Farm Profile Fergal Anderson

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Leaf & Root Farm

EIP Soil Biodiversity Project Participant

Farmer:

Fergal Anderson

Location:

Loughrea, Co Galway

Water Catchment Area:

Galway Bay S.E.

Land Use:

Vegetables, Fruit, Poultry, Mixed Woodland

Leaf & Root Farm

Leaf and Root Farm is a 30 acre horticulture and woodland farm in East Galway. Fergal & Emanuela aim to rebuild local food systems, and reconnect people with the land, food and each other.

Leaf & Root are proud food growers. It takes time, effort and plenty of work, but the result is great tasting vegetables and fruit straight from their farm. Their aim is to produce food that feeds local markets. Eating food that’s in season and freshly harvested means varied, fresher and healthier food, and supporting jobs in the local community. Fergal & Emanuela believe there is great potential in Ireland for more food being produced here instead of importing vegetables from overseas.

At Leaf & Root, they don’t use artificial pesticides, fertilisers, fungicides or any other chemicals. They believe a healthy soil means a healthy plant, so they use organic manures, seaweed, green manures and other systems to keep the soil rich, and alive – and keep the vegetables happy!

Leaf & Root supply the local community and restaurants, only providing what they can produce on the farm – that means working with the seasons, and learning to eat following what is seasonably available on their farm throughout the year.

Fergal & Emanuela are Farming For Nature Ambassadors for 2021, the FFN video introducing their farm is available here.

Fergal introduces himself, his farm and his interest in the soil biodiversity project in this short clip.

Visit Leaf & Root’s website here

We produce vegetables, fruit and eggs for sale directly to restaurants and the local community. We also manage a mixed woodland which we aim to integrate into the farm (woodchip composting, agroforestry, silvoarable) over the coming years

EIP Soil Diversity Project

Leaf & Root Farm at Loughrea, Co Galway consists of shallow, well drained soils.

By participating in the EIP Soil Diversity Project, Fergal & Emanuela have trialled and documented a range of technical innovations (such as bioNutrient meters) and physical innovations (e.g. soil biological activators, mineral amendments, biochar, green manure, compost, compost teas, inoculants etc)

Their progress through Dr Elaine Ingham’s Launch Your Lab (LYL) educational course and the results of their farm trials are recorded in their farm report. At the end of the course, Fergal & Emanuela will be trained and certified to look at soil microbes. This will enable them to carry out analysis for not only their own farm, but also to act as a lighthouse farm for other individuals, farms and agri-businesses who can benefit from knowing what their soil needs to boost yields.

The Leaf and Root farm walk took place on the 2nd May, 2022, and focused on horticulture, forests and orchards. This was also the day the project participants received their microscopes! A video summary of the Leaf & Root farm walk can be viewed below.

You can check out Fergal’s course certificate and find out more about Fergal & Emanuela’s trial plot, experiment and baseline soil test results in their project report.

Project Report

Farm Walk

Leaf & Root Farm walk

Join Fergal & Manu on their Farm Walk through Leaf & Root Farm in County Galway to learn more about horticulture, forests & orchards.

The latest news from the EIP Soil Biodiversity Project

Project Participants

Find out more about our project participants and their farms. Follow their journey, see their results and learn how they benefitted from their EIP Soil Biodiversity Project participation.