On this beautiful day in the west of Ireland…Potting on seedlings, dealing with slugs and enjoying a bit of a rant! When something is not right, then it’s just not right!
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Easy to grow salads, almost ready to eat from the box!
This mixture of seeds, mostly saved seeds, so the cost is minimal, has taken about 3 weeks to germinate and grow, outdoors.
Coriander, Parsley, Lettuce, Spinach, Leeks, fennel and more, all jostle together.
These will be cut and cut again for several harvests.
Some of the bigger, stronger seedlings will be pricked out and planted on.
I want to thank all of you who commented and liked on yesterday’s blog…this has really energized me!
Living on one’s own can be quiet at times and it was so great to get such lively and uplifting feedback…bless you all XXX
I love to forage and dig about at old dump sites, many of which can be found around old Irish cottages.
Nothing was ever thrown, but rather placed in the ditch or bank, so when people like myself excavate decades later, much of what we find remains intact.
This is a selection of old bottles dug up and cleaned.
Some of them are really beautiful, don’t you think?
Among other things, the practice of excavating old sites is directly linked to antique bottle collecting and glass-making.
This hobby is so very interesting as it allows a picture of the past to be slowly unraveled and a new tapestry created of past lives.
As I write there is a light spray of rain in the air…it is barely falling!
The ground has been dry and water levels in wells have dropped in recent weeks.
A week of rain would be very welcome.
The rain-water barrels have served me well, but are now empty.
Close planting has helped preserved the moisture in all of the beds.
The dry weather has also been great for seed collection.
I have hung Mizuna and Purple Sprouting Broccoli in the barn to dry off.
This Parsley seed will be ready to hang very soon.
Hover-flies buzz endlessly around the flower-heads of the Cotoneaster.
Leycestria Formosa grows like a weed here in the west of Ireland and the flower-heads transform into chocolate-scented berries much loved by the Blackbirds.
In between, it makes a beautiful bush…
Summer prevails and may continue long into September, making a seamless merge into late Autumn.
Enjoy every day in some small way…Blessings X
http://bealtainecottage.com/2015/04/01/an-invitation/
Food production can be a problem for many people who have little or no access to land.
There are many who live in conditions where even a balcony is a precious space.
I have spoken before about the ways in which access to growing space can be achieved, through allotments, community gardens and the like, but here is something which may prove to be an inspiration, a new way of looking at food, both growing it and eating!
As an aspiring Vegan, (sometimes I miss the mark!) and dedicated grower and lover of all life, I have recently been converted to “Micro Greens.”
The concept is extraordinarily simple!
Seeds such as lettuce, peas, beets, etc., are sown and grown for about two weeks or less, before being harvested and added to dishes.
These Micro-Greens, it is said, contain up to 40% more nutrients than older, traditionally grown and harvested vegetables.
I can believe it!
Yesterday evening, I had a dish of cooked brown rice, mixed with Micro Greens, seasoned and drenched with the juice of half a fresh lime and this morning I feel a surge of energy!
Micro Greens can be grown on a window ledge, balcony, hanging basket…anywhere they can get a decent dose of light!
Growing Organic is easy to manage in small areas too!
Little or no problem with slugs and availability all the year around!
For me, the days of packaged salad of any kind are over and the tiresome task of cooking greens are almost over…adding raw makes more sense in every aspect of preparing and eating food!
All you need is a tray, or pot of compost, seeds and water!
So, there you have it…a new way of living…simple, easy and kind to Mother Earth!
And the fun part? Now you can enjoy seeing some of your vegetables run to seed, like this Mizuna in the Potager Bed!
Bill Mollison once said, “I teach self-reliance, the world’s most subversive practice. I teach people how to grow their own food, which is shockingly subversive. So, yes, it’s seditious. But it’s peaceful sedition.”
Applying design to growing makes for good permaculture.
As Ireland endures a wetter and wetter climate, constructing vegetable beds on the top of gravel helps to counteract the worst elements of flooding.
The same design principles are applied in the polytunnel.
Beds are raised and paths are lowered, allowing for good drainage on this north facing slope.
This is a Nectarine tree, under-planted with Comfrey, which is then regularly chopped and dropped throughout the growing season, thus feeding the hungry fruit tree.
It has been planted in a central area in the tunnel so as to avoid cold drafts when doors are open.
This morning sees the blossom opening at just the right time, as bees are emerging from hibernation, so it’s essential to have both doors open to receive them.
Now this is something rarely seen, but this system works very well for me…seeds are sown together in one, big, deep, polystyrene, re-cycled box.
