Men have been cutting (digging) peat from the boglands of ireland for more than 2000 years....it is cut with a very special spade and goes through a lot of different stages before it can be used as a fuel....it's cut, then spread, and then it is "footed", this means that it is stood on end, and then it is "about footed" (turned around), it is then stacked when dry, then it is "dregged" (carried out of the wet bog) and taken home where it is "stacked" and "thatched" meaning piled and covered against the weather.

Nowadays the system is automated with large tractors and machinery, however the purists will not burn it!...it must be hand cut and "won"....& true enough the hand cut turf is the most sought after and we at magicalpeat use the best...the following little verse is from irish folklore.

The bog lands are areas that consist of thousands of years of layers of leaves, herbs, and roots, which have turned into peat (also known as turf). They go back as far as the ice age. The turf peat is 100% organic, totally non toxic, and gives BBQ foods its own delicious smell and flavor.

IN IRISH

Siòga agus mòin
'Ba cheart an tinteàn a scuabadh go breà glan nuair a bheifeà ag dul a chodiadh agus roinnt smèaròidi beo a fhàgàint leo fèinig taobh amuigh den choigilt agus an ursal a chur ar leith na lèimbe deise, mar do bheifeà ag brath go dtiocfadh na 'daoine maithe' isteach chun iad fèinig a thèamh nuair a bheadh na daoine a chodladh.'

IN ENGLISH

The Hearth should be swept well clean when you are going to bed and some live embers should be left on their own outside the banked-up fire and the fire tongs should be placed on the right hand side , for you would be expecting the "good people" (the fairies) would come in to warm themselves when people had gone off to bed.

(Padraig O Suibhne, Ballingeary, Co.Cork speaking to Seamus O Duilearga of the Irish Folklore Commission 1931.)