Felt real manky but some jobs must to be done despite how my bed calls
Channel: Zwartbles Ireland Suzanna Crampton
Date: 28/05/2023

Something I’ve been working on for months needs continued protection from curious mouths. So I dragged myself through this job and managed to complete it and I even remembered to turn electric fence back on before I went back to bed. Sometimes to grow biodiversity takes a bit more determination than one thinks one needs. Establishing a healthy seed bank takes regular efforts and steps, if some are missed months of work can be lost. It’s all about tactical land management of flora and funa. Even if part of the fauna equation are farmed animals. They’re a necessary part of the equation to keep the dung beetle population alive and healthy.   





Zwartbles Ireland is a small company run from a farm in County Kilkenny in Ireland. We are a regenerative farm which means restoring soils health and regenerating its natural carbon and nutrient cycle with biodiversity of pasture sward with grasses, legumes, forbs and herbs. This also means we farm with nature. Healthy soils are important for healthy environment. So we encourage all life from the microbial to dung beetles, ants, pollinators to flora biodiversity, birds, hare, hedgehogs, rabbits, fox, badger as well as our livestock. This mean we farm in a style of mob grazing and giving fields long rest times between grazings. We have seen a huge increase and return of wildlife including woodcock and snipe in winter months foraging for dung beetle larvae, red squirrel, wood peckers and pine martens. We also have the rare natter bat and previously thought extinct Tawny Mining bees.
We sell, Zwartbles sheep, Zwartbles blankets and yarn made from the sheep, and calendars featuring Inca the World's Smallest Sheepdog and her coworkers. We also sell alpaca yarn spun for our own alpaca. Our yarns are 100 percent natural, grown by our sheep which grazing our small green Irish fields. This wool is naturally sequestered carbon which you can then knit into warm environmental friendly clothing.