http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php en info@michaelkelly.ie Copyright 2010 2010-05-24T09:31:26+00:00 http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/babes_in_the_burb/ http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/babes_in_the_burb/#When:08:31:26Z Article by Michael Kelly from The Irish Times on keeping pigs in the Garden. One of my favourite moments each year here on the Home Farm is the moment of exultant liberation when our two little pigs are let out of the pigsty for the first time.  We rear two pigs in our garden for the table each year.  They arrive here to our one-acre garden in Waterford in March at about eight weeks of age, cute as little puppies, and depart five months later for the local abattoir.  We keep them down the end of the garden in a little plot but when they get here first they are too small to let out, and so we keep them in a walled pigsty until they get used to the place.  There is something supremely joyous about that moment when they are let out first.  They have never been shown how to root - but within minutes of the gate being opened, following a few inquisitive sniffs in the air (could I, should I, will I?) they are busy rooting to their heart’s content and you can tell they just LOVE it. The commercial pig industry has more or less ignored the move towards free-range produce.  You can get your hands on free-range chicken, lamb and beef but free range pork or bacon is impossible to source.  More than any other animal, the pig is treated horrifically by the food chain and it is all the crueller given that they are as intelligent as your family dog.  To satisfy our insatiable appetite for pork and bacon, we kill approximately 1.3 million pigs per year in this country with almost 90 per cent of them reared on just 380 pig farms.  These pigs are reared indoors, on concrete floors in cramped sheds, fed high protein feed to get them to killing weight quickly, and so bored that they start to bite each others tails off for something to do.  Given the conditions they are reared in, perhaps their miserably short lives (about sixteen weeks) are not short enough.  Of course the industry will say that pigs are treated humanely and kept in ultra modern, hygienic facilities.  In my experience pigs are not particularly interested in modern, nor do they put much store in hygiene.  Give them some sun on their backs, a bit of space to root in, scraps from your kitchen and an occasional scratch behind the ears, and they will reward you with gregarious company, the finest manure and the best meat imaginable.  In contrast to the ultra lean/ultra bland pork that your supermarket has on offer, a happy outdoor pig produces a deeply “porky” dark meat lined with a decent layer of fat.  The way pork used to taste.  The Department of Agriculture reports that one in five of the country’s 2,447 registered pig keepers are “hobbyists”, that is keeping less than three animals for their own consumption.  Thanks to the growing army of back-garden pig-keepers, traditional rare breeds like Gloucester Old Spot and Tamworth are making a comeback, largely because they are better equipped than the commercial hairless breeds to thrive outdoors.  Are there downsides?  Well, the result of all that rooting is that whatever ground you make available to them will be destroyed and in the rainy season that we euphemistically call summer, things can get pretty mucky.  Ideally then, you will need to allocate three plots to the purpose, each at least 100sq meters and rotate the pigs around to give the ground time to recover.  Pigs are noisy at times particularly if they are hungry, and they pee and pooh a lot - dynamite for the fertility of your land, but the neighbours might not appreciate the pong.  They are also big, strong, determined animals weighing up to 300kg and they treat everything (including your welly) as potential food.  The biggest downside of all however is that at some point these wonderful animals that you have shared your life and your garden with, have to go to slaughter.  Meat, as it happens, does not grow magically on a plastic tray wrapped in cellophane - the brutal reality is that an animal has to die.  The first year we kept pigs, we called them Charlotte and Wilbur which was a mistake because it is doubly difficult to kill animals that are named after the characters from a children’s novel.  I have given up struggling against growing fond of them while they are resident in our garden.  We should be fond of them.  We should look after them, feed them, fret about them and fuss over their health.  Afterwards, the project shifts gears from animal husbandry to food production.  We joint and carve and cut.  We make sausages, chorizo, salamis and rashers, we cure bacon and make brawns.  We fill the freezer with almost a year’s worth of food.  And we are thankful for every morsel.  Nicky Fortune Nicky Fortune’s son Al with pigs.  Photo credit: Nicky Fortune Nicky Fortune, who has a one-acre garden in Tullogher, Co Kilkenny, started keeping pigs because of the quality of pork available in supermarkets.  “Every time we ate pork it was giving us cramps so we had just given up eating it.  Four years ago we got two saddlebacks.  We put them in a plot up the back where we were going to grow vegetables, so they worked as rotivators.” The family’s first pigs were called Parsley and Sprouts.  “We were loading them up in the trailor and I remember my neighbour saying to me, “do you want me take them back out, you look miserable!”.  In the end we held on to Sprouts.  I couldn’t let her go.  Every time we tried to eat pork we would be practically choking on it.” That was then.  His three children have got used to having the pigs around.  “They see the connection between animals and meat now.  Alex, our youngest will probably help me with the butchering this year.” Though something of an old hand at pig-rearing at this stage, Fortune had a bit of catastrophe on the way to the abattoir last autumn.  “I was going down the main road with the pigs in the trailer and the guy driving behind me flashed and when I stopped he came up and said “you are after losing a pig”.  The pig had climbed out and jumped out on the road.  In the end we found him in someone’s garden eating the flowers.” Ella McSweeney Ella with pig in Garden.  Photo credit: Kyera Grant Keeping pigs in the garden is not necessarily the preserve of country folk.  A couple of minutes walk from Blackrock, Co Dublin, RTE presenter Ella McSweeney is rearing two Gloucester Old Spots in a third of an acre garden.  “When is the last time you saw a pig in a field?,” she replies when I ask her what possessed her.  “In 1840 there were 350,000 pigs in Ireland kept on under an acre.  I was looking at old OS maps of Dublin and kept seeing “piggery” on the map.  There is massive potential to re-introduce pigs to Dublin, particularly in those old council houses that have huge gardens. I wanted to experience meat production and be an honest carnivore.” Her approach has been to keep things as thrifty as possible.  “I got plans for a simple pig ark and made it for eu100 from sandbags and salvaged wood.  I feed them barley and I go to a local veg shop and fill a bucket with stuff they are throwing out.” The Department of Agriculture Inspector, she says, thought she was mental.  What do her neighbours think?  “They love them.  Pigs are endlessly entertaining.  I have never had so many friends.  People just come around and want to stare at them, touch them.” McSweeney’s pigs are being killed soon, and she will do the butchering herself, having done a pig butchery course with Philip Dennhardt at Ballymaloe.  “I will miss them because they are a huge presence but I was very clear from outset that they are not pets.” 5 Traditional Breeds Saddleback: black pig with a white belt around shoulders Gloucester Old Spot: hardy white pig with black spots Tamworth: a hairy, red pig Berkshire: one of the oldest breeds, black with white legs Oxford Sandy and Black: excellent temperament and high quality meat 5 Tips 1) Always keep more than one - pigs are incredibly sociable animals and like company. 2) You will need to apply for registration as a pig herd owner under the Department of Agriculture’s National Pig Identification and Tracing System.  You will receive a herd number (and possibly an inspection).  Call 1890 504 604. 3) If you are keeping pigs in an area of your garden and they escape, they will do serious damage to the rest of your garden.  Try a combination of sheep fencing and a battery powered electric fence. 4) Pigs are not fussy about housing but it must be weather proof and sturdy.  A pig ark, outhouse or stable would be ideal.  5) Typically pigs are fed pig nuts or a mixture of grains including barley.  Keep a pig bucket under your sink and put all leftovers (but absolutely no meat) in it.  Michael Kelly is author of Tales from the Home Farm and founder of GIY (Grow it Yourself) Ireland. Visit the pig forum at http://www.giyireland.com Pigs 2010-05-24T08:31:26+00:00 http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/michael_on_ear_to_the_ground/ http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/michael_on_ear_to_the_ground/#When:20:48:40Z Video Blog 2010-03-08T20:48:40+00:00 http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/dealing_with_a_glut_of_red_cabbage/ http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/dealing_with_a_glut_of_red_cabbage/#When:16:54:26Z Red Cabbage is relatively “perishable” and will go off even if left in the fridge - so what can you do with it, if you have to harvest it?  Here’s a recipe that uses up three or four heads and can then be frozen. We harvested the last of our red cabbage yesterday - four decent heads which have survived the frost and ice. I was looking for something interesting to do with them (apart from coleslaw!) and came across this recipe from Delia Smith that used up all four heads! It’s nice and sweet and goes well with a baked spud or some chops. It freezes and re-heats well which means it’s a good way to “store” them too. 2 lb (1 kg) red cabbage 1 lb (450 g) cooking apples, peeled, cored and chopped small 1 lb (450 g) onions, chopped small 1 clove garlic, chopped very small 1/4 whole nutmeg, freshly grated 1/4 level teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/4 level teaspoon ground cloves 3 level tablespoons brown sugar 3 tablespoons wine vinegar 1/2 oz (15 g) butter salt and freshly milled black pepper Pre-heat the oven First discard the tough outer leaves of the cabbage, cut it into quarters and remove the hard stalk. Then shred the rest of the cabbage finely, using your sharpest knife (although you can shred it in a food processor, I prefer to do it by hand: it doesn’t come out so uniform). Next, in a fairly large casserole, arrange a layer of shredded cabbage seasoned with salt and pepper, then a layer of chopped onions and apples with a sprinkling of garlic, spices and sugar. Continue with these alternate layers until everything is in. Now pour in the wine vinegar, lastly add dots of butter on the top. Put a tight lid on the casserole and let it cook very slowly in the oven for 2 to 2½ hours, stirring everything around once or twice during the cooking. Red cabbage, once cooked, will keep warm without coming to any harm, and it will also re-heat very successfully.  