Very much with the zeitgeist for wild and foraged foods, Lucy Deegan and Mark Cribbin's enterprising north Cork company grows a unique range of speciality mushrooms - comprising everything from shiitake and oyster mushrooms to velvet pipionni and nameko. Spores are inoculated into local wood including oak, birch and elder; and, harnessing the light and pure air of their location, the mushrooms thrive. more...
Everywhere we've travelled in recent weeks the cooks of Ireland have been hard at working preserving this year's heavy crops of fruit and, especially, plums and damsons, or prunus domestica more...
August and September are the months when I supply organic fruit, vegetables and duck eggs to The BrookLodge Hotel for its annual harvest menu in The Strawberry Tree restaurant. more...
For September, our expert columnist, food blogger - and joint author of Slainte! The complete Guide To Irish Craft Beers and Ciders - KRISTIN JENSEN introduces a delicious stout from one of Ireland’s oldest craft breweries. Try it for yourself with a classic autumn food pairing at the Galway International Oyster Festival (25-28 September). more...
Yesterday morning I went down to the polytunnel to get a few fresh tomatoes to go with our breakfast eggs, only to walk in on a group of birds conducting a daring raid. They had managed to pull a few ripe tomatoes off the plant, and were busy gorging themselves on the fleshy fruit. more...
Sixteen kilometres west of Dingle, on the gorgeous Slea Head Drive, there is a special treat in store for hungry visitors. Just off the road you’ll spot some of the trademark Louis Mulcahy ceramics in the garden of a low-key house that looks as if it may once have been residential, and here you’ll find the famous Louis Mulcahy pottery, shop - and café. more...
This month Marilyn Bright talks to Michael O'Neill of O'Neill's The Point Bar, Renard Point, Caherciveen, Co Kerry; with a big reputation for ultra fresh seafood, the 'simplest is best' mantra at this immaculate little bar clearly works more...
The goat is the most widely used farm animal in the world for its milk, the cheese and its meat - yet, astonishingly, we hardly use it at all here, except for cheese. more...
On our travels this summer I’ve been surprised to see that wintry favourite, Jerusalem artichoke, on a number of menus where seasonality is usually observed. Perhaps chefs are somehow confusing them with the splendid globe artichoke (Cynara scolymus) the handsome architectural member of the thistle family that is a cultivated form of the cardoon, and in season now. more...
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 ...