Summer vegetables, at last...

It's summer time and there are berries to be picked. Our crop of raspberries is fantastic, as are the blackcurrants but the majority of our vegetables grew miserably. I lie, they didn't grow at all. Complete disaster teaches you good lessons - most of the seeds failed to germinate because the temperature where we live (on the bed of a valley) was too cold for them. Then some late frosts killed any survivors. So a month after starting three different varieties of tomato, basil, coriander, broccoli, lettuces, and other crops not a single one had germinated. Not a smidgen.

So it was back to basics, and learning about the newer, colder conditions of where we now live. So I planted round two of my seeds, abandoned most of the tomatoes and we now have a small crop of vegetables. When you grow even a tiny amount of your own food you realise how insecure the whole business is, and how placing all of the responsibility of providing us with food in the hands of big business may not the best idea in the world.

At the moment I'm looking at America a lot and the crazy stuff going on in their food sector. After revelations this week that Tyson, one of the biggest food brands in the US was caught bribing vets in their Mexican meat plants to pass unfit meat as edible, we also had the new footage of animal welfare abuse at a pig plant. On top of that food safety and farming budgets are being cut in the US and as one writer said recently in the New York Times, public health and food safety are now seen as "liberal issues". What? Liberal? So now you're left wing if you want to eat a burger and expect to be alive an hour later? America's food environment can be truly hairy stuff and it's something I'm currently researching for a piece. At the moment the piece is looking very long, believe me.



I'm also working on a new project on Irish food which is very exciting, I can divulge more on that at a later date. At the moment it's in its infancy so alongside looking after the new baby I'm digging away on that. One thing that's lovely at the moment is that the weather has turned a bit more summery and I am spending more time in the garden. As you can see from the photo above some of our second crop of lettuce are coming on well and the radishes have also grown strongly. The peas are looking good and the hardier herbs such as thyme, rosemary and parsley survived the move from our former house. Somebody bribed them, obviously.

It's also lovely to see the summertime finally kick in (lets face it it'll be gone in a week or so) and our neighbouring farmers getting a chance to cut silage for Winter fodder. Again, I've learned from them that "our side" of the valley is colder than the other side - they get two cuts of silage over there whereas in the fields surrounding our place one cut is all you'd get. This is because with less light and a slightly cooler temperature the grass grows more slowly. Again, even in the space of a hundred yards, the conditions that produce food change. And this is why we should appreciate the stuff more and think about the work that goes into it. Last night as we finished the baby's last feed at 1am my neighbouring farmer was still towing bales of silage out of the field pictured below. Producing food is a hard job, and as I learn every summer, if I had to grow everything I eat myself I'd be very poorly fed indeed.

Making organics part of our food future

At the National Organic Conference in Limerick last week I grabbed this photo of Peter Ward with a large basket of potatoes wrapped lovingly in brown paper to hold in the steamy goodness. Peter provided lunch on the day(more pictures below) and what was particularly lovely was both the melt-in-your-mouth quality of the free range pork from Crowe's Farm in Tipperary but also the use of flowers to dress the meat and salads. It was a beautifully simple effect and one which summed up much of the philosophy of the conference itself.

I met a lot of great people on the day and learned
so much from the wonderful speakers, who brought expertise from both Ireland and abroad to the event. I particularly liked Henry Tucker's insights into the way consumers think and how food companies can exploit it. Basically when it comes to us consumers, it's all about ME. He pointed out how food producers sometimes neglect to aim their product at some need or desire the consumer has in their immediate sphere rather than appealing to the philosophical or ideological ideas behind organic or local food. We all want to eat food that has an "x factor"; and one of the ways producers can keep this to the forefront of what they are doing is to make sure the food they make tastes great. Really great.

Another speaker from the UK, Adrian Dolby explained the workings of the 7000 acre organic holding he manages in the Cotswolds. The farm keeps 2500 ewes outside all year on a diet of little more than grass. No supplementary feed, no worming doses, just pretty much them and mother nature out on the mountain; even for lambing, and the farm is a highly successful commercial enterprise. In fact the decision to change the farm to organic status was a commercial one rather than a "green" decision.

One of the highlights of the day for me was learning about how a group of ordinary families in Skerries County Dublin came together and approached a farmer to grow produce for them. It's a fantastic scheme, one which provides organic veg for consumers in Skerries which couldn't be more local (the farm overlooks the town) and provides a fair return to the farmer. The scheme is working well for everyone involved and could be replicated in areas all over Ireland; cutting out the middlemen, excessive packaging, transport and waste. Other workshop sessions on the day featured expert presentations and discussion on topics ranging from supports available to those considering organic farming to export markets for Ireland's produce.

One of the strong feelings emanating from the conference was the need to reach the consumer with a clearer message about what organic food stands for and the possible need for an over-arching group to represent organics in Ireland. There's no doubt consumers are sometimes put off by price but this message is not a simple one as organic food isn't always more expensive. They are also sometimes confused by its benefits.

Whatever the often conflicting research has said about polyphenols and the health properties of organic vegetables, I've always thought the point of organic food is that it comes without the pesticide and herbicide residues left behind by conventional farming. It is also much kinder to the environment and managing the fragile biodiversity of Ireland is essential for all of our food futures. The sales of organic food in Ireland are currently holding their own despite the recession, and the conference was another reminder of the passion, energy and innovation in the sector. A big thanks to Bord Bia, the Department of Agriculture and Limerick Institute of Technology for organising such a fantastic event.

I feel that organics in Ireland are now in the second generation; we now have big players like Glenisk selling organic food successfully in a tough economic environment to a discerning consumer. The green message is often not enough; the product has to compete with so many others that it has to be simply great in itself. But producers understand this and ideology has become reality; organic food is here to stay. It won't feed all of us all of the time, but it has a centrally important place in Irish food production and one that consumers are supporting with their buying habits. The conference presentations should soon be available to read at the bordbia website (www.bordbia.ie) and as always I will keep you posted on news and industry trends for local and organic food. Happy eating x

Am I still drinking tea? Yes. My response to the Rainforest Alliance and all the lovely and not so lovely comments on the piece

As I can't seem to comment on my post below (The real price of a cup of tea) because of some weird website glitch, I'll respond here to the Rainforest Alliance and others who've got in touch regarding my tea piece, published last week in the Irish Times.


I appreciate readers comments on the article, the responses I received on Twitter and the statement from the Rainforest Alliance regarding the working conditions for women at Lyon's Tea's Kericho site. However the women interviewed for our piece by journalist Jody Clarke gave a very different account of their experience of working at Lyon's Tea's Kericho plantation. There is always a difficulty when parties connected to an issue have such different versions of how things work. On one side there is the Dutch NGO SOMO, the Kenya Human Rights Commission (KHRC) and the women we interviewed while on the other side Unilever and Rainforest Alliance who say there is no issue with sexual harassment at the site.


