The Apple Club Newsletter
Winter 2011
Welcome to our winter newsletter. I would like to wish all our
customers and friends a happy Christmas. For very many people 2011 has
been one of the toughest years in an awful long time, but as always all
we can do is stick to our own individual task and keep the best face
out.
Social media
Social media is the term used to describe various online computer
applications which allow us all to communicate. Facebook and Twitter
are the most popular just now, and I have been using them quite a bit
in the past year. In a sense, they are like this newsletter, except
that on social media we can say (write) things fairly instantly, and
people can comment back, or send it on to others on the network.
So while I am not trying to make an excuse for not sending out the
newsletter as often as we did, I am at least still writing, and
hopefully listening, out there somewhere in cyberspace. In fact, not
only am I writing, but I can also put up pictures, links to interesting
articles, or even to videos or TV programs, which is all very exciting.
If you have not tried facebook or twitter, they are not too difficult
to use. With a smartphone you can access them directly, or from the
internet, you’ll find them at facebook.com and twitter.com.
If you would like to keep up to date with what we are at on the farm,
on twitter you can follow @theapplefarmer (that’s me), or on facebook
just search for The Apple Farm and click “like” for our page.
Our emigrants
While you are on facebook or twitter, you may be able to keep up with a
few of our (ex) employees, who have headed to Australia, partly for
adventure, partly for better opportunities, and partly, I suspect,
because so many of their friends are there. In this year alone, the
most recent to go is Roisin, who was in the shop for the past few
years, and only left a week ago. Many of you will also remember Avril
from The Farmers’ Market in Cahir. She’s currently in Melbourne, having
left earlier in the year.
Of course it is tough on the friends and family who stay behind here in
Ireland, and also on those who have to go. It’s not too bad if you know
you are only going for a while, but when you’re not sure if you will
ever be back permanently, then to go at all is really a hard decision
to make.
I suppose that is why, it is up to us who are left here, especially a
family like our own, (for my parents left Holland 45 years ago to come
to Ireland), to ensure that the country is transformed over the next
decade, into a place that our emigrants can return to, and that has
opportunities for all the young people that want to live here.
The easy part is saying it, but the hard part is doing it; making hard
choices, making sacrifices, and putting our trust in leaders who will
put the country ahead of themselves.
We have not had leaders like this for quite some time, but then, many
of us were not the best at making sacrifices ourselves either. In
truth, we got the leaders we elected.
Our future leaders will need to make decisions with the impact in 20-50
years time in mind, rather than considering the next election. Are
there people like that out there? I don’t know yet, but if we raise our
children right, these are the type of citizens we ought to be producing.
For my part, I will be doing my utmost to operate and develop our own
little farm, so that it may continue to provide jobs, food, and joy,
and so that what we sell is produced in a way that impacts positively
both in the present and the future.
In the farm shop:
We have our usual range of apples, including really beautiful Elstar,
as well as that traditional favourite, Karmijn de Sonnaville. We are
nearly out of out super-sharp eater, Topaz, but will soon have lovely
sweet Pinova. Bramley cookers are also available, as are Golden
Delicious. Jonagold will also be available quite soon.
We also promise to have at least one type of eating apple on sale at 5
euros per box at all times, which is a lower price than even the “best”
special offers in any supermarket, and of course our apples are much
nicer.
In addition, we have a number of new products especially for Christmas,
the most seasonal of which is our mulled apple juice. This is a juice
with spices, which makes a lovely warm drink, but without the alcohol.
Simply heat before serving, and warm yourself up on a cold winter’s
evening.
Our juices are as popular as ever and really good value, with a case of
12 large bottles flying out both to people who call in and by courier
as Christmas gifts. If fact, if you like you can even include
a personal message when ordering online, and we will include it with
the box when sending to your lucky friends.
The sparkling juice is going from strength to strength, with people
coming from all over Ireland to get it, as well as online orders.
All the juices and jams make a great Christmas present, either in a
presentation basket or bag, or with a few fruits. The apple jelly goes
especially well as a glaze for the Christmas ham.
Lastly, we have hampers of juices, jams and fruit in our farm shop. A
popular and practical Christmas gift.
Irish Cider
Everyone knows Bulmers. They sell hundreds of millions of pints of
cider each year, and their adverts always make me smile. In the last
few years, a few tiny cidermakers have started their own ventures in
Ireland. First there was David Llewellyn, and now there are two more
that I know quite well; William O’Callagan of Longueville House and
Daniel Emerson of Stonewell Cider. Both make excellent ciders.
William’s is full of traditional cider apples, which makes it a real
west-country type cider, as it would be known in the UK. Daniel’s is
less tannic, but also excellent. If you get a chance to try either, I
would highly recommend them.
The Food Writers:
During the summer I received an unexpected invitation. Bord F ilte and
Bord Bia were jointly promoting Ireland by hosting a tour of Ireland
for food writers from various high-profile international newspapers and
magazines (Vogue was one of these if I remember correctly).
As part of this, they were organizing a meal in Trinity College Dublin,
where the food writers would get to meet some producers, taste their
foods, and then have a meal made using these same ingredients. To make
it even better, Neven Maguire was cooking the meal.
So along we went, set up stall, and explained all about our produce in
the pre-meal reception. Then, on to a meal where we all ate what Neven
prepared, and continued to talk with the writers, about Ireland, Irish
food, our food history and culture and so on. A few speeches later, and
it was all over, but suffice to say that the meal prepared by Neven was
top notch, and the food writers were very impressed with what Ireland
had to offer the foodie tourist.
