Way back in the late seventies, the plan was to ‘live the good life’, grow organically, get away from pollution and traffic jams and try our hands at sustainable living. However, these were rather grand plans. We had almost zero experience!

Nevertheless, a group of us got together and bought a large dilapidated Victorian house in West Cork with twelve acres. The house wasn’t very beautiful, but the stable block and the one acre walled garden captured our imagination.

We literally grew anything edible that we could, and between the garden and the glasshouse we had more food than we could possibly eat.

We also had a herd of goats for milking who were like the resident Houdini’s — forever escaping to the neighbour’s field where the grass apparently looked greener.

The fruit and vegetables we grew organically were used in the kitchens of all our projects.

Over the years, we’ve had a food truck (1980) when chickpeas were unheard of, a hostel (1985) which was super popular at the time, a guesthouse to cater for people who wanted to stay after dinner in our restaurant (2003). And then we opened a fresh food shop (2021) where we cook all the vegetables that we still grow.

All of these projects have revolved around our garden and seasonal food.

Food is an integral part of our life and the food scene has changed a lot over the years — the way we cook and eat is no longer odd!

These days we tend our garden, teach cooking classes, and organise cooking holidays. The good life finally arrived :)

A blast from the past