I think it's fair to say that sexual harassment of women workers is not uncommon in Kenya and the KHRC attests to this. That it would be absent altogether at a site as big as Kericho where there are 16,000 workers, many NGOs and people on the ground in Kenya might find difficult to believe. Unilever say they have put a confidential telephone number in place and want women to document any cases of abuse but in my mind this rings a bell (sorry for the pun) to the anonymous phone reporting numbers offered by the British authorities in Northern Ireland during the troubles. It was a great initiative but when you talked to people on the street were they going to use it? No.



Ollie I welcome your comment and yes Fair Trade is a different scheme to the one operated by Rainforest Alliance, there are many "ethical schemes" in food production and obviously they operate to slightly different standards. The overall point I was making is that in developing countries where human rights and working conditions are often so terrible, it may be difficult to completely stamp out unfair work practises, abuse of workers or environmental degradation. In these countries these are often so ingrained in workplaces that to overturn such practises completely or within a short period of time may be unrealistic.


So what are we to do? Ethical schemes may not be perfect but food produced under them is still probably produced under slightly better conditions then where simply market forces prevail. The choice is ours; it's not an easy one. Hopefully if we educate ourselves about food and not stick our heads in the sand, we can learn a little more about it and make better choices, even though sometimes what we learn may make us uncomfortable.


TASTE OF DUBLIN



On a lighter note, Philip and I spoke at Taste of Dublin last weekend in the Chef's Table tent in an interview with food writer Katy McGuinness. Here's a picture of us having a glass of wine in Iveagh Gardens afterwards which is a truly beautiful urban garden and one which Dubliners don't make the most of. Taste of Dublin takes place in the gardens and its a great event for foodies or for those who just want to hang out with a glass in their hand in beautiful surroundings.


In our interview we talked about real food, what we buy to cook and eat at home and how to avoid eating stuff that is bad for your health, badly produced or bad from the perspective of the people or environment that produced it. So we yakked on about this sort of thing and hopefully entertained people for a bit. It's good to meet people and talk about food issues face to face and also to be quizzed about issues you write or broadcast about. It makes you consider more what consumers really think about food and in that respect it was a really interesting event. My next post will be on the National Organic Conference which I've just returned from chairing in Limerick, but now its time for bed and en route, guess what? A nice cup of tea x

The real price of a cup of tea

Yesterday's Irish Times published a story I'd been working on with journalist Jody Clarke for a couple of months. I'd discovered that Lyons tea (the biggest selling tea in Ireland), has a plantation in Kenya where women allege that in order to secure lighter work duties or better housing conditions for their families they are forced to have sex with supervisors.

I researched the story, interviewed the principals and then journalist Jody Clarke who is based in Kenya then came on board. He travelled to the estate and interviewed women who had worked there. They told him about how the supervisors demand sex, bribes and harass the older women. Lyons Tea who are owned by the giant Unilever food group say there is no problem with sexual harassment at the estate and that they disagree with a report compiled by Dutch organisation SOMO which alleges that women on the estate suffer poor working conditions and "rampant" sexual harassment.

Working conditions for women at Kenya's tea plantations are generally poor, but the real problem with this case is that the Lyons Tea Kericho estate is Rainforest Alliance certified. Rainforest Alliance say that they say their audits of working conditions on the estate have found no problems. Generally as consumers when we buy a Fair Trade product we assume that workers are being looked after and are not suffering the kind of problems which the Kenyan women allege. What I found writing this piece is that what we might consider to be an ethically produced product may not be the case in reality. If you're interested in this issue you can read the full piece at the link below.

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/weekend/2011/0611/1224298716294.html

Basketcase is back

Basketcase is back. Yes, this is a picture of Rachel Allen in some kind of cupboard. More on that later.

Firstly thanks for all the nice comments and good wishes on our new arrival - our little baby is finally home. Life now revolves around four hour feeds and a pair of very small blue eyes which would melt your heart, and all is well in the Campbell/Boucher-Hayes household.


While I'll be taking things easy over the summer and doing lots of bringing not one but two small creatures to visit the lambs next door, there's some food events coming up which I'll flag and keep you up to date on. And as I can't ignore what's going on in the countryside outside my window; the farming year to follow and delicious food to cook and eat.


In my short absence a small food hiccup seems to have taken place in Germany. As the crisis there develops it's clear that the emergence of Ecolis with lethal, fatal consequences looks to be something that we're going to see more of in our food environment. As of today, the outlook for the 664 sufferers is a pretty poor one. Many of the victims who ate contaminated food will face life long health problems from the HUS (Hemolytic uremic syndrome) which the ecoli brings with it. This means the possibility of kidney dialysis and renal failure, and an usually high probability of a fatal outcome. It's a horrific disaster with concrete details of where the contamination came from still unclear. But more on that again.

The next few days will be a busy period for me; Philip and I are speaking at Taste of Dublin in Iveagh Gardens this weekend. The Chef's Table tent at the event features interviews with chefs and foodie people - Philip and myself are appearing on Saturday at 6pm; we'll be talking What's Ireland Eating?, how they get the figs into the fig rolls and other such mysteries about the stuff that goes into our mouths. The Chef's Table tent schedule (which is actually a kind of yurt - looking forward to yak hair rugs etc) is at http://www.tasteofdublin.ie/ and follow the link with the Rachel Allen photo above. Rachel plus chefs such as Kevin Thornton, Gino D'Acampo, Conrad Gallagher, Nevin Maguire, Antony Worral Thompson, Catherine Fulvio and Derry Clarke will also be doing question and answer sessions in the tent; really looking forward to that.

Then on Tuesday next I'm down in Limerick to chair Bord Bia's National Organic Conference. For food producers, organic farmers or those interested in organics this is a pretty essential event; the line-up of speakers is an impressive array from the UK, France, food marketing, food trends and artisan food arenas. There's actually so much taking place on the day and great workshops in the afternoon that I'll have to sprint very fast round the conference centre at LIT to catch all the acts that I'm interested in - I'll need my music festival game face on. More info on the conference is at http://www.bordbia.ie/

I've also an upcoming investigative piece in the Irish Times which is due for publication this weekend. This piece was written a while back and has taken some time to research and bring to this stage. Investigative stories like this are always a lot of hard work but I think a lot of Irish consumers may take a deep breath when they read the piece. It involved myself and an Irish journalist based in Kenya delving into allegations of sexual harassment made by women who work for one of Ireland's most successful branded products.

This was and still is a tricky story; it took a while to get to the bottom of and the allegations may put some people off their breakfast. That's all I'm going to say. Ciao for the moment and happy eating x (bet you're all worried now)

So long, farewell, hospital food here I come

Thanks to all the readers of this blog; those who've been with it since the start and those who've newly discovered it; seeing the traffic to Basketcase from all over the world and the comments is a huge boost to anyone who blogs and I can't thank you enough for your interest.

I'm about to take a short break from my journalism and blogging as I've a baby due this week. But there'll still be plenty of food news, food safety scandals and other matters for me to write on as the summer unfolds. After all, I started the blog while looking after my first newborn so hopefully the reality of looking after two small vigorous creatures won't completely melt my brain. (I think I'll be looking back at this sentence and weeping in about two weeks time).

