Good morning all.

Today is my (@IrishRainforest) last day curating this account, and I'm going to use it to talk about the other essential side of the coin in turning around the ongoing death spiral of Irish nature (along with High Nature Value farming):

Rewilding. You've probably already heard various things about rewilding, some of them true, some less so.

But I want to say straight off that rewilding is NOT anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-rural communities, or any other rubbish of that sort.

Quite the opposite. Let's look deeper...

On my (@IrishRainforest) second last day on this account, I want to talk about the big lie that is Irish 'forests'.

One of these below is a forest, one of them most definitely is not.

One covers around 1% of Ireland, the other 10%. It would be easy to think of a forest as a big bunch of trees, but nothing could be further from the truth.

A real forest is instead made up of thousands of different species that coevolved over very long periods of time to function cohesively as an *ecosystem*.

Hi everyone, today I'll be talking about something very close to my own heart, as revealed my twitter handle: @IrishRainforest.

It's something many - or even most - people are still totally unaware of: the natural ecosystem of much of Ireland is actually rainforest. When we first came to the farm in 2009, I was blown away by the wild forest that had developed naturally over much of the land.

The trees were full of plants living on the trunks and branches, like ferns, mosses, and a host of other types of plants.

Good morning folks, it's me @IrishRainforest back again.

Yesterday I talked about the desperate and worsening state of nature in Ireland, and the role the industrialisation of farming is playing.

Today, let's look at one of the solutions: High Nature Value farming (HNVf). Small numbers of farmers all over Ireland are moving towards HNVfarming, and you can follow @farmfornature to get an idea of who's doing what.

Also, I'd highly recommend reading @isabella_tree's 'Wilding: The Return of Nature to a British Farm'.
bookworm.ie/wilding/

Morning folks. I'd like to talk about nature today, and how it's doing on our generation's watch.

The answer is unequivocal: it could scarcely be worse. Nature is rapidly blinking out all around us.

And no, that is NOT hyperbole.

All the science confirms it. There are so many statistics I could hit you with to show how nature is being killed off, but statistics tend to wash over us, so here's just one.

In 1970-2016 alone, global populations of wild vertebrates like mammals and birds plummeted by 68%.
theguardian.com/environment/20…

Good morning all.

Today I'd like to explore a subject that for me is both fascinating, and deeply relevant to the present.

That is: ecological and human history, how they're interconnected, and how we have so completely transformed or eliminated natural ecosystems over time. I'll be focusing on what I've been able to learn of this immediate locality, the rest of the Beara Peninsula, and southwest Ireland.

While some of it is area-specific, examining one place in more detail can act as a lens through which to understand a much bigger picture.

Good morning everyone, today I'm just going to introduce myself, give a general sense of who I am, the type of farming I do, and other related stuff that may be of interest.

So, first things first: my name is Eoghan Daltun, and my regular twitter handle is @IrishRainforest I'm what people in places like West Cork call a Dublin 'jackeen', and in 2009 sold my house there (Kilmainham) to buy a long-abandoned 73-acre farm in Beara, West Cork.

The place came with 33 acres, plus a 40-acre share of mountain commonage, all *extremely* rough ground.

So as I logout, let me say thanks to all of you. this week has given me a platform 40 times my normal followers. It has really been a pleasure & I genuinely mean that. Twitter can be a shouty place (& I’ve been as guilty as anyone) The kind comments & the lovely messages have been such an encouragement. Particularly thanks to the lovely people (all women) who privately showed me how to do threads & didn’t embarrass me in public. 👍

So here we are at Sunday & I need to add a bit about my sheep before I finish. This will probably look a bit more factual than a story, but it’s just some things that I’ve discovered, that work & make my life easier. As I settle in to a year on year routine with the Lleyns & learn a bit about them, I find ways that work for me & for the next few years I build up the flock & have the satisfaction of seeing my own breeding come through. Soon every sheep on the farm, has been born on the farm.

Earlier in the week I mentioned grandad’s metalwork skills had jumped a couple of generations. Youngest son has a real talent for steel fabrication. Techniques are different, but he can literally make anything. This is a bale cradle feeder, he starts with lengths of straight steel & rolls them on a machine he made himself. These are the finished articles off to a customer this week. He has a full time job & does this at night.

How to increase the number of trees on your farm?

