Author: Georgina Campbell
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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Author: Marilyn Bright
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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Author: Eunice Power
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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Author: Darina Allen
We love our cuppa in Ireland and are still drinking more tea per head than any other country in the world. Sadly though, nowadays most cups of tea are made from teabags rather than good loose tea which I am totally convinced makes a far superior brew. On a trip to Sri Lanka in 2010 I visited Handunugoda Tea Estate only a few miles from Galle, Mr Gunaratne whose family have been tea planters for 400 years, proudly showed us around.
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Author: Jenny Young
Summer seems to be here at last and even our ducks look slightly bleached from the sun. The tomato and cucumber plants in our polytunnel are starting to grow tall. I seem to be spending most of my time watering and weeding. Onions, salad crops, beetroot and radishes are all growing well.
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Author: Michael Kelly
I am doing a lot of transplanting at the moment, which is always a fun activity for a GIYer. There’s nothing like the satisfaction of planting seedlings – bare beds transformed in an instant with neat rows of little plants. I always feel intensely happy after spending some time planting – and now I know that there is actually a scientific reason for this – contact with soil triggers the release of serotonin in our brain according to research.
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Author: In Season
Harbingers of summer, broad beans are among the earliest crops to be harvested in Britain and Ireland, and all the more welcome for that. Also known by different names in other cultures (notably fava bean and field bean), Vicia faba has been cultivated since the ancient civilisations and is still a staple crop in many countries today
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Author: Special Irish Foods & People Who Make Them
Glebe Brethan is a superb gruyère-style cheese, handmade by the Tiernan family in the lush grasslands of Co Louth, where David Tiernan farms the land that was farmed by his father and grandfather before him. Named after the founder of a local monastic settlement, Glebe Brethan is an unpasteurised, thermophilic, artisan cheese made from the milk of Montbeliarde cows, a breed which originates in the mountainous of the Jura region of Eastern France, where their milk is also used to make cheese.
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Author: Lucy Madden
Lucy Madden wonders at the theatrical experience that eating at the World’s Best Restaurant offers – and puts in a plea for more simple, authentic food for visitors to rural Ireland, based on ingredients grown in the local area. Overheard on a London street: “What is your national dish?” The answer came immediately. “Tomato tart with a garlic sauce”. Which country was in discussion I have never identified...
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Author: Cookbook Reviews
Not so much a book review this month, more a call to cook: Easy Food Home-Cook Hero, 100+ recipes and other favourites (paperback, 146pp; Zahra Publishing, €4.95) is an action-packed little paperback based on entries submitted to the 2011 Home-Cook Hero Awards and including the winning dishes in ten categories.
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