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00:03Customers don't always know what they're getting. Years ago in my market stall I had a guy come
00:07back quite irate complaining because he told me the cucumbers were inedible and I explained that's
00:14because they were courgettes so you put them in a salad you know. It's early April and the veg box
00:25sales numbers are still very low but Mick has had a brainwave which means it's time for a meeting
00:31this could be interesting. Hey how's it going so I've been thinking about something so you know
00:41we've a long history with Bloom in Phoenix Park so I think we should not only go to Bloom but
00:47I
00:47think we should do a show guard at the show. Can you go to me? No. I'm serious. Bloom is
00:55so soon.
00:57Well it's like eight weeks away. When Mick mentioned the word Bloom I thought here we go
01:06and this is going to be classic Mick. You know Bloom would be amazing it is amazing it's a brilliant
01:13idea it's just you know how can we do it we can't do everything and that's generally what everything
01:18comes down to is how do we actually get it done. In case you don't know what Bloom is it's
01:23Ireland's
01:23biggest gardening festival part flowers part gardens part food but there would be thousands and thousands
01:28of people there and that means one thing in Mick's mind. It might even be an opportunity for us to
01:34flog some veg boxes. Mick I we we've got to stop doing this to be fair like we've we we've
01:45this very
01:45small team we can't keep doing this. Like I don't I don't know. What do you think about like what
01:52are
01:52your concerns about it? Time, capacity, resource. Okay there will be a budget associated with this we
02:00need to bring a sponsor on board and then we can you know we'd be getting a designer to do
02:04the work
02:05we'd be getting a contractor to do the actual build of the garden we will need to grow the veg
02:10so I have
02:11to have a conversation with Richard about that but otherwise I think like the impact on your team would
02:17be small and I think this is like all upside. I mean I've to be fair I've heard that before
02:25Mick. Do we
02:27have a choice? Yeah of course. We're all in don't leave me hanging. Safe to say it started went down
02:43like a lead balloon I think but you know I think I think eventually we came around to it. We
02:48are
02:48too stretched and I think that's that's a it's definitely a common theme we are a small team
02:55with incredibly big ambitions. I think it would be a missed opportunity if we don't do it so I'm not
03:00saying no and I know Jen isn't saying no but yeah it's just kind of been thrown at us now
03:05and I think
03:06we just have to do what we can with it and just do it well. How can we get it
03:10done and what needs to
03:11go to do this one so it's it's a constant constant tension. With only a tentative commitment from the
03:26team Mick heads off to Cara Moore for what could be an even tougher meeting. So a very important
03:31person I need to speak to today is Richard to see can I get him to grow the veg in
03:35a very short space of
03:36time with a very busy workload already so let's see how it goes. So basically we're we've we've got
03:52a designer who's going to design the garden for us but we need to grow some plants for it so
03:57what six
03:57weeks you don't have anything like that like lying around what's it a grow would it be if that things
04:02lying around with no purpose. Well do you have some maybe that are not lying around but like
04:07intentionally grown that we could take or borrow and bring back? By the time you got them they'd
04:14probably be this big the tomatoes or courgettes whatever there'd be no flowers or anything exciting
04:19on them so you can have lots of little things you'd have like the lily putty and garden couldn't you
04:24or something you know. Okay that's not quite a what quite this sort of abundant feel I'm going for
04:30um okay so what could you grow in six weeks? I could grow you trays of salads maybe a few
04:38cut herbs
04:38the annual ones yeah all right I can manage that for you nothing else okay thanks a million
04:51With Mick as a CEO you expect these things all the time usually three impossible demands before
04:59breakfast you know. It would have been lovely if Richard had all the stuff sort of waiting in pots
05:03for me but as he said himself like you know that's not his job to have stuff lying around waiting
05:09for
05:09my whims um so at least we have a workaround I think that we can that we can um get
05:16stuck into now
05:16as well. On this farm it's not all vegetables and flower beds the team are also raring animals
05:26Anya looks after the pigs and Jolene keeps the bees in check. I've loved animals all my life any sick
05:33lame dog or bird or whatever it was I brought it home when I was young so definitely working with
05:38animals
05:39um is a major advantage here for me as well it's not just veg my part in the animal welfare
05:46of the
05:47is to make sure they're fed they're happy and that's all we can do as as part keeping them well
05:54look
05:54ultimately we know where they're going to and what we're farming them and raring them for but our job is
06:02to make sure that they're happy and content and they have the best life that we can provide for them
06:09hello how are you are you all sleepy are you sleepy oh yeah want to come up to have some
06:16food
06:17I'm sure they do think I'm crazy talking to the animals but I mean I love it and I talk
06:22to
06:22animals quicker than people usually come on guys come on
06:33well you never know whether they're going to be here in the mornings or not when you come in because
