We had a great morning with Eddie Doonie as he showed us around his farm and introduced us to some West Ireland farming/living experiences.
We started off looking at Eddie’s vegetable garden. Everything seemed to be jumping out of the ground. He had loads of potatoes and kale, a huge rhubarb plant, and hidden away in a hot house he had lots of herbs and he was trying his hand at tomatoes. He was given some seeds so he thought he would give them a go. No fruit on them, but plenty of flowers, probably too late to get any tomatoes this year, but he should get some next season now he understands them a bit better. Eddie went off and got a shovel, dug up a potato plant and gave us about 1 ½ doz spuds, and some kale for an early lunch. ? He then introduced us to the family pig. She was a big old sow, apparently Eddie wanted to eat her a few years ago, but his youngest daughter protested. Now the sow is way too old for eating and has become a pet.
From there we walked down a country lane, The Old Bog Lane, and were introduced to two of his donkeys, a mother and daughter, Isabelle and Suzy. He has four donkeys, they used to be used to help on the farm, but no longer. They use donkeys over horses because horses are too expensive to keep, a horse requires 1.5 time the food of a cow! Eddie also has around 31 cattle on the farm , he raises them as beef cattle and sells them at about 12 months old. The cattle spend the winter months (5months) in sheds, it takes about 200 bales of hay plus other food to feed them over that time. In the barn he is keeping his cat’s litter. A single pure white kitten has survived, he thinks his dog may have something to do with that. The kitten is deaf, apparently white cats are susceptible to deafness.
He then took us down to his Peat Bog fields. On the way he showed us an old (he rebuilt it) lime kiln, where limestone was fired for 2 days using the peat to make lime, that was spread onto the fields to improve the soil.
We also walked past a mud hut he had built to show visitors how some people used to live in the past when things got tough. It had a narrow opening into a small but functional shelter area, a little like an igloo I guess.
A bit further down were his bog fields, where he harvested his peat. The peat is harvested during May to June in two ways. The first way we saw was by digging it out as a slurry and putting it through a machine to form “bricks” about 4” square x 18” long. These were laid on the ground in rows and left to dry, turning them over after a few weeks, then stacking them in an open pile to further dry before being put away for winter use. The other way, which I got to try was using a specially designed tool a bit like a spade, to cut the peat into a square brick and lift it out of the bog to the ground nearby for drying. This was done in areas where the peat was relatively dry and firm. The peat here extends to up to 12’ (4m), the top is like stiff mud and it gets progressively mushier the deeper you go down to and beyond the water table.
Eddie has dug quite a few tree logs out of the bog, he had one carbon dated and it came back as 5000 years old, it was over 150 years old when it fell. It is very hard wood and is prized by local craftsmen.
As we walked back we passed his chicken run, we walked away with 3 very fresh eggs ?
I boiled up about a dozen small potatoes when we got back, a dash of butter and a sprinkle of pepper, delicious, great flavour.
At noon we walked over to the blacksmiths shed. Patrick of 9 Irons, Barroerock Forge, our blacksmith was an interesting guy with lots of stories. We enjoyed the hour we had with him in his forge as he guided us through the process of making his signature “Amulet Nine Irons”.
We arrived at the forge and Patrick was stoking the fire, heating the prepared blanks that we were to turn into our very own handcrafted “Amulet Nine Irons”. It was fun working with the hammers and metal stamps as we shaped and patterned our pieces. Patrick was a brave man, holding the metal stamp as Deb swung the hammer down onto it, never a miss swing thank goodness. ?
After our pieces were deburred, polished and put on a ring. The amulets date back to the 1800’s when blacksmiths were held in high almost mystic regard in their communities, the 9 Irons were based on a tradition of the power of iron. Each miniature on the ring represented a charm for good health and good luck. The miniatures made by us and on our ring are a Cross, a Plough Coulter, a Plough Share, a Shovel Blade, a Spade Blade, a Hatchet, a Saw, a Griddle Pan and a Horse Shoe Nail. Patrick’s web site is here if you want to find out more about the amulet. https://www.9ironscraft.ie
Patrick presented them to us in a small ceremony of a blessing for good health and good luck. We parted ways with a hug, and very pleased with our work and resulting Amulet.
We had a quiet afternoon, relaxing, it was so good to have a car free day. We lit the fire and fed it “bog” to warm the cottage. I watched the All Ireland Hurling Final, Kilkenny v Tipperary and Deb read. Hurling is a game of very few rules, but somehow a Kilkenny player managed to get himself sent off just before half time for a shoulder charge to an opponents head! Kilkenny never recovered from being a man down in the super fast game. Tipperary won 3-25 (34) to 0-20 (20)
To finish our day we had an evening of Traditional music by the fireside. It was a great couple of hours sharing stories and their music was lots of fun, real foot tapping Irish folk music.
Deb has suffered no ongoing effects, other than some discomfort, from the wasp sting, and I am good. We are having a fantastic time and we hope you are enjoying following us our journey.
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