Monday

The Irish eat lots of potatoes. Every lunch has included potatoes in some form—mashed, boiled, baked, in shepherd’s pie, with fish, meat and chicken. Unfortunately no potato desserts.

Anyways, in the garden everything is labeled first with the vegetable and then by its type. For example “Cabbage- January King” or “Lettuce- Little Gem”. Potatoes, though, are simply labeled by their type—“Duke of York” or “Pink Fir Apple”

Just funny that potatoes aren’t actually labeled as potatoes like every other vegetable. I guess that means they really know and love their potato varieties?

Monday, May 31, was a cold one. 50s, windy, cloudy with a chance of rain. The Irish weathermen say that more than they say their own name. It didn’t damper our day farming though. I did some weeding, then planted some Sorrel, and then did some more weeding—the second time pulling out wild garlic, which is actually a weed but can also be eaten!

After lunch we did some watering and sewed seeds of kale, cabbage, broccoli and more. We then potted some more vegetables.

The plant process is a continuous cycle so there is ALWAYS something to be done.

A quick run down:

First the seed is sewn (placed into some potting soil in mini trays).

Then after a couple weeks, they are moved to small pots.

A few more weeks, and they are planted into the ground.

Given some time outside and they are ready to be picked (timing all depends on the weather/type of vegetable)

Tonight we are going to a pub to watch Rory Allen (the owner of Ballymaloe) play guitar live along with some other local musical acts, most of them playing traditional Irish music!

It was a great time and I will share stories in a later post! More from Ireland soon…