About Me

The long and short of it…

I’m Conor. By day I work as a software engineer with Apple in Cork. It’s a great job with challenging work and great people. But when I’m not sitting at that desk, there are a few other things you might find me up to.

Running

I’ve been running competitively with Leevale AC for over 12 years now and I love what it has given me in life. Great health, happiness and friends. It taught me the value of patience, commitment and simple yet consistent hard work. I feel my days of competitive racing might be winding down, yet running will forever be a part of me and something I want to continue enjoying into this next chapter of life.

Music

Music is another part of my life that has fed my soul and creativity over the years. I’m self-taught on keyboard and piano, and over time I’ve honed my craft to the point where I can play almost any instrument using a keyboard and DAW software like Logic Pro. I’ve been composing instrumental music of various genres since I was a teenager. It’s taken a back seat in recent years, but I still occasionally sit down, hit record and see what happens. Creating music is something I never try to force. It’s nice to know that no matter how long I leave it, it will always be there for me. My backlog of tracks finally found a home as background music for the farm’s YouTube channel. You can find some of my music on my Soundcloud page.

The Farm

And then there’s the farming. Yes, there’s that.

I’ve felt a pull towards the outdoors and nature for as long as I can remember, but it was during a six-month work secondment in California in 2019 when I fell down the rabbit hole. I stumbled across Charles Dowding and Richard Perkins on YouTube and was mesmerised by what they were achieving on small-scale farms. I tend to let my curiosity out of the box to play, but this one really took hold.

At that time I was living in a small townhouse with a tiny back garden. I set up some no-dig raised beds in the common area of the estate and got the local kids involved. We grew carrots, onions, garlic, broad beans, potatoes and much more. I was hooked. Something felt so right when I was sowing, tending and harvesting crops. The feeling of my hands in the soil, the insects humming around me, the slowness, the patience and care required to nurture plants. I loved the entire process. I loved how nature constantly surprised me yet was so predictable and so generous. I loved how I could make a meal from what was once a pinch of seeds.

I also knew that I knew very little, and that this would be a lifetime of learning. Being humble is important. Never assuming we can control nature. In late 2020 I enrolled in a two-year distance learning organic horticulture course. It gave me the grounding I needed, some on-farm work experience, and reaffirmed my dream of building something great. This felt like my purpose and I had to follow it.

But I needed land.

Fast forward to summer 2021 and I finally came across a property that fit. A 3.8-acre holding with a home in Midleton, Cork. We moved here in early 2022 and got to work immediately.

Today, Yellow Belly Farm is a certified organic market garden. We grow seasonal vegetables, salads, herbs and flowers using no-dig regenerative methods across 16 outdoor beds and 5 polytunnel beds. We’re home to an established orchard of over 40 heritage apple and pear trees. We supply local restaurants and cafés, run a veg box scheme, host an annual plant sale, and welcome people onto the farm for events like our farm-to-fork meals.

I’ve had to try my hand at everything along the way. Woodwork, plumbing, building, marketing, sales, and always, always growing. On the flip side of the dream is a commercial business, one that needs to be lean, smart and efficient. I’m still working patiently towards that, still learning, still making plenty of mistakes. But the farm is no longer just a dream. It’s real. People come here now. They eat what we grow. That still amazes me.

There’s always more on the horizon. Glamping cabins, farm shop, new growing projects, events under the pergola. I’ll keep learning, the farm will keep evolving and I hope that will remain a constant.

I live here with my wife Elena and our two Old English Sheepdogs, Basel and Berry. Elena is the quiet support behind all of my crazy dreams, and together we’re building something we’re proud of. A healthy, biodiverse and beautiful place, humming with life and producing good food for the people of Cork.

The dream hasn’t ended. It’s just grown into new ones.

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