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Ralph Quinlan Forde BSc Hons MA

The Biggest Little Farm - Review

Updated: Jul 21

This is such an excellent documentary and now available on Netflix.


I came across this when I was studying for a QQI Level 5 Vegetable production course. The course was great and enabled me to ‘grow my own’ organically which I have now turned into the growth of organic herbs such as calendula, peppermint and lavender to use in our products. The guy that taught it was the best grower in the country with years of experience.


When you start eating fresh organically grown vegetables from the garden you just won't buy imports again.


This is a wonderful documentary, The Biggest Little Farm, that takes place over a number of years with a couple who are new to organic horticulture. You witness them go through the trials and tribulations and you see on a macro level, through very clever arial footage of the estate, its complete transformation.


The Biggest Little Farm - Official Trailer


The Healing Power of Natural Agriculture


The farm starts off as a type of dessert and ends up being extremely green, lush and vibrant.


All transformed by organic, biodynamic and permaculture agricultural practices. This is a great documentary for all those of thinking of becoming growers.


There are a few scary moments when things don’t go according to plan. You end up routing for the couple and all the team. So there are a couple of places of intense suspense.


Ecohomme Soil Fertility
Ecohomme Soil Fertility

From Dead Soil to Living Soil


This is a lovely documentary The Biggest Little Farm review for a Friday night family viewing and the weekend to discuss.


You end the documentary The Biggest Little Farm convinced with powerful evidence of the benefits of producing vegetables we eat in living soil full of minerals as opposed to conventional ones full of chemical pesticides. Plus why conventional farming is quite crazy and that we could feed everyone in Ireland if we started to grow vegetables and sell them locally.


We just need to get the locals to buy into the movement. Salad bags grown locally and eggs do really well for local farmers.


The best feeling you are left with is a feeling of how wonderful the natural world is and how healing. You see nature and all its spirits respond en mass when the right natural conditions are created and nature is respected. The Tibetans call this the drala principle.


All of this reminds me of the Cree, a Native American tribe from what is now called Canada who once prophetically warned;


“Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught

will we realise we cannot eat money.”

- Cree Proverb



The Irish Organic Revolution from The Biggest Little Farm


You may or may not know this but there is a quiet revolution taking place in Ireland at the moment in agriculture and more and more farmers are getting into organic farming and its methods.


The government recently put up 60% grant aid amount of funding for organic agriculture through an organic farming grant aid scheme of up to 90,000 Euros.


Two years ago there was 200 registered organic farmers and now there are over 2000 which is great for Ireland.


So we might see more The Biggest Little Farm examples as time goes by and funding increases.


We currently make no exports in terms of horticulture in Ireland.


With the recent exit of the UK from the EU, the effects of climate change and the Ukraine war there has been major pressure put on our national food security.


Increasingly, we are seeing more and more food shortages.


When you spend some time or ideally live on the continent you realise that Ireland really is on the periphery of Europe.


However we have a really good growing climate for organic horticulture.


We just need more and more people to buy from local organic growers. Even if the growers don’t have the certification they will more than likely be using organic practices.


Anyways enjoy the The Biggest Little Farm perhaps you might start growing your own and save on the massive electricity bills?


Our latest has made me determined to put up 15 solar panels and a windmill to come off grid. When that happens I will be sharing with you all how I did it on a budget. The windmill cost 350 Euros.





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