Welcome back to our blog! We haven’t been here in a while, it’s been so busy – but it does mean we have plenty of exciting stories to tell you!
Let’s get back into it with the most exciting news of all. As you might know from our updates on our social media pages, our teams have been hard at work digging, planting, growing a beautiful Organic Garden.
It has finally paid off and we are more than delighted to announce we are officially Organic Accredited!

We decided to catch a very busy Mary for an interview with a member of the team, to pick her brains on the whole journey… from seeds to flourishing gardens.

We first went to look at our livestock of cows and sheep. The calves are looking healthy and very large now. It won’t be long until they’re due for slaughter. We will document their journey from the field to the table, as Mary believes it is important for young people to understand where their food comes from.
As for the Sheep, they look very content, having been moved to one of our fields at the back of Woodlands to accommodate the Limerick & District Canine Club Dog Show happening on Thursday 24^th August.
Mary explains she looks forward to hosting the Show and it’s one of the largest annual dog shows in Ireland and a truly fantastic event, attracting visitors from all over Ireland and abroad.

She looks on at the sheep and admires them, saying: “I just love sheep, I don’t know if it’s because of the ‘lamb of god’ but I just love them. I love their stupidity!”

Mary explains when the livestock are ready to go for slaughter, it is important they are weighed so they know they will be ready and are also not overweight. The ewes will then be placed with a ram in the spring for our new lambs to be raised.
The cows will be under 30 months when they go for slaughter, the breeding stock will be kept to begin increasing the size of our herd.

As we leave the livestock, we walk up towards the garden and bordering Revas Spa car park and the gardens are young apple trees. The apple trees are specific breeds that will grow to intertwine and stretch to create a beautiful fence. At the moment they are still very small, but as we stop to admire them, we notice little apples already growing on the branches.

“It must mean they are happy here. Adare is seemingly known for it’s fertile land and apples grow well here, I’m delighted with them.”

“Next year we will probably juice the Apples, we’ll have some for guests to eat but we’ll mostly have them as juice.”

We walk up to the garden entrance, stopping to look at the flourishing plants dotted at the entrance.
Mary points towards some beautiful bright orange edible flowers, “These are Nasturtiums. They’re beautiful, very vibrant. These are Marigold’s” pointing to another plant, “When you have Organic Gardens, they’re recommended for keeping pests away.”

Mary walks us into the garden, as we go along she casually picks little bits of plants and we taste.
“I notice it tastes completely different to herbs and vegetables you buy in the supermarket?”

Mary nods enthusiastically, holding some fresh deep green chives, “oh yes. Completely different. We don’t use any chemicals or pesticides. The plants are left to grow naturally so you won’t find any other flavours than the plant itself.”

“Why did you decide to start the process of an Organic Garden?”

As we walk through the garden, Mary starts from the beginning of the story:

“There are two things: I’ve always wanted a garden, that’s what we started doing. My late husband Dick came from Kerry and they were gardening in Kerry. They were supplying organic produce to the Hotels in Kerry, strawberries and things like that. So Dick went to England, and he came back and bought this farm in 1967. So he moved to Adare, to be near Limerick, a larger population and started is gardening and he would supply the people of Limerick with his stuff.”
“We got married in 1973 and we were gardening in these fields here, growing strawberries, potatoes, cabbages, Brussel sprouts. We had strawberries in the summer time as the main crop, and Brussel sprouts in winter, as the main crop.
“So we supplied the supermarkets and the shops, and then we would invite people to come to our house at the end of the season and pick their own strawberries. In the winter time, likewise.
“In the early 70’s, the deep freezers came in and people began to freeze their produce and were able to have all these exotic fruits and vegetables all year round, so we started the next phase of our business and we graduated into a bed and breakfast, then into a hotel. We still had our produce until about 1983/84, we already had a customer base formed, so the first customers to use us as a hotel were the people that were buying the fruit and vegetables from us. We already had a bank of customers because they were used to coming to the place.

“The second reason it’s an Organic garden is because I really wanted quality food, we already discussed it but the difference in taste and quality is vast. I’m all about quality food. Quality. Homegrown where possible and Organic where possible.”

“Dick died two and a half years ago, so in his memory, I have dedicated this garden to him. He died the 30^th September, so I am going to unveil a plaque on his anniversary and call this ‘Dick’s Garden’”

We will be featuring updates of our organic adventures in our Blog, from the process of becoming accredited, features on our produce and recipes – we hope you enjoy our homegrown stories!