WHAT'S ON THE ORGANIC RADAR? SEE HERE!

As Autumn starts to approach the Organic calendar begins to hot up. A few Teagasc organic demonstration farm walks remain, entries need to organised for the National Organic Awards and National Organic Week itself is being planned.

Remaining walks include field scale vegetables (August 26th Offaly) Beef, sheep, pigs, tillage, direct selling (August 31st Laois), dairying and biodiversity (September 1st Tipperary), beef, sheep, pigs, tillage (September 2nd Cavan), dairying tillage and farm shop (Kildare) and horticulture and direct selling (Galway).

(Pic: Una Ni Bhroin of Beechlawn Organic farm, which is holding an event for National Organic Week 2010)

All walks are on at 2 pm this year. This factor does make it more difficult for part time farmers to attend, which has had a bearing on numbers: last year's times were more varied.

Some of these walks are especially noteworthy. The Cavan event is on Richard Moeran's land, who also, as it happens, now supplies excellent organic poultry. This poultry is usually available at Declan McCarthy's organic mobile butcher's unit in various parts of the north west, including Cavan and Sligo farmers' markets.

Moeran is most noted, however, for his rare breed pigs. So if this area is of any interest to you, its well worth visiting his Mountnugent holding.

The last two walks have distinct direct selling elements: indeed the event on 3rd September on Peter and Jenny Young's farm, is on a holding which features a veritable A-Z of diversification, from cheese making to allotment training. In offering the latter, the couple train both farmers in offering allotments and allotmenteers in growing.

Now in their 4th year, the National Organic Awards have highlighted some spectacularly fine foods. Last year's winner, Moonshine dairies' unhomogenised milk, was and still is a fabulous product at a great price.

This year's awards have been extended to include organic horticulture growers. The announcement of the awards will coincide with National Organic Week (13th-19th September).

The award categories are: Best Organic Retail Product; Best Organic Local Product; Best Organic Export Product; Best Organic New Product; Best Sustainable Organic Product.

Each of the above five winners will then be put forward for judging for the Best Overall Organic Product. Application forms are available to download from the Bord Bia website

Also on their site, the list of events for National Organic Week itself is growing and growing. These range in size from tastings and tours to seminars and conferences. There are events on in the Nano Nagle Centre (Cork), Gortbrack (Kerry), Beechlawn House (Galway), various farmers markets and stores, and more soon to be announced.

Organic conferences are listed for both the Wexford Organic Centre and for the Hodson Bay hotel

According to Eileen Bentley of Bord Bia the aim of the week is to increase �the awareness of organic food benefits amongst core target audience� which she describes as �female, pre-family/young family.�

She goes on: �We will be doing this via a mix of activities on a national and local level, including national press advertising, bus shelter advertising, PR, on-line activities, in-store point of sale materials and funding for local producer events nationwide.�

She also makes reference to local events listed on the site and to the awards as being part of this promotional work. On the day of the awards' announcement, September 14th, �a workshop seminar for organic producers targeting the German market will also be held in Bord Bia, delivered by Grunekopfe Berlin� according to Bentley.

One element that will differ this year for National Organic Week is the promotional phrase used. Following a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland, last year's phrase 'Organic: good for nature good for you' has been dropped.

The new phrase? 'Organic farming: good for nature good for you.' The latter is OK because its an approved EU phrase, whereas the the former was adapted.

Just how the word farming changes the meaning so much is a bit mysterious. It must be all the weeding. Organic farming � helps you get fit!

For a listing of the ever expanding array of events being held forr National Organic Week, see here

2009: THE ORGANIC YEAR THAT WAS

In spite of the trials and tribulations every aspect of Irish life has faced this year, organic farming and food has managed to stand tall.

Difficult, challenging, and testing times no doubt, and more yet to come. This is not to say of course that everyone has grown their business, that all have even survived. It is to say, however, that the organic movement is resilient.

The organic year began with a slightly unusual announcement: the arrival of a new certification body: IMO. This global organisation specialises in various ethical certifications, including organic.

Their arrival may in the coming years open up export markets, expertise and multi layered certification and validation of Irish organic products, which may well help build the Irish organic sector - who knows? Its up to farmers and food producers to be innovative in this regard.

