September sunshine and scything
Gathering the harvest and appreciating the bounty
Hello lovely flowery friends! And welcome to the new subscribers who have joined here over the summer as part of Lake County Learnings.
Here we are at the end of September, and there’s lots to tell you about!
Seasonal activities:
Lots of produce in the garden to process - I have been making pectin from windfall and donated apples. Some good instructions here - a great way to use peels and cores when you are using apples for something else - tarts or apple sauce, for example. I like to make some apple cider vinegar too - saving all that natural goodness for when I need it.
There were lots of figs to harvest also - If you don’t have a fig tree in your garden I highly recommend it! Some we ate fresh off the tree, others we had on pizza with ham or blue cheese. And I froze lots - they will be turned into jam at a later date.
My chillies and tomatoes are producing well too - they are being turned into chilli jam and salsa.
Earlier in the year I harvested some St. Johns Wort - I was waiting for a dry day to pick - they were scare in July and August. I harvested blossoms and buds, put them in a glass jar and covered them in oil. I left the jar in a sunny place - where it turned red - indicating that the process was finished. Strained the oil through a paper coffee filter and made some salve that I’ll use through the winter for sore muscles.
Also, it’s a good time to plant some hardy annuals - but do it very soon! I’ll be planting cornflowers, ammi, and sweet peas this week. I also like to plant some night scented stock in the tunnel - for making amazing scents at dusk next Spring. Some seeds- larkspur and delphiniums, for example, need a cold spell to germinate, so they are worth planting now too. And I’ll be shopping soon for garlic bulbs to plant before the winter solstice.
Coole Meadow:
As you may know, we are working on a plot in Coole, where we planted a native hedge in December 2021 (all 60 meters of it) and 100 native trees went in last February. Amazingly enough, there’s still loads of space on the acre for a meadow. To encourage the right kind of grasses and to shift the balance a bit in favour of wild flowers, you need to cut the meadow once a year, and after letting seeds drop off the ‘hay’, you need to remove it to reduce fertility.
Because of all the various plantings, it’s tricky for a machine to cut as necessary, so my lovely husband Brian has stepped forward to use a scythe to cut the grass. This has proved to take quite some time- we began in August, and we are still not finished! We are only out there once a week for 4-6 hours, and some of the grass hadn’t been cut for some years, so it has been slow going.
However, Brian is now officially addicted to scything, and highly recommends it as a great exercise. Scythes can work whether the grass is wet or dry - which is a great benefit. It’s a very pleasant and low carbon way to work - none of the noise you get with strimmers or mowers. He met some people at a recent Seed Savers scything course, and many of them were learning to scythe because they hated using strimmers.
And it’s not just for men - the scything association seems to be a 50/50 mix, and check the current UK champion - someone I can definitely relate to!
So, all that hay we are removing from the meadow - that’s going into some temporary compost bins made of sheep fencing. Once it composts down, we will use it to mulch the 100 trees and the native hedge - this will provide food for those plants and reduce competition. We may use some cardboard, newspaper and coffee sacks in that undertaking also.
The work in the meadow over the past few years is really paying off - during the fine weather in September we saw loads of butterflies - tortoiseshell, peacock and red admiral. One of our neighbours spotted a hedgehog. While digging the potatoes we are seeing lots of earthworms. Our next project will be to buy a microscope so that we can see bacteria and fungi in the soil.
And here’s why we’re not putting a beehive in the meadow.
Lake County Learnings:
There were a couple of workshops in Athlone and Mullingar in September - Eibhlin taught Natural Skincare in Lowe and Co, and Eco Cleaning in the Refill Mill. I taught a Soap Making workshop at the Refill Mill also. If you were on one of those courses, it was lovely to meet you, and I hope to see you on another course soon!
Coming up in October -
Seed saving on October 4th - that’s fully booked, but there may be cancellations - get in touch if you’d like to be on the waiting list.
House Plant Swap - October 3rd - See more details here. A great way to share your plant babies, and add to your own collection (for free). We won’t be leaving the windows open as much now, so houseplants are a great way to improve air quality indoors. (Thanks to Naomi for the idea!)
Library workshop:
Westmeath Libraries kindly supported a culinary herb workshop in Mullingar library. We tasted loads of herbs, and had some cream cheese with chives, some coriander and cashew pesto. I brought some home grown courgettes and freshly made soda bread to accompany these - I had lots of requests for the recipe so here is. I also made a fennel and fig bread to show how great fennel seeds can be - that was based on the recipe above, I just soaked some dried figs (maybe 5) and fennel seeds - a tablespoon - in hot water for a while before adding them to the wet ingredients.
Finally we made a whole egg mayonnaise and added some democratically nominated herbs to it. Which turned out wonderfully! A lovely group of people, and a fragrant and tasty Saturday morning! Too busy talking to take any photos of the treats…
Flower Farming:
A few photos from a Flower Farmers of Ireland event where we learned from Anna Potter and each other. Very beautiful, indulgent, sustaining.
Earth Rising:
Finally a shoutout to IMMA for the Earth Rising event. I was only there for a few hours, but there was so much to see and do. My key takeaways were:
There’s so much of ecology in the Irish Language. I’m inspired to learn more words! (Bothar - cow road. Cosan - Foot path)
The Ceide Fields are a record of how people farmed and ate 6000 years ago - and dairy was a key part of that. Can’t wait to visit. Will bring a cheese-heavy picnic.
Thanks Cathy Fitzgerald, Grace Wells, Michael Cronin and Phoebe Cope for an amazing session - A Quickening Holism:Creativity as an act of love. Mind Blown.
Words are so important - in how we connect with or disconnect from nature. So I’ll keep on with my writing here in the hope that it helps to connects you with Nature. The more that we know and appreciate the non-human living beings, the better we treat them.
And if you have time to read, borrow Braiding Sweetgrass from your local library.
Upcoming events
Next up is the House Plant Swap- October 3rd - See more details here. Here are the plant babies that I’m getting ready for it.
Back by popular demand is the Sourdough bread making workshop - and there’s an early-bird price, the last one sold out quickly. You’ll go home with dough, recipes, a sourdough starter and confidence and knowledge to make your own sourdough breads. There will be chat and tea and sampling of freshly baked bread with some homemade jam too.
Here’s a loaf that a previous participant made right after the last course. (Thanks Vanessa for the feedback!)
We’re introducing a new course - Kombucha making - it’s so easy to make this tasty and healthy drink, I’m excited to share the skill. My favourite is Black tea and Grapefruit, but I’ll explain how to use a wide variety of herbs and fruit craft your own favourite.
And I know it’s early, but our annual Christmas wreath workshops are online too
I sell plants to herbalists studying at Brighids academy - I thought that I could offer those plants here too - for anyone living locally. A few fig trees for sale if you were inspired by my earlier enthusiasm!
And as usual I’ll leave you with a song - Not my usual style at all, but very atmospheric - I’m enjoying her music while doing yoga.
RE: Wildlife in the meadow in Coole - don't forget about the frog!