Over the past week Philip and myself have been overwhelmed with the reaction to "What's Ireland Eating" which aired on television here last Sunday. The documentary came out of our book Basketcase; What's Happening to Ireland's Food? which we published two years ago. Philip cannot walk through our local village, shopping malls, petrol stations, car parks etc at the moment without being stopped by viewers who all have something to say about what was in the documentary and compliments to share with us. Farmers I've been talking to this week for an upcoming story for the Irish Times are full of praise and heartfelt surprise that at last someone is taking an interest in their livelihoods.

If you want to watch the show it's available online here - http://www.rte.ie/player/#v=1097870

If you can't watch it on the player check out a synopsis of the programme at Aoife Carrigy's excellent blog http://holymackerel.ie/ (the cheque's in the post Aoife).

The feedback has also reflected the power of social media. On twitter the day of the broadcast we used the hashtag #whatsirelandeating and it was the top trending topic in Ireland that day. People tweeted details of their diet that Sunday - everything from Skittle sandwiches to Irish St.Tola's cheese on toast - we retweeted many of them and momentum built fast, as the programme was being broadcast, nearly a million Irish people tuned into it and 574,000 watched the entire show which is a huge figure for a documentary in Ireland.

Again we were overwhelmed by the online comments and reaction and it has developed an online stream of debate on food since. We never imagined the amount of positive feedback we would get or the huge numbers of people really engaged with the issue of food, where it comes from, what's in it, and keeping food production in Ireland as part of our future.

As I'll be checking out of social life for a small bit, later this month I'll miss the second For Food's Sake event in Dublin, which is a cracking night for any of you food folk out there looking for what is at present, rare combination of food, chat and a lot of new ideas to come away with. Here's details of the event and it's a short goodbye from me. Take care all of you, talk to you soon and happy eating. I'll be tweeting a little; detailing the stand out dishes of the maternity hospital that deserve mention, (I'm desperately trying to rein in my enthusiasm) and any big food news that comes to attention. www.twitter.com/campbellsuz x

FOR FOOD’S SAKE – AN EVENING OF FOOD TALK AND TASTINGS The Sugar Club, 8 Lower Leeson Street, Dublin 2

Thursday 26 MayDoors 7pm sharp (discussion kicks off 7.30pm)Adm €5 on the door.



The Irish food industry is something we should all be proud of and deserves a platform for discussion. For Food’s Sake is a new bi-monthly evening of food discussion and tastings. Each themed night of discussion will be chaired by journalist and food blogger Aoife Carrigy (of HolyMackerel.ie, and former deputy editor of FOOD&WINE Magazine), joined by a panel of four guest speakers from across the broad spectrum of the industry. There will be tastings from several Irish artisan producers who will tell you a bit about why they do what they do. There will be a chance to win some great foodie prizes, and an inspirational talk from an Irish chef just back from a coveted stage at Noma in Copenhagen, recognised as the top restaurant in the world.



Manager of The Sugar Club and food writer Oisin Davis will host a Karaoke Cook-Off between DJs Conor G and David De Valera, who will pit their toastie sandwich-making skills against one another. And of course there will be a full bar to help get the conversation going. After the success of March’s inaugural night’s discussion (which focussed on the opportunities and challenges facing Irish food producers) we now turn our attention to the restaurant industry.


We will ask the following panelists: ‘Are Irish restaurants up the swanny?’ Joe Macken, restaurateur (JoBurger & Crackbird)Enda McEvoy, chef (Gregan’s Castle & Cook Wild Project)Paul Cadden, restaurateur (Saba restaurant & former President of RAI)Caroline Byrne, food writer (Bridgestone Guide Dublin editor) We’ll also be asking, if Irish restaurants are up the swanny, how did they get there? Did they paddle themselves up there on the back of the Celtic Tiger during the so-called ‘Rip off Ireland’ days? Why do we pay so much more for a meal in Ireland than the equivalent in Spain, and where is our money going?

Keep an eye on their Facebook page and their blog at forfoodssakeireland.blogspot.com to keep updated. Press release with more details below.

Finally, our food documentary "What's Ireland Eating" is about to go on the telly box

I left television in 2005 to write full time, but strange forces have kept pulling me back in, in particular the making of this documentary which airs on Sunday night on RTE one. Titled 'What's Ireland Eating?' it was developed from the book Philip and I wrote on food two years ago - the book gave birth to this blog and also to the documentary, so in a way it's going full circle to see it finally on the television.

Initially the book (Basketcase - What's happened to Ireland's Food) was so broad in focus that no one hour doc would encompass all the strands in it. So RTE and Stopwatch Television the producers, veered towards a consumer-focused piece of television which is probably more appropriate for the audience. It also relates to all of us in terms of how we behave around food - what decisions we make in the supermarket, how what we eat affects our health and our childrens health, and how in turn how these decisions affect rural Ireland and farming. How we shop will also have a huge bearing on the type of food model we have here in the future. Right now it's a remarkably good one, that sometimes, sadly we don't appreciate enough.

Here's a picture of Philip Boucher-Hayes my husband (standing beside some very strange fruit in a supermarket) who presents the documentary. He spent long days on the road travelling up and down the country meeting farmers, consumers and those passionate about what the effect of what we eat has on the wider economy and environment. Working with your spouse sounds like a nightmare but funnily enough we managed to get through both this project and the book without a major disaster. Our only real falling out on the book was when Philip had still not finished off his sections of the book and instead diverted himself with putting up insane amounts of Christmas decorations, despite a deadline looming. Our house looked like a Bavarian forest with branches of fir trees and tendrils of ivy draped from every possible hanging place. At one point I was going to write in the dedication of the book "You might not think much of this book but you should see our Christmas decorations, they're fantastic".

We finally finished the copy and sent in the disk just as I began labour pains on our first baby. This time it's kind of the same thing - the documentary was finished last Thursday - and I'm due baby number two in a weeks time. Fantastic timing again. My role on the production was Food and Farming Consultant - a grand title which in my fantasy world suggested a consultants wages but strangely it doesn't work like that. I'm also in the documentary for a little segment which we shot in the garden and looks a bit like a Timotei ad, this is no compliment to me, simply the wonderful summer light blasting either side of my head.

A big thanks are owed to the wonderful production team of Tom Johnston, Mary Murphy and Aisling Milton who put all the hard work in and to Colm Whelan who shot it and did a really lovely job. As a former director/producer who spent many years filming the countryside when I produced Ear to the Ground, I really can't emphasise how gorgeous he has made this production look, Colm you've surpassed yourself.

One of the really original things about the documentary is the specially commissioned research into the groceries bought by 3000 households, they re-scanned their goods once they got home and from that information we formed a picture of our shopping habits. Some of the stats were really surprising - we are the biggest consumers of breakfast cereals in the world and 43% of our diet in Ireland is processed foods. In the documentary Philip also visits a school and has a look through childrens' lunchboxes, the contents of some of which are hard to believe.

