Sallygardens Smallholding

Appreciating Resilience

One of the words that keeps popping up all through any permaculture book or website you'll dip into is 'resilience'. At first I didn't really appreciate the value of this word, and what it might mean for our own family, but as the economic downturn packs some serious punches the term is making a lot more sense. 'Resilience' isn't just a fashionable permaculture buzzword.

 

In a nutshell, whenever you look at your living space (indoors and out) you should always ask yourself the questions 'how can I utilise this space/item/object for more than one use?','if this breaks how will I continue ... is there an alternative source of water/fuel/food/shelter/cooking/travel etc?'. Whenever we add something to our life, our home or our garden I always ask how I'd cope without it, or what alternatives we could use instead. I walk around our house and garden and I look at how we've set things up. I ask all the same questions ... how would I water this polytunnel if the pump and automatic watering system failed, where would I source water if our water supply was to be cut off. Water is one of the first things to ask ourselves about. We are lucky to have a stream at the side of our property and a lake at the back, plus plenty of roof area to collect rainwater if needed. Another main area is fuel ... how would we heat our home if we couldn't afford oil, or travel to buy coal. Again, luckily we have a woodland plantation which provides us with heating fuel and so we rarely buy fuel these days. Cooking of food? What if electricity is cut off or we can no longer afford gas cylinders? One plan for this summer is to build an earth oven in the garden for such occasions. And as for food, what if the supermarket supply chain fails and there's no food on the shelves ... sourcing local markets or growers, and growing your own suddenly becomes much more than just a fulfilling pleasure.

Apart from being fun it also makes sense to build our resilience. With the global economic downturn I've suddenly felt the welcoming cushioning effect of all these little steps of resilience built into our lives, which up until now, I'd have barely acknowledged their presence. But they are there and we planned it that way, thanks to reading up on permaculture. At the very worst case scenario it boils down to survival, at it's current level it helps keep life on a steady and even keel. There is still food on the table and we know we have many of the resources we need on the doorstep in order to continue living the life we've been enjoying.

Of course we are far from self sufficient, but we've never aimed to be that. It's more about living sustainably, and building resilience into life is one little part of that.

Sallygardens eBooklet Store

At long last I've managed to create a Paypal store which will make it easier for you to purchase our Sallygardens eBooklets. Instead of having to email me first to request a Paypal invoice you can place a direct order via this store front. Of course you can still use the old way, this alternative just provides another easier option . Look to the right hand side bar to find the store. Come on in and have a look around.

Changing Seasons

It's all been very busy here lately and I'll fill you in on the reasons. First of all the last of our hard working wwoofers has left and we won't be having any more until the spring. With Christmas approaching Dan is now in the workshop making Hobby Horses for customers. He features in the November issue of Ireland's Homes, Interiors & Living Magazine and already has orders coming in through that. I've just been working on an Etsy Shop for him too but his order books are bound to be full quite soon.

We are also kept busy with running courses here at Sallygardens and because the subjects are varied we never get bored! Pig rearing for the table, goat keeping, keeping chickens, growing your own vegetables and a general smallholding visit are all becoming more and more popular, but with the way the economy is going I'm not at all surprised. With less cash in peoples pockets and rising prices the interest in providing for yourself, even on a garden scale, is getting more appealing by the minute. Luckily there's not too much to do on the gardening front here at the moment other than eat whats there, and there's still a lot. Dan planted about a hundred over wintering onions in the polytunnel a couple of weeks ago and we will also plant garlic before the end of this month.

Life is finding a new balance at Sallygardens because I've taken up a full time course which means I'm out of the house 'at shcool' five mornings a week. Our youngest started school too this September so Dan has the place to himself until after lunchtime. He says he gets loads more done without me around nagging him!!! The course I'm doing is Traditional Irish Music, I'm learning to play the fiddle as well as studying folklore, music theory and history ... and I LOVE it.

Working Horses on the Farm

A while ago a course in the organic centre brochure caught my eye 'Working With Horses'. I began to mull over the benefits of having a working horse on the smallholding, which was quite difficult as I had very limited 'horsey' knowledge ie absolutely no idea what a working horse  could actually be used for on a farm. It's funny, but sometimes when something crops up for the first time in my life it seems to keep coming up, when I've never thought about it before. No sooner had I started thinking about this previously unvisited subject in my head, I saw an article in Sustainability magazine about ... working horses. I devoured the article within minutes and read it over again and again. The facts and figures were fascinating. I got in touch with Sandra Schmid, the author, and she painted a realistic picture of the kinds of job a cob horse or donkey might be able to help with.

