CARE FARMING:Two communities with special needs produce food for their neighbours and veg for a local restaurant They cannot articulate the way we can but they want to be treated as normal. They don't want to be pampered or patronised, writes Michael Kelly
THE CAMPHILL MOVEMENT was established in 1939 in Aberdeen by a paediatrician of Jewish origin, Dr Karl König, who was fleeing Nazi persecution in his native Vienna. König was drawn to the incredible ability of people with disabilities to live their lives from within a disabled body and he resolved himself to live with, care for and educate children and adults with special needs.
There are now 95 Camphill communities in 22 countries (including 14 in Ireland) where children and adults of all abilities live, learn and work together. In the tranquil Kilkenny countryside near Jerpoint Abbey, a Camphill community is home to approximately 20 people who share various tasks including domestic work, cooking and maintaining a substantial smallholding and food-processing facility.
Nine of the community's co-workers have special needs, ranging from mild learning disabilities to autism, Down syndrome and cerebral palsy and according to the centre's manager, John O'Connor, all have a role to play in keeping the community functioning properly. "They happen to have a disability but we look on that as secondary to their personalities and interests. The tendency in social care is for the person to be in the middle and surrounded by healthcare professionals - what's called person-centred planning. The difference with Camphill is that all the adults, including those with special needs, are part of a mutual support group."
Dignity through work is central to the Camphill philosophy, as is the belief that meaningful employment is therapeutic and boosts self-esteem. In many of the communities, including Jerpoint, "care farming" is used to promote mental and physical health. There is an unmistakable air of calm around the Jerpoint centre, but it is also highly productive and incredibly cutting-edge. The land here is farmed using Biodynamics, a form of organic husbandry which views a farm as a self-contained unit requiring minimal external input - that means home-produced composts, manures and animal feeds. O'Connor shows me the woodchip boiler which heats every dwelling in the community and aimpressive compost corner where at least 10 heaps in varying stages of decay are busy producing black gold. "We try to care for the land using environmentally friendly methods and by living lightly and engaging responsibly." Co-workers are busy toiling in the fields to the front and rear of a 19th-century Georgian house which houses the community's busy kitchen. Every fruit, herb and vegetable imaginable is being grown in abundance here. A couple of pigs are being reared for the table in a small paddock while two more co-workers are busy lime-washing a cow-shed. The produce is used predominantly to provide food for the community and organic box schemes for local families and the excess is occasionally served up in the Watergarden café in Thomastown which is also run and staffed by Camphill.
"The idea of land work is not just to grow good vegetables - it is to provide meaningful work and educational possibilities. Broadly speaking, individuals develop a sense of well-being on a horticultural project - whether they are involved actively or passively, they seem to benefit." The input that each co-worker makes varies greatly, ranging from what O'Connor calls "dabblers", to the more seasoned gardeners and farmers such as James (see below). "They need to feel they are needed. They need to feel responsible for creating a meal and getting it on the table. For each and every person involved, the dignity that real work offers can not be underestimated."
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LOCATED IN A renovated greenhouse in Frankendael Park, Amsterdam's De Kas restaurant puts the importance of ultra-fresh produce quite literally front and centre - the kitchen and restaurant sit in the middle of a nursery where chefs get fresh seasonal vegetables, fruit and herbs. That same culinary ethos has followed former De Kas head chef Martijn Kajuiter to his new job running the kitchen of the Cliff House Hotel in Ardmore, Co Waterford.
The Dutchman has a straightforward and almost completely egoless food philosophy - growers and food producers, he tells me, are the real heroes and the chef is but a messenger, telling a story about their food. All the better if that story is a phenomenally interesting one - take a look at the menu in this hotel's restaurant and it describes a mutually beneficial collaboration with St Raphael's Centre in nearby Youghal, Co Cork.
St Raphael's provides residential and day-care services for more than 150 people with intellectual disabilities and one of the employment and therapeutic outlets for them is a horticulture project in the grounds of the centre. Up to now they were predominantly focussed on producing lettuce which was sold locally, but with Kajuiter's encouragement and patronage, they have expanded their output considerably, growing fruit, herbs, edible flowers and a variety of vegetables including potatoes, tomatoes, kale and beetroot.
According to Ned Cotter of St Raphael's, the collaboration has given a tremendous boost to the seven workers who work full-time in the vegetable garden and has provided a much-needed injection of funds - for example, the hotel has agreed to buy new plastic for the polytunnels which were vandalised and are looking a little worse for wear.
While there is clearly an altruistic element to his involvement, Kajuiter insists that the partnership ultimately satisfies his need for supremely fresh produce. "The only way you can get the most flavour and the healthiest produce is to buy seasonal and local. I needed access to that but I can't do it alone - I am a chef, not a gardener. I called the St Raphael's centre and told them what I needed and they said 'Why not?'."
He is cognisant of the need to balance his kitchen's voracious appetite for produce with the fact that St Raphael's is not a standard commercial growing operation. "When we spoke first they were afraid I would be coming down and saying, 'I want this and I want that.' But I am not like that. This doesn't give us consistency of supply, but so what? I change my menu every day anyway. It's good for the kitchen because it takes more effort to work this way and it gives us an extra dimension. Every chef gets produce from the same producers, whereas we always have something different."
His chefs are encouraged to visit the garden before work to forage for interesting titbits for the evening's menu and because they are picking only what they need, there is no waste. Kajuiter has an easy rapport with the St Raphael's team - he respects their work and they enjoy being part of the Cliff House success story. "It gives a lot back to me too. I bring cake and coffee here and we sit down and talk. I am a visitor in their world.
"They cannot articulate the way we can but they want to be treated as normal and they want to show me everything. They don't want to be pampered or patronised."