I hope anyone who tunes in will find something that connects to them in it and at the very least be entertained for an hour or so. For twitter users the hashtag is #whatsirelandeating and it's on RTE one television 9.30pm this Sunday May 8th. Enjoy and happy eating x

Below is a link to the RTE page on the documentary -
http://www.rte.ie/tv/programmes/heart_land_whats_eating_ireland.html

It's May Bank holiday weekend - foodie heaven

It's May Bank Holiday weekend and the beginning of the summer food festival season in Ireland. Check out some of the following info and links to food festivals and events around the country - they're a hugely important element to rural tourism, offer a way to sample and buy artisan food directly from the people who make it and more importantly, what can be better than a spot of eating and drinking in the sunshine in Ireland? May the weather Gods be kind to us...

Roscommon Lamb Festival from the 27th April to May 2nd was started in 2008 organised by a committee of local farmers, restaurant owners and community groups. The vision for the festival was to “highlight the quality of locally-produced food and to attract additional tourists to Roscommon thus boosting the local economy and benefitting primary producers and suppliers”.

Based on the fact that Roscommon has the highest lamb output in the country, the festival celebrates lamb in a diverse range of food and farming events over the course of the weekend. There are lamb barbeques, farm walks, farmers markets and even a world record knitting attempt, so if you've a pair of needles and a ball of wool, you know where to go this weekend.
http://www.roscommonlambfestival.com/

This weekend Connemara hosts a celebration of Killary Mussels taking place from the 29th April - 1st May 2011 on the glorious Renvyle Peninsula in North Connemara; this really is a gorgeous part of the country. It's the sixth year of the festival and promises that more mussels will be eaten here this weekend than in any other part of the country. The celebrations include music, craic, mussel cooking competitions, walks, talks, theatre and children's activities. There will also be a country market, local art exhibition and mussel cooking competitions http://www.connemaramusselfestival.com/

Sheridans Cheese Mongers are holding their second food event at their Virginia Road Station headquarters in County Meath. Some of Ireland’s finest artisan producers will be showing their best. Irish farmhouse cheese producers include Milleens, Cashel Blue, Coolea, Cooleeney, Bellingham Blue, Corleggy, Glebe Brethan and more. As well as other artisan producers such as Burren smokehouse, Gubbeen salamis, Burke’s ice- cream, Janet’s Country Fare, Mella’s Fudge.
www.sheridanscheesemongers.com

Other foodie events this weekend -

Limerick Georgian Summer Market, 30th April – 01 May 2011 www.limerickgeorgianmarket.com

Goleen Craft & Food Fair, 01 May 2011, Community Centre, Goleen, Co. Cork www.craftinireland.com/events/details/goleen-craft-food-fair

And from Good Food Ireland - several events and courses to whet your appetite this weekend -

On Saturday April 30th - "Sinful but Saintly Cooking demo" with Susan Jane Murray
Susan joins Good Food Ireland members Donnybrook Fair for a “Sinful but Saintly” demo at which she will let us in on her secrets for making scrumptious desserts that are sugar-free, wheat-free and dairy-free.

To book a place at Susan Jane's 'Sinful but Saintly' cookery demo on April 30, call Donnybrook Fair on (01) 668-3556, or see www.susanjanemurray.com

Cookery Courses
Belle Isle Cookery School, Fermanagh -
Saturday 30th April Cakes & Bakes. One day course
Saturday 4th May Fish & Seafood. One day course
http://www.goodfoodireland.ie/Member207/Belle-Isle-Cookery-School-Fermanagh.html

Dublin Cookery School -
2 May - 27 May Cooking for Life. One month course.
7 May Cooking course with guest chef Atul Kochhar. One day course
http://www.goodfoodireland.ie/Member212/Dublin-Cookery-School-Dublin.html

I just wish I could go to them all! Have a great weekend and happy eating x

Irish cooks and food enthusiasts, USA is calling...

If you fancy yourself as a half decent cook and feel that you've a recipe connected to the county you're living in, then this is an opportunity you can't miss.

Rachel Gaffney, a Corkwoman now living in Texas is on the hunt for recipes from the 32 counties of Ireland to be part of a US project to be directed by Emmy Award-winning producer Bob Altman, former Supervising Producer of ‘Martha Stewart Living’.

Rachel, who is passionate about Irish food, wants to showcase what this country has to offer in the form of a video cookbook based on Irish recipes. They can be in any shape or form - main courses, starters etc.

When thinking about the recipes that you might submit, she advices emphasising the story behind the recipe and why, from your perspective, it belongs in this collection - one which will live in the digital-recipe seeker’s “bookmarks” for years to come. Rachel is looking for a paragraph or so along with the recipe, explaining to home-cooks around the world, how they can share your love of Irish food with their family and friends by serving your dish.

If your dish is selected, the team would also like to present your photo, a short biography and a link to your blog or website. So while the aim is to present the best of traditional Irish food, they are most interested "interpretation and embellishment" and the idea of a recipe having been passed down to you through family or tradition. It is okay to mention a particular branded ingredient if you feel that it is integral to the taste of the dish – as long as the product is made in Ireland.

The recipes will be filmed in extreme close-up without an on-camera presenter, so that the ingredients and the ‘how-to’ process will be the star. They will be styled by a feature film/television food stylist and lit, photographed and edited by an Emmy Award winning production team.“Runner-up” entries may be presented in text and photo format also with a link back to your blog. So for all Irish food writers, bloggers and cookery enthusiasts this is a wonderful opportunity.

Email your recipe to:Rachel@Rachelgaffneys.com

You can follow Rachel on Twitter @Rachelgaffney and on Facebook.

http://www.rachelgaffney.blogspot.com/

RACHEL GAFFNEY'S REAL IRELAND5515 TAMARON COURTDALLAS,TX,75287TEL: (469) 6446054EMAIL:

http://uk.mc295.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=Rachel@Rachelgaffneys.comWEB: www.Rachelgaffneys.comBLOG: www.Rachelgaffney.blogspot.com

Like prostitution, food substitution is one of the oldest trades in the book. "We're being codded" Part II

Food substitution or food swindling in order to make money is one of the oldest tricks in the book. While may think what we eat today is dominated by food additives and unnatural manufacturing, our range of foods has to be better than a century ago when particularly urban people were at the complete mercy of food sellers.

Freidrich Engels even wrote about it - pointing out that as working men got their wages on a Saturday in industrial Britain they had to buy their family food on Saturday evening. This was the beginning of what we know today as evening grocery shopping. And as much of it was conducted in candlelight, this was where a lot of the chicanery took place. As the good food was sold off from the morning onwards, the ordinary working person was left with the poor produce that remained by the evening or produce that was discounted precisely because it was foul. Rotten meat was covered with a layer of healthy fat, aged butter was covered with a coating of fresh butter, oranges were boiled to make them weighty and shiny and in the case of fish, their gills were painted red to make them look fresh.



Sadly there are still plenty of people out there willing to pull the wool over our eyes. In 2009 the Food Safety Authority brought two Irish companies to court for the mislabelling of fish. They won their case against one of the companies who was passing off farmed salmon as wild salmon; an altogether rarer and far more expensive product. One of these companies is a very well known fish retailer and wholesaler who got off on a technicality but was nonetheless happy to pass off farmed salmon as wild salmon and collect the huge difference in price for quite some time.


