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.
One for the techies
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...
Autumn mists
Today saw the first autumn mist, and the farm took on a magical quality that you only get at this time of year. Such an incredibly abundant time, as fruits begin to ripen, and we are able to harvest from the garden and tunnels every day. Having a freezer for...
Permaculture Gathering 2015
The weekend of August 7-9 saw the first visit of the All Ireland Permaculture Gathering to Northern Ireland - at Tubby's Farm in Hillsborough, home of Sunflowerfest. Preparations have been going on for months leading up to the Gathering, mainly organising the garden,...
Wind power at the farm
Solar power is wonderful but here in Northern Ireland sun is often in short supply, especially in winter when the days are short. Hence the need for an alternative - in this case a wind turbine. Bornay, who make this particular model have been building turbines since...
Our first official event in the classroom!
When we built the classroom space, the intention was always that it would be a space for people to come to and discover new things - not only from the person giving the talk or presentation, but from each other. So it was this weekend as we hosted the first 'proper'...
Community living
I recently heard Tobias Jones talking on the radio about Windor Hill Wood, an experiment in communal living, albeit a fairly extreme one where his family took in folk with a range of issues, with the ideal of giving them a refuge. Although our circumstances are vastly...
Solid foundations
Two years ago we built our little stone circle at midsummer. Our home is built from the granite that it sits upon, and the stones are a connection to the mountains they look to, as well as a reflection of the place in which we live. The stones are all...
Living with the land – Natural Building
Another excellent video from Permaculture Magazine, produced by Permaculture People and narrated by Kevin McCloud. Many, many good reasons in there why natural building is the way to go. More info here
You can make a difference
In response to a post I wrote about coping with the effects of catastrophic climate change, someone commented to the effect that 'the climate has always warmed and cooled so we should all stop complaining, and accept that this is the natural order of things'. Oh dear....
Solar Independence Day
Today is apparently 'Solar Independence Day', and the good weather means that just about now an amazing 15% of the UK's power needs are being met with solar. Of course, around here 100% of our power needs are being met with solar all the time, and people are still...
Are you ready?
Despite vast amounts of evidence pointing to a very real change in our climate, and the increase of extreme weather events, it seems that people generally like not to think of any of it as being part of some sort of pattern, and instead to put these events down to...
Living with the Land
Lauren and Phil visited us briefly last year, just at the right time to impart some knowledge about cob and clay plaster mixes, when we were working on the classroom. They have produced a series of short films for Permaculture Magazine, called Living with the Land,...
The website gets a facelift
Things change quickly on the farm, so we thought it time to reflect that in our website, which has had a makeover and an update to bring the content into line with what we actually have here now. The new site works on all manner of wierd and wonderful devices,...
Rocket Mass Heaters talk at Lackan Cottage Farm
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 to give a...
Gold standard Green Tourism
We're incredibly chuffed to have got a Gold level Green Tourism award, and were off to the awards dinner last week at the Sugar Supper Club in Newry (highly recommended, brilliant food). One of only 18 Golds in County Down, too. Northern Ireland's only off...
Midsummer has arrived
Midsummer is upon us, and we were fortunate to be able to celebrate the solstice eve with friends from far and wide - visitors from no less than five nations were here on Saturday. I'm always in two minds about the summer solstice - given that it marks the...
The lone ranger returns
After a couple of weeks absence, Dotty has returned with a sizeable clutch of chicks - fourteen, we reckon. These plus the seven that Fluffers had last week, and the ten that we are raising for meat, means that not only will our laying flock grow considerably...
A trip to the sawmill
A trip to the sawmill from Lackan Cottage Farm on Vimeo. Today I headed off to Ballytrim sawmill in search of some suitably lovely bits of timber to make seats in our classroom, and I wasn't disappointed. Initially it seemed as though my trip would be in vain -...
Stool making in the sun
This saturday saw the second of our 'Make a stool from a log' green woodworking courses, and our six participants got on incredibly well.. Although Steph left before we got a chance to get a picture.... Some really nice stools were made this time...
A riot of colour
This is Robbie, our magnificent Welsummer rooster - isn't he an amazing colour? At this time of year there is so much to look at you hardly know where to begin. Poppies are everywhere, and more are coming - and just in time for the warm...
From our shop
-
Red Russian Kale - 200g
£1.50
-
Onions - yellow - 1kg
£1.00
-
Rainbow Chard - 200g
£1.50
-
Gift Voucher
£15.00 – £100.00
-
Accommodation Gift Voucher
£25.00 – £100.00