Here’s another recipe from Hugo Arnold, specifically tailored to suit our quadrant Another feather in Hugo’s bow is his involvement with Good Food Ireland. this organisation promotes quality food for the tourism sector in Ireland. their site is full of articles and info by top food writers about top food producers. And the tourism dimension adds a whole range of great places to stay too. Try Rigney’s in west Limerick, as an example: there, you can get a 100% from the farm breakfast, including 3 gold star winning foods at the great taste awards. (type Curraghchase into the search engine)… Read More »

The new edition of the Organic Guide to Ireland has just come out. You can click on the link here to buy a copy. Edited by Marella Fyffe, this edition is lovely to hold and to look at – plenty of perfect food snaps. Most importantly, it is also full of contacts for the kinds of organic producers who actually want to be contacted! Link to this post!

We got a really positive response to the raw twist to the recipes. This week, I’m going to fuse the raw and the quadrant This is another of Gaby Wieland’s recipes from her forthcoming, and highly recommended, book on cooking with raw food. (I must ask her, do you cook raw or is there a different word she prefers altogether) For the uber raw guy or gal, check out her next course in the Organic Centre here . This one, on the 1st November, is on sprouting, growing and of course using wheatgrass. Beetroot – often bought, often uneaten. However,… Read More »

Today I started a new phase in my life. I work from home a lot anyway, but now I also do a lot more of the kiddie stuff. So, I′m embracing sloooow cooking, and I′m doing it with my 3 year old in particular. that’s her over there on the left, Hannah. Maybe also the 8 year old too – but he already loves to cook as it is. We′ll see how that one pans out. So today, I cycled to the crèche to pick up Hannah, at 1pm. We cycled home, and started slooow cooking. I tried to stick… Read More »

As it is the UN International year of the Potato, here are some details on the humble spud, including a recipe from David Langford – Mr Spud. (Check out the name of the Spud on the left from David’s collection: the blackbog madman) €¢ 12,000 hectares of potatoes were grown in Ireland in 2006 – a small rise from the previous year, though a blip in what is in general a downwards trend. In 2004, 12,604 hectares were grown. €¢ These official stats, however, only consider growers with over 0.8 hectare (2 acres) in the figures, so many of the… Read More »

I’m going to allow myself to step outside the quadrant for this one: that ‘s because it is one of Gaby Wieland’s raw food recipes. Gaby, a real raw food aficionado runs courses in the Organic Centre, and will do a raw food demo at the upcoming Harvest Feast . She’s releasing a raw food cook book soon, and this and many others will be in it. It is also the case that there are some great Irish based speciality, organic and fair chocolate companies – Aine‘s (speciality) Blakes (organic and fair – and special too!) There is also a… Read More »

The line up of events for national organic week (15th-21th sept) has been announced. While there is the odd notable omission from the official list thus far (e.g . the one we flagged here a weeks ago – erin brokovitch speaking in Dublin on behalf of Glenisk!) there is, nonetheless, an interesting array of events. Including lots of chocolate tastings, it seems. (Nearly) Full details are available here: yummy! Not blowing our own trumpets here on greenme too much, but the other most interesting event was probably also flagged here too: the harvest feast in Leitrim. This will feature everything… Read More »

We Irish love our brown bread, and are good at it too: Irish brown breads won 2 two gold stars at the great taste awards recently announced. Have a look through some of the 30 odd categories (and indeed sub categories) for some of your faviourite foods – many are available inIreland in Helath food Sotres, Delis, at farmers’ markets etc. (over 100 Irish products won something) Anyway, working within the quadrant, here’s how to do your own brown bread, and become an aspiring baker, or just homesteading earth mamma or earth dadda. Again, thanks to Darina at Ballymaloe for… Read More »

Along with our excellent partner sites over there on the right (great food is the our food mint link) have a look at these three great foodie sources of information: To find out about new stuff in Irish foodie blog land, try gastronom , as its a blog dump (ie it just carries new postings on Irish blogs as they appear, and it has many) Another great irish food blog type thing is the Terra Madre Ireland Forum, which has (finally!) kicked into gear. There are a multitude of discussions going on at present, registration is easy and you can… Read More »

Just one step beyond growing your own herbs is growing your own radishes and courgettes. You can see the wet but fighting for life reality of courgettes in an irish August in the snap over there! Radishes in particular are not that hard to grow – they seem almost seem magically slug proof: even I managed to get some out yesterday morning, without the mearest of bites to the leaves! They are also great for adding a strong, sneeky, slow release peppery bite to a fresh raw dish. As it happens, more and more people have begun turning to growing… Read More »