So like prostitution, food substitution - as one of the oldest trades in the book is still very much alive and well. But who's going to take on the villians of the piece? Following this most recent survey on fish mislabelling and recognising the scale of the problem, the FSAI are introducing annual checks for fish and food businesses that fail to keep appropriate traceability records or who are found to be intentionally misleading consumers. They also say they will take repeat offenders to court but for the moment most of them will get off with a verbal warning. Unfortunately that is how the legislation stands. Seems a bit lily-livered to me.


One of the sad facts behind the mislabelling story is that most of the fish that is being passed off as cod is imported. Not only that but much of the white fish we eat is imported. White fish, behind farmed salmon, is the second most popular seafood in this country and the similarities between filleted white fish make substituting species easy to do. Most people don’t know the difference.

In terms of our own lovely local seafood catch, 80% of Irish fish is exported to Europe where there is a ready market in France and Spain for high quality, fresh whole fish. Unfortunately we Irish consumers don't seem to be switched on to how good the product is on our own doorstep and instead eat cheap imports that come from Iceland, the Faroe Islands, and Scandanavia which have been ususally frozen for several days. This imported fish is cheaper, and comes in huge volumes so this makes it more attractive for supermarkets in particular. It also comes filleted, ready for sale and Irish fish just can’t compete.

So, what do we do about cod?

In the FSAI report, fake Cod is the fish that keeps cropping up again and again. In fact nearly three quarters of the "smoked cod" on offer to Irish consumers that the agency tested wasn't cod at all but Pollack, Coley, Saithe or God knows what else. But there's two interesting things that emanate from this - one is that even though stocks are shrinking, Irish shoppers still want to eat cod, whether it's bought in a supermarket or a chipper. So the mislabelling of cod perpetuates the myth that there is plenty of cod about. This means that Irish consumers are failing to adjust our shopping habits and our wallets, to food that is endangered or comes with a high environmental cost.

So what can consumers do to eat more Irish fish and avoid eating something that is falsely labelled? Firstly if they buy their fish locally it’s the easiest possible option. In Dublin you can still buy fish direct off boats coming into Howth, harbour, (pictured) Dun Laoghaire and Dalkey and there are fish dealers in this area who will get you what you want straight from the boat. Local fish mongers, though scarce, are a great option and if it comes to supermarkets, buying Marine Stewardship Council certified fish gives you a certainty that it’s sustainable and has a country of origin label.


A new scheme soon to be brought in by Supervalue will see Irish fish being retailed on their shelves which is traceable straight back to the boat it came in on which is really great.

Ironically, one positive thing coming from this fish mislabelling affair is that it reveals we are patently happy to eat lots of other fish besides cod, and in fact we didn’t seem to notice the difference. But if most of us are happy to eat cheaper fish, the savings from doing so should be made by us, not by someone trying to pull the wool over our eyes.

If you're interested in fish stocks and their sustainability check out Ocean 2012 which is a coalition of groups lobbying for change and sustainable practices in the EU's Common Fisheries Policy. They're at http://www.ocean2012.eu/ and the Irish representation is on twitter at @OCEAN2012IE - they will soon have news coming up on Irish events for European Fish Week June 4th - 12th.

Would you like fries with that? We're being codded, again.

A year on from when I first wrote about the fish labelling scandal going on in Ireland it seems nothing has changed. In the second survey into what exactly we are buying when we purchase "cod", the Food Safety Authority of Ireland has revealed that nearly one in five fish are not what it says on the label. So what are the implications for consumers and does this point to murky goings on in the fish trade?

This most recent survey was carried out in retail outlets, fish shops, hotels, pubs, restaurants and takeaways all over Ireland. The FSAI found that 19% of products it sampled were labelled incorrectly. The largest sector selling us fake cod was takeaways, with 32% of takeaways found to have mislabelled fish produce on sale.

Do takeaways rely on people being either (a) drunk and on their way home from the pub when they buy their "cod" and chips, or (b) their product being so doused in salt and vinegar that your box of fish and chips could be in fact battered Nike trainer with deep fried turnip peelings?

The point is that this isn't so much a food safety issue but common or garden food swindling, based on making money from innocent consumers. Cod is generally an expensive fish and in this case it’s being replaced with other varieties, and food businesses are increasing their own profit margins by selling fake produce.

This survey was undertaken last autumn when cod stocks are traditionally low and found that fish such as pollack, coley or smelt were being sold as cod. At that time cod was about 11 euros a kilo; pollack about 6 or 7 euro a kilo so you stand to make a lot of money if you can replace one with the other.

Okay, so a bit of coley posing as cod won't kill us. However, in terms of food safety, food substitution in the past has had fatal consequences. In North America two people died from eating puffer fish that had been labelled and sold as monkfish; a pretty terrifying outcome. As consumers, we need to have confidence in what it says on the label. Particularly in the EU, we are under the impression that strict policies on labelling and traceability are in place. Instead, what this study reveals is a level of disfunction in the labelling of seafood in Europe.

What’s shocking about this is not the first time that mislabelling of fish has found to be an issue in Ireland. About 12 months ago when I first wrote on the subject UCD did a study on fish and found much the same problem. A quarter of the fish they examined was mislabelled. In one major supermarket chain, seven out of their 16 "cod" products weren't cod. The research calculated that by selling cheaper alternatives, this retailer could be getting inflated profits of between €400,000 to €550,000 per year on Irish cod sales.

So who is doing the duping – is it the supermarkets, the fish and chip shops or is it the fish dealers who are selling them the fish? The FSAI can’t name and shame the outlets or merchants involved in this sting so to speak. They found that some of the mislabelling may be due to a certain amount of ignorance, but a few names popped up in the retail and wholesale side where several instances occurred, especially in the battered and smoked fish. They’re being investigated as this would suggest that it was more than accidental.

Unfortunately the penalities are low even if charges are brought and while you can name and shame an outlet for food safety breaches, mislabelling food comes under “misleading the consumer” which hasn’t huge penalities – most will get a verbal warning, then if they persist be taken to court.

Not very heartening for the consumer is it? Will it take a serious health incident arising from food mislabelling to change the law? Why can't we find out who the worst operators are and therefore make our own choice as consumers to stop being codded at the fish counter? If you want to hear more on this topic I'll soon upload my interview on RTE radio with Pat Kenny teasing through the issue. And no, there won't be any bad jokes, I promise.

In part two of this post, I'll be examining the sometimes hideous, sometimes hysterically funny history of food substitution and I'll have some tips for how to buy Irish fish, that's the genuine article. We've so much great fish in Ireland it's ridiculous that we're buying not only fake product but fake product that's mostly coming from outside the EU. But that's a whole other story... part two coming soon.

New garden, new start

In between lots of food writing and talking last week I managed to get out to the garden and plant some spring veg - a refreshing change to the chicken wars which were continuing apace. Late last year we moved to a new house with a large garden, in fact it's not really a garden but a job centre. The minute we arrived, my husband and I walked around it stupefied with fear - having moved here precisely because we wanted a small piece of land of our own, once we were in possession of it things just began to look plain scary.

