Article THIS FARMING LIFE

This Farming Life

Beginning her new column about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare – and selling its produce – Jenny Young sets the scene by introducing herself and some of the other characters who play regular roles on the farm, and explaining what it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today.

Castlefarm is an organic farm and farm shop in Co Kildare. My husband Peter and I farm 170 acres, with the help of Peter’s father and a full time employee. Since our farm became certified organic in 2008 there is a lot more work to be done on our farm than there used to be.

Being certified organic means no chemicals, no sprays, no artificial fertilisers and no unnecessary animal medicines. It takes a lot more work and a lot more paperwork to be an organic farmer. It also means that we need to ask people to pay a little bit more for our produce, which costs us a lot more to produce.

Our main business at Castlefarm is dairy and tillage, although our farm shop, which opens the last Friday and Saturday of every month is also a way for us to sell our farm produce directly to the public.

Cutting out the middleman gives our customers fresher, better value food. We sell our own beef, eggs, pork, vegetables, honey, cheese and apple juice direct. We also sell other local and speciality foods. We rent out allotments on our farm too, and have a school tours programme.

Being a farmer who sells direct means that I don’t just produce the food - I also have to market it. So, this March, I am putting the finishing touches to a revamped Castlefarm website (www.castlefarmshop.ie) and I am at last putting up a Castlefarm FaceBook page.

Because Castlefarm is not on the high street we really need to entice people to come out of their convenience zones and visit our farm once. Then they will keep coming back. Each month we offer customers a free farm activity so that shopping with us becomes a great value day out in itself. This month we will be giving a complimentary talk on how to keep hens for eggs and also inviting customers to collect their own eggs. Our March special is our own organic Angus beef which we sell through beef boxes (a mix of cuts from the animal) for €12/kg.

Some readers may be wondering what’s happening on a real farm at this time of the year. At Castlefarm in March, there is an awful lot happening!

The farm has woken up after the winter with a huge rush of work to do. We are in the middle of calving. For us, calving started in mid February with a few births each week and now there are three or four births most days.

Compact calving is something that farmers strive for. This involves a couple of weeks of madness where the majority of the cows calve down. Visitors sometimes ask how we know when a cow is going to calve. Two signs that a cow is approaching her due date is her udders swell up with milk and her pins (bones near her tail) drop. This spring we have about 70 cows due to calve.

With the weather warming at last, grass and clover growth is slowly taking off. As cows calve they are put out to grass by day. The land is still wet though and so by night the cows remain indoors. Our cows are mainly Friesan and Jersey, although we do have some Aberdeen Angus for beef. We keep the female calves, which will eventually become part of our herd. We sell the male calves.

As well as calves, other new arrivals this month were organic piglets and baby chicks. I will fatten the pigs and sell their meat through the farm shop. I will rear the day old chicks into pullets for laying.

In the Castlefarm garden we are starting to plant seeds. I have planted tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, aubergine and chillies in seed trays in windowsills in the house. When the weather warms up and the plants start to strengthen I will transplant these seedlings into the polytunnel. In the garden, our rhubarb is starting to grow.

Farming may not be an easy way of life, but it is interesting, fulfilling and healthy!

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. We are next open on 25th and 26thMarch.

Our free farm activities on Saturday 26th March are: Helping to feed the pigs, 11am sharp; Egg collecting, 2.30pm; and a talk on keeping hens for eggs, 3pm.

To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

This Farming Life

At Castlefarm the craziness of spring farming continues this month writes Jenny Young.

We have 85 cows to milk twice a day and 32 calves to feed. We are still waiting for our last 16 spring cows to calve. We have 120 hens and 31 ducks to feed and their eggs to collect. We also have to tend to our 15 six month old pullets that seem to be doubling in size every week. The bull and pigs also need to be fed twice a day.

The garden may sound a lot quieter but there is also an urgency here to get work done. We need to prepare ground for spring growing, seeding and plant.

We are lucky enough to have a polytunnel in which early lettuces, rocket, spinach and carrots are growing. We will sell these to customers who visit the farm shop when it opens on the last weekend of the month.

With the nights still very cold we have only done a little bit of planting outside. April is the season of showers, so plans to rotovate and prepare ground are often delayed. Luckily our spuds were planted in early March as well as a few rows of carrots.

In terms of enjoying whats in season, rhubarb is very firmly on the menu. We are poaching it in orange juice for breakfast, filling flans and pastry cases with it for dessert and of course making jams and chutneys to enjoy later in the year.

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of every month, and last month we were extremely busy with shoppers and visitors to the farm. We are also serving teas and coffees and icecream, so a visit to our farm shop has certainly become a day out in itself.

We are tidying the farm up a little for our Easter egg trail which takes on 23th April. It is also the season for school tours and group visits. Although our farm is a fun place to visit it is a real working farm, and not always as clean and tidy as visitors might expect!


Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. We are next open on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th April

Our free farm activities on Saturday 30th April are:

• Helping to feed the pigs 11am sharp
• Egg collecting 2.30pm
• A talk on seeding and planting at 3pm.

The Castlefarm Easter trail will take place on Saturday 23rd of April from 12pm-2pm and always a fun filled family day. Each child who follows the clues around the farm trail will receive a chocolate Easter egg. The price is €5 per child and places should be booked in advance. Please contact Michelle Hourihan (tours@castlefarmshop.ie or 086-373 6402) or email me and I will forward your details to Michelle.

To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/castlefarm

This Farming Life

While April was a busy month planting, watering and calving, May is also a busy month for us at our organic farm.

Our allotment holders are enjoying their first salad crops. In the Castlefarm garden our first polytunnel crops are starting to bear fruit - soon we will be enjoying our own cucumber and courgettes.

Our outdoor crops are surviving the slugs and the recent period of drought. Although we have planted root and leaf crops, I sow more on a weekly basis to ensure a constant supply.

The Castlefarm rhubarb bed has been looking a bit thirsty but still provides enough for us to sell and enjoy. Having so much of it, I was delighted when one of allotment holders, Jean, passed on this website http://www.savor-the-rhubarb.com with a recommendation to make rhubarb lemonade.

Grass growth is good and we have closed off some paddocks, which we will later cut for silage. Our bees have been busy at work enjoying the fine weather and the oilseed rape in a nearby field. Last year we had a bumper crop of honey, so fingers crossed the fine weather this spring will mean another good crop this year.

Most of our calves are now outdoors and thriving. The highlight of their day is when someone drives the quad and milk feeder into their field. They are fed milk once a day and will be weaned off milk during the summer.

May marks the beginning of our breeding season. In order to have the best possible herd of cows for our organic system of farming, Peter artificially inseminates our cows. Our female calves will become our future dairy herd – which must be easy calving, healthy and have the ability to produce a reasonable amount of milk on a grass diet.

This month our three pigs will become two as we bring our first pig of the season to the butchers. I don’t feel bad about this as we bought them to fatten and, being chief pig feeder, I can confirm that they have had a really nice life. So on the last weekend of May we will have our organic pork for sale in the fridge at Castlefarm Shop.

Our hens and ducks are laying well and, in addition to the farm shop and honesty box, we are also supplying eggs to Castleruddery organic farm in Wicklow. We buy wholesale vegetables from Dominic and Hilda and it is good to work together.

Last week our young pullets were moved out to a larger hen house with access to the field. It took them about a week to brave walking down the ramp to scratch at the pasture and explore all the green!


Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. We are next open on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th May

Our free farm activities on Saturday 28th May are:

• Helping to feed the pigs 11am sharp
• Egg collecting 2.30pm
• A gardening talk at 3pm.

To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/castlefarm

This Farming Life

In June Jenny Young is seeing the fruits of her labours in the Castlefarm garden – but still has to keep predators at bay.

I spent a lot of May planting, maintaining and protecting the garden and many of our vegetables are coming into in season this month, making it a perfect time for visitors to Castlefarm shop to come and enjoy them fresh from the garden.

Our June harvest includes cucumbers, herbs, courgettes, salad, baby carrots and rhubarb. There are already small tomatoes appearing on the vines and it looks as if we will have a bumper crop of pears and berries.

Rows of vegetables have been continually planted outdoors since late March using guiding lines of twine to keep me planting them in straight rows. It is also important to plant vegetables wide enough apart so it is easy to hoe the weeds that will grow in between them. The best investment I have made in recent years is an oscillating hoe which I bought online from Fruithill Farm in Bantry (www.fruithillfarm.com).

Now in June, as the lines of seedlings appear, I remove the twines. Then the difficult bit begins, keeping weeds and predators at bay. In some respects keeping the weeds down helps with the predators, as they don’t have so much coverage to hide. In.

Being a certified organic farmer means no artificial sprays or chemical slug pellets. This also means that I need be organised when keeping predators at bay, and ruthless in their elimination.

Slugs are probably the most destructive predators in my ½ acre garden. They also are the biggest enemy of our allotment holders. To keep the slug population low in my garden I start by letting the ducks in at Christmas time. There are no small seedlings growing at that time of the year. I think that slugs are akin to caviar for our ducks and they love them, literally scooping them up.

Slugs house under old plastic and wood so I make sure that any debris around the garden is overturned. With fewer slugs from the start of the season, I keep my vegetable beds relatively slug free by patrolling the garden once a week.

I don’t do beer traps, but often enjoy a bottle myself while using a scissors to cut the pests in half or popping them into a plastic bag of salt. Sorry readers - it’s a case of them or my vegetables!

Rabbits, hens and ducks are the other animals who like to feed on my vegetables. So I have permanent rabbit proof fencing to ensure they do not get in. However a gate left open or a hen that decides to fly over the fence can cause damage.

This month our 5 ‘pet’ ducks got through a hole in the fence and literally shredded about 20 huge lettuces. If you have hens that are flying over your fence into your vegetable patch clipping the feathers on one side of their wings will ensure they do not have the balance to fly over. Be careful not to hurt them though, and to cut only their feathers.

Then there are the other birds. Pigeons seem to love brassicas and berries and I protect these with netting. Smaller birds love pulling small onions out of the ground and I find old cds and strips of colourful material are great bird scarers.

We are holding summer clubs for children in July and one of their ‘farm’ jobs will be making scarecrows. They will learn about the vegetables we grow and help protect them.

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Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. We are next open on Fri 24th & Sat 25th of June.

Our free farm activities on Saturday 25th Egg collecting 2.30 pm and a farm walk ‘summer on the farm’ 3pm Sat 25th.

Castlefarm is a real farm so remember to wear your old clothes and wellingtons.

To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/castlefarm

This Farming Life

Jenny Young gives us a glimpse of the summer at Castlefarm

With summer well underway Castlefarm is a hive of activity. We have a blooming garden of vegetables and of course too many weeds. We are harvesting silage and oats, and our young pullets - that I reared from day old chicks since May - have just started laying eggs.

So while summer is a time of holiday for some, summer on a farm is a time of production and preparation. Don’t worry though, most farmers do take time out and have holidays over the summer but these days normally take place before or after harvest!

I have been farming for 12 years now and sometimes I forget that there is a lot that needs to be explained to the consumer. A facebook question last week asking me what a point of lay pullet was prompts me to give readers a quick explanation on some of the main things happening at Castlefarm in July.

July is a time when the garden is plentiful with leaf crops growing very quickly and root crops that were planted in May now needing weeding and sometimes watering.

