Articles

The Euro-Toques Young Chef of the Year competition has been a highlight of Ireland’s pre-Christmas culinary season for 21 years, and attending the finalists’ lunch and announcement of the winner is always a treat. No less so this time around, when a beautiful meal was cooked by the finalists and served...
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January is a pretty hectic month for me, lots of wedding and catering enquiries along with room reservation for what looks like a busy year ahead. So a good healthy start to the year for me is imperative. Did you know that a simple thing such as eating and enjoying the right food will improve your mood and self esteem? Very important in this over stressed world, wouldn’t you agree.
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So many menus nowadays are utterly predictable, chicken, farmed salmon, steak and maybe lamb. Sometimes there is duck but it’s rare enough to be offered any wild food or game. The deer hunting season is open until February 28th depending on the type of deer (check the different dates with National Parks and Wildlife Service) so in response to a readers request I have decided to concentrate on venison in this article.
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When former dairy farmers Paul and Siobhan Lawless started their farmhouse bakery, “The Foods of Athenry” in 2000, a converted bicycle shed on their Co Galway farm was the unlikely setting for the new business. Basing their philosophy on the simple concept that they wouldn’t put anything into their products that they weren’t happy to give to their own family...
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Every year I worry a little about whether I will find enthusiasm for growing my own food again – what if the year turns and I just don’t have any interest any more? I always take a decent break from the veg patch in December – it’s the one month when there’s very little work to do and the garden will forgive you if you don’t show up.
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January is a quiet time at Castlefarm. Our main work on the farm is tending the cows. They will remain indoors until they calve from February, and they need to be fed silage and bedded with straw daily. In terms of milking and our supply of organic milk, the spring calving herd has been dried off. They will begin calving in February.
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Retirement, what retirement? Lucy Madden contemplates the joys of being the 'older generation' in a family business. "Whose teeth are false?" You may know the ad: two silver-haired models are baring their fangs at the camera as they cycle off, bronzed and glowing, into a sunny future. It’s about as far from the reality of false teeth as I can imagine...
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Books are not just for Christmas and these are a few more of the good ones to enjoy this year. Books weren’t really on the agenda at the Good Food Ireland conference in November, but the queue at the magnificent showcase lunch put up by the association’s producer members was slow to move because there were so many interesting people to talk to, and there happened to be a delay beside the Barron’s Bakery stall – lucky for me...
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As the New Year brings thoughts of restraint and good resolutions to eat more healthily, it is a happy coincidence that – although now available all year round – vitamin-packed citrus fruits are in their peak season in January and February, allowing us the opportunity to indulge with a clear conscience.
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Christmas is only around the corner and we have tips, recipes and a timing guide from Georgina Campbell that will ensure that you enjoy the most succulent Turkey, Quick Spiced Beef, Loin of Bacon with an Irish Mist glaze, various salads and the tastiest seasonal vegetables served together with "good gravy", cranberry sauce and bread sauce. And if this isn't enough then we follow it up with...
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