 Right here on Highland Radio. Yes, here we are on Highland Radio this Thursday afternoon. It's John Breslin until half two. Well, Halloween is almost upon us. And at Halloween, it's all about pumpkins. Well, there's a lot of it about pumpkins. And at the ISIS Centre, which is at Derry Vane, just beside Moff, they certainly know a thing or two about pumpkins. And there's loads of them there. And they're ready to be picked. And that's what's happening on Saturday because they're having a family day where you can go along and help them to gather pumpkins. Yes, because they do actually, they do grow and they grow out in a field and they do have to be picked. So from ten to half past two, that's what they're going to be doing if you want to pop in and take part in to have a bit of fun. And the head grower at the farm, at the White Oaks Acorn Organic Farm is Noel McDermott and Noel joins us now. Oh, good afternoon, sir. Good afternoon, John. Noel Daherty here, actually. Oh, is that so? Sorry, you're down here as McDermott. So Daherty it is. That part of the word McDermott or Daherty would be both popular. That's very true indeed, John. Anyhow, you're looking very relaxed for a man that has a busy few days ahead of him because there's a lot of... I'm just looking at a picture here from the dairy news and there's a lot of pumpkins to be picked between now and Saturday but you plan to leave a lot of them in place for Saturday. We have a lot of them in already, John, and harvested already. It took us about the guts of three days there, the back end of last week and the first Mully and Tuesday there this week. So we actually have them all in freshly harvested from the field now as such. So we dry them off in a well-aired area, a ventilated area so they can cure in our polytunnels and glass houses at the minute for the big day on Saturday, yeah. It sounds like a lot of work and a lot of hard work because it's not like picking strawberries or apples or something. These are, you know, these are like, you know, right old weighty vegetables. They are a right weight, yeah. You know, for example, the heaviest pumpkin recorded was over a ton weight. It was 1.2 tons grown in the United States a few years back. But yeah, there's up to 600 pumpkins now. So they're an interesting crop. They originated in Mexico, around 5,000 B.C., so they're a member of the Corbett family and that's a family. Your listeners might be familiar with marbles, melons, courgettes and the pumpkin and squash. That's a pumpkin as a member of the squash family. So really what a pumpkin is, is that it's a winter squash. And there's actually four to five different colors of pumpkins that can grow. We're very familiar with the orange, the darker orange type that was bred in Mexico and southern United States areas back then. So how is it familiar for ourselves? Well, the caravan of pumpkins really, it was actually turnips that were carved originally here in Ireland. To ward off, it was the Celtic tradition of sound around this time of year. So the Irish would have carved a pumpkin and left them outside as home to ward off evil spirits on all Hallows' Eves. So with migration and the migration to the United States, the Irish brought the tradition over there and found that pumpkins, when they arrived there, the pumpkins grew in abundance over there and actually the size, they were easier to carve. So that's where the tradition comes from in the festivities of this time of year. And do they start off looking like that or like that orange look or do they start off differently? That's a very good question. They start off, well, first of all, they start off green and then they turn to a lighter yellow and then there's deep dark orange to finish off with. But it's a process that these pumpkins that you can see here, I appreciate the listeners can't see them at home, but they're around seven months in the making from seed. We sow them from seed here. We're fully certified organic farm and we buy our organic seeds. So the seeds were actually sown into modular trays in mid-April. So you can imagine from mid-April to this very day, it's almost a seven month process of growing. So in that process, we sow the seeds out. We transplant them, the little plants go into 12 centimeter pots. We leave them in them for a number of weeks and then we also plant them out into the field then. But they are a very hardy crop, John, now. I won't say that they're easy to grow, but they're not the most difficult crop either. But they are susceptible to wind when they are little small seedling transplants out in the field. So any type of help that you can give them on the way there, like a small bit of fleece out in the field or out in your listeners' gardens out in the back, would be beneficial at a time when you're planting them out. You know, at the start of June, maybe mid-June to late-June, that's when you would be planting them in their final position. So, yeah. Okay. And what do you grow there? Is it just one variety? We have three separate varieties this year. We have the real market standard would be jack-o'-lantern. Jack-o'-lantern is really the perfect size, perfect caravan size. We also, we grow one called racer. And then there's this particular variety. It's a very deep orange here, and it's more flapper than your normal, robust pumpkin. It's rouge-y-de-tompe, and that's a French pumpkin that I grew this year for the first time, and it's actually excelled this year. So we have three different varieties. Yeah, all