Articles

When I heard of Honor Moore’s recent passing I was deeply saddened. Somehow one felt that this doyenne of Irish food writers would always be with us. I didn’t know Honor very well but remember her support, when I started the Ballymaloe Cookery School and her encyclopaedic knowledge of traditional Irish food.
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This month Darina gives (and gets) some unusual advice on effortless entertaining. I’ve just learned the secret of how to give a totally stress free dinner party! So here’s how it’s done. On a recent trip to San Francisco Mary Risley invited eleven mutual friends around in my honour. It was to be an early dinner.
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This month Darina gets stuck into one of her favourite topics - foraging. Wild and foraged foods are once again becoming part of chic restaurant menus as well as family meals. Beware; once you get on the foraging groove it becomes totally addictive. Every walk whether in the woods or the countryside turns into a foraging expedition and it’s free.
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This month Darina focuses on the shocking problem of obesity, its cost in human and financial terms - and gives her 10 Top Tips to avoid it.
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This month Darina focuses on the value of farm shops, for farmers - and their customers, especially children. Farm Shops, we need many more all around the country so farmers can sell and add value to their produce and local people can buy directly from the farm.
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Darina takes a break from her column this month, but Georgina Campbell has been browsing the 2013 Ballymaloe Cookery School Course Schedule... It may seem like no time at all to many of its longterm fans, but Ballymaloe Cookery School has been in business since 1983 - and, to celebrate the 30th anniversary this year, there are over 60 short courses on offer in addition to the renowned 12-week certificate course.
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Game is a treat at this time of year, but what do you do with it if you’re lucky enough to receive some as a gift? Together with expert George Gossip, who recently gave a game course at Ballymaloe Cookery School (Good Food Ireland Cookery School of the year 2012), Darina Allen has all the answers.
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This month Darina focuses on the value of growing your own fresh food – and the huge impact that Michelle Obama’s vegetable garden at the White House has had in a country where the connection between eating habits health is a particularly challenging issue. Following Barack Obama’s re-election, this small but mighty force for good is now set to continue for another four years.
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This month Darina focuses on authenticity and labelling – this was one of the main themes at the recent TASTE Council Annual Summer School at BrookLodge Hotel, Co Wicklow, where she chaired one of the main sessions.
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The artisan milk and handmade butter movement is really gathering momentum, it is still minute but boy is it causing a stir. Single estate milk is a new growth area in Irish food. Many top restaurants are now featuring handmade butter proudly on their tables and at last a growing number of dairy farmers are putting milk back into glass bottles and selling organic non-homogenised milk and butter. I sense the same passion as in the artisan brewing movement and as with the brewers there’s a generosity of spirit and room for many more.
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