The list of jobs to be done; lawns to be mown, hedges to be cut, trees to be felled, felled trees to be chopped is pretty overwhelming. And while it had been beautifully maintained by the previous owners, the place doesn't feel like the garden we want it be and big plans are afoot to change how much of it is orientated.

Being animal lovers, more living, destructive additions are set to arrive in the next few months but in the meantime we are just trying to maintain the garden; chop down a few small trees to get a nicer view of the valley we live in, cut hedges and start on the lawns. While a lot of the planting is very suburban and 1970s in flavour, there are some lovely places in the garden, including the potting shed (pictured above) which is a lovely place to work, with old-fashioned panes of glass covered in clematis to one side and a lovely pink camellia climbing all over the front wall and door.

If you follow this blog from last year you will be familiar with the travails of planting too many tomatoes so this year I stuck to just Ferlines - -a nice large ridged tomato like the ones in French outdoor markets, which have been successful for us in the past, and a few of a mini variety.

I also put in lots of rocket, dill, basil, radishes and three types of lettuce. We will plant more in a fortnight's time so that you get a successive crop rather than everything coming at the same time -yet more lessons learned from previous efforts.

For someone who spends a lot of their day looking at a laptop, it's lovely to be outside again and pottering around in the dirt. Gardening in a new place and planting from seeds is always slow at the start but once your veg begins to come up it is such a pleasure to walk around the garden in the evening, see how everything is getting on and have a glass of wine and chat as the sun sets. I have one terrace I'm trying to remodel as a place to eat in the evenings which has beautiful views. At the moment it's a grey concrete hell but I've high hopes for its transformation into a cool but lush space for eating and entertaining. I've done this before - the first garden I had was truly awful - a tiny concreted yard the size of a stamp but after years of work it became something really lovely, with hanging vines, lanterns, dark wooden floors and verdant planting. So in a way this garden is going to benefit from the experiences that have gone before, or fingers crossed, let's hope it will.

It's funny, I am more patient about gardens then most other things in my life. I'm prepared to put in enormous hard work, constantly forgive them, plan and reinvest when things go wrong and ultimately learn from my mistakes. If I could bring these qualities into everything I do, I'd be some kind of cross between Michael O'Leary and the Dalai Lama. I'll keep the blog up to date with regular reports and photos and include the food I grow into my cooking this summer. For everyone out there fond of gardens, or perhaps who doesn't know where to start - buy a few seeds, a bag of compost, a small tray and stick them in the ground. See what happens. Get stuck in now folks, dirt rocks. x

Irish chicken, the end of the road?

Last week it was lambs.. now it's chicken. On Tuesday the Irish Times published the investigative piece I wrote on Irish chicken which has certainly excited some debate about what we're eating - debate being the polite word. I suppose strong reaction to any piece of journalism is what you want, and it's good to see that people are engaged with the issue and in some cases, simply frightened about what they're eating. I've had email comments sent on to me from the Times and a few strange phonecalls since the piece came out. One chap who called me this morning had a good old rant but I'm sure it's nothing a bucket of chicken at KFC can't sort out. After all, food and countryside issues often excite slightly over the top reactions. After directing an episode of Ear to the Ground (Ireland's farming programme) on fox hunting some years ago, I was delighted to find I was banned from the entire area of East Galway by the pro hunting lobby while at the same time an animal rights protestor chained himself to the gates of Leinster House. Have a look at the piece and see for yourself. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/features/2011/0329/1224293291679.html I'm off to write my presentation for a food event "For Food's Sake" tonight at The Sugar Club in Dublin. Really looking forward to it - myself, a representative from Bord Bia and the IFA will be presenting ideas and then responding to audience discussion on the future of food and farming. And there'll be artisan foods to sample afterwards... better leave some room in the tummy, though there's not a lot of room in there with an eight month old baby taking up most of the space... Tally ho x

How to survive a bullying on twitter - I blame the lambs

In my innocence I thought that most people knew that meat came from an animal. That it is born from a mummy animal, grows up, eats grass and is killed before it arrives on our plate as food. I guess not.

Last week I tweeted that seeing the newborn lambs in the fields around my house made me think of Spring lamb, which in turn sent me into the greenhouse to start watering my mint plants. Now this may be the behaviour of a rampant animal hater but hey, I simply like eating lamb.

Anyway, a while later someone responded to my tweet saying that I was a "sick and pathetic" individual. This sent me into paroxysms of excitement as obviously I had committed some truly awful deed in the league of Hannibal Lector. When I realised it was related to the lamb comment I (a) spent a long time laughing and (b) watched the twitter responses to the lamb issue get completely out of control and result in a lot of people taking deep offence.

The fact of the matter is that if we choose to eat meat we cannot ignore the facts of how that meat is raised and killed. And if we are grown up about it, we have to realise that burying your head in the sand doesn't change how animals are farmed and slaughtered. Farming is how food is produced and in terms of my daily life I live pretty close to the realities of it. Our house is sandwiched between two sheep farms which are currently midway in lambing a thousand lambs. Yes, a thousand. Some will be killed at twelve weeks old and sold as "spring lamb" - very young tender meat. Others will be killed at any stage up to about one year old, the rest will become replacement ewes (mothers themselves) and some quality males become breeding rams.

This is what happens to lambs. The way I reconcile eating lamb with the gorgeous little creatures gambolling around in the fields is that Irish sheep and lambs live as natural life as possible - outdoors, eating grass and in social herds. It is very different to the feedlot system often seen abroad where livestock live indoors, eat concentrate feed derived from maize and soya, with the biggest of these operations being essentially "factory farms".

Last year I bought a whole lamb killed at about 5 months old from Sweetbank Farm in Wicklow. (Some of it is pictured above) Their lamb is organic, grass fed and for me buying from farm gate from a farmer I know makes me feel what I'm eating is as ethically produced as possible. If I feel that certain meat is not produced with care towards animal welfare then I don't buy it, it's as simple as that.

I think we have to be real about food, know where it comes from and make a choice. It's interesting that if most consumers knew how their meat, especially imported chicken meat was produced they would probably not eat it. And as for twitter, you can follow my disgraceful views on food at @campbellsuz. I will atone, I promise.

www.sweetbankfarm.com

Talking, eating and swapping tales - For Foods Sake

In 2008 when myself and Philip started writing "Basketcase - What's happening to Ireland's Food" there were few places and gatherings that discussed the down and dirty aspects of what we eat. Agriculture was an unfashionable concept in Ireland; fields were for building houses in, not growing food. There was little crossover between the restaurant sector, farmers, artisan producers, mainstream agriculture, food manufacturing, food economists and of course, us, the consuming public.




Happily, three years later, we're in a very different place. People engage more with what's going into their shopping baskets and into their mouths, and it's not about food snobbery; but about wanting to know about where food is coming from, what it's doing to our health and the health of our economy. This change is mirrored in a new gathering designed for food enthusiasts who want to know more about food in Ireland; where it comes from; how it's farmed, how it's retailed, how it's served in restaurants and where the future lies for Irish food producers.


