Dear Aisling,
Thank you so much for your information on the power of attorney changes which are due to take place soon (Legal matters: Incapacitated family member regaining control of their affairs, 30 July edition). Some of the older generation do not seem to appreciate the significance of these changes. I am an 81-year-old and will look forward with great interest to your next article on this subject. Many thanks for keeping us up to date.
Name with editor
While we’re still at a high food-producing time of year, it’s a good time to brush up on freezing fruits and vegetables and how best to do it. I’m currently picking sloes and blackberries from our hedgerows and will be getting several kilos of locally-grown blueberries to freeze for the winter months (the sloe is for gin, but that’s a different chef’s tip!). For perfectly frozen fruit which keeps its shape, you first want to wash and prep. I soak my blackberries in cold water with a bit of apple cider vinegar for up to 10 minutes (to encourage any creepy crawlies out) and then dry them on kitchen towel before spreading the fruit out in a single layer on a baking tray. I freeze them like this, first, and then once they are frozen I transfer them to a freezer-safe container or freezer bag.
with Dr Catherine Keena,
Teagasc countryside
management specialist
Purple loosestrife.
Look out for purple loosestrife with vibrant purple or magenta spires of flowers in dense whorls. With deep roots, this tall plant tolerates fluctuating water levels. It can be found on damp, waterlogged margins of bogs, lakes and riverbanks. It is a very hairy plant with paired opposite lanceolate willow-like leaves.
Associated fauna include medium-sized bees and hoverflies, which pollinate it, caterpillars of powdered quaker moth, small elephant hawk-moth and emperor moth, and beetles which graze leaves, roots and flowers. Used in herbal medicine as a cure for diarrhoea and dysentery, purple loosestrife is part of our native Irish biodiversity.
Ronan Murphy (10) is from Borris, Co Carlow. He loves farming and his grandad gave him a sheep, which he named Grace. Grace was poorly when she arrived, with her front legs turned in. Ronan took her out onto grass twice a day and gave her physio. She's doing great now - although she thinks she's a dog.
Addiction isn’t about “chemical hooks” but something else. It’s not the drug that’s the problem, but your cage. Alcohol and drugs are your way of trying to adapt to your environment.
- Enda Murphy
The number of years that the Prairie Farmer newspaper is running. Current editor Holly Spangler is not there for quite as long but you can read about her career in farming in Illinois.
Dear Aisling,
Thank you so much for your information on the power of attorney changes which are due to take place soon (Legal matters: Incapacitated family member regaining control of their affairs, 30 July edition). Some of the older generation do not seem to appreciate the significance of these changes. I am an 81-year-old and will look forward with great interest to your next article on this subject. Many thanks for keeping us up to date.
Name with editor
While we’re still at a high food-producing time of year, it’s a good time to brush up on freezing fruits and vegetables and how best to do it. I’m currently picking sloes and blackberries from our hedgerows and will be getting several kilos of locally-grown blueberries to freeze for the winter months (the sloe is for gin, but that’s a different chef’s tip!). For perfectly frozen fruit which keeps its shape, you first want to wash and prep. I soak my blackberries in cold water with a bit of apple cider vinegar for up to 10 minutes (to encourage any creepy crawlies out) and then dry them on kitchen towel before spreading the fruit out in a single layer on a baking tray. I freeze them like this, first, and then once they are frozen I transfer them to a freezer-safe container or freezer bag.
with Dr Catherine Keena,
Teagasc countryside
management specialist
Purple loosestrife.
Look out for purple loosestrife with vibrant purple or magenta spires of flowers in dense whorls. With deep roots, this tall plant tolerates fluctuating water levels. It can be found on damp, waterlogged margins of bogs, lakes and riverbanks. It is a very hairy plant with paired opposite lanceolate willow-like leaves.
Associated fauna include medium-sized bees and hoverflies, which pollinate it, caterpillars of powdered quaker moth, small elephant hawk-moth and emperor moth, and beetles which graze leaves, roots and flowers. Used in herbal medicine as a cure for diarrhoea and dysentery, purple loosestrife is part of our native Irish biodiversity.
Ronan Murphy (10) is from Borris, Co Carlow. He loves farming and his grandad gave him a sheep, which he named Grace. Grace was poorly when she arrived, with her front legs turned in. Ronan took her out onto grass twice a day and gave her physio. She's doing great now - although she thinks she's a dog.
Addiction isn’t about “chemical hooks” but something else. It’s not the drug that’s the problem, but your cage. Alcohol and drugs are your way of trying to adapt to your environment.
- Enda Murphy
The number of years that the Prairie Farmer newspaper is running. Current editor Holly Spangler is not there for quite as long but you can read about her career in farming in Illinois.
This is a subscriber-only article
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