Food and Cooking 2010-02-14T16:54:26+00:00 http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/first_sowings_of_spring/ http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/first_sowings_of_spring/#When:16:23:18Z It’s still only mid Feb, but nows the time to start sowing seeds to make sure you have some produce to harvest in the Hungry Gap months of April and May. Finally, got a good load of seeds sown today!!  Nothing direct in to the ground yet, but making a start on seeds indoors which will be planted out in the polytunnel when they are seedlings.  Have a garage outside which we converted in to an office a few years back and it has now been annexed as a potting shed!  Have a large bench in there where the spuds are chitting and a heating mat on which we put seedlings.  Everyone has their own methos of seed sowing - here’s mine.  Sieve compost in to trays, water well, then sow the seed and then add more sieved compost.  I then cover with cling film which keeps moisture locked in, but remove this when the seeds germinate.  So for what it’s worth here’s what was sown today: In seed trays: aubergine (enorma), tom (brandywine, gardener’s delight and moneymaker), chillipepper (early jalepeno) In a 150-cell plug tray (each row 10 cells): 2 row lettuce webs wonder 1 row red salad 1 row perp spinach 1 row salad stir fry mix 2 or 3 cells chard 2 row beetroot (bolivar) 2 row radish (french breakfast) 1 row spring onions (white lisbon) 1 row rocket 1 row salad leaf (niche mix) 1 row scarlett kale 2 row celeriac (monarch) The other notable event this weekend is that we got to harvest the first of our purple sprouting broccoli - and very tasty it was too.  Roll on the spring! Vegetables 2010-02-14T16:23:18+00:00 http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/video_blog_apple_trees/ http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/video_blog_apple_trees/#When:09:12:37Z Seven new apple trees for the garden and the prospect of lots of lovely fruit in the years ahead.. Video Blog 2010-02-07T09:12:37+00:00 http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/companion_planting/ http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/companion_planting/#When:10:43:36Z The idea of companion planting is typically to reduce the impact of pests and diseases on your growing. In some cases plants just like being planted next to each other and will fare better than they would do so otherwise. Here are some examples. 1) Plant dill in with your brassicas as the cabbage white butterfly doesn’t like the smell and will be less inclined to lay its eggs on the cabbage leaves. Dill is great herb to have growing in the garden - beautiful with fish and also great in salads. 2) Marigolds and nasturtiums will deter white and greenfly - so plant them in around your tomato plants. Nasturtium flowers are also very good to eat. Marigolds are also useful near raspberry and strawberries to prevent green-fly. 3) Sow Summer savoury in among beans and peas - deters blackfly. 4) Borage attracts pollinators and is therefore useful planted among courgettes, pumpkins and squashes. 5) Sow chives around your apple trees to prevent scab and wallflowers to attract bumble bees. 6) grow carrots with spring onions or onions to deter carrot fly - but does this REALLY work??! The idea of companion planting is typically to reduce the impact of pests and diseases on your GIYing. In some cases plants just like being planted next to each other and will fare better than they would do so otherwise. Here are some examples - let us know if you have tried other ones. 1) Plant dill in with your brassicas as the cabbage white butterfly doesn’t like the smell and will be less inclined to lay its eggs on the cabbage leaves. Dill is great herb to have growing in the garden - beautiful with fish and also great in salads. 2) Marigolds and nasturtiums will deter white and greenfly - so plant them in around your tomato plants. Nasturtium flowers are also very good to eat. Marigolds are also useful near raspberry and strawberries to prevent green-fly. 3) Sow Summer savoury in among beans and peas - deters blackfly. 4) Borage attracts pollinators and is therefore useful planted among courgettes, pumpkins and squashes. 5) Sow chives around your apple trees to prevent scab and wallflowers to attract bumble bees. 6) grow carrots with spring onions or onions to deter carrot fly - but does this REALLY work??! Vegetables 2010-02-01T10:43:36+00:00 http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/chitting_spuds/ http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/chitting_spuds/#When:08:54:53Z The frigid winter continues, which means there’s not a huge amount of work that can be done on the Home Farm presently.  