ready for June and for picking up on Saturday here at the Aces Centre. Yeah. And all edible because there's some pumpkins, and they're just, they're more suited, you know, for carving and for display rather than for eating. Yes. Like, a pumpkin is 92% water. So in that sense, it's very, very high. They're very high in vitamin A and cancer-fied Nancy antioxidants, but you can carve your pumpkin for sure, which is most people will be doing, but you can also roast off the little seeds inside, and then the inside flesh can be made for soup. The Americans are fond of pumpkin pie, listeners will be familiar with hearing about pumpkin pie. And also the skin of some of the smaller pumpkins is also edible too. So with ourselves being 100% organic, the ethos here is that preference would be that for sure for carving on all howls' eve, but that it will be used fully then as a food source after that, whereas some of the shop bought varieties do come from far-flung places like China, and they do have maybe questionable growing ethics there, and they will be using certain sprays and pesticides and fungicides in the growing process, whereas we don't use anything at that at all. Okay. Now, pumpkin's just one of 15 different types of crops that you grow there, and then you sell these crops at three different markets in any show. Am I right? Yes, we do indeed. We're in Bunkrana on Wednesday. We also sell in Burt on a Friday, and we're in Bridgend just outside the old Harry's restaurant building in Bridgend from 9 to 12 on a Saturday also. So we have a farm shop on site, up in our Issa Centre here, and that's open during the week, Monday to Friday, 9 to 4. And you do baskets as well, or boxes of vegetables and fruit. Well, and I say fruit. You've just added fruit into the offerings. We made a decision during the year, John. Yeah, we had a lot of questions and queries about fruit and maybe marrying the two fruit and veg, and people were interested in maybe picking up the two and the one drop. So we did decide to add fruit to our array of vegetables that were existing here. And yeah, it's going pretty well for us now. We are a social enterprise here, so its box delivery scheme would be the central plank and the original setup for the farm was that we were delivering and our boxes get delivered on a Thursday to the initial and dairy areas. So that's a six item veggie box and that can be ordered online. You can call the office here, or you can also order on Facebook. And that goes with the seasons. It's complete seasonality here. We all the time try and get absolutely items from the farm when the season allows, and we go all year round here. We don't stop in January, February, like others do it as well. So what you're getting in your box is not only organic, but seasonal. It is. We're hand harvested by ourselves here. You know, there's a saying, it's growing, not flowing. And, you know, we do put the hard yards in with regards to regulation. We're inspected twice a year now with Irish Organic Association. So you must conform to all regulation there, but, you know, the ethos of the farm is organic and, you know, we are stand out in that field, you know. Any plans that you deliver to Ineshawn and the dairy areas, any plans to expand that a bit further? Well, we were in talks with that. Now that is ongoing at the moment, you know. Certainly at the turning of the year, we will look more into that and maybe branching out into other areas, you know. It's certainly something that in the near future it could be happening, yeah. OK, in the meantime, anyhow, you've got a field full of pumpkins and you're looking for families to come along on Saturday. It's not just about, you know, hard graft. There's a wee bit of that, but it's a family fun day. And it's a family fun day, John. You know, it all kicks off at 10 a.m. here, this income on Saturday, October 28th. So from 10 a.m., it's free entry. You know, there is an abundance of activities happening. And all Halloween themed, face painting, balloon making. We've got guests the way to the biggest pumpkin, whereas the person gets closest to the way they get to win that pumpkin next week and take it home for themselves. And there's also a photo booth and then lots of different treats and Halloween themed soups. Pumpkins on sale, obviously. Got small pumpkin, medium pumpkin, large pumpkins here. So yeah. As I said, there's a seven month process and a seven month long hard graft going into, you know, having this day. And we hope that people can come and have a fun day and enjoy themselves. And I suppose it's important to remind people that the pumpkins are for sale, are for sale at the moment and will be from Saturday onwards at the Isis Centre near Muff. Well, the best luck on Saturday. I'm sure it'll be a busy day. Maybe they have a great idea for families because you can have a bit of Halloween fun and also it's reminding kids about where pumpkins come from. Exactly, exactly. You know, it's all, it's a learning process, you know. When it comes to growing, John, in this part of the world, particularly in Donegal and the Northwest of Donegal, you know, it can be challenging. And with regards to organics, then it's got extra challenges because, you know, we can't spray for weeds. We can't use artificial chemicals for the ground, pesticides, pesticides. So, yeah, every day is a school day, they say, and there's no true return than what we do here for sure. All right, well, keep up the good work. Noel Dardy, thanks a million.