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
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