The good people of Cloughjordan Community farm need to rebuild their barn – or, better still, build a better one!
This unique community owned and operated farm in Cloughjordan Ecovillage is holding a fun fudraiser with a set of Get-Up-To-Get-Down DJs from the Pressure Drop and Ruaille Buaille stables!!!
DJs Will Softly and Frank Bouchier of ‘Ruaille Buaille‘ join Ollie Moore and Paul Ryan of ‘Pressure Drop‘ for what is the penultimate Dance Party ever in Club Aras na nGael!
Global Beats and Reggae Treats will abound – expect afro house, cumbia, dancehall, funk, disco, and what works to make magic feet move and groove!
Prior to the dancing, there will be a presentaiton on cloughjordan ecovillage and farm, a discussion following on from this, while chai and hot veggie food will also be available – fresh from the farm!
Tickets just E5!
Visit the Facebook page here
Author: cloughjo
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Cloughjordan Party in Galway! Ruaille Buaille meets Pressure Drop in club Áras na Gael
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The Soil Salon – Convergence Event, 30 September 2017
Features citizen soil scientist, David Beacher and the Cloughjordan community farm’s own Kevin Dudley.
This afternoon event is aimed at food growers, farmers and other people interested in soil and agroecology. It will introduce the GROW Observatory is an EU-wide project supporting the emergence of a citizens’ movement to share knowledge and help monitor our European soils. The salon will develop the capacity of Irish citizens to understand soil and to better steward land and includes presentations by Devyn Olson-Sawyer and Ben Whelan of the GROW Observatory and representatives of the People4Soil campaign.
Saturday 30 September 2017, 14.00 – 16.30
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Butternut Squash or Pumpkin Risotto
-Peel 1 small butternut squash, then cut into ½ inch big cubes.
-Peel and then finely chop 1 onion.
-In a medium saucepan, heat 4 cups chicken stock over medium-high heat until boiling, then reduce heat and simmer.
-Add 3 TBS olive oil or ghee to a large, deep-sided skillet over medium-high heat.
-Add onion and butternut squash and cook until beginning to soften, 8 to 10 minutes.
-Season with sea salt and pepper.
-Add 1½ cups Arborio rice and let cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.
-Add ½ cup dry white wine and simmer, stirring frequently, until nearly absorbed, 2 to 3 minutes.
-Reduce heat to medium and add ½ cup stock, then let simmer until absorbed, stirring frequently.
-Continue adding stock and simmering until all stock has been used, about 15 minutes.
-Stir in the following:
1 TBS fresh rosemary, finely chopped
2 TBS unsalted butter
½ cup freshly grated Parmesan
-Serve with additional Parmesan.
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Indian Spiced Fennel Pickles
-Chop up 1 fennel bulb into 1/8 inch slices.
-Put the fennel slices in a 1-quart canning jar.
-Add the following to a medium sized saucepan:
A ½-inch piece ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, thinly sliced
½ cup white vinegar
1 tsp kosher or sea salt
2 TBS granulated sugar
2 TBS light brown sugar
2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
½ tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
1 star anise pod
1 cup of water
-Bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve salt and sugar.
-Pour hot brine into jar and cover.
-Let cool, then chill.
-Store in the fridge for up to 2 months.
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Féile na nÚll Apple Festival – Saturday 23rd of September 2017
SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITY FAIR – Féile na nÚll, Apple Festival @ Cloughjordan Ecovillage
It’s that colourful time of year, Féile na nÚll the Apple Festival and Sustainable Community Fair takes in Cloughjordan Ecovillage. From 11am there will be a Little Food Fair with stalls from Night Orchard, Wildfire Pizza, Back Lane BBQ, Lime Tree, Walnut Books and Harmony Gardens. Throughout the day there is apple pressing – bring your own apples! There is also an apple bake contest and activities for all the family. Some of the highlights are a workshop on our relationship to money, a preview of local playwright Joanna Ryan-Purcell’s(Banba Theatre) adaptation of Children of Lir on the Cloughjordan Community Amphitheatre and a presentation and guided tour of the Ecovillage.(see the full schedule below)That evening from 7.30 there will also be a SpeakEATsy. This is a shared meal, live music, spoken word and a public conversation with professional surfer turned organic farmer Fergal Smith. Booking can be made here.
