and games associated with an upcoming election and its associated increased editing load.
Almost three weeks into the New Year and at least traditional cures have proved more effective than modern medicine in dealing with the racking cough that has left my ribs and diaphragm bruised and aching. When all else fails mullein and honey - along with steaming over a basin of thyme scented water - that are finally restoring me to myself. Disprin helps too :-)
I spent the morning with local Green Party TD Trevor Sargent who took time off from his re-election campaign to so some brainstorming on fundraising. We both agree that the first thing we need is new playgrounds for children visiting Sonairte. A small safe formal one close to the coffee shop so parents can relax, and a wild one that all the family can enjoy out on the nature trail. The miscanthus maze failed last year for lack of a dedicated planting team. But it is still a great idea, as is restoring the willow tunnel so I'll put out an appeal for a group to deal with just those two jobs. Anyone for helping kids to have fun with nature and get grubby?
Meanwhile back at the ranch Margaret tells me she has some short day cool temperature squash sourced for me - developed for Oregon so they should do well in Ireland and they have really high dry matter. And John tells me that Brown Envelope seeds have a mountain corn that reliably gives good harvestable grain out of doors - or at least it does in West Cork. So with any luck that will be two good winter food crops to add to the menu.
Good winter food at home tonight. Teamed up a nice little hen pheasant I was given (frozen) for Christmas with garlic roasted potatoes and braised red cabbage with apple and onions. Softened the onions and apple in a little butter then added the cabbage along with a smidgen of sea salt, a teaspoon of cumin seeds, a splash of wine vinegar and a spoonful of lovely honey from Ben Colchester's farm. Lid on the pan and into the oven beside the pheasant and potatoes then forgot the whole lot for 40 minutes. Food for the gods! Braised and roasted vegetables are one of the reasons winter exists to my mind - in fact tomorrow I'll do roasted winter vegetables with cous cous just to enjoy winter food some more. OK cous cous isn't traditional fare in this part of the world but it takes up the caramelised vegetable juices beautifully.

Sonairte's Organic Garden

One day in the spring of 1985 a motley group of people found themselves in an abandoned garden. it was attached to an old ruined farmhouse with roofless stables and sheds, and brambles grew right over the ancient apple trees. But under the long grass there was dark, fertile soil and the sun was shining.

Twenty five years on Sonairte has just put in an updated composting demonstration, the cutting garden is being expanded by students from the local college who are visiting for work experience and the garden sends over €500 worth of organic vegetables to the Dublin Food Coop's market every week. Organic gardening courses run almost every week, ecology students swarm along the nature trail, closely inspecting the meadow, woodland and salt marshes that are part of the center's ten organically certified acres.

Within the gentle shelter of Sonairte's walls apple trees can live healthily to 200 years old and still give an annual harvest of delicious fruit, pests controlled by the bluetits and robins that nest in the ancient stones and green ivy while on the banks of the river Nanny we can forage for wild sea beet and the Alexanders that the Romans brought to Ireland to feed the visitors who come to try out the slow food of the Mustard Seed Cafe

Most of the workers at Sonairte are still volunteers, drawn from all over the world to work together to teach and learn sustainable living

Organic gardening is easy

Every time I start to teach a new organic gardening course someone will ask me whether there is any way to go organic without a lot of extra work. it makes me really happy when they come back to me, sometimes years later, to say I was right when I said that organic is the easy way to garden.

It is the cheap way too - after all you aren't spending lots of unnecessary money on chemicals.

And it just so happens that November is a really good time start gardening. After all, you have all winter to plan and to get any structures you want in place before spring comes bursting into life.

As all my friends know, my garden has got badly neglected in recent years. I'm a full time volunteer at Sonairte, where we teach children and adults about the environment that surrounds us, about the life of our planet and, of course, how to be an organic gardener. It hasn't been leaving a lot of time for my own gardening so the garden is full of brambles, bindweed, scutch and all the other problems that beginner gardeners need to deal with. This blog is a way of encouraging myself to get on with it.

It will also record the way we use the food we grow, sustainable ways to do as little housework as possible, and the fun we have using crafts that were part of our grandparents' way of life around our home and garden. Because we are very, very busy people there will be long gaps between entries but I hope that something useful will gradually emerge - and it may even get some catch-up done around the garden and house.