I would consider autumn to be my favourite season – not only because it is the time of the Mindful Farmer’s birthday but, more importantly, when I sit down and think about the months of August, September and October, the images of the harvest come flashing into my mind.

It’s the time of the Meitheal, when all the farmers and all the communities in west Limerick would come together to assist in the saving and storing of the crops.

Rural communities have a special and distinctive bond

This was a very structured system and all the small farmers would arrange with the leaders when their harvest was ready and then the avalanche of help would descend on the farm.

This process would continue until the entire harvest was complete.

Rural communities have a special and distinctive bond; only not as powerful as it was 50 years ago. We must be careful we don’t lose this deep, cultural bond of yesteryear.

No individual can do the work of a community. We are all members of communities in a certain way and form – be it in families, work, neighbours, relations and/or friends. We must all play our part. As individuals we cannot develop or grow in an isolated life.

We all need community desperately, especially as we are a warm-blooded, Celtic race of people who crave company.

It was like a mini Blas na hÉireann

At harvest time (and Meitheal time), it was also a time for reflection and looking back over the year – an examination of all areas, situations and practices which could be improved. All this was done in a quiet way by the elders as all others sang and danced around the open fires.

It was also a time to display all the fruits from the harvest. It was like a mini Blas na hÉireann, where producers shared and cooked all their foods in a simple but very proud way. Today, we still display our foods and harvests naturally, but in a much more exacting and policy-controlled way that the farmer from 50 years ago could not achieve.

Putting it into practice

Now that I have gotten all these thoughts written down – and off my mind and chest – I have to put my thoughts and actions towards our own Meitheal here on the farm. With the hay all safely saved and in the barn from early June, all the young deer born over the past months will be weaned in the next few weeks, sized and sexed and put in separate groups.

The main reason for this procedure is that a milking female will not come into heat until very late in the season and in some cases will lose too much body weight to go in calf for the next season.

With the wild boar, we size and sex also and we do not breed during the winter months – only from April onwards, so the young are born in the warm, sunny weather. The female wild boar will have only five or six bonhams/piglets or whatever her brain relates to the body as is healthy and suitable for her.

Beauty in nature

What I love about farming wild animals is that they do most of the thinking for us farmers. They are in step and in tune with Mother Nature and we just follow.

It is not for every farmer, but if we are to get in step with climate change we are going to have to discuss with nature how we reclaim her trust and live nearer to Earths heart and deep within its silence.

Animals can teach us – they know this world in a way we never will. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we learned to walk this Earth with animal confidence and clear-eyed stillness in a fresh green, clean, beautiful island country and be an example to the world.