Most of our root crops won’t be ready until September. The exception is that the potatoes we planted in mid March are now being enjoyed. Early carrots are also just about ready to eat. In our polytunnel we have been enjoying cucumbers and courgettes since June and our customers have just started to enjoy our green peppers and tomatoes. Some people may wonder how we have these polytunnel vegetables so early; my tip is to start the seeds off in windowsills in your house in February.

In March I bought 150 day old chicks for 2012 egg production. I started feeding themon organic chick crumb, then progressed to organic grower’s pellets. In late June, when they became 16 weeks old I started feeding them layers pellets.

With each change in their feedstuff I mixed the two feeds for about a week, so the hens’ digestive systems wouldn’t be too shocked with the change in diet. These pullets (young hens) are now starting to lay eggs. Their eggs are about half the size of regular eggs at the moment. By early September the majority of these hens will be laying.

This month we are making the second cuttings of silage of the year. Silage is wilted down grass that will be stored and fed to the cows during the winter. These days we get contractors in to mow, bale and pit the silage. Silage making now takes 2 afternoons at Castlefarm, due to the help of contractors. In the past it would have been more like a week long affair.

Later in the July our oats should be ready to cut and, depending on price, we will keep some to feed to our animals during the winter and supply some to Flahavans for their organic porridge. The oaten straw will be baled for winter bedding for the cows.

On a lighter note we have just said goodbye to the children who spent summer camp on the farm. They had great fun and learnt a lot about food and farming with farmer Jenny!

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Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. We are next open on Fri 29th & Sat 30th of July from 10am-6pm

Customers are welcome to join us egg collecting. Please arrive at the farm shop by 2.30pm on Saturday wearing old clothes and wellingtons.

We will also be holding a foraging walk at 3pm. There is no charge for activities.

To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/castlefarm

This Farming Life

Castlefarm is thriving. In our pastures, the organic grass is growing a little slower than we would like but clover is plentiful. This is good news for our cows, as well as the bees that are busy feeding on the flowers.

Our oats are nearly ready for harvesting, as is our arable silage. The oats will probably be sold to Flahavan's and we will use their straw for winter bedding for the cows. Our arable silage will be stored in a big mound until it is needed for winter feed.

August is a time for harvest and preservation. In the orchard some of our plums and apples are already ripe. With so much from the garden coming into fruition I am now opening Castlefarm Shop again on a weekly basis. My opening days are not rigid but tend to be Friday or Saturday mornings. I let people know when I am opening and what’s fresh from the garden by emailing my database of customers, so please send in your email address if you’d like to be kept up to date. I also let people know through Facebook.

Because we have such an abundance of food, the fruit and vegetables that do not sell are destined to become chutneys, soups and freezer food. Eating seasonally is the best value in terms of nutrition and money, and we can preserve large quantities of food that is inexpensive now for future use.

I stew apples and freeze them for pies and sauces, which will be enjoyed in 2012. Whole tomatoes freeze well and then can be made into ratatouille, soups or sauces in the winter months. Courgette soup is a great way of clearing a glut of courgettes and herbs. Practically everything can be pickled. It is amazing how much money and effort can be saved by preserving autumn gluts.

It is not all digging and harvesting though. I am looking forward to attending the Summer food school in Macreddin Village in mid August. Peter and I attend the monthly artisan food market at Brooklodge on the first Sunday of the month, and I was delighted to be invited to a workshop to take part in discussions regarding the contribution of artisan food producers to the Irish economy.

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Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. We are next open on Fri 26th & Sat 27th August from 10am-6pm

Customers are welcome to join us egg collecting. Please arrive at the farm shop by 2.30pm wearing old clothes and wellingtons and a farm walk at 3pm on Saturday 27th.

There is no charge for activities.

To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/castlefarm

This Farming Life

Autumn has come in so quickly this year, and this has brought us our first autumn calf this week, as well as our first season’s honey. In the orchard our apples will be collected very soon and be transformed into apple juice.

We have been preparing for National Organic weekend at Castlefarm. National Organic Week provides a great chance to invite people onto the farm to learn more about organics and the work and care involved on a farm like ours. This Saturday we will welcome lots of people onto our farm for free tastings, cookery inspiration and fun activities such as egg collecting and pig feeding.

There will also be a farm walk where customers can visit the bees, cows and vegetable patch. Customers will be invited to help harvest fresh vegetables and participate in a cookery demonstration for inspiration about how to cook and serve what is in season.

Bringing people onto our farm to help feed our pigs and collect their own eggs and vegetables really gives them an insight and an appetite for seasonal, local, Irish produce. Children in particular, get excited about eating food that they see growing and help collect.

Castlefarms Organic week celebrations take place on Saturday 17th Sept and all events are free of charge. Visitors should remember that this is a real farm and old clothes and wellingtons are recommended.


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Diary for Saturday 17th Sept - wear old clothes and wellingtons
11am: Help feed the organic pigs
2.30pm: Egg collecting
3pm: Farmwalk, culminating in vegetable harvesting and a cookery demonstration in the farm shop.

Castlefarm shop will be open from10.am – 6pm on Saturday 17th September. There will be a 10% discount on all organic produce. There will also be free food tastings on the day.

There is no charge for activities.

To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/castlefarm

This Farming Life - November

The Castlefarm orchard looks bare. We spent the last few weeks of October picking quince, apples, pears and hazelnuts. This month I will be busy transforming this fruit into jams and chutneys. We planted our orchard four years ago, with fruit trees from Seedsavers and English’s Nursery. There are so many types and varieties of each fruit. Anyone thinking of planting fruit this winter should consider autumn raspberries. In my opinion their fruit are larger and tastier than the summer varieties and they are much easier to pick.

With the help of some farm shop customers we picked half a tonne of apples for juicing. Eating apples and cooking apples, of all varieties go into our apple juice. It makes the taste a little bit more interesting. We bring the apples down to The Apple Farm (www.theapplefarm.com) in Tipperary, where Con Traas pasteurises the juice and bottles it for us.

This year I made an effort to plant enough root crops. These are now sitting in the soil and are easily dug up for the shop when needed. We have had to put extra soil on top of our potatoes because the crows were pulling them out of the ground by the stalk.

Our polytunnel has just about wound down for the winter. The last of the cucumbers, courgettes, peppers and tomatoes are being harvested. With the lack of sun at the end of the summer, a lot of our tomatoes did not ripen. These will be made into green tomato chutney, if I have the time! When the last of these are gone I will remove the old plants and cover the polytunnel with manure and black plastic for the winter.

We butchered our pigs at the end of last month. Hammy and Happy had a very nice life on our farm, and especially enjoyed the windfall apples of the autumn.

Otherwise at Castlefarm we are nearly finished calving down our autumn herd. There are 20 cows in our autumn calving herd, making it much easier than our spring calving herd of 80 cows. This month they will be housed by night and outdoors during the day.


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This November we are open 10am-6pm Friday 25th and Saturday 26th November. On Saturday customers are welcome to join us for egg collecting at 2.30 and a farm walk at 3pm. Remember as always dress for a farm!

To receive our newsletter, news of new products & cooking tips by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 087 678 5269, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/castlefarm

This Farming Life - December

Castlefarm is starting to get very festive looking. We decorated the farm shop last week and nearly all our organic turkeys have been sold. These come from the Colchesters’ organic farm in Kilkenny. I have also ordered Irish hams from O’Neill Foods, cranberry sauce from Gees Jams, candles from Derrynine candles, potatoes from John O’Brien, confectionery from Wicklow Fine Foods and lots more yummy festive Irish food.

On the farm, all of our animals are now indoors for the winter. This means that we spend a lot of time each day bedding the cattle with straw and feeding them silage. Soon we will dry off 30 cows ahead of spring calving. We will have about 70 cows calving from February and as they come within about 10 weeks of calving we stop milking them to allow them to prepare for calving down. Our hens and ducks are laying well, but egg production does drop back a bit in winter due to the lack of daylight and colder weather.

In the garden we have cleared away most of the old vegetable plants. Over the next few weeks we will mulch the polytunnel, rhubarb patch and fruit trees with well rotted farmyard manure. Our garden is slightly bare with only herbs, cabbage, parsnips, carrots and celeriac to harvest over the winter months.

Although it is only December beef orders are already coming in for January. A couple of people have bought beef box vouchers as Christmas presents. These will be extremely appreciated in January.

We tend to spend a lot of our Christmas holidays on the farm because there is always so much to do. Even on Christmas Day the cows need to be milked and the hens shut in that night. Last Christmas was very difficult due to the snow and freezing weather. So this year I am crossing my fingers for no snow!

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This December we are open 10am-6pm Friday 16th and Saturday 17th. On Saturday customers are welcome to join us for egg collecting at 2.30 (sharp). 11am-6pm Friday 23rd Dec; 10am-1pm Sat 24th Dec (Christmas Eve)

To receive our newsletter, news of new products & cooking tips by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 087 678 5269, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/castlefarm

This Farming Life - January

January is a quiet time at Castlefarm. Our main work on the farm is tending the cows. They will remain indoors until they calve from February, and they need to be fed silage and bedded with straw daily.

In terms of milking and our supply of organic milk, the spring calving herd has been dried off. They will begin calving in February. Our autumn calving herd of 22 cows is still being milked twice daily to supply consumer demand for fresh organic milk during the winter.

This year Castlefarm Shop will again open once a month, but our honesty egg box will continue to be restocked regularly as demand for Castlefarm eggs remains constant. The downside of winter weather is that the hens lay less. This is because of a variety of elements, the cold, the lack of greenery and, especially, the shorter days and daylight.

Our first beef heifer of the season will go to the butchers at the beginning of February. Her meat will be sold at the end of February.

In our garden, we have covered our rhubarb patch with well rotted farmyard manure. I have also cut back our autumn raspberries so that only 2 inches of their canes remain. We have begun digging the polytunnel and digging manure into the soil. I have not yet touched our vegetable patch. The ground is still too wet, and at this time of year I am not planting any seeds.

The ducks are hard at work de-slugging the allotment sites. They will remain on the allotments until March. They don’t damage anything under ground. I have just finished planting roses and flower bulbs. It is a little late for the bulbs but better late than never!

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Castlefarm Shop will next open on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th January. Anyone interested in collecting their own eggs is welcome to join us at 3pm on Saturday 28th. We will also have an allotment talk and tour at 2.15pm on Saturday 28th.

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. To receive our newsletter, news of new products & cooking tips by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 087 678 5269, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/castlefarm

This Farming Life - February

Jenny Young and the team at Castlefarm are busy preparing for spring – and watching TV in bed…

The arrival of February sees the birth of lots of calves (approx 70) at Castlefarm. All our cows are indoors full time. The herd is split into two, the milkers and the calvers. The couple of cows that are closest to calving are housed in looseboxes. We have calving cameras in the looseboxes. This is linked up to a TV in our bedroom, which is a handy way of keeping an eye on calving progress.

In the farm shop we are awaiting the arrival of our first Angus beef of the season. We are small scale beef producers. We concentrate on quality and only butcher one animal at a time, allowing the meat to dry age for three weeks for extra flavour. We butcher the animal on demand, selling most of the beef through ‘beef boxes’, essentially dividing the animal between 10 households. Each box contains a variety of cuts of meat.

The windows of our house are lined with pots planted with cucumber, tomato, aubergine, chilli and pepper seeds. I will transplant these into the polytunnel once the risk of frost has reduced. Our seed potatoes and onion sets have arrived from Fruithill Farm in Cork.