A horse would certainly fit in well with our long term plans for the woodland.  There are other jobs a horse could be used for too ... preparing vegetable beds, ploughing and planting areas in which to grow grain and fodder to feed the horse itself and our other livestock, perhaps even to go shopping in our local village. The benefits of using a horse instead of the car for short trips, or a tractor, is that we can (with it's help) grow it's fuel  requirements in the field, what's more the 'emissions' can be composted and recycled in the veg garden! On top of that a horse can replicate itself and make more horses for you to use or sell, I've not come across a vehicle that can do that yet.

In the meantime Dan went on the working with horses course and immediately became enamoured with the whole idea too, which was exactly why I sent him on the course rather than myself!

Jim Cronin and his son teaching the 'Working With Horses'  course at the Organic Centre, Rossinver

Of course there are expenses to consider; feed, housing, fencing, shoes, tackle, carts and vets bills. We will be doing some maths and thinking about the pros and cons, then we'll probably throw that piece of paper out the window and fall in love with some lovely little Irish cob and that'll be that.

Butchering Free Range Organic Pigs at Home

When your pigs get to slaughter weight you can take them to the abattoir and they'll kill, butcher and bag up all the meat if you wish. Of course after you've been through it all a few times you may start to get tempted by the thought of saving a few Euros, or simply be keen to have a go and attempt to do the butchering yourself. You can arrange with the abattoir for them to kill and gut the pig so you can collect the cleaned out carcass in two halves and attempt the butchering at home.

Amazingly (and you'll be even more amazed once you've tried it yourself!), a trained butcher can cut up a pig in little over an hour but don't use this as your guideline for completing a the job!  Allow a full twelve hour day with the help of at least one other person, preferably four keen workers. A second day will also be needed if you intend to make your own sausages and salami. Don't forget about freezer space, a couple of pigs will fill three or four drawers of an upright freezer.

Before you gather troops and collect the pig carcass it's vital you have a number of essentials to hand which should be organised  and lined up ready to hit the ground running a few weeks prior to the event. Invest in some butchers knives and a sharpener, ask your local butcher where he buys his own. Also buy a couple of rolls of plastic bags for packing and a good black permanent marker for labeling bags. It's handy to have a weighing scales for measuring out portions when bagging up too. 

If you also intend to make sausages ensure you have already decided on flavours and bought in the necessary herbs and spices well in advance, mix these the day before so they can be easily added to each batch of ground sausage meet as you work. Ensure you have sausage casings and a sausage maker ready to roll.  Buy and watch the River Cottage DVD 'Pig In a Day With Hugh & Ray', watch it several times and set it up in front of the table you'll be working on so you can play and pause the DVD as you make your cuts. We pool bought ours to share between friends.  Keep a well stocked first aid kit close to hand. Take regular breaks and eat well because you'll need to keep up your energy levels. Warn any squeemish, vegan or vegetarian friends and neighbours not to call in that day! Have some chilled beer and wine to crack open once you've finished to celebrate.

Again this is a fantastic experience for children to witness first hand. There is no mistake where their pork chops come from after seeing this. I'm all in favour of educating people as to where their food originates and if that results in my children choosing to become vegetarian then I'd be proud to assist them, we all eat too much meat anyway. I don't want them to be so disjointed from the realities of food that it comes as a shock that pork was once a living pig, or that their burger was a cow. So many kids (and adults) these days don't make the connection or never get the opportunity to, because meat is not packaged with any visual reminders of animals on the labels and our lives are so removed from the whole process. It's all too easy to mentally bypass the realities of life, death and animal welfare that is required for us to consume meat.