Hopefully I made the case yesterday that there is a place for trees on every farm.

Shelter and forage✅
Income ✅
Biodiversity✅
Water quality✅
Nutrient cycling✅
Biosecurity✅
Carbon✅
Flooding✅
Woodchip or firewood✅ The first step is deciding what exactly you want to achieve.

One-off trees amongst pasture? Agroforestry? Small woodlands? Fruit or nut producing copses? A combination of all the above?

I am a fan of planting near waterways & woodland corridors through the farms.

A few thoughts on trees and farming.

I'm certainly no expert, but have been looking into it quiet a bit this last two years.

I said earlier in the week (aside from out hedgerows) trees have been pushed to the very fringes of the Irish landscape.

It's time to bring them back! So, how do we do this in relation to farms?

Well first things first - instead of seeing trees as some kind of onerous obligation, I would like farmers to see them for what they are-an opportunity.

(I appreciate not easy given Irelands current forestry system mess)

Afternoon all!

Might talk a little today about @hometree__ , where I work.

We are a small land charity based in Ennistymon, West Clare. Our objective is the creation of permanent native woodlands in Ireland.

Check out our work here hometree.ie/what-we-do Hometree was concieved at Moyhill Community Supported Agriculture project around five years ago, on the basis that our native woodlands needed support to grow, there was a thirst from the public and businesses learn & engage, and a strong desire to help out

Thread. I might be sorry, but I am going to start a thread on peat. Peat has been a mainstay of lots of horticultural production for the best part of a century. About thirty years ago I began hearing concerns about its future, due to sustainability issues. 2. There were issues around habitat loss, and greenhouse gas emissions. However, given that we in Ireland were extracting so much for burning (about 50 times more than for horticulture, despite the fact we were exporting lots of horticultural peat),

Good morning from Cahir. We're packed and ready to head to @CahirFarmers. Some of my stops this morning, @MyTastyIE. Barry and Myriam make the products, which won big at @BlasNahEireann two weeks ago.

1). This is a Google street view image of Brosna in Co.Kerry. Many years ago I met an elderly man here, Sean O'Leary I think, who had a juice concentrating business in the village, probably in the 1950's. 2. He used to source (mainly wild) fruits from all around; blackberries, bilberries and so on, and make them into concentrate, which was exported, mostly to New York I think he told me. He showed me lovely old labels for cans.

My Great Grandfather James Anthony Cunningham Established Cunningham’s Butchers at 15 Newcastle Street Kilkeel in 1919.

It was a whitewashed building semi-detached 2 storey dwelling. He learned his trade from his father William who started trading as a butcher from the (1) 2) his Home Farm, at Carginagh, near the Silent Valley in 1905 when James was twelve years old.
(photo of Cargineagh slaughter house)
The butchers ring is still imbedded in the wall, and the ring for the pulley block is fixed in the center beam of the old slaughter house

Thread: 1). Our @tippfood network is still welcoming new members, and in fact we received an application in just the last few days.
The Criteria for membership include: 2). A. The product is made using raw materials grown or produced in Tipperary, the product is produced (assembled) in Tipperary and the business is based in Tipperary.
OR

While all of these great events were being done by @tippfood, behind the scenes there was plenty afoot also. In general, the system became one where we held 10 meetings per year; five executive, and five members meetings. One of the really important discussions each year was to decide what to do the following year, and then make a plan to allow that to happen. We also had some longer term plans in our annual activity list, one of which was to publish a book, which I will get to later.

Slight personal diversion. I am in Clonmel this morning for a van DOE (road worthiness test). Using the time to pop over to @rednosewine for a few bottles of Port for Christmas. The walk takes me past this mural by Robert Ballagh. I used to pass this as a young child 40 years ago in a corridor in the town centre, leading to a supermarket, long since closed. Great to see the artwork was preserved and reinstalled last year as part of @clonmeljunction; our local arts festival.

Our founding Chair, @pat_whelan says the idea of the network came about thanks to a @slowfood long table dinner at our farm in 2007. While I was enjoying the dinner, others were taking note of the number of local food producers, and thinking of the value of working together. In 2008, we built a website of producers (14 at the beginning), and had a launch event in Cahir Castle, this time organised by ourselves. The purpose was to highlight that these 14 small businesses were employing 180 people, and spending €15 million in the local economy annually