Oliver Moore: Workman’s organic flour is in the bag

My local baker, Joe Fitzmaurice of the Riot Rye Bakehouse in Cloughjordan, got himself very excited recently about a new organic flour; it comes in in large enough bags for him to use, sourced from Co Louth.

It came from Andrew and Leonie Workman of Dunany Farm. Leonie told me about their background.

“We both have third level education from Seal-Hayne Agricultural College in Devon,” said Leonie.

“Our farm is on the east coast of county Louth with a deep clay/loamy soil. It is on a moranic ‘dump’ left by the last ice age so sometimes we get strange inconsistencies in our soil.

We grow spelt, wheat and rye as our milling crops. Our break crops are oats, peas, beans and white and red clover.

“We source my organic spelt and rye seed from Southern Germany and source our wheat and other seeds from local suppliers using the organic derogation for conventional seed as long as it has not got any seed dressing on it.”

How is yield?

We look for roughly one tonne plus per acre. More tonnes per acre is achievable with stock and grass rotation but I find if the soil fertility is low I actually get better quality grain.

Sounds strange I know but I do believe when in organics we cannot protect the plant in the latter days of its growing life.

This is when the quality of grain really deteriorates fast, so when the plant dies off early we have preserved a small but viable seed.

This was so much in evidence three years ago when we had a very late wet summer and our quality/bushel weight was way above all the conventional grains in the country.

When, and why, did you go organic?

We went into conversion in 2004 and two years later went fully organic in most of the farm.

There seemed to be an opening for organic cereal produced in Ireland. Derogations for the use of non-organic feedstuffs were being reduced.

We had not invested a lot of money in machinery and I disliked anything to do with spraying. The variable costs of the whole tillage operation were going through the roof as well.

It gave us a breathing space and made us think about what we were actually doing and tried to make sense of it all.

In practical terms, how does organic cereal production differ?

In practical terms you put far less input into the growing of the crop but — and this is a big but — you have to be hands-on in selling what you have grown.

This takes more time and total commitment governs what type of crop you go for in the future. You grow what your consumer wants.

In low fertility soil the weeds are not a problem. The plant you sow will generally shade out most weeds. Some weeds can grow above the crop but die off before harvest.

Our main weed pressure is charlock but the weed seed can be easily taken out in our cleaners.

We find ploughing is our best form of weed control as it gives us a clean seed bed to start with.

As the crop is never ‘lush’ weather and diseases have marginal effects and our high population of ladybirds keep the aphids at bay.

We mulch in our straw and this also reduces our slug population drastically.

Break crops — two years in the case of red clover — and mulching in your straw keeps the organic matter high.

If you listen to all the advice out there you would never do it! But learn from your mistakes and do what works for you and your land”.