I've often had visitors to our home who meet our pigs and find them delightful creatures (which they are), then when I explain that they aren't pets but are for the table, the conversation usually goes ; 'That's so cruel, how could you?',  'Are you vegetarian?', 'No!', 'Do you eat pork from the supermarket?', 'Yes, but that's different', 'yes it is because our pigs are outdoors and free ranging, your pork has probably never seen the light of day and has been raised indoors', silent thoughtfulness then ensues. On the other hand I've had lifelong vegetarians stay with us who have decided to eat our meat because they see that the animal welfare issues that stop them supporting intensive meat production systems are simply not an issue here. Education and awareness followed by informed choice and less meat eating could improve life for a lot of pigs!

Best Green Blogs

Finding fantastic blogs on arts, crafts, parenting, cooking and business is fairly easy as there are a huge number of top class sites to choose from. Locating ecological and sustainable living themed blogs are a little bit more difficult to find. Once you come across one there's usually a host of links to like minded similar blogs, but there still just isn't the volume you'd find on other subjects. I've just come across something that makes it even easier to find what your looking for in the green blogosphere called Best Green Blogs which is a directory. I submitted this Sallygardens blog and was delighted to be notified that it's been elevated to Editor's Choice with a lovely little review. If you author a green blog why not consider submitting your site, it's free. If you are interested in 'green' subjects pop along and enjoy the variety of sites to choose from.

Guest Smallholder

I meet many like minded people who are smallholding in various ways around Ireland and I'd love to introduce some of them to you now and then. Each smallholder has their own way of doing things and a lot can be learnt from others. This is my friend Geraldine.

She and her family grow all their own vegetables and also keep chickens, goats and occasionally pigs. Both her and her husband work part-time giving them a cash flow and plenty of time to be at home with the children and tend the smallholding. They are in the process of converting to an organically certified farm. When I was visiting her recently over in County Roscommon I noticed an ingenious way of watering pumpkin and squash plants until they are established under a mulch. The system can be reused year after year.

Simple, effective and a perfect example of the re-use of otherwise waste materials before they go into landfill.

That's an awful lot of squash for one family! I'm hoping some surplus comes my way.

Meat Rabbits

When you first consider what livestock to keep on a smallholding there are a few usual suspects that always make an appearance but don't forget about the unusual ones too. Cows, pigs, chickens, sheep and goats are at the forefront of most peoples minds but there is an alternative option that requires only a couple of square meters grazing, if any at all. Even people in an urban environment can consider raising meat rabbits for the table.

The wild rabbit was first utilised for meat by the Romans who realised a single pair could produce an impressive 90kg of meat a year. Originally they were fenced into large areas, fed bundles of fodder and culled when required.  It didn't take long for rabbits to be housed in urban hutches for meat production. There still seems to be a strong tradition of keeping rabbits domestically for meat in Wales and much of the US. When I was a child I clearly remember skinned rabbits being sold on Moore's Street  in Dublin and my mother would often make a delicious rabbit stew. In France rabbit is still sold in the markets and even supermarkets alongside chicken and pork.

Consider the advantages; on a couple of meters you can keep a breeding pair with two enclosures. A female rabbit (doe) is capable of giving birth every thirty days but realistically she shouldn't be allowed to do this or she will lose condition. A good doe can have approximately nine kits at a time and they are ready to eat at three or four months of age. Tthe doe ovulates in response to the buck's presence. If there is plenty of food she will give birth to all the kits.  If food is scarce she can reabsorb some or all of the kits and give birth to the appropriate number to match available resources.  Outdoors she will breed during spring and summer but if housed indoors she can breed throughout the year by extending daylight hours with lighting. The disadvantages are that you will need to confidently cull rabbits yourself. There are some excellent books which talk you through various methods including Basic Butchering of Livestock & Game, by J. Mettler. 

There are a few excellent large breed meat rabbits that grow quickly. The most popular is the stocky New Zealand White, followed by the beautiful Californian. Sourcing a breeding pair or trio is relatively easy in the UK, just read the adverts at the back of any smallholders magazine. In Ireland it's possible to source them via an excellent poultry breeder in Co Leitrim.

I've been researching meat rabbits for about a year now and I've found it very difficult indeed gathering the necessary information. I hope to publish another EBooklet 'Breeding Meat Rabbits for the Table, A Beginner's Guide' very shortly which ought to save those new to this idea hours of research!

How Did You Learn All This?

