Moy Hill Farm Are Trying To Expand Their Good Work- And They Need Your Help

Moy Hill Farm are trying to Raise €329,000 to pay for 60 acres to be used for social farming expansion; to feed more people, plant native woodland and support the community, land to be held in a trust.

The farm serves as a full time residence for surfers Matt Smith, Mitch Corbett, Fergal Smith as well as Sally Smith, David Hanley and Brian Cavanagh. It has been operation for four years, and now the team are Crowdfunding so they can extend and expand their good work. We’ll let them explain in more detail:

“Each friday morning, we – those living and working at moy hill farm – get up extra early for the harvest. By mid afternoon the work is done; our timber packing shed full of amazing, healing, potent vegetables. 50 families will receive a box each; more will change hands at the market.

From the hill (Moy hill!) we can look out over the land, down to the ocean and the town of Lahinch. Starting nearby with a back garden in 2012, then a 1/2 acre community garden, to a loaned 1 acre site, we kept working and saving to create what is now moy hill farm: 17 acres bought in 2015 and run as a CSA (community supported agriculture) partnership.

‘The Moy Hill Project is important because it provides a model that others could follow’ -Eamon Ryan (The leader of the Green Party Ireland)

Our mission is to feed local people, love earth and inspire. To progress in that direction we have and continue to work with whatever is necessary – soil, seeds, shovels and long days in the field; farmers, banks, politics (Fergal stood for election last year), NGOs, charities, schools and universities; as well as yoga, meditation, non-violent communication and community building practices. We grow food but also hold an open door for anyone to stay, work, learn, grow, heal.

moy hill farm is grounded in our work towards a better food system, yet is also part of a wider movement, part of what have been called Institutes for Technologies of Reunion. Many of those who visit or stay at the farm have minimal experience in vegetable growing, so what is it that gathers us together? One answer we hear is the openness to receive each other; another is the strong sense of mission and dedication to something beyond ourselves.

We are now asking people to help buy a 60-acre plot next to moy hill farm. While this has its practical gifts – more space for native trees, more land for good food, more nature under care – it also carries a message: we can do this.

We can grow our own food. We can drink clean water. We can give our children the gift of wild nature.

With this new land – even worked by hand and heart, from dawn to dark – we cannot feed the whole country; nor can we dismantle the pesticides-in-food industry overnight. It may be that the greater purpose of this farm is to inspire and support others in reclaiming food, water and educational sovereignty in their local area.

At moy hill farm, we are doing it. Not perfectly. But we’re trying, and sometimes, when the rain is soft, the children playing and picking berries, the adults (momentarily!) silenced by the exquisite flavours coming in from the fields, sometimes, we know it is changing, that a better way for our children and for ourselves is within reach.

If this resonates with you, please support our campaign and get in touch. Thank you!”

Find out more at the moy hill farm website and donate to the crowdfunder here.

Up coming Events at the farm:

24st September
4:00pm – 8pm
Mick Flannery
+tours
@ Moy Hill community Farm
(please park at the joy church)

1st October
5:30pm -8pm
Three woman sing (Anne Rynne)
All welcome for a night of food and music
@ Moy Hill community Farm

15th October
Crowdfunding Over
Barn Dance with Serious Mischief (reggae band)
@ Moy Hill community Farm