It is a 9 month internship whereby the successful candidate will spend 30 hours per week working with us learning how to grow and sell organic vegetables.

Application form

The candidate must be on unemployment assistance or benefit for at least the last 3 months to qualify. Please send an email to Úna at  info@beechlawnfarm.org and ask for an application form. The candidate should also inquire in their social welfare/Fás office if they are eligible to take part in the Fás Jobsbridge internship scheme.

We are also hoping to attract some new work experience students from Horticulture Colleges with a keen interest in Organic horticulture and farming.

Please contact Úna  info@beechlawnfarm.org for further information.

Application form

BARRAÍ
Our Brussels sprouts, red cabbage. leeks and broccoli grew very successfully for us this year along with the first crop of carrots, beetroot and cabbage. Kale is growing and selling well for us too with lots of people now aware of the importance of leafy green vegetables. We grew a very large crop of leeks and secured a sale of leeks to Superquinn nationwide. 2011 was a good planting year with the exception of the delicate crops such as tomatoes courgette and French beans. The lack of direct sunlight delayed their maturity and ripening. We hope for a sunnier 2012!
We employed an agricultural advisor this year, a man who has worked with growers in North Dublin and Co. Meath. This has helped us a lot especially around the area of machinery and sowing, planting and harvesting schedules. We harvested 20 tons of Setanta potato in November and sent most of them to a storage company in Dublin with a controlled temperature warehouse in case the frost comes.

OIBRITHEOIRÍ FEIRME
We are very happy with our farm staff this year. Padraig along with Gregor, Dave and Christopher are doing the outdoor farm work and have put in a good years work. We had many volunteers on work placement and on working holidays from abroad who helped us in 2011. We are very grateful for their help. Darren Kelly is head of veg packing in the farm shed. Michael Harrington is our delivery driver and Marie Downey runs the office and is the box scheme co-ordinator. Without their commitment and hard work we wouldn’t be here today!

BORD BIA ORGANIC AWARDS
We were highly commended this year for our rocket 80g bag and our curly Kale 250g shop shelf bag. Bord Bia are also giving us funding to rebrand and design a flyer to advertise our box scheme.

MUCA
Our second herd of pigs went to the butcher three weeks ago and sold well. We have a few Christmas hams still in our freezer. Most of the rest of the pork, bacon and sausages are sold.

MARGADH: We continue to sell at Loughrea market on Thursday mornings 9.30am-12.30pm and Oranmore market on Thursday afternoons 2pm -5pm. The weather is challenging at the moment but that’s Winter!

GEIMHRIDH: During the quieter Winter months we are focusing on reviewing our crop growing year. Any comments are welcome. We are also focusing on printing our new veg box flyer and selling our veg to new shops, including Supervalu Monksland, Athlone, Queallys Supervalu Killaloe, Londis Kilcolgan and Centra Athenry. Also buying from us are Irelands Raw Kitchen in Galway. Check out www.irelandsrawkitchen.ie

AN NOLLAIG: If you want to make your Christmas veg box ordering simple you can order a €20 or €30 Christmas box. It will contain potatoes, carrots, parsnip, red cabbage, Brussels sprouts for the traditional dinner, red pepper, yellow pepper, courgette, onion for stuffing and a stir fry/roast, and melon, blood orange, apples, pears, and cooking apples for starter/dessert. You can add or take away items from the list to suit your preferences.

CHRISTMAS PRIZE VOUCHER
Our €50 box scheme voucher winner is Phil Fagan. Darren, while blindfolded picked Phil’s name from a total of 94 customers. Congratulations Phil! You have won €50 euros worth of veg and fruit.

BREITHLÁ: We will be ten years in Business in Spring 2012. We hope to organise a celebration in the summer. We will keep you posted.

SIOPA FEIRME DON NOLLAG
The farm shop is always open on Tuesdays as we pack our veg boxes. For Christmas it is also open on Thursday 22nd from 9am to 5pm and Friday 23rd December from 9am to 5pm. The box scheme deliveries return at the later times of Wednesday the 4th Jan for Athlone and Ballinasloe boxes and Thursday 5th Jan for Aughrim and Galway boxes.

Nollaig Shona agus athbhliain faoi mhaise is faoi shéin. We hope you and yours enjoy the Christmas and new year celebrations!

