Féile na nÚll in Cloughjordan
The annual Féile na nÚll Apple Festival will be held on Saturday, September 20, from 12pm to 5pm in Cloughjordan Ecovillage.
This family-friendly celebration of apples and community is free to attend and will feature apple-pressing, food, stalls, an apple bake contest, children’s activities and walks around the Ecovillage.
The Night Orchard will be operating a participatory apple press to make freshly-pressed apple juice on the day. Bring your own apples, or containers to collect them from around the Ecovillage, and bottles to bring your pressed juice home with you.
Attendees are encouraged to enter the Apple Bake Contest with competitions for the categories of ‘under 18s’ and ‘home bakers’ - submissions can be sweet or savoury, but apple must be the primary filling! Bring your bake between 12-2.30pm; winners will be announced at 4.45pm.
Regina Sexton, food and culinary historian, food writer, broadcaster and cook will deliver the keynote talk on apples, nature and community at 3.30pm. Between the pressing and the bake, there’s lots to entertain the family: the Cloughjordan Circus Club will be performing walkabout acts throughout the day; attendees can participate in a creative ClotheSwap with Rita Marcalo; and dance artist Julie Lockett will present a series of her written landscores.
Meanwhile, Aisling Finucane will be hosting fun forest school activities for children accompanied by their parents and Leontien Friel Darrell will be offering the opportunity to learn the art of lino-cut printing.
A number of guided tours will also be on offer: Su Huschke will be hosting a plant medicine walk to connect attendees with the living world around them; a tour of the Ecovillage apple tree walk will also be on offer to educate attendees about apple varieties and their management, and Paul Lawford will share his experience of building an off-grid tiny house and discuss how you can do the same!
FOOD STALLS
The festival will also feature a range of food stalls to ensure you can stay fed and watered as well as craft stalls of local artisanal products. This event is made possible thanks to the generous support of the Irish Environmental Network and has received funding as part of the Creative Ireland programme with support from Tipperary County Council.
“We are excited to once again be celebrating apples, nature and community as part of the Féile na Núll Apple Festival,” said Veronica Ryan, Education Officer, Cloughjordan Ecovillage. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to make use of our abundance of apples and connect as a community through the nature around us.”
Cloughjordan Ecovillage is Ireland's first ecovillage, a pioneering community and educational charity in County Tipperary that models sustainable living. Its mission is to be a resource for others by demonstrating how a low-carbon, regenerative lifestyle is possible. Through its community farm, low-energy homes, and a biomass heating system, the Ecovillage shows that people can live in harmony with nature and each other.