Allotment holders have been busy digging their plots in preparation for planting their early potatoes. When the next spell of dry weather comes Peter’s dad will plough my garden so that it is ready for planting in late spring.

I have very little growing in the garden, but later in the month we will begin harvesting the first of our rhubarb. There is nothing quite like the taste of fresh, new season rhubarb.

This month we welcomed the first of our school tours for a farm visit. Children especially love helping feed the calves when they arrive for a spring visit to the farm.


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This February Castlefarm Shop will open 10am-6pm on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th. Join us for a farm walk with a chance to meet the calves’ 3pm Sat 25th. New season rhubarb will be on for sale and we will also have Castlefarm organic Angus beef.

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. To receive our newsletter, news of new products & cooking tips by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 087 678 5269, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

Follow us on facebook http://www.facebook.com/castlefarm

This Farming Life - March

Jenny Young is very busy at Castlefarm, with new calves and early growth in the gardens

At Castlefarm the majority of our dairy herd has calved down, resulting in up to 40 calves to feed twice a day. It also takes longer to milk with 71 cows now milking in the parlour. We keep the female, heifer, calves for milking and some Angus beef heifer calves for fattening. We sell the male calves as soon as we can.

This year calf prices are really good and we are getting about €260 per male calf. We haven’t even had to bring calves to the mart yet because demand is so great that farmers are arriving onto the farm enquiring about calf sales.

When a calf is born its paperwork trail begins. The calf has to be tagged and registered on the Department of Agriculture website. Subsequently its passport arrives in the post. When we sell a calf we must register this sale and the passport must accompany the calf.

The mild spring and good grass growth means the milking herd of cows are already outside full time. It is great because there is less work feeding silage and bedding the sheds down. Milk yield also rises with grass in the cows’ diet and of course grass is a lot cheaper than feeding silage.

This week we will collect four organic piglets from Dominic Leonard of Castlewood Farm. We will fatten them and their meat will be sold during the summer. We are also fattening three Angus heifers for beef in early summer.

In the garden our rhubarb is thriving. The first of our salad crops are also growing well in the polytunnel. Seedlings are coming on well in seed trays. My father in law has ploughed my vegetable patch for me and, once the weather dries up a little, I will rotavate it so it is ready for planting next month. Our allotment holders have been busy getting their plots ready for sowing. I love this time of year, even if it is extremely busy!


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This March Castlefarm Shop in Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare will open 10am-6pm on Friday 30th and Saturday 31st. Collect your own eggs at 2.30 pm Sat 31st. New season rhubarb will be on sale!

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. To receive our newsletter, news of new products & cooking tips by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 087 678 5269, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

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This Farming Life - April

At Castlefarm we now have 26 calves out on grass. We feed them with the mobile feeder once a day and are slowly weaning them off milk. Calving is dragging on at this stage and we are still waiting for 12 cows to calve. This month we are taking a few weekends off before AI begins in May.

Our 4 new piglets have settled in well. They are getting bigger and cheekier by the day. The electric fence that keeps them within their boundaries is much needed. A few times when we have turned the fencer off, they have rooted and dug and created pretty big holes under the paddock fence. Because the pigs live right beside my garden and the allotments they could create havoc if they escaped.

In perfect time for Easter, 180 day old chicks were collected on Easter Saturday. I have only raised day old chicks once before but am quickly remembering that their food, water and the temperature of their house needs constant monitoring.

On the vegetable production front, tomato, pepper, courgette, chilli and cucumber plants are growing well in trays on our windowsills. We have planted organic seed potatoes, salad crops, strawberries and onion sets in the Castlefarm garden. Later this month I will plant more salad crops as well as parsnip and turnips. Our rhubarb is now thriving and we are selling this in our honesty box along with hen and duck eggs.

Our ducks had the run of the farm over the winter. They are great little slug busters. They have now returned to their paddock, away from the delicate seedlings of spring. The Castlefarm allotment holders have been busy digging, rotovating and sowing. It is nice to be able to share our farm with people who appreciate what we do.

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Castlefarm Shop is located outside Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare and this April will open 10am-6pm on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th. Join us for a farm walk at 3 pm Sat 28th. Remember to wear old clothes and wellingtons!

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. To receive our newsletter, news of new products & cooking tips by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 087 678 5269, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

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This Farming Life - May

This month I have been very busy planting up the Castlefarm garden and polytunnel. My onions sown last month are now clearly visible in organised green lines. Now that I can see them I can hoe the onion bed before the weeds take hold. As an organic farm we cannot use weed killer or chemicals. I find the best method of keeping down weeds is literally spending 5-10 minutes each day hoeing.

I have planted half my tomato, pepper, cucumber and courgette plants in the polytunnel. Even at this late stage there is still a risk of frost, so as soon as these plants are thriving I will plant the remainder. We are enjoying salad leaves, herbs, rhubarb and spinach from the garden. I use nettle fertilizer as an organic nutrient to feed the plants.

We have been welcoming lots of school tours on the farm. Castlefarm caters for all types of group tours from national schools to transition year students. The children really enjoy the day out learning, walking and meeting the animals. With so many baby animals around at this time of year its a particularly interesting time.

Our pigs have literally doubled in size and are getting stronger and more boisterous by the day. I have to feed them over the fence for fear of being knocked down, or nibbled on.

I am very proud that 177 of my 180 chicks have survived to date. There will be more casualties but they are healthy and strong. They have wings now and are starting to perch. Now they need less heat from the infra red lamps and more room to scratch about. I am feeding them ad lib and they are eating nearly 10kg of organic chick crumb per day.

For the past month we have had a major fox problem. Foxes have taken about 15 hens to date. They are getting more brazen and have even taken come into our back garden to take some of our more unusual, pretty black and white leghorns. It may sound cruel to some, but the only way of keeping our hens safe is to ask members of our local gun club to spend a few nights patrolling the farm.


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Castlefarm Shop is located outside Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare and this May will open 10am-6pm on Friday 25th and Saturday 26th.

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. To receive our newsletter, news of new products & cooking tips by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 087 678 5269, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

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This Farming Life - June

Summer arrives at Castlefarm.

Summer seems to be here at last and even our ducks look slightly bleached from the sun. The tomato and cucumber plants in our polytunnel are starting to grow tall.

I seem to be spending most of my time watering and weeding. Onions, salad crops, beetroot and radishes are all growing well. Our potatoes and swede plants are shooting out of their drills.

The hot weather in late May brought lots of much needed growth. This includes grass, which we now have plenty of on the farm. The more grass we grow the less feed costs we have for the cows.

We are planning our first cut of silage this week. Silage is cut and wilted grass, which is ensiled in a pit, or wrapped in round plastic bales until it is needed to feed stock in the winter months. Crows love picking at the plastic wrap and that is why you often notice painted and decorated bales in farmers’ fields.

Our bees are out in full force foraging in the wild flowers and clover that have at last appeared in the fields. The apple blossoms in the orchard also provide them with pollen. With the good weather there is also an increase in demand for our honey, with hay fever sufferers coming to the farm for our local honey.

On 6th of June our next Aberdeen Angus heifer went to the butchers in Tullow. The meat will go on sale in Castlefarm Shop at the end of the month. Most of my beef customers buy a box of mixed cuts of beef which, at €13/kg, is good value. Beef boxes also provide a good excuse to learn to cook with and taste cuts that they might not normally use in their household.


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Castlefarm Shop is located outside Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare and this June will open 10am-6pm on Friday 29th and Saturday 30th. Customers are welcome to collect their eggs at 3pm on Saturday 30th of June. Old clothes and wellingtons advised whatever the weather.

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. To receive our newsletter, news of new products & cooking tips by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 087 678 5269, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

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This Farming Life - July

Jenny Young describes dealing with one of the unwelcome (but essential) hidden costs that challenge all farmers

With all this rain readers might find it difficult to believe that Castlefarm has been suffering water shortages. As a household we are part of a local group water scheme and for the past 2 years, due to water shortages in the area, the water has been rationed more and more frequently. With 90 milking cows to hydrate as well as dry stock and calves we decided that we would have to drill for our own well.

A milking cow drinks on average 30 litres of water a day. A cow will drink less water while it is out on grass which has high moisture content. Over the winter when silage and hay is fed, the cows drink more water. Our cows, which are farmed on a grass based organic system, produce on average 20 litres of milk per day.

Our well was drilled and even though we hit water at 100 feet the water pressure was not strong enough so we had to drill 200 feet deep. In sinking a well, the deeper you have to drill the more you need to pay.

We then had to put in new wider water pipes and bigger drinking troughs to water the cows. We also had to install pumps and build a pump house. All in all a worthwhile week of work, with our contractors tramping through wet, muddy fields in their water proofs. Now the bills have to be paid. Investment in Castlefarm never seems to stop.


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Castlefarm Shop is located outside Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare and this July will open 10am-6pm on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th. Our fresh July specials are organic Angus beef and organic Gloucester Oldspot pork. Customers are welcome to join us for a farm walk on Saturday 28th July. Old clothes and wellingtons advised whatever the weather.

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. To receive our newsletter, news of new products & cooking tips by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 087 678 5269, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

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This Farming Life - September

Castlefarm looks forward to celebrating National Organic Week and Jenny Young talks about what it is like to be a certified organic farmer.

National Organic Week takes place from 9th -16th September

People often ask me what does it means for me to be a certified organic farmer. My answer is that at Castlefarm we farm as naturally as possible. We do not spread artificial fertilizers, or spray pesticides. We do not treat animals with medicines unless they need it. We work very hard to achieve our organic certification, continually updating our records. We are subjected to on the spot inspections from a number of agencies.

All of this means extra work for the people who work on our farm but more peace of mind for the consumer who wants chemical free food. More physical labour means that I work harder and I do expect to be paid a little bit more for my produce.

Somebody recently told me that the price of organic food is the price of real food. I translate this as farming without shortcuts, which is better for our environment, better for the animals that help produce it and better for the people who produce it.

As a certified organic farm Castlefarm will celebrate on Saturday 15th of September by holding a free farm walk, which will include egg collecting. This will begin at 1.30pm sharp. In the farm shop following the walk, there will be a cookery demonstration, using some of our organic produce.

Castlefarm Shop will open 3pm-6pm, with 10% discount on organic produce.

Castlefarm will also be attending the first all organic food market. This will take place at the fabulous Brooklodge Hotel, Aughrim, Co Wicklow on Sunday 16th of September. Peter and I are big fans of the ethos, food and atmosphere at BrookLodge and you should log onto www.brooklodge.com to see what other organic producers are attending.

For more information about National Organic Week log onto www.bordbia.ie/aboutfood/organicfood/pages/nationalorganicweek


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September opening times for Castlefarm Shop - Sat 15th September, 3pm- 6pm, Farm walk 1.30pm sharp. Collect your own eggs 10% off organic produce

Fri 28th & Sat 29th September, 10am-6pm. Foraging walk Sat 29th 3pm.

Castlefarm new season honey, Organic beef

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. To receive our newsletter, news of new products & cooking tips by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 087 678 5269, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

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This Farming Life - November

There are a lot of apple trees at Castlefarm and Jenny Young explains what they do with the excess fruit.

At Castlefarm we have two orchards beside our house. The old orchard was planted by Peter’s grandparents nearly a century ago. The newer orchard was planted by Peter and I during the winter of 2007. We received a small REPS grant to plant this orchard of 26 trees. We sourced old Irish apple varieties from Seed Savers.

