Articles

There are some vegetables that you grow yourself and you really wonder whether it's worth the hassle, particularly if there are good commercial alternatives available. But given the fact that most of the tomatoes in our supermarkets are the super-bland, all-year-round Dutch variety and taste of ....well nothing at all, having a good crop of your own tomatoes is really one of the most rewarding things you can do.
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Jenny Young describes dealing with one of the unwelcome (but essential) hidden costs that challenge all farmers. With all this rain readers might find it difficult to believe that Castlefarm has been suffering water shortages. As a household we are part of a local group water scheme and for the past 2 years, due to water shortages in the area, the water has been rationed more and more frequently.
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Turning her attention to the wisdom of ‘letting the hare sit’, Lucy Madden contemplates (among other things) the benefits of masterful inactivity. Our summer, henceforth to be known as the monsoon season, has caused me to remember the words spoken by John Cleese in the film ‘Clockwise’; “it’s not the despair I mind, it’s the hope.”
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Triskel Cheeses are hand-ladled French-style soft goats cheeses and a semi-hard cow’s cheese, made by Breton woman Anna Leveque in a small production unit at her home in Portlaw, Co Waterford, using locally sourced milk. Recently recognised by Euro-Toques in their 2012 EirGrid/Euro-Toques Food Awards, the Triskel cheeses are already popular with discerning chefs and were nominated by Euro-Toques chef Michael Quinn, of Waterford Castle Hotel.
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“Seaweed has always been an important part of life for Ireland’s coastal communities, for use on the land and in the home,” says Sligo GP and Slow Food member Prannie Rhatigan in her book Irish Seaweed Kitchen (www.prannie.com). “Today, the shoreline is mysterious to many of us - but it’s as familiar as the back garden to families living along the coast or on islands, who have grown up with the rhythm of the tides and the briney harvest that is revealed every twelve hours.”
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The world of publishing is all topsy-turvy these days and, while book sales are generally in sharp decline – due mainly, we are told, to the rise of the internet and related areas - we see a growing number of bloggers successfully publishing books.
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Something very different for the ‘Just Ask!’ Restaurant of the Month in June as, for the first time ever, the award goes not to a restaurant but to a group of establishments, in Galway city.
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Once the summer begins to kick in the annual drift towards the seaside starts too, so fish and seafood soon take pride of place on menus and home dinner tables alike. There are great goings-on in the world of seafood at the moment and, although the underlying reasons for a lot of the activity may be alarming – global warming, over fishing, depleted stocks of many species – it is heartening to see attention focused on finding solutions.
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In the first of a new series, Marilyn Bright looks at the highs and lows of some of Ireland’s leading seafood restaurants - and finds out what makes them tick. They keep things simple at The Crazy Crab Café & Bistro, Kilmore Quay, Co Wexford, proving that you don’t need fancy dishes to please the punters – just really fresh fish that tastes of itself.
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Summer has arrived bringing with it elderflower blossom, I could smell its delicate perfume as I walked in the field behind my house this evening. As I inhaled the the balmy fragrance I had a rush of panic – quick pick it before it rains and the blossoms are washed away.
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