February saw the largest delegation yet of Irish organic food businesses at the BioFach trade show in Germany. This was one of the many innovative actions the Department of Agriculture and the organic sector took: the necessity of a weak UK market bred the ingenuity of new European markets.

The summer saw two significant occurrences: the UK Food Standards Authority's (FSA) report on nutrition, and the figures on the growth of the organic market in Ireland. This report was, in my own reasonably informed opinion, flawed in numerous ways.

In brief, however, regarding the nutritional superiority of organic over conventional: a conclusion of 'not enough evidence to make a case either ways' would have been far more accurate than the actual report's conclusion of 'no evidence'.

New excellent award winning organic products emerged: simple, honest foods like Moonshine Milk, Drumeen Farm Happy Heart Oil and Sowan's bread.

In my own small way, myself and Joe Condon have been adding to this by beavering away on the Organics with Altitude initiative. This encourages hill farmers to consider suitable upland breeds, artisan butchering, direct selling and organic certification. It has been going well for us, and I've really enjoyed getting out and about meeting farmers from Donegal to Kerry.

Also during the summer, Foras Organach was established, a streamlined and industry-led way to help develop the sector, whilst public procurement of organic finally began.

Despite or perhaps even because of the recession, the organic market actually grew in the period up to last records, July. It grew at a faster rate than its previous rate of growth,which was fast anyway. Few other areas are also growing in the Irish economy: as a stark contrast, pharmaceuticals and the multinational sector in general are.

A crucial difference between organic and these other growth areas is that organic is about one of Ireland's key and immovable natural resources � the land. Organic doesn't even have the option of relocating to Bangalore or New Deili: multi and transnational capital always has that option.

In this light, it is at least heartening that the 2009 reviewed programme for government renewed and indeed strengthened its commitment to organic.

Post budget, it was announced that all the organic cash was coming back: grant aid and both the in-conversion and area-based payments are being reintroduced at the previous levels.

And, happy new year folks: the Organic Farming Scheme returns tomorrow. Subject to new organic farmers completing a training course and business plan, they can apply from tomorrow on.

It cannot have been easy for the Minister with responsibility for organic farming, Trevor Sargent, to achieve this in the worst economic meltdown the country has even seen.

I genuinely do not think that the organic movement knows how blessed it is to have a supportive, hard working and, yes even visionary Minister at the helm: how would organic have fared in budgetary cutbacks if a journeyman with no real commitment to the sector was in there instead?

The biggest single remaining block to growth now is the issue regarding REPS 2 and REPS 3 farmers not actually being allowed convert to organic: some 30,000 don't even have the option, unless they pull out of REPS and return their payments.

Here's hoping that this crucial barrier is lifted in the New Year.

Fire walking through it all: organic farming's cool wet grass

Sometimes it must seem as if organic farming is blessed. It is almost as if organic farming is fire walking, thinking all the time of cool wet grass while bounding across the burning agri-food embers.

All around, casualties nurse their smoldering, singed, smoky feet. And yet, in its own small but significant way, organic continues to thrive.

Economists, commentators and other apparent experts have euligised the new fashion for frugality in food: the consumer now only wants cheap cheap cheap, and the consumer is getting it.

In this new world, organic supposedly doesn't stand a chance. How and why would anyone spend, wait for it, more than they have to, on something so basic as food? Its like taxing yourself on top of all the imposed cuts and taxes.

The same commentators then morn for farmers' falling income, as though cheap food and falling farmer incomes are not connected.

All the while, organic farming calmly and collectively presents itself as a viable and sustainable alternative.

Despite its image as expensive, organic continues to defy expectations. Despite all the presumptions, predictions and hype, organic sales figures are still growing in Ireland.

The most recent TNS figures for organic food sales put the figure at E124 million. Organic broke the 100 million mark in July 2008, and has been on the rise ever since. 73% have purchased an organic product in the last month.

Indeed the growth rate is actually hastening. Perhaps the consumer is sharpening her focus on value: the balance between price and quality.

It seems as if a new breed of quality organic products are emerging. There once was a place for uber convenience, for what now seems to be gimmicky value added products, or for ever smaller portions designed for ever more convenience again.

The new breed is an altogether leaner, cleaner, greener, machine. Consider the winners at this year's Bord Bia national organic awards.