The result of having two orchards at Castlefarm is that we often have too many apples. I sell some apples through the farm shop. I also make preserves, apple tarts and even small amounts of home brew cider. This November’s Wild and Slow Festival in Macreddin gave me inspiration to make Bramley and rosehip jelly. But we still have excess and we don’t like to waste good food. Our solution for excess apples is to pool then together with 3 other local farmers. We bring them down to The Apple Farm in Tipperary. Here Con Traas transforms our apples into juice.

We sell a small amount of our apple juice through the farm shop but we enjoy most of it ourselves. Bottles become Christmas gifts to family and friends. We also drink hot spiced apple juice over the winter while thinking of the New Year when the weather will warm up and apple blossoms will again appear on the apple trees, in the orchard and the cycle starts again.

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This November Castlefarm Shop is open 10am-6pm Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th. You are welcome to join us for egg collecting on 2.30 on the Saturday. We will have our new season’s apple juice on sale at Castlefarm Shop this November and December.

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. To receive our newsletter, news of new products & cooking tips by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 087 678 5269, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948

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This Farming Life - December

Castlefarm gears up for Christmas – the Farm Shop is open every day from 19th – 24th December, and Jenny Young explains how they then manage the workload to keep time needed on the farm to a minimum over the holiday.

At Castlefarm I am both a full time farmer and part time shopkeeper. Peter and I will be working on Christmas Day, all of Christmas week in fact. You cannot not milk the cows because it’s a holiday. However in early December we start a process of organising and planning so that during the holidays we just do the minimum on the farm.

We are now milking 50 cows and in mid-December we will dry off (stop milking) another 20 of our spring calvers. It takes just 30 minutes to milk 30 cows so this will mean a lot less time in the milking parlour.

Because the cows are housed indoors full time in winter, the straw and dung has built up in the sheds so this month our contractor came in to clean out the sheds. We also had a lorry load of cattle ration blown into our huge meal bin, to subsidise their silage diet. In this frosty weather all efforts have to be made to ensure water to the animals does not freeze up.

I am also busy in the farm shop taking turkey orders for Christmas dinners, delivering and selling delicious food hampers to customers for their friends and family and also putting together Irish cheese boards, which include our new season’s Castlefarm Shamrock.

And we’re also also working towards the New Year now, taking orders for next spring’s Angus beef. The cycle begins again.

This December the Farm Shop is open:

11am-4pm Wednesday 19th December
11am-4pm Thursday 20th December
11am-4pm Friday 21stth December
11am-4pm Saturday 22nd December
11am-4pm Sunday 23rd December
10am-12pm Monday 24th (Christmas Eve) December

If you would like to order a Christmas cheese board, Christmas food hamper or even an organic turkey please contact me. This Christmas I am also selling organic Angus beef box vouchers for the New Year. A mini beef box costs €50, a family beef box €90 and a big beef box, which is about one tenth of the animal, costs approximately €150.

To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - A New Year for Castlefarm

We are nearly back to normality after the Christmas break at Castlefarm. In preparation for our spring herd of 70 cows to calve down, we have disinfected calf sheds and re-installed calving cameras in the calving boxes. From the end of January the monitor in our bedroom will allow us to check on expectant mothers through the night without leaving the warmth of our house.

Over the winter and spring, egg production in the Castlefarm hen house slowed down. Hens lay less in the darker, colder months due to the lack of sunlight (vitamin E) and the drop in temperature. Our honesty box is still in operation though and the demand for our organic eggs is as strong as ever.

This month our first organic Angus heifer will go to the butcher and we are now offering mini, family boxes and big boxes to our customers. This meat will be on sale in early February after the meat has been hung for 3 weeks to maximise its flavour and tenderness.

A revamp is underway in our allotments. Now that the last of the brussels sprouts and root vegetables have been enjoyed for Christmas, we are clearing and ploughing the site ready for new allotment holders. We are also creating a new fruit area.

Late winter and early spring are the best time to plant trees and fruit bushes and, also for pruning as the plants are not producing foliage or fruit. Our ducks excitedly follow the plough and rotovator, de-slugging the ground. They truly are an organic farmer’s friend.

To receive our newsletter and news opening days and farm produce by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087-6785269

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This Farming Life - New Arrivals

The year’s new arrivals have begun at Castlefarm

We arrived back from our annual holidays on 2nd of February to nine calves that had been born early. Needless to say, Andrew who works with us full time on the farm was delighted to see us back. Although we started out the month milking 18 cows, each day brings at least one fresh calver that adds to the milking total. Feeding calves can take quite a lot of time and patience. Although this is not my favourite job, for the next 2 months I am the chief calf feeder.

When a calf is born the first thing we do is feed them with 2 litres of colostrum, the cow’s first milk, which is rich in antibodies and nutrients. Quite likely the calf will have drunk from the mum, but we need to make sure it gets fed as quickly as possible so don’t leave things to chance. The easiest way to get this feed into the calf is to use a stomach tube. Don’t worry its not uncomfortable for the calf and only takes about 2 minutes.

The cow licks her calf clean and very quickly the calf is on its feet. After a day we separate the cow and calf. The calf is tagged for identification purposes and is registered with the Department of Agriculture. This spring we are also tagging for BVD, a disease which while not harmful to humans is a disease the Department of Agriculture wants to eradicate.

We keep all female calves, which will become the future Castlefarm milking herd. Male calves are sold as soon as we have a market for them. After 6 weeks with the cows the bull will now be put out to grass on his own. Any cow that has not gone in calf to AI or the bull will be sold off at the end of the summer.

Castlefarm Shop opens every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date of opening days and farm specials.

To receive our newsletter and news opening days and farm produce by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087-6785269

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This Farming Life

Jenny Young - The spring is beginning to pick up pace at Castlefarm

At last the end of spring calving is in sight. Since I last wrote this column over 80 calves were born at Castlefarm. Some days we had up to 8 new arrivals. A lot of sleepless nights, but nevertheless things have gone really well with few casualties and very few calls for the vet.

We would have liked more heifer (female) calves, but by the end of calving we will have over 30 heifer calves, which will become part of our organic dairy herd.

The cows are now grazing outside by day, but there has not been enough grass growth to keep them out full time. This means that the cow house has to be bedded with straw and silage has to be fed too.

The cows are also given organic dairy ration in the parlour but this will be cut out of their diet once there is enough grass.

With the stretch in daylight hours and pick up in temperature egg production is increasing and our first rhubarb will soon be ready for picking. Peter’s father John, has begun ploughing our tillage fields and spring barley will shortly be sown.

BrookLodge farmers’ market, in Macreddin, Aughrim, Co Wicklow has started up again and I look forward to seeing my customers there on the first Sunday of April. With all the farm work my social interaction has been fairly minimal and it will be great to get out chatting at a market again.

We have an organic Angus heifer with the butchers and this meat will be available from Castlefarm Shop on the Friday and Saturday of St Patrick’s weekend.

We now sell beef in 3 box sizes and beef should be pre booked by contacting me on the contact details below.

Mini box €50
2 prime steaks (choice of T-bone, Striploin or Sirloin), 1 roast, 2 x 500g mince, 1 x 500g stewing beef

Family box €90
1 large roast, 2 prime steaks, 2 round steak, 4 x 500g mince, 3 x 500g stewing beef

Big beef box
This will include 6-8 steaks, roasts, stewing beef and good quality mince. Cost per kg is €14 and box sizes range from 12 to 16kg.

Our next opening hours are Friday and Saturday 15th and 16th of March from 10am-4pm. hopefully we will also have the first seasons rhubarb on sale too!

 

To receive our newsletter and news opening days and farm produce by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087-6785269

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This Farming Life - Spring

At last our cows are grazing outside full time. This means less time feeding silage and bedding the sheds with straw. The expense of dairy ration has also been cut out of their diet. Now it is AI season. For six weeks any cow that comes into heat will be artificially inseminated.

Our calves will also go out to grass later this month. They will be fed once a day once outdoors using a portable milk feeder that is pulled by our quad. They will be weaned off milk in May. We only have female (heifer) calves on the farm now and have sold all the bull calves meaning some extra cash and fewer mouths to feed.

Being organic our farm is extensive, meaning that we have a lower stocking ratio to a conventional farm. Because we do not spread artificial fertilizer we produce less grass and produce lower tillage yields. This means that we are constantly budgeting our animal feed requirements.

In the Castlefarm garden planting is now in full swing with onions and salad crops being the first to go into the ground. After that swedes will be the next crop to be planted. Greenhouse plants are being nurtured and will go into the polytunnel at the end of the month.

We have re-ploughed our allotment area and our allotment holders now have a small communal fruit area as well as their designated plots. It is nice to see them back rotovating and working our land.

I am really looking forward to attending the next Brooklodge food markets, in Macreddin, Aughrim, Co Wicklow. They happen on the first Sunday of every month and are a good way of making sales and promoting our farm shop.

With lots to do on the farm this spring I continue to open the farm shop at different times each weekend and let people know by email and facebook. So make sure to email me to go onto our database or like Castlefarm Shop on facebook.

 

To receive our newsletter and news opening days and farm produce by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087-6785269

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This Farming Life

The strange weather held things up at Castlefarm this spring and the cows have only just been let out overnight.

What strange and worrying weather. It is May and we have only just let our cows out night and day, something a lot of other farmers in the country still have not been able to do.

Normally by March our cows have been let out of their winter sheds and we have stopped their dairy ration. But today we are still feeding dairy ration and the bit of silage that is left, to subsidise their diet of poor grass.

In a normal year by now we would stop grazing certain fields for silage but with such slow grass growth we cannot afford to do this. This inability to budget feed for next winter will lead to stress on our farm next spring. Just last weekend we all enjoyed balmy bank holiday weather, but now we are back to rain and the news is even reporting flooding once again in Roscommon.

Grass is the cheapest, most natural, and nutritious food for Irish cattle and sheep. Grass needs warm weather, (6 degrees or more) with some rain to grow. At Castlefarm we are relatively lucky with slow but at least some grass growth. This spring I feel very worried about farmers farming some of the poorer land in the country, especially those farming higher land, and in areas prone to flooding. Some of them are in real difficulty.

To receive our newsletter and news opening days and farm produce by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087-6785269

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This Farming Life - Summer

Plenty to do at Castlefarm this month, with weeding an important job to keep under control - and then foraging in the hedgerows for pleasure

This month I will be spending lots of time walking the farm digging ragwort (the yellow weed that you often see on vacant land in summertime), cutting thistles and nettles. As an organic farm we cannot use pesticides to spray these weeds, instead we pull them up by the roots or cut them down, before they go to seed. Ragwort, when cut, is poisonous to cattle and horses so needs to be collected and disposed of carefully.

Apart from tackling the Castlefarm weeds in the fields and in the garden I am also taking lots of pleasure foraging in the Castlefarm hedgerows. I have been really inspired by ‘Wild Food’, the foraging book written by Evan Doyle and Biddy White Lennon. I am really enjoying learning more about the free foods in our hedgerows and along our shores. Tomorrow I will decant my Elderflower Champagne and I also have a vat of elderflower cordial on the go.

In the Castlefarm garden my onions and turnips are coming on really well. Parsnips and beetroot are slow to grow. I am thrilled to be enjoying a bounty of cucumbers at last from the polytunnel. These have arrived 6 weeks later than usual due to the cold spring.

