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OGI Newsletter
Find here the links to all the newsletters the OGI have ever sent out!
Expert Essay: Andy Dibben “Its not all about the Bees”
Insects managed correctly in agriculture transform quickly from being a pest to being a powerful tool.
Organic Grower Feature – Gorse Farm
Our understanding now is that no-dig is not exclusively a ‘deep-mulch’ system but incorporates many methods of cultivation that minimise soil disturbance and keeps the roots in the ground. Moreover, our approach to vegetable growing is now centred on building soil biology, which incorporates many methods, one of which continues to be no-dig.
SETU Master of Science in Organic and Biological Agriculture
A new MSc programme in Organic and Biological Agriculture has been developed by the Department of Land Science in the South East Technological University in Waterford.
Organic Grower Colman Power at Featherfield Farm
One of the new projects in the pipeline that I am excited about is the growing of medicinal mushrooms. Mushrooms are an organic fitness food. Nutritionally, they are a good source of folate and vitamin D; making them a natural stress reliever and mood improver. They are also beneficial to your immune system; a true superfood!
Glasraí Organic Farm
Our main focus is on maintaining soil microbiology through the use of cover crops. No dig hasn’t won us over yet, but we are interested in following how it works on other farms. We are very cautious about deep mulch as practiced on many no-dig farms. We have a hesitancy because of the potential of nutrient run off, the effects of over nitrification on soils, the lock up of certain nutrients by the over supply of others. I suppose we’d like to keep an eye on soil testing results from such farms, and we haven’t seen much data yet. We may however yet embrace no-dig in a system using green manures and non reliance on deep mulching for weed control. We are always learning and evolving.
New Leaf Urban Farmers
Our micro-farm has developed over the past five seasons both in methods and practices. From low-till to no-dig to eventually arriving at, what we feel is the zenith of farming practices, Korean Natural Farming (KNF & JADAM). We use no machinery, just hand tools and we no longer crop rotate. All our inputs are made from ingredients sourced on the farm and in the surrounding hills. The sole function of the farm can be distilled down to soil management practices. We firmly believe that creating a richly diverse microbial ecosystem underpins plant health and soil vitality.
Essay Series – Eliot Coleman “Questions for Organic Farmers to Discuss”
“The most popularly embraced benefit of organic farming, according to customer surveys, is the prohibition of pesticides. What else should we be stressing and how should we present it? How can we better teach the public that the plant resistance to pests, which allows real organic farmers to avoid needing pesticides, is an outcome of growing on a balanced, biologically active fertile soil that, as scientific studies have consistently shown, induces pest and disease resistance in the crops in addition to enhancing their nutritional value?”
Essay Series – Eliot Coleman “Without Organic, Just Regenerative Isn’t Enough”
Re-generative agriculture is touted by farmers who, having spent decades de-generating, through chemical farming, the originally deep fertile soils with which they were blessed, rather than acknowledging their mistakes, are now pretending to have invented a whole new system of agriculture they call “re-generative”.
The Earthly Marketplace
The Earthly Marketplace by Lorna Anne Tierney, Founder Calling all Independent Organic Growers from all over Ireland! Introducing The Earthy Marketplace; the first of its kind All-Ireland Resource Hub for Conscious Consumerism. We’re in search of...
Essay Series – Eliot Coleman “The New Truth”
The New Truth by Eliot Coleman, Four Season Farm, Harborside, Maine On Saturdays during the summer, I take the opportunity to chat with our farm stand (farm shop) customers while they are waiting in line. I mention to them, what is to me, a most significant...
Essay Series – Eliot Coleman “Soil-grown vs soil-less food production”
Soil-grown vs soil-less food production by Eliot Coleman The interest in using soil-less hydroponic systems to grow food is an example of what Teddy Goldsmith decried in his book The Way (1992) as “the methodical substitution of the technosphere or surrogate...
Essay Series – Eliot Coleman “An old -time opinion from an old organic farmer “
An old-time opinion from an old organic farmer by Eliot Coleman I have always thought that the world missed the important message of Plowman’s Folly. The title of the 1943 surprise best seller caused readers to focus on author Edward Faulkner’s condemnation of...
Christmas 2021 – Letter from the Chairperson
Christmas 2021 - Letter from the Chairperson As another year draws to a close, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our members for their continued support. Much like 2020 this year has once again been affected with the Covid pandemic...
SeameGro Trial at Airfield
SeameGro Trial (Airfield) Colm O'Driscoll, head gardener at Airfield, tells us about trialing a seaweed based plant biofertilizer. Farming conference season is upon us with BioFarm 2021 and Future Growers Conference both taking place this month. The importance...
A Fibreshed for Ireland
A Fibreshed for Ireland by Malú Colorín "The soil that feeds us is also the soil that clothes us." —Rebecca Burgess, founder & director of Fibershed As we know, people are becoming ever more aware about the kind of food they consume, where it...
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