08.00 We’ll wake up around 8am, which is later than during the week when things start on the farm at 6.30am.
Our two older sons are in Skibbereen Rowing Club where our two amazing Olympians come from so the pride and the buzz in the air is amazing. The club is grassroots but they produce world-class rowers and our eldest kids, Olan and Oscar, are really enjoying rowing and being involved. My wonderful wife Ciara brings them there while I make the younger ones, Euan, Devin and Rowan, French toast or pancakes for breakfast.
Saturday and Sunday in summer means farmers’ markets. My sister Clovisse looks after that side of business so we might be runners or points of contact for her in the morning and then we will go about our farm chores. 11.
00 Monday to Friday on the farm revolves around food production but at the weekend the farm needs maintenance. I’ll check that everything is behaving properly and then I’ll light the smokers which takes about an hour. There are about 10 steps in the process of our salami making.
After they are fermented we smoke them. I will light the traditional smoker — we use oak and ash which will wisp through the salamis in a very passive, old-school way during the weekend. They then go into the ageing rooms.
My kids are fantastically feral, and my dad, Tom Ferguson, is the centre of their universe, so they'll abandon me and go find him. We have a family phrase: “Never put forward a job you can do today” so there’s always something to do..