In a way it's ironic that it took the collapse of property developing in Ireland to reveal that one of the most solidly performing sectors of the economy was and still is, agriculture and food - currently earning us 8 billion euro in exports a year. In more chastened times we are returning to what we do very well - producing food - and examining it in much more detail. Forums like For Foods Sake have come out of this curiosity to know more, and put our money where our mouth is.

What were former separate channels of the sector have now become much more enmeshed. Restaurateurs source artisan produce, commercial pig producers talk about the dangers of having a future Ireland without pig farming due to international speculation on cereal prices. Some farmers are moving to organic or rare breed meat while new research shows that shoppers are buying more Irish products and know the value of what buying Irish means to the local economy. They are also more engaged with growing their own food, cooking from scratch and food knowledge, all of which is great news for Irish food producers and transmitting their message to consumers.



Many of these issues will be teased out at For Food’s Sake which is designed to be a bi-monthly evening of food discussion and tastings that will explore Irish food and its future possibilities. The first event will be held in Dublin's Sugar Club on Thursday 31 March. Aoife Carrigy, food journalist, blogger and and former deputy editor of Food & Wine Magazine, will be chairing the discussion. She is one of the brains behind the forum and is passionate about Irish food. All credit to her for bringing a great idea into reality and putting hard work and imagination into the project.


On the first evening of For Food's Sake I join a panel of speakers which includes the lovely Graham Roberts of Connemara Smokehouse; Irish Farmers’ Association’s Pat Smith, and Una Fitzgibbon who is Director of Marketing Services at Bord Bia. Here's the sort of issues under discussion on the first night -


What can we do to support sustainable growth of the Irish food industry, through consumer choices as well as policy decisions

Who are we producing Irish food for – for export or for home consumption – and what does this mean for how we produce it?

How heavily does Irish agriculture rely on subsidies, why and what happens if those subsidies disappear?

Can organic food production provide a realistic alternative model for Irish agriculture or is it by nature a niche market?

Does our indigenous fishing industry have a sustainable future, and do we care enough to demand that it does?

Happily, there will be food tastings on the night courtesy of several Irish artisan producers who will tell you about the wonderful products they make and let everybody check them out for themselves, and there will be a full bar so lots of chat and banter expected.

So put the date in your diary and as Aoife says - For Food’s Sake, come join us, and Eat! Drink! and Be Merry! We’ve a lot to be cheerful about. And much to discuss. Let’s get started. For more information, see facebook.com/ForFoodsSakeIreland and HolyMackerel.ie or contact Aoife Carrigy on 087 6100 826 or Aisling Rogerson on 087 961 4755, or email us on ForFoodsSakeIreland@gmail.com

Follow-up events will take place on the last Thursdays of May, July and every two months after that. Each evening will feature different artisan producer tastings, different topics and a different panel.

FOR FOOD’S SAKE – AN EVENING OF FOOD TALK AND TASTINGS
The Sugar Club, 8 Lower Leeson Street, D 2
Thursday 31 March
Doors 7.30pm
Adm €5 on the door

St. Patricks Day - Eat it

Happy Saint Patrick's Day Everyone! If there was ever an excuse to celebrate Irish food this is it; after all, we've reached a mature stage where we no longer colour beer green or squeeze ourselves into Leprechaun costumes. Or have we?

All around Ireland and further afield it's lovely to see lots of foodie events happening in conjunction with the one and only festival of Irishness. Great to see chefs like Catherine Fulvio (a Wicklow local like myself) travelling with the Irish delegation to Washington to promote Irish food. Chef Donal Skehan is joining Bord Bia at their events in Paris and in over in Texas, County Cork born foodie Rachel Gaffney is doing tv and radio spots throughout the period to celebrate Irish food and involve the huge Irish diaspora in the States in learning about traditional Irish foods and recipes.

All over the world, little bits of Ireland will be popping into people's mouths throughout St. Patrick's Day. I just hope they're decent examples of the wonderful products we produce here and not orange coloured cupcakes with acid green icing.

The first St. Patrick's Day food I experienced abroad was in Kitty O'Sheas pub in Paris when I was a student there. A friends parents who were visiting kindly took us there for lunch and pints of Guinness - rescuing us from a dietary dependence on pain au chocolat and cheap wine - our favourite was a rancid concoction bought for 6 francs in the bakery that turned your mouth instantly black. God love us, I think we thought the look was somewhere between Simone de Beauvoir and vampires.

It was during this momentous "hey we're eating real food" occasion at Kitty O'Sheas that I first tasted crubeens, or pigs trotters. My parents, who were solid farming folk had brought them home once or twice but I had always managed to run out the back door, fast. So ironically it was in Paris that I first ate one of the stalwarts of the Irish menu.

And so it is with national days of any kind; we can use them as a way to try something new and extend our dietary range which for everybody can get caught in a rut. It was at a recent Christmas market in Galway full of German traders that I had proper German Frankfurter (made and cooked authentically) for the first time in many years. It reminded me to include them in my shop now and again, and only for the fact that I've a freezer full of gorgeous free range pork still on the go I would be eating them more often.

As for us Irish at home - this short piece in the Examiner puts the case pretty simply (via Good Food Ireland) for using the occasion of St. Patrick's Day to remind us to buy Irish food. After all, our food exports are worth 8 billion euro a year, it is the one part of the economy that is really thriving and if all of us throw a few more Irish food items into our trolley every week it makes a real difference.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/business/consumers-urged-to-buy-local-food-to-preserve-jobs-and-livelihoods-148203.html#ixzz1GfBDU82J

Inishfood - good food, enthusiasm and one hell of a celebration

What started off as online chat about a few food bloggers heading up to Harry's Restaurant in Inishowen has turned into a Glastonbury of food; a mash-up of partying, eating, food skills and hanging out in one of the most beautiful parts of the country.

What began as essentially a get-together of a few food enthusiasts grew force as twitter and facebook suggestions came in about what could be added on to a night of dining in Donegal. 'Inishfood' became reality - a two night event with additional dining experiences, venues, accomodation, and workshops with food producers - a mini food festival.

As enthusiastic foodies, bloggers, and those in search of a bit of craic put plans into action, it grew even more legs. Information about the event began to feature in mainstream media. At this stage it seems half the country who are in anyway interested in food, write about food, produce food or in fact, eat it, are all heading up to Donegal this weekend. All credit to Donal Doherty from Harry's Restaurant in Inishowen, and food bloggers Caroline Hennessey from http://www.bibliocook.com/ and Kristin from the http://dinnerdujour.org/ for putting it all together, it really is testament to what enthusiasm, passion for food and simple collaboration can achieve.

What's particularly lovely about it is that unlike most festivals of any kind, it is not run by an entertainment company or money-making enterprise but a group of like-minded people who wanted to do something positive and celebrate what's great about rural Ireland and local food at a lacklustre point of the year.

Here's a run down of the programme -

Friday, 11 March; get-together at Linsfort Castle B&B

Darren Bradley is making pizzas in his wood-fired pizza oven (check out the photo sequence of the oven being built on Darren’s blog) and Donal Doherty will be providing food as well.

