Links 2011 Outing

LINKS is my church Ladies' Group. Each May we take an outing. This year we went church in the beautiful Cathedral of Killaloe.

We then had a nice lunch at Goosers in  Ballina, right across the river from Killaloe. As you can tell, this is a great group of women.

The focus of the trip was an afternoon at the Seed Savers in Scarriff, Co. Clare.

Irish Seed Savers Association exists as a living testimony to the richness and wealth of the agricultural legacy of our ancestors. Irish Seed Savers Association was founded by Anita Hayes in 1991. The work was initially done on a small farm in Co. Carlow before moving to Capparoe, Scarriff in 1996.

We were very fortunate to have the help of Dr. Keith Lamb who had conducted the original research into native Irish apples in the 1940s and Dr. Michael Hennerty former head of the Department of Horticulture in University College Dublin who has continued to provide wisdom and expertise. In 1996 the project moved to its present site in Scariff and In 1999 a FAS community employment scheme developed by Bridget Carlin secured employment for many staff.

Through the hard work of staff, volunteers and the generosity of subscribers and friends of Irish Seed Savers we have grown steadily since that time.

In 1996 Michael Miklis, began efforts to conserve Irish grain on his own farm in Co Kilkenny.

In 1997 the Native Irish Apple collection (Lamb/Clarke) was inaugurated by President Mary Robinson.

In 1998 an Irish Brassica project was started in co-operation with the Wellesbourne Gene Bank in the U.K.

With the acquisition of new land we were able to build a purpose built Educational Facility and small Shop and Café. We currently offer a wide range of Workshops on subjects such as Organic Gardening, Bee Keeping, Making the most of your Polytunnel, Cheesmaking, Creating and Orchard and many more.

We had a great tour guide and learned a lot, though, as you can see, it was a bit wet! They have many historical varieties of trees and plants which they are preserving.  (Most of these pictures were taken with my camera by Gill - thanks!)
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