Dear ,

🇳🇱 Om onze tijd en energie te sparen, sturen wij vanaf nu onze nieuwsbrief alleen nog maar in het Engels. Dank voor je begrip!

The autumnal winds dance across the mountains, sweeping leaves into swirling clouds of colour, lending an almost springlike joy to the air. Beech leaves bravely cling to the trees, defying the winds and lending the deep rust colour to the land. As the living world around us dies back, leaves blanket the earth and return their energy to the soil, nourishing the possibility of new life.

At Terranu this time of letting go and renewal mirrors the process that we find ourselves in after a very full year.  As you perhaps read in our last update email, we have been in the process of transitioning the ownership of Terranu. While we have dedicated lots of our energy and capacity to navigating the transition process with integrity these last months, we have also been busy on the land. We spent the summer extending deer fences, harvesting aronia berries, extending sheds, building the workshop and welcoming new animals to the farm. We also welcomed our first guests into the cosy orchard cabin.

Around the Farm

The growing season this year was challenging due to the unusually wet summer which delayed farmers all over Ireland.

The deer pressure increased dramatically this year (no surprise as we are surrounded by forestry plantations on 3 sides!).

We designed a short term fence solution that so far seems to work (mostly...) in the vegetable field & the aronia field, using leftover wood from a local saw mill. It’s rustic but it works for now.

The annual vegetable garden was smaller this year, and many garden beds were resting under mulch to prepare them for next season. We have spent the last couple of weeks doing the end of season tasks, preparing the polytunnel for winter, & planting garlic and spring onions. The coming weeks we will be focusing on tree care in the orchard and planning for the coming season.

Aronia

This summer we harvested our first official aronia crop!! Picking the berries gave us a real sense of pride, after a season of hard work!

Perhaps you remember that in February we planted 2,000 Aronia bushes interspersed with fruit trees. We are experimenting with an agroforestry system, intercropping fruit trees with the aronia. Next year we would like to introduce nut trees into the system as well. We are curious if this type of land management might be able to reduce the pressures from traditional grazing methods on the land, create more space for nature, while providing income from the land. And finally, we’ve introduced wool mulching. Using raw sheep wool on the rows supports soil health, improves moisture retention, and helps support local wool producers.

There were many helping hands from local friends as well as farm volunteers who came for this project. We want to thank Tom, Michaela, Sarah, Merijn, Alana, Kat, Brigid, John, Imre, Marije, Reyer and many others for helping plant, mulch, weed & harvest during this first season!

Once our organic certification is approved in 2025 the Aronia berries will be sold to Aronia Ireland for their PhyterBerry™ Organic Aronia Juice.

In order to holistically graze our agroforestry system and manage areas where we have grass we are thrilled to welcome a small flock, or rather three Shetland Sheep to the farm! We intend to keep the flock small, and breed for wool and hardiness in these wet mountain conditions. As bramble grazing support we have also welcomed Felix and Lioba the goats! Lioba has been giving us delicious milk the past couple of months and keeping us on our toes in making sure our fences are secure and goat proof 😉

Workshop Building Workweek

In the last newsletter we mentioned a workweek, which we moved to August. With the help of Martijn, Imre & Reyer and delicious meals cooked by Edith we managed to build a workshop roof in just 5 days! We recycled the steel beams of the dilapidated mobile home that we finally completely removed, and repurposed the shipping containers. In the next few months we hope to close the walls so this space can become a much needed dry workshop for future farm work and repairs!

Orchard Cabin on AirBnB

We're excited to announce that the Orchard Cabin is now listed on AirBnB! We have already received some very lovely guests who have enjoyed the serenity of our location and farm fresh eggs. 

As a friend of Terranu, we'd love to offer you the chance if you book directly with us before December 31 to stay for a special supporter price. Every booking helps fund our ongoing land stewardship work! Write to us here.

With love from the Terranu team,

Nakyta & Pieter