Happy Heart organic rapeseed oil from Drumeen farm is grown, pressed and bottled on the Colchesters' farm in Kilkenny. It tastes great and is good value too, clocking in at under E6 for a half litre.

St Tola's organic goats cheese 1 kg log, which wins awards across many competitions at home and abroad, is now an export product.

The non-homogenised Moon Shine 2 litre organic milk, overall winner from the Kelly's in Westmeath, is another great taste great value product.

All three were category winners, decent sized portions, and all are produced on a farm.

Looking at the winners and highly commended's from these awards, its clear that simple, good quality foods are emerging as the foodie's choice.

This years organic award winners were meats, bread, milk, oil, cheese, porridge and yogurt: Simple honest foods.

The Good Herdsman's organic steakhouse beef, a highly commended product in the awards, proves that organic is able to compete with any retail product. The Good Herdsman recently achieved a E500,000 contract on the continent with their Organic Steakhouse, which is produced, processed and packaged in Ireland.

That the driving forces of the company, John Purcell and Josef Finkle can speak fluently in French and German no doubt helped with achieving contracts at this year's Biofach organic trade show in Germany.

Fellow judge Darren Grant from the Organic Supermarket in Blackrock, Dublin was very impressed by the fact that this new organic product has an extra 10 days shelflife.

St Tola's, Drumeen and Moonshine products, all farm produced, surely suggest to farmers that there are realistic options out there, both in organic and in on farm processing.

And for those very farmers, the dates and locations for the new Teagasc Organic Farming Courses have been announced.

These FETAC accredited courses start the week of the 20th October, and run for 25 hours in total one day per week for five weeks. The cost is �200 per participant.

Accredited courses are now compulsory to qualify for the new organic farming scheme, which reopens on the 1st January 2010.

And while the grass is greener on the organic side, in flaming world of farming, it's cooler and wetter too.

(photo by chaosinjune )

The taste of Childhood: Moonshine's creamy organic milk

There is a moment in the 2007 children's movie Ratatouille, where the becloaked, draculesque food critic has his heart of stone broken.

All movie long, Anton Ego destroyed the culinary world of Paris with his scathing reviews. He was the poster boy for fear, his picture plastered onto the walls of every restaurant's kitchen in the French capital as a warning to staff.

All the while, he was juxtaposed against a more affable chef, Auguste Gusteau, who loved basic food and encouraged everyone to cook.

And yet, all was changed, changed utterly one day. Anton Ego, having managed to downgrade the public image and star rating of Gusteau's restaurant, had an eating experience there that changed his life.

He tasted simple, honest, pure food that reminded him of his childhood � in this case the peasant dish Ratatouille.

The sun shone and his pupils dilated as he tripped back in time to a memory of a moment: Anton Ego in short pants, eating Ratatouille in his mother's countryside kitchen. His attitude to life improved remarkably from that point on.

That taste of childhood does something intangible to people. Sometimes food actually was better in the past � often grown in the backgarden, or from the mixed farm holding. Local, seasonal and fairly organic, as a discerning modern foodie would desire.

Sometimes of course it wasn't better at all. Remember smash, packet soup, processed cheese and spam?

However the human mind seems to have the ability to hone in on the best of the flavours of the past when it re-encounters them

A re-encountering moment also happened at the judging of the National Organic Awards 2009.

A very simple, honest, pure food that reminded people of their childhood won the top overall prize. This product, Moonshine organic dairy's non homogenised 2 litre milk, just stood out.

I was on the judging panel myself, and it was clear from early on that this milk was going to do well.

Hand on heart, I wasn't necessarily looking forward to drinking a milk that came from a plastic bottle: I find the plastic flavour often overrides all the others.

Well, with this milk, the overriding flavour was of childhood and of creaminess. I noticed that some of the other judges went back for more, and that even people who did not necessarily like or drink milk anymore tried it and loved it too.

There were shortlists, then there was a shortened shortlist. But in the end, the flavour of the milk really brought it to the fore.

Foodies and traditionalists alike now finally have their non homogenised milk What's more Moonshine's organic milk is quite affordable: 1.50 for 1 litre, and 2.39 for the 2 litre container.

And considering the research and development, marketing and branding budgets available to some of the the bigger names in the organic industry, the Moonshine dairy farm achievements are all the more remarkable.

Their story of Mary and Gerry Kelly's Moonshine organic dairy is a positive one for the farming community.

