Articles

What it means to be an organic farmer in Ireland today … Jenny Young writes about life and work on an organic mixed farm in Co Kildare - and selling its produce
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Faced with a lack of vines in Ireland but an abundance of apples, what’s a specialist with twenty years’ experience in the industry and a diploma in wine-making to do? Making cider was the obvious choice for Simon Tyrrell, who teamed up with Angus Craigie in 2011 to produce their flagship cider, Ballyhook Flyer, on Angus’s farm in Co Wicklow.
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Camerino Bakery celebrated one year in business on November 1st and, as Dee Laffan discovered when talking to the lady behind the baked treat emporium on Capel Street, Dublin 1 about her success, her love of baking is surpassed only by her love of Ireland.
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Being a contrary sort I have always sown my garlic in the spring time, and it's an approach that has served me well over the years. In fact, it has worked so well that I never really saw the point of winter garlic sowing and I always felt very clever indeed for holding off until spring. This year however, I got caught out by mild spring weather. Garlic needs a prolonged cold snap (4-8 weeks of sub 10 degrees Celsius) to yield nice big tasty bulbs, and the spring weather this year didn't supply the conditions needed. The result? Puny little garlic bulbs and a dollop of humble pie.
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As new places open, food fashions come and go, and new products flood the market, the pages of the Irish food story are turning with ever increasing speed - and, while the phenomenon is quite rightly a point of great pride, it also tends to make us look back and reassess the value of what has gone before.
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Rua, on Castlebar's Spencer Street, where there is also a bakery and delicatessen - is the second branch of the business and has become a mecca for food lovers from all over the west and north west of Ireland (and beyond)
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There’s never a bad time to think about the quality of staple food, but this is one of the best when it comes to bread and baking.
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In the latest of her series on the Year of Irish Design and its importance for tourism, Aileesh Carew suggests a touring itinerary that would take in range of the great design experiences that Design Island can offer, many of which you can eat and/or stay in…
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Since Michael Kelly’s famous ‘Eureka’ moment - when confronted by garlic all the way from China in his local supermarket - there’s been a strangely emotive connotation to the provenance of garlic in Ireland. In his case, it inspired him to start up the phenomenally successful GIY movement, while others see potential in the product itself.
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A gorgeous display of marrows in the window of the Ward family’s superb shop and café, Country Choice, in Nenagh, Co Tipperary has reminded me that we hear plenty about other, more exotic, members of the Cucurbita (gourd) family - which includes squash and pumpkin - but very little about the whopper marrows that I remember from my childhood.
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