06:37they are a little bit of escape artists one morning we came in and there was like not a pig
06:42to be found
06:42and they kind of had broke out through the water to the fence and they were just meandering along the
06:48riverbank loving life so we got them back in there they're kind of you don't know in general they're
06:54very good but they like to get into different things and you know cause chaos really and destruction
07:05i have a favorite pig yes that we named aunt vi and so she was a great character she will
07:12come
07:12up to you in the mornings and she'll scrub off you and she'll actually follow you till you give her
07:17her
07:17little ear scratch in the mornings and she's just a super super pig and vi took over as a nanny
07:24so
07:25she was just absolutely super with them and they followed her everywhere so give mom a break
07:31but yeah she's super hello oh you love that oh you do would there be a tear shed for that
07:40particular one
07:41tears there'll be buckets of tears shed for that pig when she leaves yes there will be yeah we've heaps
07:48of photos and everything of her so yeah she'll definitely be a pig that will be remembered and
07:54in me heart for a long long time good girls
08:04i work weekends uh looking after pigs chickens anything else that moves in here i feed and look
08:10after um so i'm now the beekeeper uh since two months ago there was a person who set them up
08:17initially last year so they're very newbies it's been a dream since i was a kid i've always loved
08:23bees so i jumped at the chance they sponsored me to go do a course at the dunhill education center
08:28and here i am i'm really excited that i get to produce the first honey but it's also
08:35ever going to be the first harvest i will ever do because i've not been a beekeeper so now i
08:40have
08:40the official title because there is honey there i checked um so i'm an official beekeeper and hopefully
08:46all going well giy will be official uh producers of honey and sellers of honey
08:55everybody asks me am i scared and when i open the hive and they're all like there all i feel
08:59is just
08:59elation and excitement and i love watching them work i think they're a beautiful species april is
09:04typically the time of the year that all beekeepers around the world will be checking their hives from
09:09winter so you just check that there's a viable queen that they're laying eggs that everything's fine
09:16there's there's lovely fresh honey cells so that would be the you can actually see the bees adding to
09:22it right now today i'm going to be adding supers so in the bottom of a hive you have brood
09:29with
09:29queen laser eggs then you put a new layer on top with new frames in it and they're now i'm
09:34giving
09:35them extra space to produce more honey hopefully all going well there's going to be a nice bit of
09:40honey at the end of the summer even more exciting when i see people go into giy and buy it
09:45and take
09:46it home and you know i know that my bees produce that and i helped the bees along with that
09:54back at giy hq mick has a meeting with jen and it's not good news turns out some customers aren't
10:01loving having to collect the veg boxes at hq and cancellations are starting to creep in it's the
10:08last thing the team needs so can they fix it we've had a couple of of those many of us
10:14now two or three
10:16yeah and in a reasonably short i think we had a bit of a kind of the novelty is now
10:22i think now
10:23people are beginning to as it becomes more often it's becoming an issue so it's something we probably
10:27need to solve the one thing i've been thinking about is like is there anything stopping us going
10:31with nationwide courier deliveries like get the boxes picked up here by courier they'll couriers will
10:37kind of do a next day delivery anywhere in the country potentially we're about local right somewhere
10:44about kind of that local supply chain and again if we're starting to go into the courier we're
10:48starting to go nationwide we're kind of losing a little bit yeah so it's it's a balancing yeah and
10:54we were trying to like we're trying to prove the points around short supply chain and all that and
10:59you know food that's grown within x miles of where you live and all exactly so what but like if
11:05we're
11:05going to keep it in waterford or close to waterford and we still need to get to the 150 boxes
11:12but like
11:12what are the levers we can pull if we're not going to go national delivery so it's trying to get
11:17the
11:18best of both worlds right so i think can we try and find some additional pickup points as a starting
11:23point okay i i think it's a step piece we move out out of geo how to grow hq joy
11:30and then we go move
11:31out maybe dungarvan cook any you know these are areas that we know we can find you know customers are
11:37interested so okay i think so and let's see how that goes and then if that doesn't work
11:41next oblivion okay all right let's try it okay okay yeah all right yeah cool all right
11:57with cancellations creeping in katie's on a mission to find alternative pickup points
12:03and has decided on dungarvan it's just 45 minutes from hq and could make life a lot easier for
12:10customers outside waterford city when it comes to picking up their veg boxes so she has arranged a
12:16meeting for ali in a shop called cass and co who may just want to be a new distribution point
12:21for the
12:21veg boxes yes i'm feeling the pressure from the commercial side of things yes
12:28dungarvan is a perfect location for a distribution site because it's you know halfway between
12:33it's a really good catchment area a very foodie place so we thought that this would be a perfect
