“For us, there was no question as to how we would farm – farming organically was a given,” said Mimi Crawford who, along with her husband, Owen, farms 28ac in Cloughjordan, Co. Tipperary.
“We are interested in producing healthy soils; healthy pastures; healthy animals; and healthy foods. The only way to do this is without artificial inputs and working within the natural limits of the ecosystem,” said the Cloughjordan couple, who were selected as February Farming for Nature ambassadors.
“Owen’s grandfather originally owned the 28ac that we steward and we inherited the land from Owen’s mother in 2014. Neither of us really come from a conventional farming background,” Mimi said.
“Owen would have spent time on the farm growing up but then chose to head to college to learn furniture design and production. I am an environmental geophysicist and grew up with more of a homesteading lifestyle. We really only started farming the land in 2015/2016.
We started our micro-dairy with four Irish Shorthorn milking cows and it has grown from there. The small-scale milking parlour used for the daily milkings of our Shorthorns is the same one where the family cow was hand milked two generations ago.
“We use this traditional parlour along with our modern licensed dairy processing facility to produce delicious and nutritious organic raw milk; cream; buttermilk; and traditional handmade butter directly to our amazing community of customers for nine months each year,” Mimi said.
“All our dairy products are sold directly to consumers and a few wonderful independent retailers as pure unadulterated 100% organic raw products. This means they have been filtered and chilled but never pasteurised [heated] or homogenised [crushed].”
The Cloughjordan couple supply local/on-farm customers and independent retailers such as Sheridan’s Cheesemongers stores and counters in Dunnes’ Stores as well as The Hopsack, Rathmines; The Fruit N’Nut, Portlaoise; Healthy Vision, Roscrea; and select NeighbourFood markets. They also have a stall at The Limerick Milk Market every Saturday.
As well as milking 12 cows, they keep 15-16 pigs a year, roughly 1,000 broilers and 30-40 ducks. It is a very holistic approach of mixed stock and the Crawfords believe in diversity in income streams, markets and retailers.
They engage in beef production with the weanlings, with 100% grass-raised beef. Their organic broiler chickens follow behind the cows in the grazing rotation, with organic ducks for slug control and organic pigs to assist them to consume excess skim milk.
Dramatic increase in demand
“We have seen a dramatic increase in demand for all of our products since the onset of Covid-19,” said Mimi.
They believe that their consumers like to buy into the whole process and the story of the farm. “We believe that Ireland has the opportunity to produce good clean food and we want to be part of that and help others realise that opportunity as well.”
As a small diversified farm, the biggest challenge has been accessing resources – traditional food production knowledge and techniques – and networks of other service small providers such as abattoirs, equipment sellers and breeders.
So much of farming in Ireland has become large, intensified and specialised that food production skills and those who still have the ability and desire to cater for smaller farm operations and local food producers are few and far between.
The future of Crawford’s farm does not look radically different than the present.
“While there are hopes and plans to acquire more land to convert it to organic, there are no plans for drastic changes of farm production, only a continuous effort to fine tune and polish the solid foundation that has already been built – a continued march toward having a positive environmental impact, enhancing our rural community and producing excellent food,” said Mimi.