Articles

Autumn has come in so quickly this year, and this has brought us our first autumn calf this week, as well as our first season’s honey. In the orchard our apples will be collected very soon and be transformed into apple juice.
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Sister number one has caused unpardonable offence to sister number two by referring to her work chairing an arts organisation as a 'piddling little job'. This is a slight that will resurface over the years and none of its sting will lessen. The contemptuous dismissal of another's modus vivendi is an affront on so many levels; one’s years of toil, experience, reputation all erased in a few words. The pain will linger.
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The most abundant, widespread and versatile of Irish shellfish, the common or blue mussel (Mytilus edulis – or an diúilicín in Irish), is to be seen on virtually every rock, pier and rope in the sea around Ireland.
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Janet’s Country Fayre range of handmade chutneys, relishes and sauces was among the many impressive Co Wicklow speciality foods showcased at the Taste Council Summer School at The BrookLodge Hotel, Macreddin in August 2011.
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The Irish Heart Foundation is well known for the excellent recipes they have published in recent years, including numerous appealing booklets to coincide with their popular Happy Heart Eat Out weeks and a successful Happy Heart Cookbook. Now they’ve gone one better and come up with a lovely new book, I Love Good Food. Neven Maguire is unquestionably one of Ireland’s most gifted chefs and, on a daily basis, he creates restaurant meals that amaze and delight his customers...he has now published a lovely cookbook entitled Neven's Country Living Cookery Book.
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Household names including Darina Allen, Neven Maguire (MacNean House & Restaurant), Ross Lewis (Chapter One), Derry Clarke (l'Ecrivain) and Guillaume LeBrun (Restaurant Patrick Guilbaud) feature among the 180 or so member chefs of Euro-Toques Ireland. Yet it is their annual Young Chef competition that has done most to give the prestigious international chefs and cooks association a high profile in this country...
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Tucked away in Stepaside village, near Leopardstown race course, ‘The Box Tree by Eamonn O’Reilly’ is the latest venture by one of Ireland’s foremost chefs, whose city centre restaurants – the fine dining destination, One Pico, and its more casual sister, Bleu Café Bistro - have a well-earned reputation for consistently good, ingredients-led cooking.
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The fight to preserve the right to produce, sell and buy raw milk in Ireland is entering a critical phase. In response to a letter protesting the proposed ban from Georgina Campbell to the Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Mr Simon Coveney, TD, a reply was recently received from The Department, explaining the background from their viewpoint and stating that...
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Gardens are really beautiful at the moment and, as the days are getting noticeably shorter, this is the time to celebrate late summer with a tea party to remember. Pick a lazy sunny afternoon and invite family or special friends to enjoy a treat that they will remember with pleasure when the autumn starts to bite.
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Like many of us in Ireland today, Lucy Madden is asking, What Went Wrong? Some 20 years ago my daughter was the first generation of Trinity graduates who did not, as she said at the time, “get straight on the plane”. For the first time in decades young, educated Irish people had the possibility of making their lives on this island and many of them did...
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