One of the jobs that you can do is get a head start with your spuds by “chitting” them - here’s how. Video Blog 2010-02-01T08:54:53+00:00 http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/happy_new_season/ http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/happy_new_season/#When:19:51:53Z A break in the weather allows the growing year 2010 to begin.  Hoe in hand, soil beneath the feet, the smell of fresh soil in the nostril. Here we go again - another season in the trenches!  What a wonderful weekend!  I spent yesterday out and about in the garden (finally), ecstatic to be out after the grim weather of the last 8 weeks.  There was (dare I say it) a feeling of spring in the air - that unmistakable, earthy smell of growth and renewal.  There was some warmth in the weak sunshine and it must have reached ten degrees or so while I worked.  I cleared the last of last year’s produce from beds (we still had some beets, white turnips and celeriac in the ground), and got barrow loads of compost from the compost bays to spread on the cleared beds.  It was great to have the feeling of soil in my hands again and I was pleased to see that it was in pretty good nick (not to wet), particularly in the raised beds.  Years of manuring and composting seem to be finally paying some dividends.  There’s good activity in the tunnel too - i was worried I would lose all my peas and beans to the frost, but they’ve bounced back remarkably well and should be ready to transplant from modules in a week or two.  There’s a spurt of growth in everything in the tunnel - it’s not the lavish growth you expect from spring, but it’s growth nonetheless.  A tightly packed row of rocket that i sowed in late autumn and presumed a lost cause has bounced back to life, and I will be able to pick shortly.  There’s also a definate new season greenness evident in the corn salad (lambs lettuce), claytonia, winter lettuce, garlic, onions and cabbages.  The only dissappointment was with a crop of late carrots (amsterdam forcing) that I sowed in the tunnel in the autumn which were doing well but got eaten during what the media were calling “the cold snap” (does a snap not imply a relatively short spell, perhaps a few days - certainly not a month?) - the jury is out on whether it was rodents or birds that did it.  I spent an enjoyable hour hoeing the soil all over the veggie patch and it makes a huge difference to how the whole patch looks.  Tired, emotional soil returned to its former glory.  The first new season weeds nipped in the bud.  Ah yes, so good to be back.  Of course January/February has a way of biting you in the ass - it felt like spring yesterday, but winter could yet return with a vengence. Last night we worked out how many kilos of new spuds, onions and garlic we need for this year and i got them ordered today.  We are going to focus again this year on new spuds only (probably Orla, and almost certainly in the tunnel) to thwart the blight.  We’re going to go big on onions though aiming to get 3-400 sets in to the ground.  It sounds a lot but it works out at about an onion a day, which is probably what most households need in the kitchen - our’s does anyway.  Of course the only downside to such a large planting is that if you fail, you FAIL BIG!  But let’s think positive.  All in all we ordered 7 kilo of spuds, 2 of onions (sturon and red baron) and 1 kilo of garlic (printanor).  We also checked back on our rotation plan - a “plan” is a grand word to describe it, as it really is “back of an envelope” stuff, literally - so that we know what’s going where this year.  We follow John Carney’s (of GIY Waterford fame) 5-family rotation based on the mnenomic, People Love Bunches Of Roses.  That is Potatoes, Legumes, Brassicas, Onions and Roots.  These families are then rotated around five sets of beds in that order.  So in year 1, bed 1 has potatoes.  In year 2 it has legumes, year 3 brassicas and so on.  This prevents a build up of diseases and keeps the ground fertile.  It also means that you know what beds need what treatment - ie you dont manure the beds that will take your roots, and you can lime the beds that will take brassicas etc. On Saturday GIY Wexford got Jim Cronin from the Organic Centre (lives in Co Clare) down to Denis Shannons’ small holding to do a one day course on organic growing and three of us went along.  I’ve been on a course with Jim before and he’s an inspiration.  He’s been a market gardener for over 20 years and his smallholding in Bridgetown is really worth a visit.  Such vast knowledge about growing would be a burden for many, and a licence for arrogance for many more.  But you could not meet a more unassuming, quiet gentleman than Jim.  Thanks to all involved for a great day. I will hopefully post in more detail some of Jim’s wisdom later, but one thing I found really interesting was his figures on how much land is needed to be self-sufficient for a family of four.  He reckons a tunnel of 40ft by 14ft would produce tunnel crops 12 months of the year, as long as it is well used.  According to Jim, every bed in the tunnel should take three to four crops a year.  