12:39place to start um so we're here today we're going to meet we're going to meet the guys inside and
12:45it's
12:45up to me to sort of yeah get it secured and and get this distribution site set up every single
12:51box
12:51that's counts yeah you know if you if it's a if it's a you know you see a ladder you
12:55see the target
12:56you see the goal uh and it's a you know you're going up the ladder so you need to see
13:00progression
13:00that's the only way we don't want to just jump ahead and get 50 boxes you know we want to
13:04build it
13:05gradually with the pressure on it's down to ali to get this one over the line can her powers of
13:11persuasion convince this shop owner to be part of the scheme as the meeting continues ali seems to
13:19be making progress in selling the concept of the veg boxes so i'm delighted that we have it done today
13:29um and and now we have to find the next one and and start the build um but this is
13:33key for starting
13:35the subscriptions and you know waiting for our van to come so that we can progress further
13:44it's four weeks since we've checked in on the hens and we're heading back out to corromore to see how
13:49things are going the mandatory housing order is still in place with no end in sight and now
13:56mick's starting to worry because if this keeps up it could affect more than just the eggs
14:02um so there's literally nothing we can do it's a mandatory housing order from the department of
14:07agriculture so it's not quite the nightmare scenario we can keep producing eggs and things like that
14:12but like it's if it goes on long it question puts the whole hen enterprise into question because like
14:21do we really want to keep 200 hens permanently housed inside in a dark house here probably not
14:28so like that would be a disaster if we were if we weren't able to have our own eggs and
14:33have hens
14:34free-ranging around the place so like whether it's a complete disaster or not depends on how long it
14:39lasts with questions piling up about the eggs katie heads out to corromore to chat with richard
14:49customers are starting to notice that the egg yolks are not as yellow anymore
14:52so answers are needed so they're not going to come to any harm but they won't be as happy and
14:58uh they won't be uh laying such tasty eggs unfortunately when katie returns to hq a marketing
15:06meeting is called the goal get ahead of the complaints and figure out how to spin this story
15:11before it scrambles any more nerves richard was saying there's a migration season so maybe at the
15:16end of may when the birds have stopped kind of moving around there might be a chance of us being
15:19able to let the hens out and let them roam free range happy hens but at the moment we just
15:24have to sit
15:24tight follow the guidelines and just hope it doesn't last too long it's gonna affect our eggs
15:28if you have any ideas like how we're gonna like spin the story a little bit looking even like a
15:33leaflet
15:33going out to people like yeah it definitely sounds like the easiest most straightforward way to do it
15:38to let people know what's happening and why they might notice the difference in like the eggs that
15:43they're getting from us yeah that's it decision made it's flyer time and katie's been tasked with
15:49getting the message out fast we haven't really um communicated with any of our customers yet and
15:55it's kind of the first time we're putting the information out there the eggs don't look the
15:58same the rules have changed and the flyer tells the customers why and it's for the hen safety and
16:03that like they don't have the flu this is going to prevent them from getting it exactly
16:09obviously we need kind of the facts is one of the main things it's an informational leaflet
16:17the final design is just about to be checked it will then be sent to jen for a little check
16:21as
16:21well making sure it's all okay it looks nice has the right tone of voice and then please god we'll
16:26get it printed in time to go at richard in about 20 minutes time and off it goes in this
16:30week's veg box
16:32the team's done everything they can so hopefully the customers understand
16:38as the team deal with the egg situation the ceo in his wisdom has had a bright idea what if
16:45they
16:45could prove with actual data that the soil at the farm is packed with life and nutrients
16:50that kind of story could be marketing gold but of course not everyone sold on that idea so it's uh
16:57yeah i mean mickluck looks at it from one way which will probably help pay my wages i look at
17:01it from
17:01another way so in true mick fashion he's called in an expert this is mike walsh soil scientist from
17:11sctu and he's not here just for a quick look around but he's here to start the process of testing
17:17the
17:17soil first up a visual inspection if we just look at the very surface first before we do any any
17:24digging
17:28everything so that's matt like as soon as you do that you can see lots of things little creatures
17:33cover like there's an abundance of wildlife right here on the surface why why is all that insect
17:39activity good because there's plenty of life in the side and on the side so what would you expect to
17:46see
17:47then when we when we dig into this mike well let's stick yeah let's dig and see that
17:55very satisfying crunch noise as well mike there's nice structure there there's good root formation and
18:01the roots are getting right down yeah it's it's exactly what you want to see it's amazing isn't it
18:08richard it certainly is but i've been trying to get that into you for eight years you just run away
18:13and
18:13leave me alone now that i've heard it from mike though maybe by the phd maybe listen to me yeah
