May all your Christmases be green: Sustainable dinner, gifts and trees

Christmas is coming – and 2021 is going to be a time for gatherings and gratitude – giving and receiving, and taking stock of everything we've learned over the past few years. Here in Ireland, some well-known faces in the food, home decoration and gift industries feel that it's also a season of goodwill to our planet.

FOOD

Rachel Allen
Ballymaloe House, east Co Cork

Rachel Allen puts sustainability centre when it comes to the kitchen, not least at Christmas. Working from Ballymaloe House, she is passionate about sustainability – an interest she shares with her mother-in-law, Darina Allen.

“Some people arrive for a cookery class with Darina and leave with their own chickens and coop,” she says, laughing. “You can’t get more organic than that. And it’s very feasible, rearing chickens.”

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When it comes to the turkey and ham, Allen has simple guidance: “Just buy the best turkey you can, wherever you are. And bear in mind, all organic fowl is free-range – but not necessarily the other way around. Buy the full turkey – the giblets, the lot. Turkeys are immense, so make a turkey and ham pie after the day, then your own stock. You’ll easily make 4 litres of good stock. Make soup or broth – and pan-fry the liver and make pate.”

Allen’s Icelandic-born mother, Hallfríður Reichenfeld, instilled sustainability into lifestyle from a young age. “My mum was born in postwar Iceland, when times were fragile, so she learned to be sensible – like learning to use every scrap – and with that, a seasonal diet goes hand in hand with a healthy diet. If you want strawberries, wait for June – and try buy local ingredients and support local small shops.”

Allen suggests that people should avoid overstocking before the big day. To avoid waste, “clean out the freezer well before Christmas so you’ll have somewhere for the inevitable overbuying”.

David Flynn
The Happy Pear restaurant, Greystones, Co Wicklow

David Flynn, one half of the twin brothers and vegan duo who own and operate The Happy Pear restaurant, talks about removing meat – thus reducing the carbon footprint (or even hoof-print) – from the kitchen table in one fell swoop. “In our family, back about five years ago, our auntie suggested: ‘Why don’t we all have a vegan Christmas dinner?’ Usually there was the vegan table and the traditional turkey and ham table. We made cashew and chestnut wellingtons with the usual sort of trimmings, and no one ever looked back. So, in a sense, I think moving the goalposts and trying something completely different can be easier than making small changes.”

It also proved to be a thrifty choice. “We set ourselves the challenge of cooking a Christmas dinner as cost-effectively as possible and we cooked a dinner for six people for €12, so €2 per person. It was delicious, as well as being lighter on the planet than a traditional Christmas dinner.”

His advice is to keep it simple. “Focus on eating more whole foods – fruit, veg, beans, wholegrain, nuts and seeds. These are much healthier for you and for the planet also. I really do find that a wellington of some sort works fab as a Christmas centrepiece dinner. It usually takes less than an hour, and while it is cooking you can roast all your veg, meaning the Christmas dinner will take about an hour in total, which is a lot less than a traditional turkey and ham Christmas dinner.”

CHRISTMAS DECOR

Ray Egan
Bud Garden Centre, Bunratty village, Co Clare

When it comes to the big question – the Christmas tree – Ray Egan of Bud Garden Centre says “real is better, of course, and more sustainable than plastic trees from China. The tree stores carbon during its production – and generally younger households lean towards real, especially if Santy is coming – but trees put up for the Toy Show have a long road to go, and even the non-shed trees will struggle to stay fresh .”

While spruces are often imported by the big multiple stores, Egan says that most Irish Christmas trees are produced on an eight- to 10-year cycle, while “production has moved away from mountain-type land, which leaves the mountain land for longer-term forestry, but also potentially diverts better land from food production – so that’s an issue”.

Egan says there are plenty of opportunities for sustainability when decorating for Christmas. “Try to choose wreaths that have a metal ring as a base, where foliage is added, rather than a floral foam or oasis based ring, which is not easy to recycle. After Christmas, disassemble the wreath, the foliage can go in the compost heap, and keep the metal ring, the ribbon, plastic decorations and have a go next year yourself.”

Planning is a big part of the process. “By planting some plants such as dogwood, for red stems, holly and eucalyptus in particular for foliage, you can create some of your own decorations,” Egan suggests, “and postpone the big early winter prune to mid-December and harvest twigs, foliage and so on from ordinary garden plants for use in your decorations. Dry your faded hydrangea blooms before they become sodden and rotted later on.”

If you miss the county council Christmas tree collection, Egan suggests that you could prune away the lighter branches. “The ‘frame’ of the tree could be used to grow climbing veg or flowers – peas and beans or sweet pea in summer.”

GIFTS

Toys

Sharon Keilthy
Chief executive of Jiminy.ie eco toys
For Sharon Keilthy, sustainability is at the core of her company's mission statement. She says that "the most sustainable toy is pre-loved, so hopefully people are looking on Adverts.ie, Preloved Toys Ireland Facebook group, or asking in their local Facebook Freecycle group. Consider also gifting an experience rather than a thing, like a memorable day out."

Jiminy.ie was born from her own frustration when it came to sustainable toys. “Both ‘from plants or recycled’ and ‘made in Europe’ toys are hard to find. That’s why I started jiminy.ie, to make eco toys like this more available, because I myself as a parent couldn’t find them in mainstream shops. We now stock over 550 such toys plus 100 nature-themed books, from babies through teens, with one to two day delivery from Limerick.”

For parents on the receiving end of pressure from their children for high-end or unsustainable gifts, Keilthy has a solution. “Our children are being marketed to all the time. Avoid catalogues of unsustainable toys coming into the house. Don’t bring them to a plastic-filled toystore to choose their gift. And I prefer my daughter watching Netflix than watching kids’ TV – on Netflix there are no ads.”

Clothing

Peter Timlin
Pure Clothing Company, Ballina, Co Mayo

While some department stores are surprisingly quiet about the clothing industry and sustainability, young Co Mayo entrepreneur Peter Timlin has very clear views on fashion’s carbon footprint.

Together with partner Richard Grimes he has launched Pure Clothing, a brand that has a caring philosophy for both the sustainability of the materials they use and the workforce that manufacture their garments.

Timlin says “we only work with gold-standard certificates in relation to material quality and production ethics and we are proud to say that every worker in our supply chain gets a fair wage and safe working conditions. One would have to question whether or not the same applies with brands charging less than €2 for a T-shirt, where that money is distributed between labour, materials and everything in between.”

Coming from a family clothing business, he knows what to look for. “Most brands will make sustainable material content of items very clear, so if they are not clearly displayed, they are probably not made using sustainable materials. Our mission is to provide clothing that is made with respect to the planet and its people. Our products are embroidered by a wind-powered unit in Co Mayo and our packaging is completely plastic free and made using recycled materials.”

While customers can expect to pay more for ethical clothing, Timlin says that the per price wear is a fraction of that of disposable fashion. “In Ireland, almost three tonnes of textile waste is dumped into landfill every five minutes, which is not a sustainable trend.”