See the facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/146466021361109811.00 – Opening – Celebrating Sustainable Community (WeCreate)
A short introduction to the European Day for Sustainable Communities and our Féile na nÚll11.00 – The Little Food Fair (Outside WeCreate)
On going throughout the day with delicious local food from local producers11.00 – Apple Pressing (Outside WeCreate)Ongoing throughout the day. Bring your apples for mashing and pressing. Up to 15kg pressed for free.
11.15 – Opening of the Apple Bake Off (WeCreate)Contestants can leave their entries from this time until 16.00 – note there is a €2 entry fee.11.30 – Our Relationship with Money (1.5 hour workshop in WeCreate Classroom) NEED TO PROMOTE SEPARATELY
Sustainable communities often have a different way of working with money, but how might the personal relationship we have with money now be getting in our way? In this interactive, engaging workshop, money coach, Karen McAllister, will introduce 8 money archetypes and with the help of facilitator, Chris Chapman, will explore their relevance to those of us working towards more sustainable communities and the potential for us to approach our relationship with money differently. We are inviting people to ‘pay from the heart’ for this workshop – come along and find out what that means! For more details on mindful money coaching, please see http://themindfulmoneycoach.com/12.30 – Pony Rides (ongoing)
12.30 – Apple Identification – A tour of the orchard of heritage apples.
13.00 – Real Bread – Riot Rye Bakehouse & Bread School (WeCreate – 20mins)
13.30 – ECOLEARN – Ecovillage Presentation and Tour (WeCreate Main Space followed by a walk around the project – 1.5 hours)
15.00 – Fab Lab Tour (WeCreate 15mins)15.00 – Composting Demonstration (Leaving from WeCreate to Compost Demo area – 30 mins)15.30 – A performance of Children of Lir (Amphitheatre – 30 minutes – if raining in WeCreate)
This short physical theatre adaptation of the Irish classic story where four children are transformed into swans and cursed to roam the oceans for nine hundred years. This play explores separation and coming together, identity, exile, loss and transitioning.15.45 – Cloughjordan Community Farm Walk (Leaving from the front of WeCreate)
16.00 – Apples and Local Food Culture (Amphitheatre – 30 minutes – if raining in WeCreate)
A discussion on apples as a core element in a bioregional approach to resilient communities.17.00 – Apple Bake Off – announcing the winners (WeCreate)
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Pasta With Butternut Squash And Bacon
-Boil a large covered pot of salted water for the pasta.
-Peel and then coarsely shred 1 butternut squash on a box grater.
-In 12-inch skillet, cook ½ pound of bacon on medium heat 8 to 10 minutes or until bacon is crisp. With slotted spoon, transfer bacon to small plate.
-Drain and discard all but 2 tablespoons of fat from the skillet.
-To same skillet, add the following:
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
-Cook 30 seconds, stirring.
-Add butternut squash and ¼ tsp sea salt.
-Cook 10 minutes, stirring and mashing frequently.
-Stir in the following:
2/3 cup half-and-half
6 sage leaves, finely chopped
-Cook 2 minutes.
-Remove from heat.
-Cook 1 pound of pasta according to package directions.
-Reserve ½ cup cooking water.
-Drain pasta well; return to pot.
-Add chopped bacon, squash mixture and..
½ cup grated Parmesan
The reserved cooking water
¼ tsp sea salt
-Toss until well coated and serve.
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Feeding Ourselves 2017 and SpeakEATsy – 8th & 9th April
Join us for the annual Feeding Ourselves gathering! We will celebrate the soil beneath our feet, the food it provides for our communities, and the agroecological farmers and growers who work the land!! 🌏🌱🌿🌏🔭🔬🌏🌱🌿🌏🔭🔬🌏 And, we’ll have ourselves a speakEATsy in the middle of it all – a community meal, poetry, music, compelling conversation!
Feeding Ourselves 2017 will feature a soil symposium – including an introduction to a fascinating new citizen science project called GROW Observatory – with dedicated sessions on community gardens, sustainable farm diversification, community supported agriculture, and the launch of the Land Workers Alliance in Ireland. We’ll highlight inspiring examples of regenerative (agri)-culture activism – from farm hack to food policy councils.SpeakEATsy – The now infamous event where food, poetry, music and compelling conversation come together in a convivial setting.
