This image is about the outcome of agricultural/organic practice in border areas. The interpretation is based on my visit to the Organic Centre in Manorhamilton, co. Leitrim. The centre has an outreach which stretches to both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. It seemed a successful example of cross-border communication with both communities involved. I liked the idea that the raw material - ‘the seeds’ are planted, nurtured and then harvested when ready by the people of the locality. The produce is then gathered, processed and sold in the border region. The labour and nurture is offered by both communities in various satellite vegetable patches and centres offering a sustainable mediator between communities. The notion that all this ‘procedure’ and ‘participation’ then ends up as a sauce or relish is a commentary on the ‘output’ of these centres. The fruits of rural labour so to speak. It is this agri-CULTURE which then ends up in supermarkets around the country, packaged and branded without much memory of the original ‘culture’ that created it.
-Pól
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