In May I bought day old chicks to rear to laying hens. These are growing at a very fast rate, eating and drinking lots and starting to perch. Incessant fox attacks are causing the older hens and ducks as well as me a lot of stress. We have electrified fences surrounding the hens, but each week the fox seems to be coming earlier and getting more brazen in its attack. There really are too many foxes in the country and with the growth of their population; they are under pressure to feed themselves.

I continue to open the farm shop at different times each weekend and let people know by email and facebook. So make sure to email me to go onto our database or like Castlefarm Shop on facebook. I also attend the food market at Macreddin, Aughrim on the first Sunday of every month.

 

To receive our newsletter and news of new producs by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - The Farmer, the Kitchen and the Big Harvest Menu

The Farmer, the Kitchen and the Big Harvest Menu

In the spring time, when farmers begin to sow vegetable seeds, they are thinking about the harvest ahead. Throughout the spring the plants are nurtured and, during the summer, the vegetable patch has to be safeguarded from weeds and pests. It’s hard work but we look forward to our produce. The end game is to produce healthy, tasty vegetables for the autumn harvest.

I am delighted to produce organic vegetables for the annual Big Harvest Menu at The Strawberry Tree at BrookLodge. Evan Doyle, owner of BrookLodge, has a deep appreciation for food and for the farm. This is the reason that, as a very small scale producer, my organic swedes, cooking apples, cucumbers and green onions were included on this year’s menu.

This is also the reason that I was invited, alongside 13 other farmer suppliers, to attend the delicious first night’s tasting menu. I had a great evening chatting with farmers who produce delicious, successful brands such as St Tola, Kilbeggan, and Ballybrado. The farmers who produce these do so with a lot of hard work, honesty and passion.

I’m not sure what my favourite part of the menu was but the 90 minute cheese, a joint venture between Mossfield and the kitchen staff, was delicious and exciting. My husband, Peter is still raving about the marinated duck breast, served with courgette flower tempura with swede and apple syrup. Regan’s farm supplied the duck, Healy’s the courgette, the syrup was from Highbank and the swede was ours.

The Strawberry Tree restaurant at Brooklodge is Ireland’s only certified organic restaurant. The head chef, Tim Daly, and his crew work very closely with Irish organic suppliers to ensure that what is in season and what is freshest and best is served to his customers.

This month at The Strawberry Tree it’s all about the farm. This special harvest menu will run for the month of September. If you really do appreciate seasonal Irish organic food with provenance, make a point of trying the menu for yourself!

The ‘Big Harvest’ Farm Menu 2013 is a 7 Course Tasting Menu offered in The Strawberry Tree Restaurant daily, from September 3rd until October 6th at 7pm, 8pm & 9pm. For further information, log onto www.brooklodge.com

THE BIG HARVEST MENU

Organic Harvest to The Strawberry Tree is daily. Through our Kitchen door every morning, fifty-two weeks a year, our Farmers bring what they have harvested, and it is only then that our menu is decided.

However, the ‘Big Harvest’ only arrives once a year when our menu bursts with all this wonderful produce for all too brief cameo appearances. This year Nature has decide, as Nature does, that The Big Harvest Menu will commence in September (last year it was late October!) where we give full homage to our Farmers, with a Special Tasting Menu dedicated totally to the Farm

Here are the Farms that are contributing to each course. Harvest like this, needs little work in The Kitchen, just respect. We hope you enjoy!

Oatflake Crusted, St Tola Goats Cheese, Poached Pears
Harvests from Inagh Farm, Kilbeggan Farm, Highbank Farm, Mossfield Farm and Healy’s Farm

Marinated Fillet of Pork, Pickled Baby Beets, Apple Syrup
Harvests from Crowes Farm, Healy’s Farm and Highbank Farm

Crispy Duck Egg, Baby Leaf Salad, Rape Seed Oil Dressing
Harvests from Castle Farm, Healy’s Farm, and Drumeen Farm

Our Real Chicken Consommé
Harvests from Butler’s Farm, Healy’s Farm, Regan’s Farm, Mossfield Farm and Kilbeggan Farm

A Buttermilk and Pantry Distilled Strawberry Sorbet
Harvests from Mossfield Farm and Healy’s Farm

Slow Cooked Kid Goat, Puff Pastry, Crushed Pink Fir Apple Potatoes, Woodruff Bearnaise
Harvests from Inagh Farm, Healy’s Farm, Butler’s Farm and Drumeen Farm

Anna’s Autumnal Kilner Dessert Pot
Harvests from Highbank Farm, Mossfield Farm, Butler’s Farm and Healy’s Farm

For further information about what we produce at Castlerfarm log onto www. Castlefarmshop.ie.

 

To receive our newsletter and news of new producs by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - Foraging at Castlefarm

With only four more of Castlefarm’s autumn herd to calve and most of our calves sold I feel like I can take a bit of a breather from the farm. Our cows are now indoors full time. They eat silage and sleep on straw.

We continue to milk them twice a day, but on Sundays milk once a day. Their milk yields have been dropping since late summer. The cows are comfortable being milked once daily and once a day milking gives us a bit of a break on Sundays.

It’s a beautiful autumnal day as I type. The sky is clear blue, and the weather is dry but cold. Russets and browns surround me. We have picked most of our apples to make apple juice.

We enjoyed a couple of kilos of hazelnuts from our orchard and our quinces were sold to The Strawberry Tree in Wicklow. But growth has practically stopped and to be honest I am looking forward to the cosy dark nights of winter.

This year in particular I have noticed the abundance of rose hips in our hedgerows. Yesterday collecting rosehips was a great excuse for a walk and this morning I am making some rosehip syrup.

Last year I bought a copy of Wild Food, a foraging manual written by Biddy White Lennon and Evan Doyle. It provides great inspiration and advice about collecting and using wild foods - according to the manual, wild rosehips are higher in Vitamin C than oranges.

I’m sure they won’t mind me sharing The Strawberry Tree rosehip syrup recipe:

Wash and chop 700g of wild rosehips. Bring to the boil in 1 litre of water, simmering for 20 minutes. Strain through a fine sieve.

Return the rosehips to the saucepan, adding another litre of water and simmer for another 20 minutes. Strain again and simmer for another 20 minutes.

Finally strain all the liquid though a muslin cloth, into a clean saucepan.

Add 600g of organic sugar and the juice of an organic lemon. Bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes until syrupy.

Skim off any froth and pour into sterilised kilner jars and seal.

I’m not sure how my rose hip syrup will turn out. As it happens I must not have been picking for long enough, so have had to halve the recipe.

But flicking through Wild Food I see a section on wild crab apple and might just take a walk this afternoon to see if there are any left in the hedgerows.
 

To receive our newsletter and news of new producs by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - A Winter Break for Castlefarm

Today we dried off our spring herd of 81 cows. This will give them a 2 month break before they begin to calve. So no milking on Christmas Day at Castlefarm, yippee.

Our hens are still laying well. It’s important that they get enough daylight (vitamin D) to ensure they continue to produce eggs over the winter months, especially as my customers are doing a lot of festive baking!

Unfortunately our ducks still have not started laying yet, and its now time to sort the ducks from the drakes. The drakes being for the roasting dish over Christmas...

The farm shop has taken a back seat this year, since I am spending more time farming. But we are still producing beef, cheese, vegetables, apple juice and honey.

This month I am open with a little more regularity. I am supplying quite a few turkeys and Irish cheeseboards for Christmas dinner. There are also Christmas hamper orders coming in. So although the farm is quiet for once, the shop is keeping me busy.

Happy Christmas!

This December our farm shop is open

11am-2pm Friday 13th December
11pm-4pm Friday 20th December
11pm-4pm Saturday 21st December – join us egg collecting 10.45am!
12pm-4pm Monday 23rd December
10am-12pm Tuesday 24th (Christmas Eve) December
 

To receive our newsletter and news of new producs by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - Spring Calving at Castlefarm

JENNY YOUNG

After taking a couple of weeks off in January for holidays, I am back on the farm preparing for Spring calving.

February 1st marks the official start to calving at Castlefarm. We will have 90 cows calving down, the majority within an 8 week period. This means keeping a close watch on the expectant mothers and making sure that every calf born drinks a feed of milk within an hour of being born. The first milk of each cow is known as beestings, a milk high in nutrients and antibodies and the calf needs this in order to be healthy and strong.

As each cow calves down, she re-enters the parlour for milking again. We will also see a monthly milk cheque, something that we have missed since we dried off the cows last November.

Although most of our cows calve on their own, we need to keep a close watch on them, just to make sure they are okay. It is very rare that we have to help the cow deliver her calf, probably less than 10% of the time. Calf casualties are rare, and we seldom have to call out the vet. Next month hope to get our calved cows out on grass during the day.

We have had quite a few fox attacks on our poultry and members of the local gun club have been helping us cull some foxes on our land. Unfortunately there is an abundance of foxes on our farm and they are under pressure for food. They have been killing our hens and ducks, as well as our neighbours’ spring lambs.

Our first beef heifer of 2014 has gone to the butchers, so we will have fresh Angus beef for sale in the beginning of March.

 

To receive our newsletter and news by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - Spring at Castlefarm

At this stage 80 of our cows have calved. We have 26 heifer (female) calves out on grass, although we still feed them milk twice a day. Spring has been difficult. The calves got a bug, which spread, from calf house to calf house. 50 sick calves is no laughing matter. Still the hardship of calving time is now nearly over.

Over St Patricks Weekend we managed to get the Castlefarm vegetable garden and allotments ploughed. With the help of my nephew I spread farmyard manure on my vegetable garden and we rotovated it with our tractor. This week I will plant onion and shallot sets.

Vegetables in the Castlefarm polytunnel are starting to grow. At the moment we have salad crops and herbs. I have planted our courgette and cucumber plants but am waiting for tomato seedlings to harden before I plant them into the ground.

Although organic cow’s milk is something we produce on a daily basis at this stage in the season, I can now spend more time producing more food rather than tending to livestock.

I will make cheese next month once the cows go out to grass full time. We have butchered our first Angus beef for the season and I am currently in the market for organic piglets to fatten for meat.

I am now back at Macreddin Market on the first Sunday of each month. The shop continues to open on a weekly basis and you can find out more by subscribing to my updates.

 

To receive our newsletter and news by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - May at Castlefarm

It’s May and things are relatively settled at Castlefarm. With calving over, breeding season begins. This means six weeks of intensive AI to ensure suitable calves for easy calving next year and a good blood line for our future dairy herd.

After this our angus bull will join the cows to inseminate anything that has not successfully gone into calf through AI. Cows, similar to humans have a gestation period of nine months.

The female calves, which we have kept for future breeding are now out at grass. Although initially they were fed milk once a day they will soon be weaned off.

Our allotment holders have been out in force cultivating their plots. My garden is also looking good. I am trying my best to keep the weeds at bay. There was a rush last month to put the onion and shallot sets in and last week I planted swedes, beetroot and parsnip. Regular sowing of salad crops is important so that we don’t have a glut at any one time.

With relative peace at Castlefarm a lot of important but non-urgent jobs are being done. Sheds are being mucked out and power hosed and fencing is being improved.

I am spending more time producing for Castlefarm shop and selling direct. I am enjoying having a stall at Macreddin Market on the first Sunday of every month.

