Mayor Malcolm Nooan tests out the 'Smoothie Bike' at GreenDay

GreenDay is set to become Kilkenny first Local Green Fair. The local expo had its first day out under the glass roof of the Workhouse Sq at MacDongh Junction on Saturaday 20th June. This bright airy space gave visitors and exhibitors alike a relaxing atmosphere to savour everthing on display.

The GreenDay local fair is the first opportunity to give local green businesses a platform to showcase their products and services in Kilkenny. There was a good cross section of products on show from Solar technology to gardening providers, from energy monitoring to Tidy Towns.

Future Proof Kilkenny would like to thank MacDongh Junction for providing a great venue and in particular to Shay Bollard who brought the event together like a true pro, and with whom we look forward to working with again.

Amongst all the goings on young Hal kept everyone refreshed with great smoothies from the bicycle powered Smoothie Maker! Big thanks to Tisha and her valiant crew for that.

Picking the winning ticket at the Casey Technology Stand

To celebrate the ‘Green Day’ BureauScope.com / Casey Technology held a ‘Green quiz’ at their stand, and for the prize, sponsored €50.00 worth of plants supplied by Shane Phelan at the New Park Garden Centre. Everyone who came to talk to us was invited to take part.
The winner is Carmel McGuirk. Origionally from Co. Dublin but now living in Kilkenny. Carmel told Aisling [Casey Technology] on Monday morning that she was delighted that she had won the prize, her husband is very into-gardening and has previously bought plants from Shane Phelan . (086- 2113280) and she, [Carmel] never had won anything before.

As part of next Saturday’s Green Day in MacDonagh Junction we will be holding a series of free short talks and films above Gloria Jean’s coffee shop in the workhouse square. Its a broad mix of subjects from home energy to local food production to waste and recycling – something for everyone! Below is the fold is the full program. Continue Reading »

This is very short notice but if you are in Kilkenny this afternoon it is well worthwhile visiting the exhibition at Lyrath Estate on renewable energy solutions. Everything from rainwater harvesting, to pellet boilers, to solar panels, to where to buy decent dry timber is on show. The exhibition is part of the Irish Bioenergy Association’s “Banking on Biomass” conference. More details available here.

Future Proof Kilkenny & MacDonagh Junction have come together to host a local Green Expo at the shopping Mall. ‘Green Day’ is an opportunity to spend the afternoon browsing the stalls and meeting people from the various companies and organsiations that are based around Kilkenny area. The criteria is ‘Green’ and the objective is to learn who is doing what for the ‘greener good’ while running a business or community group.

A number of renewable energy companies will be on hand to talk you through the aspects of bio fuels, heating systems while we’ll have local producers and gardeners imparting their knowledge and experience.

Discover more about Kilkenny groups with interets in food, cycling, energy, gardening, health, arts and more. Film (ususally short) will be screened throughout the day. For those with specific interests we will run an ‘Energy Forum’ at mid-day then later aound 3pm there will be the ‘Local Food’ forum taking in both growing and sourcing ingedinets.

There is still time to get involved as an exhibitor or group stall.

This event is free of charge for both exhibitors and visitors.

Time & Place
MacDonagh Junction, Kilkenny
Sat. June 20th 11am – 5 pm

Check back here soon for an update on details.

I don’t watch much television but was glued to the recent RTE production “Corrigan’s City Farm”. Quite simply it was amazing. In the space of a few months 2 brown field sites were transformed into productive, abundant and beautiful city farms. Not content with veg alone the volunteer growers raised chickens and pigs as well. By the end of the program these were slaughtered and cleaned out, ready for the bar-b-que – all this, live on RTE – astonishing.

Throughout the series Corrigan gently pushed the issues of factory farming, misleading Bord Bia packaging, supporting Irish food producers and GM. A dedicated website gives guidelines on how to set up and start allotments as well plenty of tips on how to grow your own and information on how to source and keep backyard animals.

What struck me most about the series, though, is that Corrigan is generating the kinds of responses that transition town groups hope to achieve but without bashing people over the head about issues. By engaging people in a very positive and practical way he is encouraging, whether he knows it or not, the type of urban food systems that we will need in a post-fossil fuel world. There is much that transition town groups can learn from this approach and it is a question that we continually come up against in future proof meetings. Should we keep raising awareness about peak oil and climate change or should we instead just focus on the solutions? Clearly there is a balance to be struck but the lesson from Corrigans program for me is that leaning very very heavily on the solution side of the equation works.

You can watch the last episode of the series here.