Where is our food security?
Why is our government failing to secure the future of our food?
Ireland stands on the brink of a potential famine should a national emergency happen!
Listen to the Podcast…
Tag: growing food
The Hand of Man
300,000 Visitors to Bealtaine Cottage Permaculture Gardens
As more and more people follow this blog and the Bealtaine Cottage YouTube channel, one thing is evident.
There is a fast growing movement of people wanting to re-connect with the Earth, grow food, plant trees, secure the future of habitats for bees and wildlife and find their way to food security and a better way of living.
Something very interesting is happening to the consciousness of many people, for when I started writing this blog, few had even heard of permaculture.
Now, the movement towards self sufficiency, growing food and living richer but simpler lives in harmony with the Earth, is snowballing faster than anyone could have predicted.
Permaculture is a way of looking at life where everything has an intrinsic value.
Where throwing anything away seems utterly ridiculous, as we come to the realisation that there is no ‘away’.
We are here on this beautiful planet for a very short time.
Probably just enough time to begin to appreciate what we have and what we must protect for those to come.
Thank you for visiting Bealtaine Cottage.
You give me the reason to keep photographing, filming and writing…Bless you all!
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Growing Freedom
Growing freedom is manifesting in the new mass movement of allotment holders and people turning their oil-hungry lawns into edible gardens.
Freedom and choice is what happens when you decide to grow…whether it’s in a window box or on a half acre smallholding, or more.
The mindset of producing food in growing, foraging, making and storing induces a sense of liberation, as well as a feeling of well-being and harmony with the Earth.
Freedom of choice begins to manifest before your very eyes, for free.
Food: organic or not; how much and what kind; for storing or for selling; food to share, food to give; the choices go on…and as this happens, personal knowledge grows immensely!
Storing and making and baking and cooking and creating…
Growing food , whether it be you actually doing it or simply enabling others to grow by buying surplus, locally produced food is of great benefit to the new scheme of things…cutting down on air miles, pollution and supporting local economies.
Creating small food communities by locally sourcing, helps to grow communities, encouraging interaction on a natural level.
Selling or sharing a surplus is a positive social networking ingredient!
The choice is yours.
Isn’t that a great word, “choice?”
Harvesting Rhubarb and Growing Peach Trees
Harvesting Rhubarb for the second time this year.
The first crop was back in the middle of Spring.
When that crop was picked, I manured the beds and allowed it to go on to develop a second flush.
Once washed and chopped I lightly stew the rhubarb, then cool it and pack it into bags for the freezer.
The Spring crop was made into delicious jam!
One of my favourite winter puddings is simple stewed Rhubarb topped with toasted oats and demerara sugar, mixed with some chopped nuts…mmm!
I lightly toast the oats in a big cast iron pan with the sugar and nuts.
It takes minutes and tastes divine topped with Soya cream!
Oops…the pics are mixed up!
Lots of good stuff for the growing compost heap.
You’re right!
I had no intention of waiting until winter for this treat!
Taking the compost over to the heap, passing the Nasturtiums on the way…lack of sun doesn’t appear to bother them at all!
Just to share with you the progress of one of the little Peach Trees, grown from seed here at Bealtaine Cottage…a real Irish Peach tree…and very strong indeed!
And as I return from the compost heap, I spotted the Spirea in blossom in the hedge.
This is a mixed hedge planted with cuttings and home-grown plants about five years ago.
It is in the Orchard, so all the shrubs are flowering and Bee-friendly.
P.S. You may have noticed the name change at the top of the page. Well, I thought it best to make it a simple “Bealtaine Cottage,” for this is where it’s all happening…
Easy Permaculture Soft Fruit Growing
Growing food could not be easier than this!
Just a small part of last summer’s crop of Blackcurrants here at Bealtaine Cottage!
Simply take a heel cutting from a Blackcurrant, Redcurrant, Jostaberry, Gooseberry and plug it into the soil…
The girls enjoying the spent blackcurrants, left over from making Blackcurrant cordial!
Nature will do the rest…
Watch…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-8SMynuOgM&list=UUHkXJ9wsrdPEpzb-KMgmt-A&index=1&feature=plcp
Celtic Mysticism, the Goddess and Permaculture…
Perlagonium continues to flower.
The nights are drawing in.
Autumn begins to harvest the land of leaves and green, as Winter waits in the wings…
The culture of the West, and its reliance on centralized government, has lost its way regarding Nature, seeing her only as a resource!
Politically, governments have aligned themselves and us with the world of big business.
The madness of the policy of continued economic growth amid finite energy sources…and all to create more and more wealth for a very few, including themselves.
This smallholding of 3 acres continues to give up her harvest.
It is incredible to think that gardening and growing food, as we know it today, has only been operative since World War One and the use of chemicals on the land.
Rarely is Nature now regarded as sacred, valuable in itself and in any way seriously considered.
This has happened in less than three generations.
The heart of the Celtic understanding of Nature is to regard the female, the Goddess and the Divine in all living things.
The king, or ruler, is assumed to marry the land in the persona of the sovereign Goddess.
Thus they become partners.
Marriage was regarded in this culture as a joining of equals…
What would Earth look like today if we regarded the environment as our partner instead of our servant?
Permaculture is about working hand in hand with Nature and recognizing her sovereignty in all that lives.
For many, this brings a remarkable sense of the Divine and the sacred nature of Gaia.
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Permaculture Cottage ~ Merging of State and Corporate Powers…
The merging of State and Corporate powers has produced nations of people who are driven by fear and greed. Fear as created by the Media and Governments, turned into loathing for other cultures…a good smokescreen that keeps people occupied! Greed for all the Corporate rubbish pushed at us through the Media.
Between the screens of fear, governments are encouraging people to eat horrendous, factory food that makes them ill and drains their energy. Once people buy into this they are then herded towards doctors and endless drugs to treate the effects of such appalling diets…they are then captives of the system that has abused them!
For the past seven years I have practiced Permaculture. Growing food, planting trees, harvesting energy, working towards self-sufficiency…and what an eye-opening experience it has all been.
Permaculture is a way out of the mess that so many people are now waking up to.
This past week has seen more visitors to Bealtaine Smallholding. All are welcome to come and look at a better way of living. Everyone who makes the journey, after several hours spent looking around, articulates the effect they have felt here…inspired to become more self-sufficient…and so many individual journeys begin, towards a better life, a lighter life with Gaia.