When we first moved to our smallholding three years ago I could have written what I knew about raising pigs, rabbits, chickens and goats on the back of a postage stamp. I had a basic level of gardening and vegetable growing and a bit of an inkling about the ecological conservation and management of woodlands (thanks to my Environmental Science degree all of fifteen years ago). People who come on our Smallholders Visit always ask 'how and where did you learn to do all this?'.

Books have been a great start and on each topic there are usually one or two iconic publications. Our bookshelf is well stocked and even now we constantly refer to our books. I repeatedly revise the contents of our bookshop, adding and removing books as I, or others, use and rate them. They are very well utilised and some pages are more dog eared and soiled than others. The River Cottage Cookbook is splattered on the pate recipe and the wine making pages of The New Complete Guide to Sustainable Living are very sticky (in fact I have it opened on the Edlerflower Wine page as I type).  The internet has also been a blessing to connect with others doing the same thing across the globe. Blogs of other smallholders both urban and rural are a fantastic way of sharing knowledge and forums are also a brilliant way of tapping into ideas and meeting like minded people. Our own new Sallygardens Forum is slowly gaining momentum, and there's also another Irish forum worth checking out 'Country Talk & Tips'. Of course the infamous UK 'River Cottage' forum is always kicking and I've just heard about another good UK forum I haven't visited yet, 'It's Not Easy Being Green'.

Attending courses is also sometimes well worth considering. It's true everything you learn during  a day or two on a course could be found in various books or the internet but I generally find it worth my while attending a well chosen course. It can save months of sporadic research and in just a few hours you can be catapulted, armed with all the relevant information you need to get started on something immediately. I've found some courses at the Organic Centre, Rossinver to be excellent catalysts; Introduction to Beekeeping,  Herbal Medicine and Permaculture Design  have all been incredibly inspiring and groundbreaking  for me, with immediate results at home. Dan is all set to attend a course there next month 'Working With Horses', but that's another post.

Welcoming WWOOFers

First I'd like to thank everybody for their kind comments in response to my recent health scare on the previous post. I'm immeasurably grateful that I've been blessed with good health to carry on as usual with my family and life on the farm. I don't underestimate for a second how lucky I am and I intend to put my years on this planet to good use, so lets get cracking!

WWOOF is 'world wide opportunities on organic farms' and those who join as volunteers are affectionately referred to as Woofers. For the first time we have decided to join this scheme as a host farm. Hosts need not be organic certified, but they do need to work with the environment at heart and use organic or permaculture wherever it's practical. That means that volunteers can request to come and work here at Sallygardens with us. We will teach them what we know in terms of sustainable living as they work along side us each day and provide them with accommodation and food. In return they give us another pair of hands to hopefully help us get a few extra jobs done on the smallholding. It could work like a dream, or it could be a disaster! Time will tell and we enter into the scheme with realistic expectations, optimism and hope that friendships will be forged along the way.

Our aim here is to live sustainably by minimising our impact on the environment, and indeed hopefully enhancing the ecosystem in which we live rather than depleting or damaging it. As seasons go by we are embedding ourselves into the ecosystem around our farm and we strive to work within it, as part of it, keeping inputs from outside to a minimum and 'closing the loop' whenever possible so that energy within the farm is conserved on all levels. That energy includes the fuels we burn (home grown wood) but also energy in the soil and plant energy harnessed from the sun. Whatever excess or waste we produce gets put back into the system to maintain it ... kitchen scraps, human waste (humanure), animal manure, garden waste (from vegetables, lawns, etc) by composting and reapplying it to the land, or by feeding it to the animals we raise.

There is a never ending list of tasks to be done on the smallholding and a huge amount of possible projects which will span decades and hopefully pass to our children, and if not, some like minded land lovers. At all times of the year there are jobs that need doing, anything and everything from vegetable gardening, woodland management, wine making, hut building, sausage making, milking, harvesting, preserving, fencing, maintenance and renovations.

If anybody is interested in working with us, you'll find us listed along with many other inspiring hosts on the WWOOF Independents website with a preview of Irish listings here, we are host EIR290. It costs €30 for a host or volunteer to register.

At the moment we are eagerly anticipating the arrival or our first WWOOFers next week, Georgie and Oliver, who I had to postpone at short notice while waiting for my test results last week. Now all is well and we are really looking forward to welcoming them here at last.