Through two diversifications, the 80 acre Westmeath farm has moved from struggle to success.

They converted to organic in 2000: �We�ve two young lads here, and both of them love to farm. But I couldn�t see a way for them to make a living off it, without doing something. So I thought about it long and hard, but when I did go organic, everything fell into place� according to Gerry Kelly.

He goes on: �The British Friesians were a great help to go organic, because they needed lower inputs. Then, as time went on, I changed to Ayrshire. They�ve a lower yield, but the quality and flavour of the milk is much better�.

The couple started making their own fresh cheese and yogurt drinks. More recently, they have started making an Emmental cheese and supplying this fabulous milk.

Now, the whole family is employed in farming, making and distributing their products. They supply local shops, have a stall at the Mullingar farmers' markets and Dublin Food Co-op, and have a farm shop.

And, as you can imagine, I highly recommend tasting their milk.

Bord Bia National Organic Awards 2009

The Overall winner this year is Moon Shine farm's organic milk.

This new retail product, which comes from Gerry and Mary Kelly's Westmeath farm, is a non homogenised milk, which retails for E2.39 for 2 litres.

It also won the best local product.

Well done to the Kelly's - they were up against some stiff and well financed companies, so thier acheivements are all the more spectacular.

(The Kelly's farm, right)

CATEGORY WINNERS NATIONAL ORGANIC AWARDS

Best Organic Retail Product

Organic Greek Style Natural Yoghurt,

Glenisk

Best Organic Export Product

St Tola Goats Log,

Inagh Farmhouse Cheese

Best Organic New Product:

Organic Gluten Free Real Wholegrain Bread Mix,

Sowan's Organic Bread mix

Best Organic Sustainable Product:

Happy Heart Oil Rapeseed Oil,

Drumeen Farm

Best Organic Local Product:

Moon Shine Farmhouse Milk,

Moon Shine Organic Farm

Mossfield cheese: a(nother) good news organic story

�I sold more cheese this January than last January�. Not typical recessionista talk, but then Ralph Haslam cheeses are not typical either.

Ralph�s organic Mossfield cheese really is the cream of the crop. It has won numerous awards, including some of the highest ranking of awards possible.

At last year�s Great Taste awards in London, Ralph�s mature cheese was the highest placed Irish product, and made it to the last 18 out of almost 4000 products.

It also became something of a celebrity cheese, after a well reported mass order by Bruce Springsteen�s chef the last time the Boss was in town.

Along with the cheeses themselves, the farm has also been gathering up the garlands: Mossfield won the top price at the JFC Innovation awards last year.

The Mossfield range includes a young cheese, garlic and basil, tomato and herb and cumin seed, along with the iconic mature.

Things are going well enough for Ralph to open a new, purpose build 8000 square feet unit on the farm in fact.

This E1.5 million unit, complete with viewing area, was part grant aided by the Organic Unit of the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Food DAFF.

This unit, indeed the whole farm, will soon be powered by an anerobic digestor, which converts methane gas from slurry, farm yard manure and whey into power. Sustainable Energy Ireland has helped with the process, as has LEADER.

This brand new building will allow for an expansion of the current run of 2-300 kg per week.

�It could take up to 350kg per day, but we�ll keep production lower than that � we want to retain the hand made artisan approach. I�ll probably keep it down to under 600 kg per week� he tells me.

Ironically, this up scaling of production will also result in a lower carbon footprint from the product.

Before this new unit, the cheese had been made in Portumna (East Galway) and stored in Ferbane (West Offaly), all resulting in a round trip of 100 miles before it left for the shops. Now it can all be done on site, from making to maturing, on the 340 acre limestone farm in Offaly.

�The best thing about it really is that you can control everything yourself on the farm. You are not relying on anybody or anything else� according to a visibly pleased Ralph.

Ralph intends to branch out into other types of cheese, possibly a smoked or another herb line. He will also soon start with frozen yoghurts, buttermilk and ice creams. Again, all the milk will come from his herd of 140 Rotbunt-Freisen crosses, 80 of which are milking cows.

Although he supplied Glenisk at present, it is likely that all of the milk produced on the farm will go into their own products quite soon.

As often is the case, many family members are involved in the business, from the farm to production and the retail ends of the spectrum.