I also have plans to make cheese, buy day old chicks to rear and piglets to fatten. That reminds me it’s time to send our next angus heifer to the butcher, so that we have beef for sale in Castlefarm Shop in June.
 

 

To receive our newsletter and news by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - June at Castlefarm

Jenny Young

The Castlefarm garden is beginning to yield vegetables. Due to an especially busy spring calving this year sowing was delayed. However at last we are enjoying lettuce, courgettes and rocket. Cucumbers are appearing in the poytunnel as well as the first tomatoes.

Peas and beans are slowly starting to climb up their climbing frame. Our strawberry plants are flowering and gooseberries are starting to swell in the Castlefarm orchard. I am especially happy to see that our globe artichokes will be soon ready to eat.

The last of our spring heifer calves have been weaned off milk and AI has come to an end. Now the Angus bull is in with the dairy herd and any cow that did not go into calf through AI will produce an angus beef calf to supply Castlefarm Shop.

We cut our first crops of silage at the end of May. Three fields of this went into the silage pit, one field into round bales. I continue to walk the farm on a weekly basis to measure grass and budget grazing paddocks for summer feeding. Our bee hives have been really active each time I pass, so hopefully we will have a good crop of honey this year.

The summer is in many ways a quieter and more relaxing time on the farm. Saying that, it’s a time of catch up. This month I will collect weaner pigs for fattening and 200 day-old chicks to rear to the point of lay.
  

To receive our newsletter and news by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - July at Castlefarm

Jenny Young

So far the summer has been good to us dairy farmers at Castlefarm. The warm weather has meant lot of grass growth and we have managed to harvest our second cut of silage.

Pulling ragwort, which is beginning to flower, is now on the urgent list. We need to pull it before it goes to seed, to stop it spreading next year. As organic farmers we do not spray weed killers, so thistles, docks, and nettles need to be cut too. We do this by hand, with a strimmer or with a topper using a tractor.

Last week I collected 200 day old chicks to rear for egg production. So I have had a sleepless week, making sure they are constantly warm and fed. They will remain under an infra-red heat lamp until they grow feathers. Our duckling have at last become laying ducks and demand for organic duck eggs remains constant.

In the Castlefarm garden I have an abundance of courgettes, green onions, artichokes, cucumbers and salad. Our gooseberries and raspberries are also ripening. Seasonal eating is at its best! At the end of June I brought an Angus heifer to the butchers, so at the end of July we will have Castlefarm beef for sale in the farm shop.

With all this good weather and summer blossoms our bees are strong and fingers crossed it will be a good year for honey production.

Peter and I are really enjoying selling our farm produce at the seasonal Macreddin Market at Brooklodge which seems to be going from strength to strength. We are also eating well with lots of produce bartered with the other stallholders.

Castlefarm Shop opens every week, but days vary, so to keep up to date with opening days and seasonal produce please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - August at Castlefarm

Jenny Young

We have been walking the farm on a weekly basis to manage our dairy herds grazing. The gorgeous warm July and its lack of rain means our organic grass is sparse. We have had to feed silage ground, earmarked for winter feed. Hopefully we will not have to buy in too much organic dairy feed this winter as a substitute.

Otherwise on our farm, produce is abundant. The Castlefarm beehives are busy and thriving so honey will be plentiful this year. We are already harvesting early cooking apples and plums. The tomatoes are ripening in the polytunnel. Shallots and onions are drying on pallets in airy sheds.

On the Castlefarm poultry front, my organic chicks are growing big and healthy. They now have formed enough feathers to go into a large shed, without infra-red lights. They have moved on from chick starter feed to growers ration. In September they will begin on layer pellets and hopefully will have our first pullet eggs in October.

Our next organic angus beef will be ready for sale in September and is available to order through a box scheme.

We sell our cheese, honey, eggs, honey and seasonal vegetables at Macreddin Market in Aughrim, Wicklow on the first Sunday of every month.

Castlefarm Shop opens every week, but days vary, so to keep up to date with opening days and seasonal produce please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - September in Castlefarm

Jenny Young

August and September are the months when I supply organic fruit, vegetables and duck eggs to The BrookLodge Hotel for its annual harvest menu in The Strawberry Tree restaurant.

It’s all about the farm, using fresh ingredients from Irish, organic farms. Hotel owner Evan Doyle plans his special harvest tasting menu according to what’s in season at this time of the year. I am supplying plums, pears and cooking apples from our organic orchard and picking them is keeping me busy.

In March head chef Tim Daly also asked me to plant extra onions, cucumbers and shallots for the menu. It’s good to have a plan and a guaranteed market for my produce.

I was delighted to be invited to sample The Strawberry Tree harvest menu at BrookLodge at the end of July. It’s an exciting menu. Slow cooked kid goat, pink fir apple potatoes and single reserve Dabinette cider all sound so exotic but are all produced on organic Irish farms.

The farmers are listed on the menu and many of them sell direct at the Macreddin market on the first Sunday of every month. It was good to socialise with them and catch up on news, opportunities and issues affecting Irish organic farmers.

It’s not all fun and socialising though, there is a lot of work to be done as autumn sets in. At the moment at Castlefarm our young pullets are eating lots and growing bigger by the week. We have had to split them into two groups so they have enough space. I have reared 80 extra to help with my costs so have to find a market for them.

Grass is growing well, although we have had to start feeding the cows organic dairy ration in order to maintain steady milk production. I have started planting leaves in the polytunnel because night temperatures have dropped, hampering growth.

The harvest menu at The Strawberry Tree will run until the Irish harvest runs out. If you would like to find out more about Brooklodge’s harvest dinner menu or the monthly market log onto www.brooklodge.com

Castlefarm Shop opens every week, but days vary, so to keep up to date with opening days and seasonal produce please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - November in Castlefarm

Jenny Young

Yippee one more month milking, before we dry off for the winter.

At the beginning of November we bring our cows indoors for the winter. For the next two months they will sleep indoors on straw bedding and will be fed a diet of silage, which is wilted grass that we cut and put into a pit or baled earlier in the summer.

As the cows drop in milk yield they will be dried off, ie we will stop milking them. Up to now they have been yielding on average 16 litres of milk each per day. This relatively high yield is due to the fact that we are supplementing their diet with an organic dairy ration. They are due to start calving down at the beginning of February, so they will need a break from the parlour.

We have closed off the grass paddocks for the winter, although there is still some growth. Grazing in wet weather results in poaching of the land and generally damages the grass sward. As the cows calve down from February they will return to the pastures.

So for the next few months we farmers at Castlefarm plan on recharging our batteries, sleeping longer and preparing for the spring!

Castlefarm Shop opens every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook. Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - December in Castlefarm

Jenny Young

At the beginning of this month we dried off our herd of 89 organic cows. To slow down their milk production we milked once a day for a couple of days. Then we withdrew their silage feed and replaced it with straw.

Although they were not hungry, the lack of balanced feed stoped their milk production quickly, without using medicines, which are not advised under organic rules.

This month at the farm shop have our last organic beef of the season on sale. We are also finalising our turkey and ham orders for Christmas. Our new season’s apple juice has been bottled and is delicious. Due to the great crop of smaller eating apples in our orchard it is sweeter than last year.

Our honey is also a great seller at this time of the year, similarly due to the hot summer the bees had plenty to feed on and produced a great crop.

It’s nice to have a time of year where things slow down on the farm. We are all looking forward to a Christmas without milking.

Castlefarm Shop opens every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook. Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - January in Castlefarm

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

Castlefarm in January

We are expecting 80 cows to calve in February at Castlefarm. So this month we are busy preparing calving pens and making sure calving cameras and shed lights are working. We have also taken an inventory of the equipment we will need for calving time. Items such as calf feeders, electrolytes for sick calves, disinfectants, gloves and a properly working calving jack are amongst the things that need to be on the ready.

All our cows remain indoors and at this time of year it’s important to walk through the cows a couple of times a day to generally check their condition and health. Some cows can be bullied and may need more feed; others may be nearer to calving than expected. We are also constantly monitoring silage, straw and hay levels. We don’t want to run out of feed, as organic feed is a lot more difficult to source than conventional feedstuffs.

Outdoor fencing is being repaired and water troughs in the fields have been drained to avoid burst pipes in freezing weather. From February we are hoping that calved down cows will go out to grass.

With so much happening in the farmyard as opposed to the fields, the dogs are a little fat and under exercised. But we continue to enjoy more sleep and less work. We need to rejuvenate; we know all too well what next month will bring!

Castlefarm Shop opens every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook. Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny
 

An Irish Chef in France

Euro-Toques chef Martin Dwyer, is much missed in Ireland since he and his wife Sile sold their eponymous restaurant in Waterford and moved to France. They now live in the Languedoc, where they take guests - and feed them very well.

How to move to France - this being the time for resolutions and fresh starts, Martin shares some practical advice with the many who want to live this particular dream...

I do get a lot of people confessing that they want to move here and asking what should they do...

Have a trial marriage first, move across for a few months - not necessarily in the summer - and preferably in the area where you hope to live and rent a property to test the water for a while.

Have a good look around your town/village while you are there and study the local property market. Remember there is sometimes a reason why a particular place is cheaper than anywhere else.

Your French is essential so your command of the language is the most important skill. While you are still at home go to as many classes as you can. I have never had great success with language tapes or discs but if you are self-disciplined it could work for you. Alliance Francaise in Ireland is excellent as their classes concentrate on conversation.

If you know any French natives you might manage to have French nights out with them. Don’t stop learning French once you get out to France, the notion that we absorb any language by osmosis is not related to fact.

Fix up your health insurance, preferably with someone who knows something about the system in both countries. If you let your Home Health Insurance lapse it is very difficult to get back on board and the French Carte Vitale needs a fair amount of skill to get listed.

Be prepared to spend a time fixing up your car once you are in France. You are going to have to register the car in France, get French car insurance and ultimately to transfer your licence to France to achieve perfect legality. France’s adoration of red tape can make these processes tedious.

If you buy a house in need of repair select your builder with great care. A good builder is worth his weight in gold and, as they don’t use surveyors to check out buildings, he can be very useful to ensure that your purchase is not on the point of collapse. Make sure he is properly registered with the Local Marie and for vat etc. There are a lot of stories about foreigners being done by cowboys in France too.

It would seem an obvious point but often ignored by people moving to France from colder countries. Make sure that your house has some good outside space, a terrace, balcony or small garden facing south. In the older towns and villages this was not considered so important by the native French.

Be extremely careful before you invest in an isolated, if romantic, farmhouse. Security considerations are obvious and neighbours are extremely good security (and a fantastic source of friendships).

On this subject do talk to your neighbours, make a point of saying “Bonjour” each time you see them (even if it takes them a while to respond.) Politeness on this level is very important in France but they are not sure that outsiders feel the same.

Don’t spurn the other blow-ins. Consider yourself lucky to be able to make new friends whatever their background.

Do make yourself known; introduce yourself in the Marie and in the Bakery and the Butcher. (It is no harm either to explain clearly that you come from Ireland.)

Try and join local societies, choirs, walking groups, gourmet clubs whatever. The local Marie will have a list.

Use the social media well to keep in touch with your own established friends and relations. Face-book, Twitter, Skype, Face-Time, Instagram are vital links for people outside their own home surroundings.

France can be an amazing place to live with a climate, culture, architecture, food and joie de vivre which are all life enhancing. We love it out here, true there are things and people we miss from Ireland but the balance is still very much in France’s favour.