His key planting times are: Now: ie Jan - Apr - for early crops of lettuce, rocket, radish, beets, scallions and new potatoes etc May - Sept - for regular summer tunnel crops transplanted from modules - e.g. tomatoes, peppers, aubergine etc August - sowing for overwintering crops like winter lettuce, claytonia, mizuna, spinach, coriander, corn salad, chervil etc. Outside, he reckons that 30ft by 50ft of ground would be enough to supply a family with enough veg all year round with the exception of carrots, parsnips and potatoes which would run out by Christmas.  A further 200ft by 15ft would be required to be 12 month self-sufficient in carrots, parsnips and potatoes.  All in all this adds up to less than a quarter of an acre - to feed an entire family, all year around. Perhaps most interesting of all is that he reckons a mere 8 hours a week would be required to maintain this land and his advice is that we don’t do all that in one go - in other words, spread it out over the week, doing a half hour here and there.  The potential is mind boggling - if you don’t have this much land or that much time, the key is to focus on what you can achieve.  We often talk at the launch of GIY groups about the idea of the “food acquisition continuum” – at one end of the continuum you have people who have never grown anything before. At the other end you have people who are 100% self-sufficient. Few of us will ever get to the 100% self-sufficiency - and as I’ve said before, you will always have a hankering for a packet of Monster Munch or a Kit Kat.  But does it matter?  Of course not! We believe that any move that you can make towards eating more home-grown food is worthwhile, even if you never reach the goal of self-sufficiency.  Every time you can remove the need to buy something from the supermarket, it’s been a tremendous achievement.  Does it matter that you are still reliant on the supermarket for other things?  No!  Every year, we GIYers get a little bit smarter,a little bit more skilled, a little bit better at this GIYing business - we grow more, we grow better.  Our knowledge continues to catch up with our enthusiasm.  Enjoy the chase! Happy New Season! Michael Vegetables 2010-01-18T19:51:53+00:00 http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/pea_hungry_gap/ http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/pea_hungry_gap/#When:16:58:35Z The Home Farmer eats the last of last year’s peas. As if this freezing weather wasn’t trying enough, today we had extra bad news - we ate the last of our frozen peas.  Sure it was wonderful to be eating big mouthfuls of delicious fat, vibrantly green peas in the middle of such a cold spell (we’re not allowed call it a snap anymore cause it has lasted nearly a month), but it was a sombre occasion too, knowing that there will be no more peas for us, unless we are to cheat and buy them of course (we probably will). Last year, back at the height of the harvest we managed to get a decent quantity of peas in to the freezer.  You don’t really appreciate just how many peas are in a packet of shop-bought frozen peas until you start growing your own and trying to get a decent quantity of them in to the freezer.  When you have a dinner with peas in it, especially if it is of the meat and two veg variety (as opposed to something posher like say a pea risotto), there might be literally a hundred peas on your plate.  Count ‘em!  That’s a lot of peas.  When you grow peas yourself you notice just how few peas there are from each plant - each pod might have say five or six nice fat peas in it and you might be taking say ten pods from a plant at any one time which means that each plant is only turning out about fifty peas which is less than half a portion!  We did a significant amount of work back in the summer one evening, taking the peas from the pods, blanching them lightly and then putting them in to plastic bags for freezing.  It’s enjoyable enough work in fairness (particularly if you approach it in the right spirit), but it’s work all the same.  And so it’s a little dissappointing that we have already (in early January) arrived at the end of our pea supply.  So our “hungry gap” for peas officially begins today.  Booooooo! I have a tray of peas growing in the polytunnel which we sowed back in Nov - they are an overwintering variety - and they are maybe 2 or 3 inches high so far.  It’s a cheerful site in the tunnel to have something so beautiful and green growing at this time of the year (particularly something that you associate with spring growing) and they seem to have survived the frost so far.  But even with this monumental headstart on the growing season, we still are unlikely to have peas before late May or early June.  Which means our “pea hungry gap” will last a minimum of four months and possibly even five months.  That is a sorry indictment on the number of plants we grew - clearly not enough. There’s a charming, sprightly 80-something year old in GIY Waterford called Joe Hurley who could teach any of us a thing or five about GIYing.  Joe grows as much if not more than we do in our rural acre, and he’s growing in a small suburban housing estate in Waterford.  He’s very proud of his peas in particular and gets a bumper crop each year - he gets enough in to the freezer to last him right through the winter and spring and he might even have some frozen ones left when the first new season peas arrive the following season.  