by Steve Byrne | Apr 30, 2018 | food, media
It seems like an age since we welcomed Rachel Allen and the crew from Big Mountain here to film for a programme called ‘Rachel Allen – A Cook’s adventure’ celebrating the best of Northern Irish produce, but it was screened on More 4 last night, and we’re really pleased with the results. The premise was that Rachel travelled around the country visiting producers and then cooking up delicious dishes, and Lackan Cottage Farm was one of 7 locations included.
by Steve Byrne | Feb 19, 2018 | media
Way back in April 2017 we were approached by a TV production company – Boundless – who make the BBC programme ‘Escape to the Country’. The premise of the programme being that people who want to well, escape to the country, are shown several...
by Steve Byrne | Feb 13, 2018 | crafts
This winter can best be described as incredibly wet. Our land is saturated, and other than a bit of sacrificial field for the horses, we’re keeping off it as much as possible and concentrating on jobs such as harvesting our willow crop for the first time....
by Steve Byrne | Feb 9, 2018 | courses2018, off grid, self sufficiency
A day of winemaking with Leo Cullen, who can conjure wine from just about anything. We’ll be walking and picking some ingredients in the morning, talking about what we can use to make wine, and how to go about preparing our ingredients and equipment, and then sampling some of Leo’s brews over a lunch of home made soup.
by Steve Byrne | Feb 9, 2018 | self sufficiency
Our first basket willow crop Our first basket willow crop is now ready and we’ve begun to harvest it. We weren’t terribly good about keeping the planted willow cuttings weed free, so its a little patchy, but about 90% of the planting has established. Funny...
by Steve Byrne | Jan 13, 2018 | courses2018, crafts
Before plastic containers and even cardboard boxes became common, the woven basket was used as a container for literally everything. Able to be made into all sizes and shapes, limited only by the imagination of the basket weaver, the basket was part of everyday life....
by Steve Byrne | Sep 29, 2017 | renewable energy
This is one of thoseobvious things that I should have thought of a lot sooner. Our woodstore is on the back of the cottage with a door that allows you to get in from inside the house. It has slatted walls to let air circulate, but its always had a solid roof because...
by Steve Byrne | Sep 29, 2017 | renewable energy
We process a lot of firewood here and these two simple additions have made life a million times easier. First, we made up a thing to put long bits of wood in for cutting. Its a heavy bottom piece with uprights made from easily replaceable pallet wood, spaced so that cutting midway between them leaves us with 10″ pieces. Simply fill it up with wood, and you can cut mountains of fiddly bits with just 3 or 4 cuts.
by Steve Byrne | Sep 3, 2017 | off grid, renewable energy
It seems that concentrating on range cookers for a while seems to be attracting them. Until a couple of weeks ago we’d never heard of the Wellstood Two (or WD 36) stove, and then having just put one in, out of the blue we are very kindly offered another.
by Steve Byrne | Aug 26, 2017 | renewable energy
I have a terrible habit of browsing Gumtree for interesting sounding things, and specifically for old, cheap range cookers in the hope of finding one that will keep our old Doric on the road. A couple of weeks ago I was rummaging around and turned up not a Doric, but a Wellstood Two – the bigger brother of the Doric, from the same 1950’s era, but with the addition of not only a warming oven, but a hotplate cover. In the world of little old ranges, these are positively the bells and whistles of any self respecting range cooker.
by Steve Byrne | Apr 17, 2017 | off grid
We’re always making things here at Lackan, and now Steve is making more baskets and willow things, we decided that it is time to make them available on the website. Many items are one offs, and once they are gone, they are gone, but they are all hand made here, from local materials (on site where possible), and always from sustainably produced materials, or in some cases, reclaimed items. Anyhow, we’ll be adding more items as we go, so the shop will change constantly, and hopefully you’ll be pleasantly surprised by some of the things that you can buy here.
by Steve Byrne | Feb 24, 2017 | media
Last year we were approached by a couple of production companies about appearing in TV programmes, and we said yes where they were factual. The first was one about homes in Britain and Northern Ireland, so we spent half a day with a camera crew and played host to Gloria Hunniford
by Steve Byrne | Feb 19, 2017 | crafts
It was when we began putting on willow basket making courses that I realised I had the basket making bug, and so it was only a matter of time before my mind turned to creating a source of willow. It turns out that there are many, many varieties of basket willow and the range of colours is wonderful.
by Steve Byrne | Aug 19, 2015 | renewable energy
The last couple of weeks have seen our renewable energy setup almost completed, as the wind turbine was commissioned, although we quickly realised that we would need some additional capacity to deal with all the power coming in. Our Victron Multiplus 24/3000/50...
by Steve Byrne | Jul 2, 2015 | self sufficiency
Where did you learn to do that? Is a question I get asked about all sorts of things, and the answer is always the same. “I just sort of did it”, I reply. Of course, when the person asks the question they are usually looking at a successful end result of...
by Steve Byrne | Jun 26, 2015 | renewable energy
Something visitors always ask about here at Lackan Cottage Farm is our Rocket Mass Heater, and so we are honoured to be able to welcome Leslie Jackson, co-author of the definitive book ‘Rocket Mass Heaters’, to the farm on the evening of Saturday July 25th...
by Steve Byrne | Jan 24, 2015 | volunteering
This is the time of year when despite our recent obsession with all things solar, we need to get outside and start to prepare for the year ahead. All the the veg beds that don’t have anything in them need dressing with manure – both outside, and in the...
by Steve Byrne | Jan 12, 2015 | renewable energy
Here at Lackan Cottage Farm we like to experiment with technology, some of it very simple, such as our composting toilets and strawbale insulation, and some of it high-tech such as our solar pv arrays. We started off with just a couple of panels, and this has grown to...
by Steve Byrne | Dec 3, 2014 | volunteering
It is that time when we look back at the year gone, and remember all the amazing people who have passed through the farm, and marvel at the things they did along the way. Volunteers came from all over the world – Spain, Italy, North America, Australia, England...
by Steve Byrne | Nov 23, 2014 | self sufficiency
As we approach December, and I wake to the first heavy frost we’ve had, I am reminded that winter hasn’t really arrived yet. The cold night is just a reminder of all the things we need to do – very soon – if the coming months aren’t to be...
