Lettercollum Kitchen Project

We have a one acre walled vegetable garden at Lettercollum. It’s very old and has been used as a kitchen garden for the past one hundred and twenty years. We have grown fruit and vegetables there without the use of chemical fertilizers or insecticides for the past 26 years.

At one point there were two very large glasshouses at the top of the garden. When we inherited the garden the frames that held the glass were so rotten that they had to be dismantled.

We have built tunnels over the original glasshouse structures. The tunnels are where we grow tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, beans and herbs and also home to peach trees, grape vines and a beautiful bougainvillea, which flowers for about ten months of the year.

Having a tunnel in Ireland gives a perfect climate to be able to grow all year round The walls of the garden are surrounded with apple trees, many of which are original varieties and some newer trees that we have planted over the years. There is a blackcurrant, redcurrant, gooseberry and rhubarb plot and last year we planted blueberries but we are waiting for results. We use the soft fruits to bake sweet tarts and make jams and jelly.

Half of the garden is used as beds where we grow vegetables and the other half is shared between the fruit and chickens. When we had a restaurant the garden supplied the kitchen. These days the garden supplies the kitchen at our shop in Clonakilty. We concentrate on growing the main ingredients that we need for the shop and then grow small quantities of more exotic or difficult to find vegetables for our home kitchen and cooking classes.

We give cooking classes that are a combination of garden and kitchen. These take place in the spring and summer. Our garden has been planted with supplying a kitchen in mind and is often the beginning spot for menu planning.

When we first arrived in West Cork from the city we often travelled miles in search of ingredients for our dinner until we cottoned on that we needed to use what we had in the garden.