Bealtaine Cottage, Ireland
One Woman, Three Acres.
There is a pleasure in making the connection between our food and where it comes from. 
So many children grow up not knowing where their food has come from, or the value of what they are eating. 
On the day I brought the hens home, I stood and watched them for simply ages!
What we plant and grow tastes so much better than food we buy. 
Yes, it prolongs the shelf life of the food we buy, but it also destroys the enzymes in the food! 
Irradiation is a way of utilising nuclear waste materials to keep food fresh longer and reduce the risk of food poisoning by killing the bacteria. 
I could go on…you begin to understand why fresh, home-grown food is best! 
Most people are prepared to pay a little more for fresh food but are unaware of the real age of the food they call “fresh!” 
Tesco was recently reprimanded by the Advertising Standards Authority on claiming that it sold “fresh bread baked from scratch!” 
There are really very few, if any, cakes, bread or buns actually made in the supermarkets! 
Many fresh vegetables are flown in from all over the world and the average age of fresh peas, broccoli etc is about 10 days old! 
Or the juice made with “freshly picked from outside the back door herbs” and fruit.
A couple of years back I had made some bread for christmas but had also bought another kind of bread. After christmas dinner there were a few slices of bread left over from both of the loafs. I put them all in the same bag and unfortunately (or not) I forgot about them as they got hidden away in my messy kitchen. About a week or so later I found them and of course there was mold – on my home made bread only !!! – the store bought was untouched and they were in the same bag on top of each other…
And now is a perfect time for sowing tomato and watch them grow up, changing every day 🙂
What a salient tale…I have noticed the same with tomatoes bought from the supermarket…and a timely reminder to sow tomatoes…Blessings XXX
I have often thought how unnatural it is as you say for tomatoes to stay fresh for so long and many other food items we buy , this alone alerts us to the idea of growing our own food; at least that way we know for sure it is fresh and it does taste so much better. I read today that garlic can be planted in February so this will be added to my challenge this week . Enjoy your posts always refreshing. Kathy.
Ah…thanks for that timely reminder…garlic added to my list too!
Blessings XXX
I cooked a meal for lunch yesterday of mostly truly local and fresh food. Spaghetti squash picked Sunday, green beans picked Monday morning, potato onions harvested around Christmas and cherry tomatoes picked over the last week to finish ripening indoors. I added cheese from the supermarket and some salt and pepper. Even the olive oil in which I fried off the onions was purchased from a relatively local supplier (grown about 2-3 hours away). The food tasted great and was so fresh I think it was still growing when it reached my stomach! 😉
Sounds delicious and life-giving!
Grow your own, and support country markets is the way to go. Very little if any use of the supermarket. Excellent encouraging write-up. I so support anti-Monsanto demonstrations.
I do believe we are a growing movement!
The consciousness of what is true and sustainable, and good for the earth and for humankind is sure growing day by day! It’s all good 🙂
I agree!
Blessings XXX
Reblogged this on Bealtaine Cottage and commented:
Food for thought…
Hello Bealtaine Cottage,
Your place looks amazing. I would love to take a visit sometime..where abouts are you located? I am based in Galway for the next couple of weeks.
Beannachtaí
Gráinne
Hi Grainne!
The next visitors morning is on the 7th of June, from 10am to 12noon.
If this suits then let me know and I can add your name.
Colette
Yes, our family will be joining the march on Monsanto. These are freaky times – I keep thinking its very Orwellian! Good for you for sticking to your principles and as for me, I plan to continue saving seed each year and have planted more food this year than ever.
Fantastic! I am hearing so many stories of people taking to the land to grow and protect what is theirs. This is be the beginning of a worldwide stand and fightback against Monsanto and other corporate monsters!
Firstly, we keep hens and ducks ourselves, for the eggs, the entertainment, not for the meat. They will age and have a natural death. And be replaced in twos. We grow veg in the garden/allotment/earth sheltered passive solar greenhouse. But we don’t yet collect our own seed, except beans. No argument it is fresher.
I used to be a baker, working in family bakeries. I wasn’t an ‘artisan’ baker, I was an artisan baker. In other words, feeding others with a staple food source, not a part luxurious commodity. All the artisan bakers have almost gone. But enough of my grumbles and nit picking. I enjoy Sainsburys multiseeded bread and know the bakers who make it in store, from raw ingredients. Most of the flour confectionary is brought in frozen, so I don’t buy. I can freeze my own. I do treat myself by baking bread occasionally, but not Sue, who bakes her own gluten free.
Time I think the Cooperative chain stores stopped selling ‘their’ own bread and goods from global sources for local fodder. A new mindset: shop local, think global.
Some very interesting and thought-provoking comments here Andrew.
Since the early seventies, people have been directed on a consumer course, that has produced much discontent.
A simpler, more fulfilling life is what so many now seek.
I made the move 9 years ago to downsize every aspect of my life and think of cyclical living as a good pattern to follow.
It’s all about consequences really…in an age where those in power are notorious for short term thinking!
I was born after the Second World War ended, when there was still rationing. The world was still community centred then. And then, another revolution began, the consumer age. Supermarkets, Mother’s Pride, hire purchase. It’s never stopped. I ‘wanted out’ in the Summer of Love in 1967, but sadly that didn’t last. But I got to Findhorn, and thence to the Isle of Lewis.
Any way, as consumers, we have the power, but sadly not the will. But we Will. I sense the tide changing, through many good works, including your own. I didn’t do what I wanted on Lewis, but I hope you do.
I am the eternal optimist and feel the change in energy happening, as more and more people awaken.
Nature is, like all great mothers, forgiving.
Therein lies hope that all is not lost and she will ultimately prevail…hopefully with her children in tow!
I am glad to hear, and can see, that your hens are truly happy 🙂
I often wonder when the the supermarkets claim their eggs come from happy hens?
Wishing you and your hens, cats, dogs, etc. a lovely weekend x
Lovely to hear from you, Cicely, and a blessed weekend to you too X
When I think back to my childhood, lots of my relatives were in there late 70’s, 80’s and 90’s. I don’t remember any of them having any dementia. They ate fresh farm food., not food doctored with this and that. Now I hear of people in their 50’s starting with dementia. Home grown is the best, thanks Colette for the info, I plan to get a juicer.
Same here…no old folk from my childhood were “away with the fairies,” as we say here in Ireland!
Your produce looks amazing. It is my hope that more people would enjoy vegetables if they had access to fresh from the ground produce. It would bring the prices down, too
Vegetables are super for juicing…even little pots of herbs and veg make great juice!
Are those lettuces in your pictures grown this year? Here in Southern Ontario we havn’t planted our garden yet, still a danger of frost this weekend.
Ruth from At Home on the Road
The lettuces are last year though the tunnel is packed with chard, broccoli, fennel and pickable greens.
I had no idea about the ‘fresh baked bread’. Although, tbh, nothing Tesco does surprises me anymore….
It’s all a con…surprise, surprise! Lol!
Who can resist fresh, home-grown produce? Been picking various lettuce and spinach lately. No peas yet and the asparagus just aren’t fat enough (maybe next year). Lots of salads! Can’t wait till the cukes and tomatoes are ready! All my veggies are grown from organic seed with no pesticides or herbicides. Tastes great, is very cheap and its fun to garden! Plus Monsanto gets nothing from me!
What you do empowers you, brings you joy, good food and health! Resistance is edible!