This Farming Life

Beginning her new column about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare – and selling its produce – Jenny Young sets the scene by introducing herself and some of the other characters who play regular roles on the farm, and explaining what it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today.

Castlefarm is an organic farm and farm shop in Co Kildare. My husband Peter and I farm 170 acres, with the help of Peter’s father and a full time employee. Since our farm became certified organic in 2008 there is a lot more work to be done on our farm than there used to be.

Being certified organic means no chemicals, no sprays, no artificial fertilisers and no unnecessary animal medicines. It takes a lot more work and a lot more paperwork to be an organic farmer. It also means that we need to ask people to pay a little bit more for our produce, which costs us a lot more to produce.

Our main business at Castlefarm is dairy and tillage, although our farm shop, which opens the last Friday and Saturday of every month is also a way for us to sell our farm produce directly to the public.

Cutting out the middleman gives our customers fresher, better value food. We sell our own beef, eggs, pork, vegetables, honey, cheese and apple juice direct. We also sell other local and speciality foods. We rent out allotments on our farm too, and have a school tours programme.

Being a farmer who sells direct means that I don’t just produce the food - I also have to market it. So, this March, I am putting the finishing touches to a revamped Castlefarm website (www.castlefarmshop.ie) and I am at last putting up a Castlefarm FaceBook page.

Because Castlefarm is not on the high street we really need to entice people to come out of their convenience zones and visit our farm once. Then they will keep coming back. Each month we offer customers a free farm activity so that shopping with us becomes a great value day out in itself. This month we will be giving a complimentary talk on how to keep hens for eggs and also inviting customers to collect their own eggs. Our March special is our own organic Angus beef which we sell through beef boxes (a mix of cuts from the animal) for €12/kg.

Some readers may be wondering what’s happening on a real farm at this time of the year. At Castlefarm in March, there is an awful lot happening!

The farm has woken up after the winter with a huge rush of work to do. We are in the middle of calving. For us, calving started in mid February with a few births each week and now there are three or four births most days.

Compact calving is something that farmers strive for. This involves a couple of weeks of madness where the majority of the cows calve down. Visitors sometimes ask how we know when a cow is going to calve. Two signs that a cow is approaching her due date is her udders swell up with milk and her pins (bones near her tail) drop. This spring we have about 70 cows due to calve.

With the weather warming at last, grass and clover growth is slowly taking off. As cows calve they are put out to grass by day. The land is still wet though and so by night the cows remain indoors. Our cows are mainly Friesan and Jersey, although we do have some Aberdeen Angus for beef. We keep the female calves, which will eventually become part of our herd. We sell the male calves.

As well as calves, other new arrivals this month were organic piglets and baby chicks. I will fatten the pigs and sell their meat through the farm shop. I will rear the day old chicks into pullets for laying.

In the Castlefarm garden we are starting to plant seeds. I have planted tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, aubergine and chillies in seed trays in windowsills in the house. When the weather warms up and the plants start to strengthen I will transplant these seedlings into the polytunnel. In the garden, our rhubarb is starting to grow.

Farming may not be an easy way of life, but it is interesting, fulfilling and healthy!

Castlefarm Shop opens the last Friday and Saturday of each month from 10am until 6pm. We are next open on 25th and 26thMarch.

Our free farm activities on Saturday 26th March are: Helping to feed the pigs, 11am sharp; Egg collecting, 2.30pm; and a talk on keeping hens for eggs, 3pm.

To receive our newsletter and news of new products by email please contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Email jenny@castlefarmshop.ie, log onto www.castlefarmshop.ie or telephone +353 (0)59 863 6948