Read: The Examiner | Green Earth Organics: Going back to our vegetable roots
First published in the Irish Examiner on 16 February 2024.
If you buy Irish, then that encourages the Irish vegetable industry to expand.” It’s all very simple when organic farmer Kenneth Keavey, who runs vegetable box delivery business Green Earth Organics, explains it like that. But the stark fact remains: despite our climate being ideal for growing – at least most of the time – only 1% of Irish farms produce vegetables, according to 2016 Eurostat figures. The percentage of Irish farms growing organic vegetables is even lower but Keavey has been bucking trends since he returned from the UK In 2004 with his wife, Jenny, to take over the family farm in Co Galway back in 2004.
Growing up in Ireland during the 1980s recession, it wasn’t a given that Keavey would go into farming: his father always made sure he had options: “Dad always wanted me to be experienced on the farming side and get used to hard work but, it being 1980s Ireland, he also knew that it was important to get an education.” Keavey did Applied Chemistry in UCG, and then continued his studies with a PhD in Medical Chemistry at the University of Cambridge. “I decided, with all the experience I had in farming, that I didn’t want to go down that road. Instead,” he laughs, “I went into dark side of the industry, working as an organic chemist.”
But the land called him home. “The family farm was here, Dad was talking about selling it and I wanted a change,” remembers Keavey. “I wasn’t happy doing the kind of work I was doing. My wife and I quit our jobs and moved back in 2004.” It wasn’t an easy start, making the leap from a farm with “sheep and cows and hay” into vegetable growing. “We had no income, we were trying to grow veg and go organic and we didn’t have a clue.” Putting up a polytunnel on the land, at a time before everyone had polytunnels in their back garden, caused some consternation: “The local gardai turned up! They were very suspicious of what we were growing.” The couple weren’t dissuaded though. “We went off down our mad path, growing veg and really enjoyed it. We were growing food that respected where we were from.”
Starting a vegetable box delivery scheme, which they did in 2006, was a game changer. “The first 30 went out to friends and family and from then it, ahem, grew organically.” Their veg box offering includes produce from their own farm and other local organic growers alongside imported organic fruit and vegetables, ensuring that there’s always a selection available. Making it convenient to access quality vegetables and fruit enabled the company to weather the financial ups and downs of the late 00s and the years impacted by Covid shutdowns.
On the website, Green Earth Organics also sells a comprehensive selection of organic pantry items (nuts, beans, flours), and eco-friendly cleaning products alongside fresh organic Irish items like Butlers’ eggs, Blake’s kefir and Mossfield cheese, yogurt and milk. It’s this service, one where you can pick up a 100% Irish farm box, which includes organic beetroot, kale, cabbage and mushrooms, along with Achill sea salt, bulk bags of unwaxed oranges, pasta, Dunany flour, organic tinned tomatoes and Lilly’s Eco Clean washing up liquid that makes Green Earth Organics a one-stop shop for anyone who wants to source organic products. The nationwide delivery fee is €5.50, free delivery for orders over €100 and there are different order deadlines and delivery days depending on where you are in the country: in Cork, I can order by 10am Wednesday for delivery on Friday, making sure I have fresh (and occasionally muddy!) Irish-grown vegetables for weekend cooking.
Selling direct through online vegetable box orders and in the farm shop they run on Saturdays at their base in Caherlea (just over 15 km from Galway city) is how Green Earth Organics manages to make everything work. “We developed our own retail business to circumnavigate the supermarkets,” says Keavey who used to sell into the multiples but realised that it didn’t make sense for his business. “They have all the power and we weren’t getting value out of them.” Growing is not an easy job – “ it’s bloody hard work, so it is” – so Keavey finds it frustrating that supermarkets use fresh food as loss leaders, devaluing the price of Irish-grown vegetables. It’s something that he’s very good at communicating on social media, talking about the vagaries of vegetable growing in Ireland while walking the fields.
“Food grown closer to where it’s consumed makes more sense,” Keavey points out. “There are less carbon emissions, it’s fresher – as it’s travelled less of a distance – and therefore has more nutrients. You have more confidence in food that’s grown locally, and there’s more food security. It’s good for us and it’s better for the environment.” Customers are very positive about the quality, freshness and taste of the vegetables that they receive, and also appreciate the fact that the produce is plastic free. “We don’t have plastic in our veg boxes. We just don’t.”
While the 100% Irish farm box (€30) is the most popular offering on the Green Earth Organics website, Keavey knows that it’s a big ask to have people eating only Irish-grown vegetables at this time of the year. “There’s the idea of eating sustainably and locally and then there’s the reality. Sometimes that doesn’t align. In July it’s great – we have tomatoes, beans, cucumber available – but at the moment it’s all roots and traditional Irish veg and eating seasonally becomes more difficult.” By offering a mixture of Irish-grown and imported organic fruit and vegetables he can keep Green Earth Organics customers supplied throughout the year. “You have to be realistic about it. There are things that you just can’t grow successfully in Ireland.” I, for one, wouldn’t wish to be without access to imported lemons – good for brightening up the flavour of that Irish savoy cabbage – or bitter oranges for marmalade making.
By buying Irish when possible and increasing demand, consumers can make a real difference. “Support for the industry leads to more Irish-grown vegetables on the shelves,” says Keavey, “and that’s better for everybody.”
www.greenearthorganics.ie