As seeds emerge and gain strength, I gently tease them out and pot them on, leaving space behind for the next swathe of emerging seedlings.Rhubarb fills out a Spring bed, with Raspberries coming along next in seasonal line!
The Summer fruiting Rhubarb lies protected under this mound of straw…excluding light from emerging weeds.
The bed is mound shaped as every year sees more and more compost added.
And here’s the black gold…home made compost. As all of the gardens are on a north-facing slope, the tyres do not interfere with the quality of the compost, just protects the heap from the east and north weather systems…particularly cold!
Trees and bushes all play a part in the permaculture design, creating shelter and wind-breaks in this instance.
You can see one of the six bins used for compost toilet waste re-cycling tucked in on the right of the picture.
This makes great planting compost for trees!
More rain storms moving in from the west and Atlantic seaboard this morning, but the sun continues to shine!
As smoke curls up in wisps from the chimney, reminding me that a hot kettle awaits me indoors…tea!
I love the unpredictable Irish weather!
And the way everything greens up so quickly after the winter!
Have a good weekend everyone.
Blessings XXX
Bealtaine Cottage has built up a Permaculture Seed Bank.
If you want to see a list of available seeds, this link will take you there…
http://bealtainecottage.com/seeds-from-bealtaine-cottage/
Seeds from Bealtaine Cottage in Ireland are posted all over the world!
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Bealtaine Cottage is also on YouTube…with over 110 videos about Permaculture, planting, growing and living.
There are over 600 blogs in the archives on this site.
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As an Ark for Nature, trees and wildlife, the smallholding of Bealtaine Cottage receives no grant aid from the EU, as only farm animals, monoculture and set-aside are grant-aided!
Mist prevails as the earth slowly heats, releasing some of the water absorbed during the wettest winter on record here in Ireland.
The air is still and birdsong echoes through the foggy dew…
The first of the seeds are now sown in a big fish box in the tunnel, made from thick, white polystyrene, once marked out for the dump but rescued and up-cycled here at Bealtaine Cottage…perfect for seeds and young plants!
There’s a digger at work on the hill of Ballyfermoyle, I hear it’s machinations echoing through the misty morning.
Young trees and bushes are being torn up and tossed aside, in an effort for land to be measured by the EU on Google Maps.
Less tree cover shows more grass and it is grassland that the EU are paying farmers here in Ireland to grow.
More grass, more meat, more export, more globalization…you know the story!
And so, the Earth is losing more habitat in a land that cannot feed it’s own people…Ireland is heavily reliant on imported food!
Another famine lurks around the corner, as monoculture food systems are the order of the day, financed and controlled by the EU bureaucrats, blinkered up to the eyeballs with bullshit!
In this land of plenty there is little food grown around this area.
EU sponsored, subsidized and pimped Monoculture prevails!
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Bealtaine Cottage has built up a Permaculture Seed Bank.
If you want to see a list of available seeds, this link will take you there…
http://bealtainecottage.com/seeds-from-bealtaine-cottage/
Seeds from Bealtaine Cottage in Ireland are posted all over the world…the donation remains the same no matter where you live, even Outer Mongolia!
Bealtaine Cottage is also on YouTube…with over 110 videos about Permaculture, planting, growing and living.
There are over 600 blogs in the archives on this site.
As an Ark for Nature, trees and wildlife, the smallholding of Bealtaine Cottage receives no grant aid from the EU, as only farm animals, monoculture and set-aside are grant-aided!
Your donation helps remedy that…
According to Professor T.M.Das of the University of Calcutta. A tree living for 50 years will generate $31,250 worth of oxygen, provide $62,000 worth of air pollution control, control soil erosion and increase soil fertility to the tune of $31,250, recycle $37,500 worth of water and provide a home for animals worth $31,250. This figure does not include the value of fruits, lumber or beauty derived from trees. Just another sensible reason to take care of our forests.
From Update Forestry Michigan State University
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You can place an order for seeds harvested here at Bealtaine cottage, from the plants seen growing here…all strong and vigorous. Click on the link below that will take you to the selection available:
http://bealtainecottage.com/seeds-for-sale/
http://bealtainecottage.com/bealtaine-cottage-good-life/
There are basically four different kinds of seed you can purchase.
This is merely a guide for you to build on.
Find out all you can about seed, for it is your future and that of your children.
Vandana Shiva: The seed in its essence is all of the past evolution of the Earth, the evolution of human history, and the potential for future evolution. The seed is the embodiment of culture because culture shaped the seed with careful selection—women picked the best, diversified. So from one grass you get 200,000 rices.
That is a convergence of human intelligence and nature’s intelligence. It is the ultimate expression of life, and in our language, it means “that from which life arises on its own, forever and ever and ever.”
