Articles

Lucy Madden considers the question of Manners - and, warning that The Gathering’s returning diaspora may cast a more critical eye on us than we might like, hopes that we can remain a mannerly country. During a visit to Berlin at the end of last year my son visited the prison, now open to the public that the Stasi, the secret police, had used to incarcerate their victims.
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Ronan Byrne - AKA The Friendly Farmer - is a familiar figure at Galway and Moycullen farmers’ markets, where he sells the free range meat and - especially - poultry - produced on the 35 acre farm outside Athenry in East Galway where he grew up, and which once belonged to his grandparents.
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Craft beer is one of the biggest recent success stories of Irish food and drink. This month, in the first of a series which will show how to get the best from some specific food and wine pairings, our expert columnist and food blogger Kristin Jensen gives her top tips for beer and food matching in general.
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Has January come around faster than usual? Although I am not complaining as my Seville orange marmalade is bubbling on the stove, the house is filled with its wonderful perfume, a wonderful contrast to the spicy smells of December’s kitchen.
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Rachel Gaffney, the famous foodie who’s flying the flag for Ireland in Texas, sees parallels between Dublin and Dallas in the rebirth of the city she now calls home.
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With the 2013 growing season nearly upon us, I’m intrigued by the idea that 2012’s GIYing is still paying dividends. It’s a good time of the year therefore for a bit of stock-take. I use various locations to ‘store’ vegetables – our kitchen doubles up as a larder at this time of the year (you can barely get in to the kitchen - there are veggies hanging out of every available space!); then there’s the garage where I keep vegetables in sacks, boxes and the freezer.
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We are nearly back to normality after the Christmas break at Castlefarm. In preparation for our spring herd of 70 cows to calve down, we have disinfected calf sheds and re-installed calving cameras in the calving boxes. From the end of January the monitor in our bedroom will allow us to check on expectant mothers through the night without leaving the warmth of our house.
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Even though we have been living full time out here for four or five years and spending a lot of time here before that, this turned out to be the first time we have spent Christmas out here, not just that but we persuaded the full family, daughters, sons in and out of law and the totally precious grandsons to come here for the holiday also.
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This month’s books have both been written in celebration of great Irish institutions. Firstly, Michelle Horgan’s Recipes From The English Market is another handsome food book from a division of Cork University Press. While in the North-West, and in celebration of tens years at the popular Lyons Café in Sligo Town, talented chef-proprietor Gary Stafford has published the book that his customers of this charming café have been asking for - Lyons Café, The Recipes
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The lemon (Citrus × limon) is a small evergreen tree native to Asia - although now widely grown in other areas including Europe and America - and its cheery yellow fruit is one of the most versatile ingredients in the kitchen. Lemons can also be grown here with care, in pots as they not reliably hardy. Anyone who has ever tasted fresh lemons will want to do so again...
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