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CULTIVATING CONNECTIONS THROUGH APPLES, COMMUNITY AND CREATIVITY!

ECOVILLAGE WEBINAR SERIES

Following the completion of our fascinating exploration of apples, ecology, economy and creativity, you can now view the recorded webinars online below. In this series, we unpack the apple’s role in Irish cultural and culinary history, in our vibrant local food economies, in our response to the biodiversity crises, and in new ways to explore community wellbeing and creativity.

Recordings of all four webinars are now available to view below:

SESSION ONE

From Mead to Pie to Pieces – Apples Then and Now

A fascinating romp through the hidden history of the apple in Irish cultural and culinary tradition, right up to its role as a global commodity today.

Ollie Moore is an ecovillage resident where he’s involved with the community-owned farm, sustainability NGO Cultivate and the annual apple festival, Féile na nÚll.

Davie Philip is a sustainable community advocate. With Cultivate, he leads the Community Climate Coaching program on community wellbeing and climate resilience.

Regina Sexton is a food and culinary historian, food writer, broadcaster and cook.

Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire is co-editor of ‘Irish Food History:A Companion’ and senior lecturer in the School of Culinary Arts and Food Technology at TU Dublin.

Rod Calder-Potts runs, with his wife Julie, HighBank Organic Orchards, where they have been growing apples since the 1970s.

Professor Peadar Kirby is an ecovillage resident and a former International Politics lecturer at the University of Limerick.

SESSION TWO

Apple Heritage and Local Economy

In this session we explore how our apple heritage helps address biodiversity, reclaims local food sovereignty and can revive local food economies.

Apples offer a powerful lens for developing resilient local places and livelihoods. In this conversation we look at the importance of apple heritage, not just for biodiversity but as a means of reclaiming local food sovereignty and reviving local food economies.

Speakers include:

Gillian Lattimore – is communications and development manager with the Irish Seed Savers. The Irish Seed Savers oversees Ireland’s Heritage Apple Tree Collection, manages the nation’s sole living seed bank, and supports ‘Conservation Through Use’ by selling Ireland’s heritage apple trees and open-pollinated seeds.

Con Trass  – runs The Apple Farm between Cahir and Clonmel in county Tipperary. His family moved to Ireland in the 1960s, having been growing apples in the Netherlands since the 1800s. The Apple Farm grows 40 acres of fruit, with 60 varieties of apples. A farm shop has been run from the farm since its inception, while he also supplies apples, juice, jams, jellies and other fine food regionally.

Kevin Dudley – of Cloughjordan Community Farm was also the first dedicated orchard manager at the Irish Seed Savers, a position he held for 10 years. Previous to that, Kevin  completed an apprenticeship at the Centre for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems at The University of Santa Cruz, California.

SESSION THREE

Community Orchards for Abundance, Biodiversity and Wellbeing

SESSION FOUR

From Orchard to Action: Art, Ecology, and Climate Resilience 

How can the arts inspire action around climate change, biodiversity, and food systems? Join Rita Marcalo, Artistic Director of Instant Dissidence and choreographer of Dancing The Orchard, as she convenes a panel of speakers offering varied perspectives on the theme. Through performance, storytelling, and discussion, this webinar will explore how artistic interventions can cultivate resilience, reimagine our relationship with food systems, and inspire ecological action.

Join us to discover how creativity can plant the seeds of change!

Rita Marcalo is the Artistic Director of Instant Dissidence, a socially and ecologically engaged dance company based in Cloughjordan Ecovillage. The company emphasizes dance as a social tool, co-creating work with non-professional artists about relevant issues. Instant Dissidence promotes an eco-centric art paradigm, shifting away from a human-centered focus to recognize human interdependence with non-human life.

Mia DiChiaro (IRE/USA) is a Dublin-based contemporary dancer, facilitator, and artivist whose work has been supported by the Arts Council, Dance Ireland, IMMA, and Create. She creates dance projects across Ireland that encourage communities to explore imagination, empathy, and care.

Theresia Guschlbauer is an independent arts practitioner focussing on community engaged multidisciplinary arts. She is the curator of Clonmel Applefest for which she devises projects and programmes events across many artforms. Along with fellow Clonmel community members, she has planted and cared for several linear memorial orchards along the River Suir.

Julie Lockett is an independent dance artist and writer based in Cloughjordan Ecovillage. She works interchangeably with the ecovillage land and in the studio as Artist-in-Residence at Instant Dissidence’s Eco Dance Space in the ecovillage when she needs shelter.  She has a certificate in Permaculture Design and uses permaculture as a lens to create her work.

This series is organised by Cloughjordan Ecovillage in partnership with Cultivate, Seed Savers and Instant Dissidence and funded by the Irish Environmental Network.