Update

My group, FADA, is still going well, although we’ve slowed down during this busy time of year.

We have begun hosting meetings of local families who are interested in growing their own, from town-dwellers with a small garden to professional pig and chicken farmers. The group is called GIY (for Grow It Yourself) Newbridge, part of a network of GIY clubs begun by former journalist Michael Kelly. GIY patrons include an array of Irish chefs, gardeners and media personalities -- Diarmuid Gavin and author/chefs Darina Allen, Clodagh McKenna and Joy Larkcom.

We drew about 30 people at the first meeting and about 30 at the second one – including new people, which is a good sign.

Also, some FADA members have also become Transition Town Newbridge, after the town in County Kildare where we meet.

For those who don’t know, the Transition Towns is a global movement that began in Kinsale, Ireland a few years ago. Geologist Colin Campbell, godfather of the peak oil movement and local resident, spoke in 2005 to a group of Kinsale students, and the class resolved to transition their region away from fossil fuels. The name and idea has spread rapidly -- there are now 274 Transition Towns across the world, in countries like Japan, the USA, Chile, Germany, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Finland.

For many people, forming a Transition Town might be a bold first step, often taken by people who have recently heard about issues like peak oil and then found each other. In our case, it is a bit of an anticlimax -- FADA started here in County Kildare around the same time that the first Transition Town, with a similar idea and approach, was forming to the south of us in Kinsale, County Cork. They and we weren’t aware of each other when we started, but we soon learned of them, and our members and Transition Town activists have met and worked together ever since, as the Transition Town name spread rapidly.

In other words, we’ve always been a sort of unofficial Transition Town, and we’ve already spun off into two Transition Towns. Now we’re making it official and joining the global network.

Bia Linn

FADA held the grand opening of our community garden last Saturday, and everything went well. I had done a radio show, press releases and a lot of phone calls to spread the word about this, and I think it paid off – crowds of people came, our network of interested people increased, and everyone seemed to have a great time.

Local poet Des Egan unveiled the wooden sign saying “Bia Linn” (“Our Food”), hand-carved by one of our members. One of our members, a mushroom farmer, gave a presentation on growing your own mushrooms, while another, a nun who has worked in Africa, spoke about Fair Trade. Still another spoke about edible flowers, and I spoke about permaculture. Photographers came from the local newspapers, and The Girl got her picture in the paper.

I was especially pleased with The Girl – as soon as other children started arriving, she led them around the garden in a hand-held chain, telling them, “These are peas – I’ll show you how to take them out of the pods. These are tomatoes – don’t eat the leaves.”

Finally, two musicians set up in the middle of the garden and began playing a mix of traditional and modern folk music and couples danced in the middle of the garden. Picture a young woman singing an Irish-sounding version of Tracy Chapman’s “Talkin’ About a Revolution,” surrounded by greenery, as children laughed and chased each other between the garden beds. That was our day, and it was good.