Latest news
Here at Lackan Cottage Farm people often say we are living the good life. We grow our own food and wood fuel, generate our own electricity, take responsibility for our own waste, harvest rainwater and are using natural building techniques. Additionally we help other people to do the same, and welcome visitors and volunteers here to the farm to stay and learn about what we have to offer.
Farewell summer
Electric Octopus playing Turnipstock 2016 from Lackan Cottage Farm on Vimeo. While we weren't looking, the summer came and went, but we saw it out in style at the Benraw Creative Convivium up at the Turnip House. Our tipi went on tour, the sun shone, and the...
Permaculture Gathering
Well this weekend was the All Ireland Permaculture Gathering, held at Cloughjordan Eco Village in Tipperary. The whole thing was really interesting, and despite almost continuous rain for the entire weekend, I had a great time and now that I’m back am itching to get on with all sorts of projects.
Two weeks of wwoofing
It has been a busy month so far here at the farm – Felix has returned to us from Germany for a second time, and last week we welcomed Uni from California. Much wood was chopped and stacked, and the woodstore is almost completely full – it is good to be able to see the woodyard again.
The big tidy
Blog posts have been a bit thin on the ground lately, mainly because I've been running around like a man with his hair on fire. Our little cottage is complete, we're just gathering up all the things that Tourism NI like you to have, and having friends and relatives...
Offcuts
Took a trip up to Ballytrim Sawmill with Brian the other day to pick up larch flooring, and spotted a huge pile of oak offcuts - the remainder of a big timber frame. They are wonderful pieces of wood, and so my search for bedside tables is over. Several hours of...
A tale of two companies
A couple of weeks ago we had an amazing electrical storm, which knocked out our broadband, and also part of our power setup, called the CCGX, which displays information about the whole system and sends it to the outside world.
Open day success
There’s nothing quite like the promise of visitors to get a load of jobs done, and the week leading up to our open day was no exception. Paving laid, beds cleared, weeds thinned, and some serious tidying up. The weather smiled on us the entire time, and our worrying was put aside as a great crowd turned up on the day.
Runner ducks
This morning we set off over the mountains to Kilkeel to fetch home some Indian Runner ducks – 4 ducks and a drake (we hope) who are just 2 days old, and have temporarily moved in with our Hubbard chicks, who are just a few days older.
Restoring a gate
This locally made gate came from our kind neighbours Fiona and David, and though of considerable age, is incredibly solid. It is likely made by the Walkers of Ballyward, who have blacksmithed there for generations.
The gardens erupt into life
The growing season is well under way, inside and out, and we’re running to keep up with all the growth.
From the air
It is always interesting to see the place from a different point of view, and so here is a little bit of wobbly footage from our micro drone. It is very tiny, and so far efforts to fly it have resulted mainly in it crashing, but here’s our first view of the place from above.
Building a pallet yurt
Occasionally I am let off the farm for good behaviour, and so on Sunday I set off for Co.Wicklow, and Castleruddery Organic Farm to learn how to make a yurt from pallets, with ‘Rubberband’ Ray Edwards. Ray is an inventive guy, and under his excellent tuition, our group learned how to make an extremely sturdy yurt.
Sheds come and go
We are now starting our fourth year here at Lackan Cottage Farm, and what seems like an endless series of building projects is at last coming to an end. The cottage refurbishment, polytunnels, compost loo, stables, the little cottage, outhouse, woodshed, bike store, paths, ponds, wind turbine and solar arrays, and most recently the rebuild of the old hay shed into a workshop and bigger hay shed.
Out with the old, in with the – old
A few miles from us in Ballyward, is the blacksmith’s forge of the Walker brothers. Gates have been made there and horses shod for generations, and Walker made gates a century old are still in use and good repair. Gate styles are very distintive things, and I hope that someone has taken the time to research them properly, though I can find nothing online.
An interesting diversion
The weather may have been pretty consistently awful this last while, but somehow we've managed to make what feels like significant progress on the various projects that are ongoing here at Lackan Cottage Farm, in between being slightly sidetracked by things like the...
Ducks!
Three years after starting the pond, we finally have ducks! They are Aylesbury ducks – 3 ducks and a drake, and they are having enormous fun getting used to their new surroundings.
Open Day – June 18th **FULLY BOOKED**
+++ PLEASE NOTE WE ARE NOW FULLY BOOKED +++
We get a lot of requests from folk who would like to come and have a look around, find out more, and share their stories with us, so this year we have decided to have an open day, when anyone can come and see what we get up to, and ask questions about any aspect of what we do here at Lackan Cottage Farm.
Filling up with firewood
Last winter we were the masters of firewood. Ample supplies, thanks to kind folk,and having our own huge sycamore fall over in the wind. The summer of 2015 saw the woodyard completely cleared, as amazing volunteers helped us split, chop, and stack the whole lot inside.
Tree surgery
The four huge spruce trees at the front of our cottage offer plenty of welcome privacy, but they do overshadow the growing field somewhat, so we decided to take down the largest of them and see what a difference it makes.
Farewell to old friends, and a welcome to new faces
For three years people asked “free range hens – don’t you worry about foxes?”. “Not at all”, I would reply casually, and so our hens wandered all over the place, right up until the night I came to their house, to be greeted only by the plaintive cheeping of one of the baby hens
From our shop
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Red Russian Kale - 200g
£1.50
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Onions - yellow - 1kg
£1.00
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Rainbow Chard - 200g
£1.50
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Gift Voucher
£15.00 – £100.00
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Accommodation Gift Voucher
£25.00 – £100.00