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Here at Bealtaine Cottage in the West of Ireland I save seed…grown under Permaculture conditions which seek to protect both the integrity of the seed and the environment!
Open pollinated seed is available from Bealtaine Cottage.
Click on the link below to see the current list of seed.
http://bealtainecottage.com/seeds-for-sale/
The biggest threat to our food security lurks in the shadowy depths of the Halls of Power…the buildings housing the European Parliament in Brussels.
You may or may not be aware of something called The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP).
TTIP is a trade agreement presently being negotiated between the European Union and the United States.
In my estimation, this will allow full and unfettered access to our food production, from multi-national corporations, such as Monsanto, that carry the weapon of GMOs.
I call this manifestation of utter madness, GMOs, a weapon, because that is precisely what it is…and a weapon that will cause more devastation to the environment than anything concocted in laboratories ever before!
This is already the case in the US, as small farmers, producing Organic food, are hauled before courts accused of property rights violations by Monsanto.
Monsanto claims ownership of any plant material infected by their GMOs!
Once this insidious and odious polluted seed of mass destruction is unleashed into the environment of Europe, supported in Law by the TTIP, then the takeover will be fast-tracked by our own governments, who are mandated by us to protect us, not US Corporate interests!
The countdown to the ultimate weapon of mass control and destruction is under way.
You need to know what is happening.
For my part, I will not comply with any law that says a corporation controls and profits from the very essence of life itself…seed.
For their part, all they have done is take the seed of the Divine Creator and pollute it.
That, in my eyes, is a grievous sin.
Bealtaine Cottage has built up a Permaculture Seed Bank.
If you want to see a list of available seeds, this link will take you there… http://bealtainecottage.com/seeds-from-bealtaine-cottage/
Seeds from Bealtaine Cottage in Ireland are posted all over the world!
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Bealtaine Cottage is also on YouTube…with over 110 videos about Permaculture, planting, growing and living. There are almost 800 blogs in the archives on this site.I write, photograph and film, in a small way, to give a voice to Mother Earth.
The growing season has begun, with Rhubarb sending forth strong pink stems despite the storms of recent weeks.
Meanwhile, down in the Fairy Wood, ferns have kept their green in the shelter of the dell. Mosses grow bright in the sunlight and ivy twists and twirls around the Goat Willow.
Lots of Goat Willow has been coppiced over recent months, and although it takes a year or so to season, it makes excellent logs for the stove, giving out masses of heat for free!
Further down the gardens, Pine, laurel and Great Western Cedar all grow happily together and appear healthy in the spring sunshine.
Daffodils are on their way to opening under the shelter of the Beech hedge. This is down beside the pond by the driveway.
And as I turn around from the Daffodils, the Ivy that hangs from some of the mature Goat Willow, swings about in the wind and sunshine…this is turning into a lovely walk around the gardens!
I amble around the lower pond, snapping as I go…Jack moves ahead of me, tugging on his lead for he has picked up the scent of a fox or badger!
I put my camera away and let Jack pull me along, hot on the scent of other life…we finally stop as we come up to the east side of the cottage.
We move around towards the polytunnel and one of the orchards. Pyracantha and Cotoneaster are now devoid of berries. This can be a hungry time for the birds as they mate and nest…there is a big bag of Oats I can scatter around in handfuls for the hungry birds and will do this later.
Back to the cottage and the shelter of the veranda…it’s very stormy, despite the sunshine!
With a full moon over Bealtaine Cottage tonight and a hard frost to come, the evening will be cold for sure.
The coppicing continues and the woodpile grows…
Fennel is beginning to send forth lots of new growth in the shelter of the veranda and the back of the cottage. These new shoots are delicious added to salad!
And just across from the Fennel…
And a reminder for anyone wanting 100% Bealtaine seeds from Bealtaine Cottage…there is a link at the top of this page where you can choose what you want.
All the best and keep these posts and photos coming, they make my day!
Distance from:
Keadue 2km
Boyle 12km
Carrick on Shannon 11km
Sligo 35km
Dublin 160km
Bealtaine Cottage is also on YouTube…with over 100 videos about Permaculture, planting, growing and living.
Thank you for supporting this blog
Bealtaine Cottage is also on YouTube…with over 120 videos about Permaculture, planting, growing and living.
There are over 550 blogs in the archives on this site.
Donations are always welcome.
Thank you!
Thank you for supporting this blog
Salads are continually harvested from the tunnel…mixed with much herbs and very tasty!
Blackcurrants ripen towards a promise of Cordial, Wine, Jam and Chutney.
Mother Earth knows no austerity!
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