You could tell they were tired though, after a busy week. Most of the
writers went off to their hotels after the Irish dancing set laid on by
Bord F ilte was finished, while the rest of us stayed on to tidy up,
and maybe dream of getting onto the cover of Vogue.
Our bees
During the summer we were lucky to be visited by a PhD student from
Queens University, Lorraine McKendrick. Lorraine was studying bumble
bees, and wanted to see what species we might have on our farm later in
summer, when the apples were not in flower.
In walking the farm with her I came to understand, more than ever
before, how important it is to leave areas of flowering plants (what
some might call weeds), so that the bees have an alternative source of
food. Everywhere we came across flowering plants, bees abounded, and
Lorraine and her boyfriend captured them with their nets and took
samples for DNA analysis.
Goodness knows, if any of those bees had been involved in criminality,
Lorraine would have found out, as she was a regular CSI, with all the
tests she conducted.
Anyhow, early in the autumn, when I had almost forgotten about the
bees, Lorraine sent me a lovely card with the proper scientific names
of the five species of bumble bee she had found on our farm. There was
the white-tailed bumble bee, the buff tailed bumble bee, the
brown-banded carder bee, the garden bumble bee, and one without a
common name, the scientific name of which I can’t quite pronounce.
I now know for sure that, if I want plenty of bumble bees to be there
to pollinate my apple trees, that I must do my utmost to ensure that
our orchard and nearby hedges have plenty of flowering plants to feed
my bees while the apples themselves are not in flower.
TV3
We were lucky enough to be featured in another TV program which
screened on TV3 over the summer. It was a series on different types of
farming, and we were in the episode on crops. Having seen the entire
set of episodes, I must say that I think they were both educational and
entertaining. The producer, Stephen Locke, has a great interest in both
modern and traditional farming, and wanted to bring out both the
similarities and differences between different methods. Along with the
beautiful camerawork, it made the series great to watch. Hopefully it
will appear in a repeat soon. You can see more about it at
www.ayearontheland.com, and we have some edited highlights of our own
part which can be accessed from our website.
Retail in Ireland.
Ireland has three times as much retail area as it should. This was
reported a few months ago in the Sunday Business Post, and was recently
also highlighted as a problem by John Concannon, head of JFC plastics;
and leading businessman from Tuam. (John featured in an RTE program
called The Secret Millionaire, and if you have not seen it, I would
highly recommend it). One would therefore wonder about the logic of
bringing another supermarket-type retailer into Cahir, especially since
the retail businesses of Cahir which would currently be selling the
same types of produce are under pressure already.
Yet, it appears as though Tesco may be about to open an outlet in
Cahir. It seems that the property bubble has not quite burst in our
local town.
Now, lest anyone think otherwise, I have no problem with Tesco per se,
or any other supermarket. People are entitled to spend their
hard-earned money wherever they like. Also, a Tesco (or whatever)
opening in Cahir would not affect my business, so why should it bother
me?
Well, my main problem is the adverse effect it would have on jobs. UK
studies have shown that where a Tesco-type retailer comes into a town,
that for every job it creates, three are lost in nearby shops. So
rather than creating jobs, these types of shops cause a loss of jobs.
This probably explains why in the UK, there are more than 1000
community groups fighting to keep these types of supermarkets out of
their towns. Makes you think, they might know a few things that we
don’t.
So, combine the fact that Ireland already has far too much retail, and
the fact that large supermarkets cost jobs, and you have one very good
reason why Cahir would be better off without such a development.
As one person said to me, with all those automated check-outs in Tesco,
soon they won’t need to employ anyone at all. Not that some of our
local politicians seem to have noticed. I’m sure we’ll see them there
at the ribbon-cutting, whenever the day comes around. I might be there
too, but if I am, I’ll be carrying a placard!
By the way
On my way into the Farmers’ Market in Cahir this morning, I heard an
advert on the radio for one of our larger supermarkets. They had a
special offer on 5kg bags of Rooster potatoes, down from six euros a
bag to four. When I got to the market I asked Pat O’Brien what he was
selling his Roosters for. “3 euros for a 5kg bag as usual” came the
reply. Need I say more?
Exports
During the summer we sent away our first juice export to the USA. A
pallet of juice made its way slowly by sea to the west coast; Portland
in Oregon to be precise. The wholesaler over there is selling directly
to the public via his website, www.exeterimports.com, as well as
selling through other channels. If you know of anyone in the US who
would like our juice, you can now send them a case by ordering online
at that website, or indeed encourage them to enjoy a taste of the best
of Irish juice by ordering direct themselves.
Also, in the past week we have sent juice to Germany, for use in
Christmas hampers over there. Nothing could give me more satisfaction
than seeing some money coming from Germany, rather than hearing on the
news about it all heading from here, over to there.
Ice-cream
Now this is not the time of year for it, but given that, as part of a
school project, my son Daniel and his friend Mike have been making some
ice-cream, I have to mention it. It is all happening in the small
ice-cream factory of Michael Cantwell, of Boulabawn ice-cream near
Roscrea. The boys started with using Michael’s ingredients along with
our fruit to make some flavours, but also made some working from the
Boulabawn recipe book. It has gone very well for Mike and Dan. The main
question has been to decide whether to call their ice-cream Dan
& Mike’s or Mike & Dan’s. At the moment they have half
the lids with each brand name.
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