Art Exhibit – The Spicebox of Earth – An exhibition on soil and the ecology of place by mob grazer and all-round food hero Clive Bright.Places are limited to book a place see www.cultivate.ie, book your ticket online here: http://cultivate.ie/community-resilience/1279-feeding-ourselves—————————–If you haven’t experienced a SpeakEATsy this is your chance. As part of Feeding Ourselves 2017 we will host the 4th convivial evening of food, art, music, poetry and dancing.
Experience a tasty and thoughtful meander into a world where music and poetry, farming and food, arts and nourishment weave together seamlessly. SpeakEATsy includes a meal, music, spoken word and a public conversation in a convivial community setting.
Places are limited to book a place see www.cultivate.ie, book your ticket online here: http://cultivate.ie/community-resilience/1279-feeding-ourselves
Feeding Ourselves gathering!
Join us for the annual Feeding Ourselves gathering! We will celebrate the soil beneath our feet, the food it provides for our communities, and the agroecological farmers and growers who work the land!!
And, we’ll have ourselves a speakEATsy in the middle of it all – a community meal, poetry, music, compelling conversation!
Feeding Ourselves 2017 will feature a soil symposium – including an introduction to a fascinating new citizen science project called GROW Observatory – with dedicated sessions on community gardens, sustainable farm diversification, community supported agriculture, and the launch of the Land Workers Alliance in Ireland. We’ll highlight inspiring examples of regenerative (agri)-culture activism – from farm hack to food policy councils.
If you are a grower, see food as a commons, interested in Permaculture or land-based livelihoods, this event is for you.Speakers and contributors include Naomi van der Velden (British Permaculture Association), Pavlos Georgiadis (Ethno Botanist, Greece, GROW), Pat Malone (Cloughjordan Community Farm), Ben Whelan, (Cultivate & WeCreate FabLab), Bruce Darrell (RED Gardens), Joe Fitzmaurice (Riot Rye), Dee Sewell (Community Gardens Ireland), Fergal Anderson (Leaf & Root), Thomas O’Connor (Mana Organics), Fergal Smith (Moy Hill Organic CSA, Clare), Roisin Nic Coil (CSA Ireland), Kevin Dudley (Cloughjordan CSA), Kate Carmody (Organic Hemp Farmer Kerry) Mimi Crawford (Crawford’s Farm), Eimhin Short (Growery), David Beecher (Citizen Soil Scientist), Niamh Ni Duill (Transition Kerry), Clive Bright (Rare Ruminare) – plus you and many more. The sessions will be engaging and participative, skilfully facilitated by Davie Philip (Cultivate) and Oliver Moore (Arc2020).
This two-day gathering also features;
The Little Food Fair- An outdoor food market with produce and information from local producers: Wildfire Pizza, The Night Orchard, Riot Rye, Cloughjordan Community farm, Middle Country Cafe Co-op, Crawford’s Farm, the Chilli Farm, Harmony Gardens (NextGen Cloughjordan).
SpeakEATsy – The now infamous event where food, poetry, music and compelling conversation come together in a convivial setting.
Art Exhibit – The Spicebox of Earth – An exhibition on soil and the ecology of place by mob grazer and all-round food hero Clive Bright.Costs & Booking:
- 1 day price €30.00
- 2 day price €40.00
- SpeakEATsy €25.00
- Full weekend – 2 days and SpeakEATsy €65.00
Booking online at www.cultivate.ie or email info@cultivate.ie
Note: this event is a fundraiser for Cloughjordan Community farm.
Accommodation:
Very affordable accommodation is available in Cloughjordan Ecovillage. To book Django’s Eco-Hostel see www.djangoshostel.com or call +353 87 256 9348. Some B&B accommodation is also available in Cloughjordan Unique Setting:
The gathering will be held in Cloughjordan Ecovillage one of Ireland’s leading examples of an ecosystem of innovation: it includes over 55 low energy houses with community woodlands, renewable energy production, a wood-fired bakery, research gardens and the CSA Community Farm. WeCreate Workspace is a co-working space and innovation hub within the Ecovillage and home to Ireland’s first community FabLab. The Cloughjordan Community Farm is an example of community supported agriculture (CSA) and a is a cooperative approach to the supply of food to the community. It currently provides fresh vegetables, eggs and meat to over seventy member households in Cloughjordan.