18:22visual inspection done but don't worry mike and his team will be back to collect more samples
18:27because the real test well that happens in the lab soil samples microscopes nutrient reports it's all on
18:40the way earlier in the episode mick had yet another bright idea this time for bloom and he wanted
18:47richard to grow herbs and salads for their big show garden so let's check back in with richard at hq
18:52and
18:53see how he's getting on with mick's latest deadline mick's giving me uh the very short notice for bloom so
18:59i
19:00better get cracking now uh so it's a bit of rocket going in into a tray uh head gardeners have
19:07always
19:07had the lord of the manor uh getting um overexcited and coming up with crazy schemes so i guess uh
19:15i'm
19:15just in a long a long tradition of uh long-suffering head growers really
19:23it's three weeks later and it's full steam ahead for bloom jen from marketing has made the trip to the
19:28phoenix park to check in on mick and meet the garden designer as the show garden build gets
19:33underway let's see how things are shaping up it's two weeks before bloom so i'm really really excited
19:41to go in and see how our gardens fairing up how they're building all the other gardens i've seen
19:45some of the designs that have been set up so but again it's it's all on paper and i really
19:51just want
19:51to see what it looks like in real life and um and kind of see it come to life so
19:55exciting
19:57except that jen arrives only to find an empty plot no plants no building no sign of a show garden
20:04this isn't just behind schedule it's barely started and jen she's speechless and that's never a good sign
20:11this is what kind of happens when we come up with these mad ideas with with weeks to despair you
20:16know
20:16it's a bit it's a bit worrying to be honest the garden opens in two weeks time and
20:22i'm standing on a pile of stones um so yeah it's it's a little bit worrying to be honest
20:29we're meant to be having a chat here at 10 o'clock um it's and make it an hour to
20:34be seen so um i'm
20:35just hoping he gets here quickly because we have a lot to do
20:41hey jen what's this this is lovely it's a pile of it's a pile of stones yeah but sure it's
20:48ready for
20:49the magic to happen you're joking me wait look at every look arrange everyone else is half built
20:54with nothing we've literally got a pile of stones and it's two weeks are you worried i'm worried
20:58seriously yeah yeah i'm sure we've loads of time two weeks that's what today's all about
21:03all the magic happens today yeah it starts yeah i want to see it before i believe it don't look
21:10so
21:11worried come on it'll be good
21:15at least mic staying positive and right on cue the first signs of progress the garden frame arrives
21:22and the build finally kicks off now with a shell in place it's time for mic and jen to chat
21:27with the
21:27designer and figure out how this thing is actually going to come together i mean it's it's yeah i mean
21:34the i can see the designs hopefully will come into something now it's a footprint but like
21:45so barry i think it's great that we've started i know poor el jen is a bit freaked out there
21:50but
21:50you've done this before you know what you're doing i've done it many times before yeah don't have to be
21:53too freaked yeah and sure i'll talk i'll walk you through and we'll have a quick look this is your
21:57typical about you go in there you need to be most reassured right under planting i should say we're
22:03going to have a woodruff you know which is also edible edible strawberries which is the alpine
22:08strawberries and a fern believe it or not osmunda really you can actually eat the fronds on it so
22:16so it's a woodland but everything is edible so on the wall here we're going to have a herb garden
22:21a
22:21vertical one so it'll be a series of planters all the way down and plant it up with all the
22:26herbs
22:27you can require for culinary uses in your in your apartment you know so that's quite cool in its
22:32own right and and then over here we're going to have an entertainment area because i don't think
22:37anybody uh you know would garden would have to sit down and enjoy what you're doing you know so
22:42that's what we'll have a couple of seats over here and beside it there we're going to have what
22:46i classify as a mini orchard cool so we have a plan yeah it's looking great it is yeah next
22:51time you see
22:52this in the garden showtime showtime excellent right let's do it
22:57nick generally does a lot of the time turn out to be right unfortunately so i think he when he
23:03said
23:03just don't worry i'm i won't worry i think it was really reassuring to listen today to kind of see
23:09to hear about that vision and and to really kind of be able to picture it coming to life
23:14i think because it is a balcony garden um that's you know it's it's a lot of container work it's
23:21you
23:21know so we can bring it in and hopefully will will happen really really quickly so i'm i'm feeling a
23:27lot better i think now and i'm really excited coming up next week we meet the real engine of the
23:33farm
23:34the growing team of onya and gary as the sun finally shows up the problems follow drought hits
23:40corrimore pushing the young crops to their limit as richard battles heat pests and the clock the
23:46giy team heads to bloom ireland's biggest horticultural festival to see if their hard work can shine on the
23:52national stage meanwhile back on the farm the hens are still stuck indoors thanks to avian flu and mick
23:59faces a very personal challenge this could be really really bad that's all next week on our farm
24:21i'm
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