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Published: October 5th 2012
I finished the polytunnel on Monday, with a little help from Annabel and Sarah. This involved digging the remaining weeds, scrubbing the the polytunnel plastic clean, inside and out with a broom and soapy water, to allow more light to reach the plants, and planting salads whilst Annabel and Sarah planted salad seeds, broad beans, carrots and cabbages. Seeing it all completed brought a huge sense of achievement – the polytunnel had changed almost beyond recognition from when I first saw it! However, work here is never done – not only is there another polytunnel, there is a huge garden that needs attention. Monday evening was fantastic fun, the Irish musicians were great “craic”! They brought out the mandolins, flute, Barón drum and tin whistles and started a “trad” session in the kitchen, playing traditional Irish songs by the dozen. I had a go at my first Irish song on the flute, “The Wind that Whistles the Barley” – it wasn’t very good, but I still got a clap or two!
On Tuesday morning everybody was feeling a bit worse for wear, after a lot of red wine the night before, so I got off lightly in terms of WWOOF
work. My job was to clear the left-hand bed in the smaller polytunnel, a job I undertook with enthusiasm, but which Annabel insisted I stopped after only about 3 or 4 hours! By then I had only taken out the tomato plants and weeds and hadn’t got round to removing excess rocket plants, of which there were many. Still, I couldn’t argue with the boss, so instead I walked to the beach with Sarah, Nula and Molly, where we threw a few sticks and stones on the beach for the dog to chase before shivering our way, through the wind, out over the rocky outcrop. The three Irish had to head home around 5 in the afternoon – we would all miss them sorely! However we didn’t have long to wallow, as the rest of us had to leave at 6.30 as we were going to eat out in Bantry, where we had excellent food at the new restaurant Tractors. Afterwards we moved on to the weekly Art House screening at the local cinema, where we watched The Source, a beautiful Arabic film set in Africa, with English subtitles.
Wednesday was much more productive; I took out all but
two rocket plants from the small polytunnel, scrubbed the polytunnel clean and weeded a flower bed and a half, with help from Annabel. To celebrate, I went for a short walk over the “ridge” behind the house, through the heathland, a stunning route! When I returned I set to cooking huge quantities of bean chilli, which was to be the main meal for the seven people attending birthday celebrations happening that night, in aid of Annabel’s friend Lisa. I found out Lisa is a good friend of Pat Bowcock, who lives a sustainable lifestyle in Dorset and who I did a few days’ work for last summer, with a group of friends. Lili made a divine carrot cake for the occasion and one of the others brought a wonderful bruschetta starter, so we had a real feast that night! Upwords made its obligatory appearance, as well as Articulate, making for a fun night – ruined only by an intense debate about various green issues, which put quite a downer on the party mood! Nevertheless, it was an enjoyable evening over all.
Annabel and I started getting manure for the flower beds on Thursday. It may seem strange that I’m
spending so much of my time working on flower beds, when I’m technically on a food-growing placement, but in fact the garden is important for the couple’s business. In the summer, people who come to the café are free to look round the garden and it has become an attraction in its own right, bringing people to the café and gallery. We picked up manure from a small animal farm nearby, shovelling it into the trailer. We only managed two loads, spreading it on the flower beds. I spent the rest of the afternoon baking – I made a lemon sponge topped with crystallised edible flowers, making use of the variety Annabel’s garden provides! We each had a piece after dinner, a simple affair of mackerel, which a friend had caught earlier that day and brought round, with potatoes and peas. It was our first “evening off” we’d had in a while so we relaxed in front of the Great British Bake Off and American X Factor. I sat de-podding seeds for Annabel’s seed packets, which she sells for donations.
Today Annabel and I got three loads of manure, finishing all the flower beds we’d weeded and leaving some
over for Lili’s garden. Tonight we had pizza and cake for dinner, yum! I will miss the constant supply of cake there is here!
I’m hoping to go along to the Sheep’s Head at the end of the peninsula tomorrow, as long as the weather’s good.
If anyone wants to see Annabel’s artwork, the website is
www.herongallery.net. She has a really lovely way of drawing animals, so it's worth a look!
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Love to learn more
I hope you will tell us a bit about the WWOOFer program. How did you pick this location or were you assigned. How long will you be there. A few details. It sounds like a fantastic program. What are your impression of Irish life and how it compares to your life at home.