Son Andrew and wife Lorraine work on the farm and the cheese production respectively, while son Jonathan runs Birr�s well-known and very busy Organic Store.

Jonathan is fresh from BioFach, the annual organic food industry trade show in Germany, where he kept a close eye on the emerging trends and developments in the organic sector.

There is also a cheese maker employed, with more employees coming on line as the business expands.

Incredibly, not only is business going well for the smiling Offaly man, who sells to premium outlets across Ireland and in the UK, he is also exporting a small but growing amount as far away as California.

The association of Mossfield with the Ryder Cup and the Boss may have helped. So too must the quality.

Farming since 1970 and organic since 1999, Ralph has seen a lot of changes in Irish agriculture. Considering his own vintage, his move towards ever more control of his own destiny is all the more noteworthy.

Farm Fest 08: organics comes of age

If ever there was an event that represented the coming of age of the artisan and organic sectors in Ireland, then it was Teagasc�s Farm Fest 08, held in Athenry on the 20^th June last. And if the Ploughing championship could be compared to the Oxygen music festival, then Farm Fest was the Electric Picnic.

This is because the otherwise more boutique, small, niche, high-end and specialist was actually centre stage. While all of the main players from the agri-food world were at the event, the main marquee, and by far the busiest and liveliest of the locations at Farm Fest, was the place where the organic producers were.

This marquee was called �innovation and artisan food�. Interestingly, the word organic wasn�t in the Marquee�s name, despite the fact that the majority of stalls, by a considerable distance, were by or of interest to organic and artisan producers.

The place seemed young, active, dynamic and positive about the future. In other arenas, people had heated debates over one cent. In this marquee, people seemed to know and love their product, and seemed able to convince consumers to pay a fair price for it.

In most cases, the farmers here were food producers � they did something to their primary products and got a proper mark up for so doing. In one section of the marquee there was Noodle House Organic Pastas, Gerry and Mary Kelly�s Moonshine organic diary products, both sitting alongside Ralph Haslam�s Mossfield Cheeses. The food producers themselves were all present and accounted for, dealing with enthusiastic and interested consumers, curious farmers and an array of media.

For Ralph, Bruce Springsteen�s decision to buy copious amounts of Mossfield when here recently seems to have catapulted the cheese into the culinary stratosphere. When I dropped by, Valerie Cox from RTE radio 1 was chatting to him. Within five minutes, during which time I devoured some hearty slices of his mature gouda-style cheese, TV3 had dropped over to find out about the Bruce Springsteen cheese.

And considering the fact that at he has done so well at the World Cheese Awards, Ralph is looking forward to the event being held in Dublin later on this year.

Another set of products attracting attention were those of Solaris botanicals. Here, a range of leading-edge organic whole leaf teas were on display and available to taste. The business is run by Karin Wieland and Jorg Muller, a couple who are qualified medical herbalists. As well as a simply spectacular range of teas, their knowledge, skill and passion were also on display.

There was a strong interest in organic feeds and seeds, while many of the main organisations involved in the organic sector had a presence too, including IOFGA, NOTS (National Organic Training Skillnets), as well as the Wexford and Leitrim Organic Centres.

The rural development, artisan and organic ends of the state institutions such as DAFF, Teagasc and Bord Bia were also busy and present, taking up a whole area of the marquee itself.

Along with the wandering and chatting, there was business being done:

Joe Condon of Omega Beef Direct was flat out gathering potential recruits for his upland farming �Organics with Altitude� idea, (featured in this supplement two weeks ago). Martin Henry and Liam Lyons had their recently purchased organic mobile butchers� unit outside the marquee in the market area � it took me five visits just to have a quick word with Liam. Padraig Fahy of Beechlawn Organic Farm seemed as busy with his vegetable selling and interactions with various players in the organic sector as when he was chair of IOFGA.

The artisan stalls were super busy too: Glastry Farm�s artisan ice cream stand, all the way from the county Down, was absolutely trobbing, as was the Foods of Athenry stall from just down the road.

When I did leave the �Innovation and Artisan Food� arena, it occasionally did look like the Electric Picnic, with some of the same food stalls, surrounded by entertainment like wooden toy tnets, a kids zone, Connemara Pony displays and then all the other marquees.

It was a beautiful day in many ways. Great weather helps, but the contented feeling of a sector on the rise helped too.