Text by Fionnuala Collins, editing by Agnes Repka.

The group were then given a tour of the farm where we were staying. As well as meeting all  the animals such as new baby lambs, new puppies, a hairy Hungarian pig, goats, sheep, rabbits, we met the owners and the local farmer assistant and heard a little of their their story, what brought them to the place and how they are managing with all their work.

Their story is a very interesting one as they have created a new farm from scratch. They had to clear tonnes and tonnes of rubbish from the 8 Hectare site and import all the top soil, landscape the area to include all sheds and barns, a pond and fields for animals and create an orchard garden, cellar and clay fire chamber for smoking meat from the farm. They are “living the dream”, after holding this dream for 22 years, they finally found the time was right and they had gathered enough resources to make it happen. A key motivation was reconnecting with their source of food. Many children eat meat but they do not know where it comes from or how it lived. The woman of the house is a formidable woman, once a very successful tourism business operator she is spritely and energetic and often works long, long hours to keep the place ticking over.

She is from a farming background, so she wanted to reconnect with her true source of nourishment and during this last 8 years has gone to her mother and asked her to show her all the things she saw her do as a child from making cheese and jams to preserving elderberries and blackberries in syrups.In this place visitors see what the animal looks like, can pet it and see how it moves in the landscape or what its living conditions are like. There is also the opportunity to make bread, cheese and a salami type sausage from their pigs meat. It is a new Agri tourism enterprise but a very good example of how people can blend tourism with growing…food for thought….