Seaneen and Collin from L. Mulligan. Grocer will also be conducting a beer tasting.

Rambling House storytelling and music will then take place

Saturday, 12 March is a busy, hands-on day - the fee for this day is €40, which will cover lunch and the Taste of Inishowen dinner (drinks will be extra). Donal will be donating €10 from this fee to iCARE, the local autism charity; any extra donations would be welcome.

9.45 Coffee Angel and Bailie’s Hand Roasted Coffee will demonstrate how to correctly brew coffee at home. Feel free to bring something to share with coffee.

10.30 Intro and welcome by Donal Doherty of Harry’s Bar & Restaurant and Caroline Hennessy and Kristin Jensen from the IFBA

10.45 – 12.00 Masterclass with butchers Ed Hick, TJ Crowe and Jack McCarthy making fresh black pudding – bring an apron! (hands-on participants for this will be limited)

12 – 12.45 Imen McDonnell will be demonstrating modern farmhouse butter making

12.45 – 1.15 A light lunch

1.15 – 1.45 David Tiernan will talk about how he started making his amazing Glebe Brethan cheese and will provide samples

1.45 – 3.00 Ed Hick, TJ Crowe and JackMcCarthy will show us how to cure pork (the Quality Mark pork has been kindly sponsored by Bord Bia!). Participants for this will be limited to 16 and you’ll need to bring a 2 litre container with a lid that you won’t need to use for 5 weeks while your pork cures in it!

3.00 – 4.00 Inishfood think tank and chat – an informal discussion on what we can do for Irish food to promote it and send a common message.

4.00 – 4.45 A visit to Harry’s new walled garden project and a talk with GIY Ireland about The Pledge. Gareth Austin, BBC Radio Horticulturist, will also be on hand with practical DIY help as part of GIY Week

5.00 – 7.00 Break for everyone to freshen up for dinner

7.00 A Taste of Inishowen feast at Harry’s, all made from local produce

9:00 Raffle of hampers and gift bags full of amazing Irish food as well as other prizes, with 100% of the proceeds going to the Barnardos charity. In addition, Georgina Campbell has generously donated a copy of her book, Ireland for Food Lovers, for everyone in attendance at Inishfood!

On Sunday, 13 March; a coastal walk at Malin Head, a boat ride around the Garvan Isles and a fresh seafood lunch.
An alternative is Donal Doherty's 1-hour shore walk on Lough Swilly, weather permitting, to take in the beautiful countryside around Inishowen.

If you like the sound of the above events but can't participate, book the date into your diaries for next year (do you hear that Donal, Caroline, Kristin?) or an even better idea is to enter the Inishfood charity raffle to win a plethora of great food prizes

There is a selection of prizes specifically for the non-attendees who donate via THIS LINK on the Barnardos website (please note that you must donate via this link only for your donation to be counted towards the raffle). Tickets are €5 each.

This online option is for the people who can’t make it to the event itself and delivery is limited to residents of Ireland (including Northern Ireland). Closer to the event, we’ll announce the prizes that will be raffled off in the three raffles, but they’ll be chosen from the list below.

It's a great scheme as the donors get to put their produce out in front of some of Ireland’s top foodies and food bloggers, Barnardos will get a donation towards their valuable work and some very lucky people will go home with some amazing prizes.

If you’re a food producer, cookbook publisher, restaurant or café or other food business and would like to donate something to be included in the raffle at what’s been described by the Bridgestone Guides as ‘THE foodie event of the year’, then email the organisers at

irishfoodbloggers@gmail.com for more details. You can follow events on twitter at #inishfood and all I can say is... Inishfood folks - please make it an annual event! Below is a list of the wonderful raffle prizes -

Bailies Handroasted Coffee – award-winning coffee
Burren Smokehouse – Irish Smoked Organic Salmon
Café Novo at the Westbury Hotel, Dublin – voucher for dinner for 2, including a bottle of wine of your choice
Carluccio’s - a signed copy of one of Antonio Carluccio’s cookbooks and chocolate truffles
Chocolate Here - a few bars of Gillian’s artisan chocolate
Country Choice – Peter Ward is parting with a magnum of Chateau Fontarache from his personal stash as well as a bottle of their own extra virgin olive oil
Dungarvan Brewing Company – craft beer
Dunhill Castle Sparkling Spirit – hand-blended fusion of Irish spirit (13% vol) and unfermented apples
Eilis Boyle – an apron from her forthcoming home wear range
Georgina Campbell - copies of her book, Ireland for Food Lovers
Glebe Brethan – award-winning cheese and David Tiernan’s renowned raw milk
Glenilen Farm – 2 hampers of their products (and congrats to them on winning Best Food & Drink award at the Small Firms Association National Small Business Awards 2011!)
Goastbridge Premium Irish Trout – smoked trout
Greenside Up Veg – a garden consultation or voucher for a workshop
Headland New Media – a week’s stay in Breasty Bay Cottage, the last home in Ireland
Inchhouse Black Pudding - traditional black pudding
J&G Seafoods – £50 voucher
James Whelan Butchers – a copy of An Irish Butcher Shop cookbook by Pat Whelan and a voucher for their shop
Kevin and France McGuinness – a bottle of Moët champagne
L. Mulligan. Grocer. – a €50 voucher
La Cucina – a three-course dinner for two, including a bottle of wine
Le Presbytère – dinner and one night’s free stay for 2 people at their B&B in Languedoc
Lynda McFarland (Athlone Nutrition Clinic) – nutrition wall charts
Mitchell & Son Wine Merchants – a bottle of Green Spot whiskey, cited in “100 Whiskies to Try Before You Die” by Ian Buxton
Mourne Seafood Bar – voucher for their new cookery school due to open this summer
Nutritious Nibbles – gourmet gluten-free cookies
Patchwork Veg – herb boxes
Pure Sushi – a voucher for a sushi platter
Red Nose Wine – a magnum of Anges Domaine des Red Archange 2007, an Irish-owned, Irish-made organic wine in Provence
Slated Ireland – handcrafted slate tableware
Tastefully Yours – gourmet artisan chutneys, relishes and pickles
The Bombay Pantry - 2 vouchers
The Bridgestone Guides – copies of their 100 Best books and Pizza Defined
The Cloister Restaurant and the Queens Hotel- dinner for two plus a cocktail & canape reception and one night’s accommodation in the Queens Hotel in Ennis
The Garden Kitchen Rowallane - their last jar (!) of chutney and jars of marmalade as well as a place at their baking workshop on 9 April
The Green Apron Artisan Preserve Company – artisan preserves
The Little Coffee House – a free gig where they will attend a party/event of the winner’s choosing and serve their selection of teas, coffees and hot chocolates for up to 200 guests
The Tannery – copies of their cookbook
TJ Crowe – organic ham, organic rashers and free-range sausages
Uluru Bistro – copies of the Cook for Ulster Yes Chef cookbook
Viewmount House - a tasting dinner for 2 people plus 1 night’s B&B accommodation
Williams’ Honey – jars of their two-time World Honey Cup winning honey, produced in Cahir, Co. Tipperary