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Farm Newsletter – Issue no. 4
This month is now showing hints of Spring: hedges and trees are starting to sprout
buds, even some daffodils are appearing….and whilst it is not our most productive
sewing and planting month, our peppers and tomatoes have already gone into the
tunnels and large amounts of onions have been sewn into trays. Other mainstay crops
will follow soon and the next issue will go into more detail on crop planting. A new
Polytunnel is going up, to increase propagation and provide more planting room- see
Goi’s update on this tunnel on p.5 ; recipes to use up our root veg before we move onto
lighter recipes for Spring appear on p.10 and an article on our Pigs follows this.
Getting to the Root of it: some facts on our Farm Pigs By Raquel Dafouz
Last week, while some of our neighbours from Cloughjordan watched and with
supervision by the volunteers, Pat moved the pigs to the area where the onions were
last grown. Now the pigs have a new field to continue exploring and digging in and they
are doing an excellent job rooting up the ground.
The four pigs that are currently on the farm are male and are growing fast into healthy
animals; they are already 7 months old! Their feed is based on one half of pig nuts and
the other half oat cereals. The oats give the pigs much more energy and are digested
much better if germinated so, two days before feeding, the grains are immersed in
water so that they can germinate and provide all the nutritional benefits to our piglets.
The task of feeding them is carried out twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.
And… you know what? They love to eat while you scratch them behind the ear and leg!
This is something simple that helps to establish a bond and more trust between the pig
and the caretaker.
It is important to know that pigs play an important role on the farm. They bring oxygen to the ground when they churn it around with their rooting technique. This activity is also beneficial for microorganisms in the soil as it helps to decompress the soil, an activity that favours the maintenance of soil quality and also the biodiversity, which is so important for our crops.
Have you been to the pig’s field and wondered where Georgina, the mother of our little pigs, is? And the famous Peppa is also no longer here… if you’ve been wondering about them, don’t worry! They are happy and enjoying their well deserved ‘retirement’ at the Kildare Animal Foundation animal shelter, about 100 km north-east from Cloughjordan.
And finally, if you have not yet been to visit the pigs, we invite you to approach the pigs’ field where you can watch them playing, sleeping, sunbathing or digging in the dirt!
Now that we volunteers have got to know the pigs better we can say that we are happy and grateful to have them as they bring so many benefits to the farm.
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Féile na nÚll – Harvest Apple Festival, Saturday 8th October, a day filled with apple fest fun! Starts @ 11.00am
11.00 – Stalls & Food including; Award Winning BBQ & Pulled Pork by expert ecovillage resident Greg Whelan, James Liston’s baked potato trailer (meat and spuds from Cloughjordan Community Farm), Irish Seed Savers and products from Cloughjordan Community Farm, The Night Orchard, The Apple Farm, Wild Irish Foragers, High Bank and others.
11.30 – Opening of Apple Bake Off
11.45 – Apple Mashing and Pressing Demo with Cloughjordan’s Night Orchard
12.00 – Orchard Tour
13.30 – Seed Saving and Farm Walk with Kevin Dudley (Cloughjordan Community Farm formerly with Irish Seed Savers)
14.45 – Ecovillage Tour with Ollie Moore
15.30 – Workshops & Talks – Open Space Con Traas – The Apple Farm of Tipperary Orchard, predators and low intervention methods of pest management for orchards.
16.00 – The Apple Bake Off – judging in private with Imen McDonnell
16.10 – Forage Walk with Sharon Greene
16.30 – Kids Music Workshop with Chris T-T (Brighton)
16.30 – Poetry Taster
16.45 – Soil Microbiology, Bio-dynamics and Orchards; a discussion led by Rod Calder-Potts(Highbank Organic Orchards, Kilkenny)
17.20 – Apple Bake Off prize giving and drawing of the Apple Raffle
17.30 – Close towards SpeakEATsy
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SpeakEATsy 8th October 2016 – Celebrating Harvest and Community
SpeakEATsy! – A convivial evening celebrating harvest and community!
FOOD | MUSIC | CONVERSATION | SPOKEN WORD
Saturday 8th October from 19.00hrs to 22.00hrs | 20e/10e
@ WE CREATE CLOUGHJORDAN ECOVILLAGE
Conversation with Paul Kingsnorth(Dark Mountain)
Music from Chris TT (Brighton)
Poetry from Mel White and Niall Cahir
A simple meal with Cloughjordan Community Farm Produce & Riot Rye Bread
Bring a dish to share with a story relevant for the evening and pay only 10e!