Editor’s Note: These pieces are intended to offer a deeper look into each episode of surfer Fergal Smith‘s Line9 series, Growing, a new clip published every two weeks. The series is a year in the life of Smith and his brother. With a new clip published every two weeks, the series follows them as they take a step back from the rat race while spending days tending to a sustainable garden and surfing the readily available Irish slab.
Author’s Note: My main reason for doing this series is for showing the what else I’m passionate about — aside from surfing — and to try to promote all the good, positive things that people are doing.
It’s coming to the end of the summer now, and there has been very little in the way of good swells all summer long. As mad as it may seem, it has suited me perfectly — it has meant focusing on the garden and not stressing about chasing waves. When you have another passion that is taking up a lot of your time, the one-foot drippily surf at the end of a long day becomes really quite fun. The garden has grown so well I can’t even quite believe it at times. We have been feeding lots people all summer and there is no feeling like it. With the summer coming to an end, you can feel autumn creeping in; it’s a lovely feeling seeing the vegetables start to slow in there growth and knowing the waves are coming again soon. Really looking forward to a good swell.
But this clip is from the beginning of the summer. A good friend of mine Jason is a great organic grower near Ennis. I helped put up a 100-foot tunnel for him last summer and after one of the crazy storms last winter it got torn to pieces. So myself and my brother went over to give him a hand get it back up again. Its really hard to leave the garden I am working on as there is always a lot of work you can be doing, but it’s also really nice to be able to give someone like Jason a hand. There are lots of great growers out there working extremely hard to feed us with amazing food. These people are so knowledgeable and care so much about the food they grow yet not many people ever hear about them. They barely make a crust out what they do, and it’s one of the most important jobs there is, growing organic vegetables for us to eat. My hat goes off to people like Jason. I am always more than willing to give him a hand in what he is doing.
The polytunnel is the most productive way of growing in Ireland because of the weather. You can make sure they get the right amount of water while the temperatures remain regular and higher, but one of the biggest things is the wind protection. I wanted to make a clip showing a small scale commercial garden employing polytunnels, to better show what it takes to grow the variety of food for people in Ireland. I have not put any tunnels up in our garden yet as it’s too windy where we are — that’s why we planted over 300 trees to hopefully create a wind break in a few years.
I hope people can appreciate the work and commitment these growers are doing to create food for us. It’s no easy feet to produce food in this part of the world. It was my pleasure to go and help Jason and pick his brains for invaluable knowledge from growing for over 25 years.
On our way home, I heard there was a few waves so went straight to the break. There is nothing better for me these days than to have done a good day’s work in the garden to help grow food for people and then go for a surf. That, to me, is a great day.
To learn more about Jason Horner’s sustainable (and healthy) farming initiatives, visit LeenOrganics.com.
