The trend towards people growing their own food has sprung from a desire to eat healthily, says Darina, and she has some interesting seasonal recipes to tickle your taste buds more...
We've gone crazy for seaweed in recent times, says Darina, and now she's really woken up to phenomenal variety of sea vegetables around our coast. We were always big fans (and still are) of carrageen moss and dillisk, but that was pretty much the limit of my knowledge of seaweeds up to relatively recently. more...
A sense of discovery for Darina this month, as she recounts a wonderful Slow Food trip to Northern Ireland. If you’ve never taken the train from Dublin to Belfast put it on your ‘must do’ list immediately; it’s certainly one of the loveliest train journeys I have ever experienced, all along the North Dublin coast into Dundalk. more...
On the countdown to the second LitFest at Ballymaloe, Darina lets us in on some of the hot tickets - and also the free events to be enjoyed by all. The excitement is really mounting, it’s just a week to this year’s Lit Fest at Ballymaloe , 16th -18th May. We’re particularly delighted that Kerrygold has come on board as our festival sponsors so the event has been renamed Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine. more...
This month Darina shares some of the culinary highlights from Lucknow, a place that turned out to be full of surprises on a recent visit to India more...
This month Darina reminds us of the importance of the small shops that we so often value only when it is too late - and her favourite new recipes include a variation on the classic scone and a delicious way to cook that much maligned vegetable, the Brussels sprout. more...
This month Darina Allen comments on the food trends that are sweeping the world. IT’S a hugely exciting time to be in food. Farmers are more optimistic about the future than they have been in years and a high percentage of start-up businesses are food related. more...
Christmas Recipes and Tips - and Good News about Real Butter! The shops are brimming with tempting trinkets and baubles and canny shoppers are taking advantage of pre-Christmas bargains, and ticking off their lists. How good it feels to be organised, but more and more it’s a challenge for so many who are trying to balance both time and budget. more...
This month Darina writes about an aspect of 'cheap' food production that is rarely discussed - the human cost. And says it is time to ask questions. I was totally shocked by an article by George Arbuthnott in the Sunday Times Magazine recently on the human cost of our food...
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A selective companion guide to our famous broad-based online collection, the ‘glovebox bible’ includes a uniquely diverse range of Ireland's greatest places to ...