Ireland-Farmers have it good.

IRELAND-SELF PRAISE.

I am far richer than Bill Gates, Warren Buffett or any of the handful of multibillionaires that still survive in the current recession. Think about it.

Bill and Warren may be very smart people who know all about financial wizardry and computer technology but I bet they haven’t a clue how to grow their own food. Ask them to produce spuds, carrots or turnips and they will probably run to the nearest supermarket. What if they lost all their money, were on the dole and just had a garden to work with?

This is where most farmers are on a winner and can survive where others flounder. Everyone has to eat and we are uniquely positioned to provide our own food and have a surplus to sell. And don’t start moaning to me about the price of milk, lamb or beef. We just need to focus on what the markets are looking for. There are always commodities we can produce and sell. We just need to remember that nothing ever stays the same and we have to keep changing our focus to meet market demands.

I was given a present many years ago of about 20 raspberry canes. I planted them and enjoyed the fruit until the point came where they had self seeded and were rampaging all over the garden. So I dug them all up, divided them, replanted them in a better spot and gave away the surplus. I must have given hundreds of them to friends and was astonished to see similar raspberry canes for sale recently in a garden centre for €9.99 each.

So I have given away thousands of euro worth of plants which I could have sold. Of course I don’t regret helping stock the gardens of friends and neighbours because gardening is a sort of communal enterprise where people gladly swap and share plants.

There is an old saying that goes: "If you want to keep a plant, give it away." That way you can always get some back if anything happens to your own. But I could have sold maybe a hundred in a local market and perhaps pocketed a grand. Right now, thousands of people want to learn how to grow their own food and especially how to do so without the use of pesticides and herbicides. I read recently how more than 200 people had applied to the National Botanic Gardens for a course on organic gardening, yet this is something most farmers instinctively know how to do. Maybe I and other farmers who garden should run courses at our homes. It has to be an easier way of making a few bob than dagging lambs and ewes and paring their feet and I bet we know more about our subject than many of the ’experts’ currently giving advice.

Right now, I have spuds in the ground with more to follow for a main crop; the raspberry canes are in their new home, with mypex laid on the paths in between to stop an invasion of weeds. The onion sets are in place but covered with netting to stop the birds lifting them and the rhubarb is growing rapidly. The apple trees are coming into flower. The carrots, spinach, peas and white turnips are sown and the remaining ground ready for planting..

I have one old, disused polytunnel, which I was going to sell, but having removed the tattered plastic cover I realised it would make a perfect fruit cage. It is now covered with wire netting, awaiting planting up with gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and strawberries. The remaining polytunnel is providing a nursery for seedling tomatoes, peppers, cucumber, celery, leeks, celeriac, cabbages, cauliflowers and broad beans, plus a large range of salad crops. When the risk of frost is gone, I will sow the runner beans and courgettes. Most of the above can be grown in simple containers if garden space is limited.

Later in the summer I will be tucking in to home-grown salad and vegetable feasts accompanied by roast lamb with rosemary and the essential mint sauce. All home-grown.

Eat your heart out Bill Gates.

- Joe Barry