Causey Farm

Causey Farm is not quite like any farm I have ever been on. It is about 45 minutes outside of Dublin, well probably more like an hour out of Dublin and 45 minutes from DCU. When you pull up there are multiple small one room, one story, farm houses where all the activities take place. In one day I learned 2 Irish dances, how to play the Bodhran (an Irish Drum), baked Soda Bread (DELICIOUS), cut turf in the bog, learn an Irish song, play hurling, go on a pig chase, milk a cow, play with puppies and then have an Irish meal, complete with singing and dancing. It was quite the day.

The Bodhran is a small circular drum with a small wooden stick. Here is a picture:

It is pretty simple to play. You take the tiny wooden stick and kind make a painting stroke across the front, which is made from goatskin or along the wooden side. Mainly to keep the beat.

The Irish Soda bread was delicious and super easy to make. So, for you Mommy, here is the recipes, I highly recommend it!

Equipment

• one pound loaf tin
• wooden spoon
• mixing bowl
• teaspoon
• Oven pre-heated to 200°C

Ingredients

• 1½ cups of plain flour
• 1 cup of wheatenmeal
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1 level teaspoon of bread soda
• 1 small egg
• ¾ cup of butter milk
• spoon of butter or margarine to grease tin

Method

1. Grease the loaf tin thoroughly with butter or margarine.
2. Put the wheatenmeal, flour, salt and bread soda into the mixing bowl.
3. Lift the contents of the bowl through your fingers to let air into the mixture and to thoroughly mix the dry ingredients.
4. Add the egg and milk and mix to a dough with the wooden spoon.
5. Put mixture in tin and bake at 200°C for 25-30 minutes. (400 F)
   
6. Turn out onto a baking tray and leave to cool.

Note: Most people would be more likely to have a 2lb loaf tin rather than the very small 1lb tin we use at the farm. Just double the ingredients if you are using a 2lb tin. Otherwise if you wish you can use a flat tin and form the mixture into a round cake for baking, marking a cross on the top with a knife, for easy cutting.

My favorite part of the day was milking the cow by far! And, the lady even said I was quite good at it. Although, it was kind of warm and awkward. Did you know that you don't pull down on the teat you simply squeeze it. Just a quick FFR for all those who one day wish to milk a cow. Now I know you all are wishing you were there to see me milk the cow, so never fear there were pictures taken:

The bog was disgusting. I was not nearly prepared for how gross it was going to be. But, interestingly enough it is completely free of bacteria, so back in the olden days they would use them as refrigerators because they are constantly at about 5 C. They would put butter and meat and such in wooden boxes and store it in the bog. As normal as this sounds unless you have seen a bog, you don't understand how thoroughly disgusting they are. Just to give you an idea:

Yes, that is green grossness aka the bog. Funny story, not too long ago a body was discovered in the bog and a man confessed to killing his wife and hiding her body in the bog, however after research was done on the body it turned out it was from over 200 years ago, so the man confessed to a body he didn't even kill, then they had to go back to the bog and dig up his wife. He had told his neighbors she simply ran off, and they all felt bad because she left him with 3 little babies. Boy were they wrong. Also not too long ago a group found butter from over 400 years ago that had been so well preserved it was still good for eating. Some fellow did try it and said it tasted fine, a bit salty but completely edible. Wild. Can't imagine storing my food in muddy dirt.

We also got to heard sheep it was unbelievably cool to see all the sheep come running towards you and how well controlled they are by the sheep dog. The owner of the farm would say stop and the dogs would stop and then the sheep stopped. It was as if they were mechanical. Completely amazing, the discipline. Sheep are beautiful creatures. I am sure most would not agree, but I think they are.

The owners of the farm was a lovely family with three adorable children all under the age of about 6. The kids ran around all day and then fell asleep sometime in the middle of the singing and Irish music and dancing after we had dinner. The farm was an amazing experience. When I think of farms of the US images of petting zoos come to mind, but this was a real working farm. We had a lively pig chase, although unfortunately we did not catch any of the pigs, I guess that means we would not be good farmers. Hurling was interesting too. Kind of like lacrosse, but played with a hockey stick. Not easy to learn. But very fun to fail at.

Here are some more pictures from the farm:

My Bread baking partner.

PIGS

We were chased by these cows around the farm. The two sheep dogs went a little nuts and decided to heard the cows and their calves while we were learning Hurling, so the four of them come charging toward us, making these ungodly noises you would never think a cow could make, all the while the farmer's wife is screaming "BAD DOGS! BAD DOGS!" And all of us are running for covering. Funny in hindsight, a little terrifying at the time.

The Puppy!

Learning an Irish Dance with Kelsey.

An Irish Broom dance that looked like it could cause more pain than fun.

More Sheep!