We were inspired to visit ‘Glasraí’, an organic home growing business situated in Hollymount, Co.Mayo as we brainstormed ideas for a menu for our end of year dinner party. Joe Reilly, a past pupil runs the business with his partner, Aoife McNulty. The principal, school assistant and a sub teacher drove all eleven pupils to their farm. Not withstanding, our visit was unannounced and they had a two week old baby along with a little toddler running around, Joe and Aoife still gave us quality time and shared so much of their knowledge with us.
We first got to see all the new baby chicks and the various kinds of eggs the different hens layed. The shelter that housed the hen and her chicks was made from corrugated boards where they were all neatly tucked away, so cosy inside. We got to hold the little chicks, they were just so adorable. The house where they slept at night was built from bricks but it had wooden steps at the side to allow the chickens to climb up at night away from the harm of foxes. There’s a plastic barrel beside the hen house that harvests rainwater for the hens. It has tiny, twistable openings at the bottom of the barrel which allow the chicks to get enough water to keep them going. We got to play on the trampoline which is set into the ground. They also have a tunnel which goes through the grounds of their garden for playing, this was so much fun to go through and come out the other side. Joe let us pick vegetables ourselves for the dinner and he showed us how to cut the lettuce heads from the ground. Some of the vegetables weren’t ripe so we were unable to pull them, like the brocolli was still very small. However, we got beetroot, carrots, tomatoes, lettuce, garlic, spring onions, potatoes, strawberries, mange tout, celery, garden peas and herbs. We got to eat the beans from the beanstalks. They looked just like the ones from the story, ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. There are bright, colourful edible flowers growing at the front of the poly tunnels to attract bees. We are going to use all of these vegetables for our end of school year dinner party at our school on Friday night. Joe and his family work really hard to send quality, organic food to the local shops weekly, they also have a stall at the Castlebar Farmer’s Market and at the Claremorris Market. We are grateful to Joe and Aoife and their children for taking the time to share their organic farm produce with us and we will certainly be getting more of their produce for our cooking in the kitchen in future.