Le mór mheas,
Úna Ní Bhroin & Padraig Fahy

Beechlawn Organic Farm Christmas Staff photo 2011 (taken by Úna)

From left: Christopher Coppinger – Teagasc work placement student, Gregor Gajecki horticultural worker, Dave Walsh – Teagasc work placement student, Michael Harrington – delivery driver, Darren Kell y- Veg packing supervisor, Marie Downey, office administrator and box scheme co-ordinator, Padraig Fahy, co-owner and Manager

We are waiting to hear from our rhubarb supplier in Athenry ( Athenry Organics) she won’t know until Monday if she has rhubarb for us. We also were missing our mushrooms last Tuesday and Wednesday week. Apologies to anyone who was disappointed with this.

Next week we will have our mushrooms as usual again, along with our new Irish small onion bunches from an organic farm in Williamstown Co. Galway.

BARRAÍ
We are harvesting our scallions and red and green lettuce this week along with Spinach, rocket and salad leaf. By July we hope to have our own tomatoes, cucumbers and many other summer vegetables. Sowing and planting is going well, with plenty of welcome sunshine. We need some rain for our outdoor crops to grow however! We have started irrigating some, but we need a lot of water pipes to cover all. We ran out of space at the farm this year and have rented two fields on an organic Farm in Kilconnell where we are growing onions and potatoes.

TREIMHSE OCRACH
We are in the HUNGRY GAP period of the Irish veg year. From March to May is the leanest time as this year’s Spring sowings are not yet big enough to eat and last year’s harvest is coming to an end.

LÁ OSCAILTE
Our annual Teagasc Farm tour for growers is on Wednesday evening the 7th of September. Our Customers & friends Farm tour is on the following Saturday the 10th of September from 11am-5pm. Let us know if you want to come on a tour earlier in the Summer and we will organise it.

MUCA
We got 5week old pigs in February, Up until last week they were in a field behind our polytunnels with a small house and plenty of room outside to roam and root. Now they are in another overgrown area enjoying rooting and digging it up. They are fed only organic meal, water and vegetables from the farm. They will be ready to go the butcher in a few weeks and we will be selling sides of pork (half a pig, butchered into various cuts and delivered in a box to be put into a chest freezer and used over the next six months or so. We will be selling sausages separately. Let us know if you want to buy a side of pork or if you want a few packets of sausages with your home delivery box or at the market stall. The sausages are €5 for a 500g pack. The sides of pork are usually around €200 depending on the size of the pigs.

GEIMHREADH DONA
The big freeze seems like a distant memory now but we lost two tons of carrots, a crop of overwintering cabbages and lots of our turnips last November, December and January. Our potatoes were also affected as we were getting them into storage in the last few days of October, as we later discovered. We aim to get everything out of the fields by the middle of October this year. Wish us luck!

MARGADAH
We are back trading at the Market in Croffys Yard, Ballinasloe on Friday mornings from 9am to 1pm. We are also in Oranmore from 2pm to 6pm on Thursdays. We have a stall at the Loughrea market on Barrack St on Thursdays from 9.30am to 12.30pm and at the Moycullen Country market on Fridays from 1pm -6pm

SIOPAÍ
Our produce is for sale in Morton’s of Salthill, Joyces Knocknacarra, Mc Cambridge’s on Shop Street, Supervalu Barna Supervalu Moycullen, Supervalu Oranmore, Supervalu Fr. Griffin Rd, Supervalu Gort, Joyces Athenry and the Twelve Hotel in Barna, the Wineport Restaurant in Athlone and Oscars Bistro, Galway. Suíomh Idirlín: Our website has been re-designed- www.beechlawnfarm.org –

DUAIS-GNÓ LE GAEILGE
Corn Uí Cheithearnaigh: We have won the Conradh na Gaeilge; Béal Atha na Slua 2011 award for doing business through the medium of Irish.
Buíochas arís don tacaíocht.

Úna Ní Bhroin & Padraig Fahy

Our customers have asked us to use less paper and plastic packaging in their box at times. Others would prefer more packaging especially around fruit.

We endeavour to use as little packaging with our produce for environmental and other reasons. However we are advised that earthy veg should not be packed with fresh fruit for hygienic reasons.

We also find it hard to keep cauliflowers spotless without putting in a bag. Let us know your thoughts on this?

So we are happy with the planting and sowing done so far this year. The tomato plants are about 5 inches high now in the poly-tunnels and growing well in pots until we plant them out next month.

Please send your orders by 12 noon on Monday by text, email or phone.
Please specify pc (piece) or kg (kilogram) or g (gram) on your order. Enjoy the sunshine!

Please send your veg & fruit order by 12 noon on Monday. Specify exact amount pc or kg to avoid mistakes.

Applicants must have a relevant 3rd level qualification in Horticulture.
Applications close 31st of March. The job starts 18th April.

Please send your veg & fruit order by 12 noon on Monday. Specify exact amount pc or kg to avoid mistakes.