I would hate if any of the above put you off from enjoying our experience but, hopefully it may persuade some contemplating the move, to prepare themselves and so be more likely to stay.

 

-------------

Martin Dwyer started cooking professionally over 40 years ago in the legendary “Snaffles Restaurant” in Dublin. After a time in a Relais Chateau in Anjou and in “The Wife of Bath” in Kent he opened his own much acclaimed restaurant, “Dwyers”, in Waterford in 1989. In 2004 he sold this and moved south to France where he and his wife Síle bought and restored an old presbytery in a village in the Languedoc. They now run Le Presbytère as a French style Chambre d’Hôte. Martin however is far too passionate about food to give up cooking so they now enjoy serving dinner to their customers on the terrace of Le Presbytère on warm summer evenings. Martin runs occasional cookery courses in Le Presbytère and Síle’s brother Colm does week long Nature Strolls discovering the Flora and Fauna of the Languedoc. 

Le Presbytère can be seen at: www.lepresbytere.net; 
email: martin@lepresbytere.net

Twitter: www.twitter.com/DwyerThezan

This Farming Life - February in Castlefarm

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

Castlefarm in February

At Castlefarm we have a number of allotments, which people rent to grow their own food. It is nice to be able to share our land with people who are interested in growing their own food. It’s hard work, but well worth the effort and we help as much as we can.

In February we clear and plough the plots, as well as my own vegetable plot. This means less digging for the allotment holders. After the plots have been ploughed, and when it is dry enough, the allotment holders will rotovate and plan their vegetable beds. They are also provided with well rotted farmyard manure which they dig into the soil. It is the best natural fertiliser you can use.

Because we are an organic farm and don’t use artificial fertilisers and sprays, rotating crops is extremely important. Planting the same vegetable group in the same area year after year depletes the soil of important nutrients and takes away from the health and fertility of the soil. Crops are divided into 4 groups, legumes, brassicas, alliums and solanums.

Perennial plants, such as rhubarb, globe artichokes etc which come back year after year are not rotated. So February is the month for soil preparation and crop planning. It is important to be ready when the weather starts to warm up so that the most can be made of our growing season.

On our farm, onions and potatoes will be planted in March and seed trays are now being used to start off seedlings.

Castlefarm Shop opens every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook. Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

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This Farming Life - March in Castlefarm

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

Castlefarm in March

At last we are half way through calving at Castlefarm. 66 calves were born in February, making it a very busy but compact month of calving. Although we have more females than males at present, something we want, the odds always even up in the end.

Male calves are sold off farm when they are 2 weeks old. We are paid on average €100 per male Friesian calf. We sell them as soon as we can to make space for the females that we will keep. As a by-product of dairy farming we are happy to have a market for these male calves.

Unfortunately there is no market for Jersey bull calves and last year we were lucky to give them away. We artificially inseminate our cows and last year we trialled sexed jersey semen on 7 of the heifers. Although we did have 2 jersey females, conception rates were low and the other heifers went in calf to the Angus bull. This means more beef for the farm shop though.

This year marks the end of milk quotas and dairy farmers are unsure of milk price going forward. A lot of new dairy farmers are expected to enter the market. Existing dairy farmers are nervous that a flood of milk will mean a drop in price. Although they also know that dairying is not easy to succeed in.

We hope that because we specialise in organic milk and supply Glenisk we will continue to get a premium going forward.

Castlefarm Shop opens every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook. Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny
 

This Farming Life - April in Castlefarm

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

Castlefarm in April

What a difference a month makes. We are now at the end of calving, with 95 calved and 10 to go. It has been a chaotic but good 2 months of compact calving. Our male calves have been sold and our females are now dehorned and have been put out to grass. They are being fed milk once a day and have been introduced to meal. Heifers (first calvers) have settled down in the milking parlour and we now only need 1 person in the milking parlour.

Our allotment holders have been out rotovating and sowing since mid March. At last I have the time to start my organic vegetable garden, with onions and shallots being the first sown. In the house tomato, cucumber, courgette and aubergine plants are getting stronger. Next month I will transplant them into the polytunnel.

Last week I brought our first beef animal of the season to the butchers. It will be another 3 weeks until customers have the chance to taste our first organic beef of the season. Its lovely to feel like spring has finally arrived, and to have time to enjoy it.

It’s also great to be back selling our farm produce at the Brooklodge market on the first Sunday of every month.

Castlefarm Shop opens every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook. Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269

Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny
 

This Farming Life - May in Castlefarm

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

We have kept 28 calves as replacement heifers for our dairy herd. We have also sent 30 to a contract rearer in Wexford. We plan to sell these female calves to other dairy farmers as soon as we are offered a good return on our investment.

On the farm it is breeding season. From mid April until the end of May we detect the cows in heat and artificially inseminate them. At the end of May we will put our Angus bull in with the dairy herd. Anything that has not gone into calf to AI will produce an Aberdeen Angus calf, later next spring.

We have drained, ploughed and re seeded 10 acres of boggy land at the bottom of the farm. We hope it will grow grass instead of rushes later in the summer for grazing. Investments like these are always needed on our farm.

In the Castlefarm garden, the vegetables are starting to grow at last. Onions, parsnip, and turnip are all peeping out of the ground. We are enjoying rhubarb and salad leaves. Cucumber, courgette, pepper and tomato plants are enjoying the hot climate of our polytunnel.

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. We also have a stall at Brooklodge food market, on the first Sunday of every month. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life - June on Castlefarm

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

After two months of intensive AI the Angus bull is now with our herd of cows. His presence will ensure that any cow not in calf to AI will produce an Aberdeen Angus beef calf for our farm shop. For me this means no heat detecting of cows and time to concentrate on other aspects of the farm.

This spring our first Kerry heifer was born into the herd. She is a result of AI. AI gives us the ability to choose bulls, best suited to our type of farming, extensive and organic. This year we inseminated some cows with Mount Belliard straws, so we hope these cows produce heifer calves next spring. Like the Kerry cow, they will bring a bit of colour and diversity into the herd. Otherwise our bread and butter breeds are Jersey and British Fresian.

This month I am concentrating on eliminating 2 types of pests, rabbits and thistles. I don’t shoot but have encouraged a couple of members of the local gun club to hunt on our land. Our organic grass is just too precious to be feeding to the rabbits that are multiplying by the day.

As organic farmers we do not spray weeds with pesticides so I spend 10 minutes each day digging thistles with a dock digger. We don’t have many thistles but they too can spread very fast, so it’s my aim to eliminate plants before they reseed later in the summer.

I have been very busy working with the cows this spring so the Castlefarm vegetable patch has been neglected. But at last we have fresh vegetables in the garden. The tomato and aubergine plants in the poltunnel are slow to flower after a late start this spring, but the cucumber and courgette plants are fruitful already. The weeds have also started creeping in and I probably need to spend a few days hoeing and weeding.

I am delighted the monthly BrookLodge Market we attend is getting busier. Many of my regular farm shop customers are attending to buy, soak up the atmosphere and of course listen to their renowned Jazz band. For me, now a full time farmer, I enjoy the market as much as a social occasion as a marketplace for our produce. The market takes place outside Aughrim in Wicklow on the first Sunday of every month.

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life - July on Castlefarm

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

Summer is finally here. Everything is in bloom, lots of plants need watering and of course we are busy tackling the weeds that seem to be able to grow everywhere and anywhere.This year I didn’t plant too much in the Castlefarm vegetable plot, but leeks, shallots, onions, salad crops and turnips are all growing well.

In the polytunnel we have lots of cucumbers and courgettes. The tomato plants are flowering and have small tomatoes on their vines. There are also bunches of grapes swelling up on the vine.

We are enjoying the last of our rhubarb and the first of our raspberries. Later in the month our gooseberries should be ripe, although they are scarce enough this year. There was also a scarcity of blossoms on the apple trees in our orchard so we are not expecting a big crop this autumn.

On the farm our spring calves have all been weaned off milk. They are thriving on a grass diet and we have moved them to one of our fields a mile away. We need all the pasture around the main farm for the milking cows.

The Angus bull is enjoying life with our dairy herd. He seems quiet, although we always have a stick in our hand now when herding the cows, and we never turn our back on him or stand between him and the cows. Never trust a bull.

Baled silage was cut at the end of June and later this month we will make our second cut of pit silage. A son of a friend and our nephew spent the last week in June pulling and disposing the yellow flowering ragwort before it went to seed.

The grass in some of our grass paddocks has become stemmy and less palatable for the cows so we are pre mowing this. The cows graze this pre cut grass and then there is more sunlight and room for clover to grow in the sward and the pasture is in better condition for the rest of the year.

Over the past 2 months I have made a few batches of cheese. Our gouda will be ready to eat 6 weeks after it is made, although it is tastier if we let it mature. This month we are enjoying lots of barbeques and I will share one of the easiest recipes a New Zealand friend taught me:

Cut a v shape wedge out of a courgette. Stuff the wedge with goats cheese (I use Elizabeth Bradley’s Carlow goats or sheep cheese), and fresh mint. Season, wrap in tin foil and bake or barbeque for 45 minutes. Yum.

 

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life - August on Castlefarm

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

This month it’s all about creating and maintaining good grass condition. This means premowing and topping paddocks. Weeds need to be eliminated organically (using a hook or dock digger) before they go to seed. We want to encourage clover sward in the grass too.

Each Sunday our ritual is measuring the paddocks. We need to create as much healthy grass growth as possible between now and November. This will lengthen our grazing season and keep our bills down.

Otherwise on the farm we have had some vandalism to the bee hives. Our calves have taken to hanging out under a tree near the bee hives. One of them toppled a hive. Although she got a couple of stings the bees are fine. We have had to put extra electric fencing around the hives to protect them. We expect a good crop of honey this year.

Peter and I took a week off in July, which was great. But now we are playing catchup. I have to collect a new batch of day old chicks this week. I also need to source more young ducks in order to continually supply The Strawberry Tree restaurant at BrookLodge with organic duck eggs.

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life - September on Castlefarm

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

At Castlefarm it is time for our annual oat harvest. We supply our oats to Flahavan’s. Because we are organic we don’t use any sprays or artificial fertilizers. Once our contractor sows the oats in spring, we shut the gate and don’t do anything else until the end of August/early September when they become ripe to harvest. Then we organise the contractor to cut the oats and they are transported to Flahavan’s. It’s a lower yielding system than conventional, but also a less time consuming one.

Our organic chicks are growing at a fast rate and their yellow fluffiness is long gone. They are a Brown Lohmann breed, inquisitive birds which are popular within organic farming circles and lay brown eggs.

Their feathers are turning brown and they have quadrupled in size over 4 weeks. In late autumn I will sell most of these chicks and keep 50 for myself. I am also rearing some young ducks as replacements for my laying ducks. They are mostly Khaki Campbell, a breed that is popular on Irish farms; they are prolific layers and good for families to raise.

We have moved the spring born calves onto an out farm, to extend our grazing season on the home farm. We have also retired the bull. Although he is only 4 years old, we are fattening him up to sell him for beef.

Since we bought him, two years ago, annual lameness has caused him fertility problems. Although we do 2 months of AI, our Aberdeen Angus bull is an important safety net. If a cow does not go in calf, economics means we have to sell her on, so we need a more reliable Aberdeen Angus bull for next year.