Now that’s GIYing...!  I was telling Joe about my pea hungry gap and was asking him how many pea plants he sows - I told him proudly that this year I sowed maybe 30 or so (and I thought that was a lot).  With considerable generosity of spirit (ie, he didn’t laugh) he told me that he sowed literally hundreds of them - he sows them in a row, in close together (he doesn’t believe in the spacings that are recommended in books) - as close as an inch - and grows them up chicken wire fencing.  Then he harvests all in one go and fills up the freezer again. So we know what we have to do!  GIYing New years resolution number one - PLANT MORE PEAS!! Vegetables 2010-01-07T16:58:35+00:00 http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/happy_saturnalia/ http://www.michaelkelly.ie/index.php/site/happy_saturnalia/#When:10:42:09Z Sleighbells ring, are you listening?  In the lane, slow is glistening.  A beautiful sight, we’re happy tonight.  Walking in a winter wonderland! What is it that makes us so pleased with such inclement weather?  Well, we’ve had crap weather in this country for years now - unremittingly wet and mild and awful.  So it feels good to have some proper winter weather.  And of course as Home Farmers we know that this frost is good for our veggie patch - it kills diseases and nasties that might have accumulated in the soil over the year and breaks up clods of soil too which improves soil texture.  A good frost is also good for the flavour of our garlic and brussels sprouts (which is good news for the Christmas dinner).  I like the feeling that this is the way it should be.  It shouldn’t be 10 degrees and raining at Christmas.  It should be zero degrees and there should be ice on the cobwebs hanging off the bird table.  There should be opportunities for skating across the ice that’s formed on top of puddles.  It just feels like God is in his heavens and all is right with the world. I also love the feeling of transition at this time of the year - if we have time to reflect amid the craziness of Christmas, we are reflecting on what we’ve achieved this year, how good (or awful) it has been.  We are looking back.  But in just over a week’s time, we will start to look forward to what’s next, to what’s possible, to the boundless potential of it all.  I love this time of the year because we are momentarily, precariously, balanced between the two - between an ending and a beginning.  For Home Farmers it’s a very fine line between the end of the year when you can allow yourself a few week’s pause from the veggie patch, and the beginning, when thoughts turn to soil preparation, sowing seeds, chitting potatoes and another year of splendid toil and effort.  I love how certain and relentless that transition is - it never fails. Yesterday was the shortest day of the year so we can take some solace from the fact that from now on the days are starting to get longer. Just as the harvest brings with it both joy and a measure of pathos at the impending winter, the arrival of winter brings, strangely, a sense of hope that it will soon be spring. Home Farmers can and should find reason to celebrate at Christmas because of course the end of December has been a time of celebration for five millennia and perhaps even longer. Historians believe that the actual birth of Christ probably took place in September, approximately six months after the Passover.  The evidence they think for this is that the nativity story tells of shepherds minding their flocks in the fields at night time which they were unlikely to be doing in December. One of the early Popes (probably Pope Julius I) decided to celebrate the birthday of Jesus on December 25th because that date was already linked to an existing pagan feast day. This the pope believed would make the transition to Christianity easier for the pagans they were trying to convert. In ancient Babylon, the feast of the Son of Isis, the Goddess of Nature was celebrated on December 25th. In ancient Rome, the winter holiday was called Saturnalia ("Happy Saturnalia” has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?) which honoured Saturn, the God of Agriculture. In January Romans observed the Kalends of January, which represented the triumph of life over death.  The pagans of northern Europe celebrated their own winter solstice, known as Yule (from whence we get the word yule-tide) in honour of the pagan Sun God Mithras who appeared to their minds to be growing and maturing once the winter solstice had passed. The months of late summer and autumn were terrifying for early pagans because they thought that the reason the days were growing shorter was because their sun-god was slowly abandoning them.  When they saw the length of the day increasing at the end of December, they celebrated with riotous drinking, gluttonous feasting and orgies of epic proportions - so basically much like Christmas today. Regardless of your religious faith, come the end of December we have an ancient reason to celebrate as the days gradually become longer again. So kick back and enjoy the break!  Perhaps even re-engage with the real world for a while and do things that normal people do, you know like buying Christmas presents and so on.  Happy Christmas! Miscellaneous 2009-12-22T10:42:09+00:00