Four Seasons Harvest? Four Generations Harvest!

The Merits of Going Organic 

That sheen is because the one on the left is coated in plastic wax from a new Laois Recycling Plant: Trifol.
Back into the food chain of all places. The one on the right is from Harmony Hall

The Organic Trust stipulates that it takes 6 years to get organic certification because it only takes that long to eradicate all trace of chemicals. I say 'only' because imagine our whole landscape, in just six short years, if we started nation-wide now. We only have to say goodbye to the jobs we did not want anyway and take up the extraordinary gift of participation in this system change. 

Maybe You're Already There

Maybe during the pandemic, you have put the time in, in the garden, setting up a subsistence-plus lifestyle, just in case: Enough vegetables, fruit, nuts, beans and berries to feed your household and potentially surplus to sell or exchange when you really get going. Small food producers are going to be heralded as central to Ireland’s food security and supported. Manufacturers will be asked to revision their practices. Innovators will be expected to generate useful products and responsible technology.

Organic apple cider vinegar, vodka and syrup from Highbank Organic Orchards, Kilkenny

Get With the Programme

There is so much work to be done, well paid and recognized. Just think, from green design, to horticulture, on the land too for natural agriculture, to retrofitting, repurposing and developing education materials, in line with the knowledge we need everyone to have. Everything you have studied, looked into in your own time, experienced and dreamed of was preparing you for this moment. Decide what you’re going to do and create an action plan and road map. 

Organic Vegetable and Fruit box from the Castlecomer Road 

We weren't born yesterday

None of us are starting a new journey, as if we were born yesterday. We have interests, skills and priorities. We even have possessions. Cars that could be converted to waste chip pan oil or biodiesel, or ethanol, or even converted to electric. Other people have nurtured plants and crops that in the past would only be successful in warmer climates. We needed sheltered growing spaces first to protect from frosts but not so much now with global warming. Instead, we need them to be robust to withstand the erratic weather and destructive storms. Let’s not just aim for a ‘four seasons’ harvest, where there’s something to eat in the garden all year around. Let’s press on and aim for a ‘four generations’ harvest so there’s something to eat for our children and our children’s children.

 

Yes that's my New Directions radio show episode on going organic and vegan and it didn't end there!
At Harmony Hall we started to teach raw, vegan  food prep too
where consumers get to benefit from the full vitamin and mineral profile of the ingredients, detox from processed foods, toxins and addictive sugars and yeasts,  nourish every cell, easily absorb the lot and everything delicious without needing a huge plate full