Also on the farm this September we are making the last batches of Castlefarm cheese. We make cheese off grass produced milk. In my opinion it makes better cheese. We are also waiting for our honey to be harvested. Unfortunately it was a bad year for honey, with yields on our farm down 50% on last year.

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life - November on Castlefarm

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

It is all slowing down at Castlefarm as we prepare to dry off the cows for winter. Because we work on a grass based system and feed very little bought in meal or ration our cows naturally drop in production with the season. It’s a good time for us to stop milking, allowing them rest and to put on condition ahead of calving down from next February.

We have closed off the grazing paddocks to ensure there is enough grass for the spring calvers. We are half way through our 30 day grazing rotation and are due to run out of grass in the middle of November. At that stage the cows will move indoors. They will sleep on straw bedding and eat a diet of silage.

It is nice for us to have 8 weeks of a break from the milking too. The time normally spent in the milking parlour is spent doing general maintenance around the farm, catching up on all the jobs we were too busy to tackle during the year.

In the Castlefarm garden things are looking bare. I take a break from the gardening in the winter. Our apples have been sent for juicing. We have taken the last of our green tomatoes out of the polytunnel. Once the cows are in for the winter we will have time to spread farmyard manure in the polytunnel so that it has enough nutrients for us to grow produce next year.

Our hazelnuts, which were abundant, seem to have disappeared off the trees; the squirrels have been having an autumnal feast I think!

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life - December on Castlefarm

Jenny Young

The farm is in muck. It is cold, wet and dreary so I am glad we will finish milking in mid December. At present we are milking 60 cows once a day. The other cows have been dried off. Calves born earlier this spring have been housed for the winter and heifers (first time calvers) have been brought back to the home farm.

I am spending very little time out on the farm at the moment. Then again there is not too much for me to do. The man who works full time for us is tackling a list of things that need to be done in preparation for 2016.

Our point of lay pullets, have started to lay at last. It will be good to have more eggs again for the Christmas market. At this time of year with the lack of sunlight and a shortage of grass for the hens to scratch about in, egg production on our farm drops dramatically. Our younger ducks are starting to lay at last. The Strawberry Tree in Brooklodge will be delighted with the extra eggs over the holidays.

Ahead of Christmas the farm shop is busying up. Although we don’t produce organic turkeys on the farm, I sell them for Crowes of Tipperary. Hamper orders are also coming in at a steady pace and the shop is well stocked with festive goodies.

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

 

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce. This month Jenny gives us food for thought by comparing subsistence agriculture in Ethiopia with their own high tech Irish farm.

We have just returned from 2 weeks travelling around Ethiopia. While there I saw only one tractor working the fields. Ethiopian agriculture is subsistent, hand to mouth. It looks very difficult and very unproductive.

Oxen still plough the stony fields with wooden ploughs and cattle are driven in circles to thresh grain which is then transported by mule to market. Animals are herded to grazing areas and to water. I don’t think agricultural methods can have changed in Ethiopia over the past 2,000 years.

So back to our ‘high tech’ farm. With two calves born and more than 130 cows still to calve, we are deciding what calving camera to buy. Our old calving monitor has broken and it’s not worth fixing. It is completely outdated now.

There is always a lot of information seeking and debate before we invest in anything on our farm. New calving cameras can be downloaded onto phones and ipads, they can zoom in and have excellent sound. With wifi you can even watch the calving pens from your local restaurant on a Saturday night out!

In the Castlefarm garden the mild January means that our rhubarb is nearly a foot tall, so we and our customers are enjoying this. Most of our young ducks have also started to lay meaning James, the head chef at BrookLodge, is serving our certified organic duck eggs as a special on the Strawberry Tree menu.

It is good to be home surrounded by work and good food. But I know that by April I will need to take another escape from the farm.

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

February and March were whirlwinds, with over 100 cows calving in 2 months. All went well though. We had more heifer calves than usual and even had our first set of heifer twins. All the male calves were sold as quickly as possible. We were lucky to sell them directly off farm to a couple of organic farmers who will fatten them for the beef trade.

Our female dairy calves are now being fed milk once a day and are out at grass. In June we will wean them off milk altogether. All our milking cows are now out at grass day and night.

We are nearly starting our second grazing rotation around the paddocks. Grass growth is slow though and we are also zero grazing fields farther away from the main farm, to supplement the cows’ feed. A zero grazer is a bit like a huge lawnmower that cuts and collects the grass and then we feed it along the silage passage.

In the garden we have ploughed the allotments and our allotment holders planted their potatoes on St Patricks Day. In the case of organic potatoes, it’s easier to plant them early so that they can be harvested ahead of blight (which normally happens later in the summer).

In our garden the only thing we have growing plentifully is rhubarb, but I plan to get out early this month and get the rest of the garden in order. With less than 10 cows to calve, we can now get to work on other areas of the farm.

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life

At Castlefarm the breeding season has begun. This month we begin 6 weeks of intensive AI before the Angus bull arrives to join the herd.

At the moment we are using a vasectomised bull to mark the cows as they come into heat. He wears a chin ball filled with red paint to mark the cows for AI. We bought and Aberdeen Angus bull locally. He is the only stock we buy into the farm.

Bringing animals onto a farm increases the risk of bringing disease onto the farm.

Our cows are finally out day and night, with only 4 late calvers waiting to calve. The warmer weather has increased grass growth so we are no longer zero grazing. Later in the month we will start pre mowing paddocks, to prevent grass and weeds going to seed.

Our allotment holders are rotovating and sowing with vigor. My own garden is also ready for sowing, but until now I haven’t had the time to tend to it.

Its now time to start thinking of making chees e again, and our organic Angus beef continues to sell well in the farm shop. It’s also nice to have the monthly Brooklodge market to look forward too. Its such a cheerful and sociable market for producers and customers alike.

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

 

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

At Castlefarm the breeding season has finally ended. The Aberdeen Angus bulls that were brought onto the farm to ‘clean up’ after AI have been sold. We have cut our second cut of pit silage and have cut and wrapped 130 bales for the winter. Half of our spring born heifer calves have been farmed out to another organic farmer, who will rear them under organic standards for the next year. We are constantly under pressure for grass, hence the need to have our calves contract reared.

We are practically self sufficient in fruit and vegetables. We are enjoying raspberries, black currants and gooseberries. They are all a bit sour but can be transformed by cooking. In the polytunnel we have plenty of cucumbers and courgettes and the tomatoes are ripening nicely. Our outdoor garden is yielding all sorts of salad crops and onions and we are awaiting the first of the beans and beetroot.

Throughout the summer I have been making cheese on a regular basis and have sold a number of Aberdeen Angus beef heifers through the farm shop. We are also supplying The Little Milk Company with organic milk to make cheese.

We work at a more relaxed pace on our farm over the summer, using contractors to harvest and sow crops. Now is the time to take a few weekends off and try and find some good holiday weather!

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

At Castlefarm we are looking forward to drying off our cows for the winter, in early December. But for this month we are still milking them. The herd is out by day and in by night. By day they the last of the grass paddocks. By night they are indoors where they eat machine cut clover, brought in from fields that are too far away for the cows to graze.

Our herd is made up of Friesian/Jersey crossbreds. The milk our cows have been producing on this clover is very high in butterfat and protein. It is very frothy and creamy and we are delighted to be getting paid a decent price for it.

We are currently supplying The Village Dairy who sell it into the catering industry, in particular coffee shops. Apparently the coffee shops appreciate our milk as it makes very frothy cappuccinos!

We are delighted to be talking part in Wild and Slow in Macreddin this year. We are preparing a presentation on our foraging hedge, 800 metres of fruit and berry trees that have produced an interesting and abundant crop this year. The fabulous October weather gave us the opportunity to take lots of colourful pictures, before the birds had their feast.

We are really looking forward to participating in other workshops on the day, and of course have booked in to the Wild and Slow dinner. It is interesting and delicious to experience so much wild and foraged food, prepared so well by Evan Doyle and his team.

Talking of our love of food, we were lucky enough to spend a few days in Galway in October. We ate our way around the city enjoying fabulous food in Kai Café, Ard Bia and Cava Bodega.

The highlight was the tasting menu and unbelievably good service at Aniar. We even got to meet and chat with JP McMahon. The Village Dairy is one of his suppliers!

As well as eating good food we continue to produce it. We have collected our seasonal batch of apple juice from The Apple Farm in Tipperary. We had a great crop of apples this year and 800 kg of apples yielded 750 bottles of juice.

As well as milk, we also continue to produce organic eggs, honey, beef and cheese for the farm shop.

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today… Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

Yay December, our quietest month on the farm. We have dried off the cows and the whole farm is in winter holiday mode. No milking for six weeks. The main job each day on the farm is feeding silage and straw bedding. It’s time to catch up on work and prepare a little for the spring. This month we will be fixing fences and clearing calving sheds for the spring.

The farm shop is open each week, mostly Saturdays and will be open more in the run up to Christmas. Our last Aberdeen Angus heifer is at Murphy’s Butchers in Tullow.

The last beef of the season will be on sale in mid-December. Christmas week will be a busy one, we sell organic turkeys and free range hams for Crowes farm. We also sell hampers of produce from the farm, as well as cheeseboards and Christmas puddings.

Our new point of lay organic pullets are just starting to lay little pullet eggs. Our older hens are moulting, a sign that their productivity will drop dramatically over the next few months. They will resume laying in early spring again, but for now there is a bit of an egg shortage at Castlefarm.

The garden and allotments are quiet, it’s just too cold to grow and garden at the moment. After the allotment holders harvest the last of their Brussel sprouts and kale, we will let the ducks in to the garden. They are great organic desluggers.

Castlefarm Shop is open every week normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials. To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny

 

This Farming Life

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce

May was a great month for growth at Castlefarm. The combination of heat and rain was perfect for grass and clover growth. The cow paddocks are full of lush grass and the cows are producing great milk, high in butterfat and protein.

This month we will start pre mowing paddocks before they go to seed. We do this to prevent grass becoming too strong and to have better quality, lush grass for the summer months. We will cut our first seasons silage this June. As organic farmers we are always looking ahead to winter feed.

All our spring calves are weaned off milk and are a mile away on our out farm. We have only kept the females. They will become our future milking herd.

This year all of our allotment plots have been rented and are looking great with onions and potatoes growing in organised rows. Potato plants have started to flower. Peas, spinach, beetroot, carrots and salad plants are also growing strong.

We have been mounding up around our potatoes as they grow. In the polytunnel we have peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes and courgettes growing. I can't wait until July when a lot of our vegetables will come into fruition. Meanwhile I'm preparing to make cheese this month. I think it's best to make cheese from summer milk, produced from grass and clover.

With the help of local beekeepers, we keep bee hives on 2 areas of our farm. One area is beside our fruit hedge, where bees feed mainly on fruit blossoms, the other set of hives is in the middle of our grassland and these bees feed mainly on clover.

We expect to take the first honey from the hives in August. At this stage last year's supplies are running low. More and more people are realising the health benefits of local honey, especially people who suffer from hayfever.

I have an animal at the butchers which I will sell from the farm shop in mid June.

Castlefarm Shop is open every week, normally on a Friday or Saturday but you need to sign up to facebook, emails or text alerts to keep up to date with opening days and farm specials.

To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please sign up to our email, or text updates or like us on facebook.

Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone 087 678 5269 Follow us on facebook or on twitter @castlefarmjenny