While I’m immersed in the world of food, recipes are not necessarily my strongpoint. However, I know a fair few foodies for whom recipes are indeed their forte. So, I’d decided to get foodies who fit comfortably into the quadrant to submit recipes for Greenme. So, at regular intervals, you will get to ‘cook the talk’. First up is Darina Allen, of Ballymaloe cookery school. Darina is a great one to start with, as she’s probably Ireland’s most prominent foodie as well as our best known international representative of quality food. Darina is also Chair of Slow Food Ireland, who… Read More »

More green events! There is : the Harvest Feast in Leitrim. 13th and 14th September. A plethora of specialised cookery classes, the launch of the organic guide to Ireland, cookery demos, wine, chocolate and cheese tastings, serious nosh ups with Kevin Dundon and Noel McMeel, kids activities, farm walks and even a Mint tea bar in Drumshanbo. Here for more. The Terra Madre Ireland in Waterford 4th-7th September: quality food goes centre stage for an all-island event – check out the gala dinner, the banquet, the monster farmers’ market (no they won’t se _selling_ monsters ,but it will be a… Read More »

Some really interesting things to get to are coming up soon, so get plotting and planning: The Irish Green Gathering on the 8th-10th August is one: Low impact enviro-fun in a field, with talks, demos, healings and tunes. And local beer. Check out: Jinx Lennon – Ireland’s best mouth (ie. beat poet/singer songwriter) and me (!) Djing with the Pressure Drop reggae soundsystem on the Friday night and doing a Sunday Service morning set too. c hear: here! If the south east is too far, then maybe the North West will suit (note – same weekend as above!). Because there’s… Read More »

Here are four of my own current favourite delis – one in each province. A deli is a deli, but not all delis are delis. There is a bit of a Boston Berlin divide: the US tradition has had an emphasis on providing take away ready to eat food, especially mammoth sandwiches, while the European approach is more about great, often hard to find food to take home and eat with other foods or to make into something else. The US approach has an eat-on-the-run dimension, while the European approach is about taste. Then there are deli franchises, where the… Read More »

Here are four of my own current favourite delis – one in each province. A deli is a deli, but not all delis are delis. There is a bit of a Boston Berlin divide: the US tradition has had an emphasis on providing take away ready to eat food, especially mammoth sandwiches, while the European approach is more about great, often hard to find food to take home and eat with other foods or to make into something else. The US approach has an eat-on-the-run dimension, while the European approach is about taste. Then there are deli franchises, where the… Read More »

Million of tonnes of food is wasted each year, and the much maligned consumer only does 1/3 of it – the food industry does the rest. However, 1/3 is still, in the UK, just under 7 million tonnes.Want help in avoiding wasting food? For information, go to: wrap and for practical inspiration, go to: love food hate waste Link to this post!

Its summer. It’s that new global-warming inspired fifth season betweeen the late Spring/early summer and the late summer/early Autumn, the one where it rains having been sunny for a few weeks. But there is no such thing as bad weather, just inappropriate clothes. Summer means a few things – outdoor festivals for one. If you want good food an dgood music to be in the one place, there are a few options. Certainly, there are far more options than in the days of, say Feile – the Trip to Tipp in the mid 90s, where a chipper van the height… Read More »

Over in Green tips, I posted a ‘quad rant‘ a short while back – local, seasonal, organic and fair as a guide to ethical food shopping. Strawberries came up as an example during the exploration, as did the south west. Well, as it happens, one thing led to another and I came accross this upcoming event. So if you are a stallholder or a consumer, why not get down to the south east, to Wexford’s strawberry fair. There happens to be a thing calling itself the inaugural All-Ireland Farmers’ Market competition is on on the 28th and 29th june. Stallholders… Read More »

The Advertisers are worried. The representatives of business and industry are worried. They feel “incredibly frustrated” and “ignored”. “Horror” even got a look in. Why? Because soon, it may not be possible to advertise junk food products at children on the TV. The Minister with responsibility for Communications, Eamon Ryan (Greens) is set on introducing strict new regulations on “junk food ” advertising. The new Broadcasting Bill will limit adverts for what is considered unhealthy food at children. “We need to protect our children from the advertising of food products which are high in sugar, fats and salts”. “This will… Read More »