Articles

Lucy Madden reflects on the life enhancing power of festivals – even when it rains. “We’re not coming to stay” said the woman at the front door. “But the parrot is.” So began the 2011 Flat Lake Arts and Literary Festival here in Co. Monaghan. What is it that makes festivals, events that expose one over a number of days to the vagaries of the weather, a monotonous diet and the stern gaze of Security, so utterly compelling?
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Did a lot of transplanting this weekend, which is always a fun activity for a GIYer. There’s nothing like the satisfaction of planting seedlings – bare beds transformed in an instant with neat rows of little plants. There are always a few days of fretting after transplanting however – will cold nights set the plants back? Will slugs or rabbits try and munch on them?
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In June Jenny Young is seeing the fruits of her labours in the Castlefarm garden – but still has to keep predators at bay. I spent a lot of May planting, maintaining and protecting the garden and many of our vegetables are coming into in season this month, making it a perfect time for visitors to Castlefarm shop to come and enjoy them fresh from the garden.
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Of all our Irish fruit the gooseberry has the earliest natural season and is ideally suited to our climate - yet it seems to be inexplicably underused. Admittedly the bushes tend to be thorny and the most commonly grown green varieties need a lot of sweetening to make them palatable, but it’s a very versatile fruit and this harbinger of summer is delicious in many traditional puddings, cold sweets and preserves...
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Young Kilkenny chef Edward Hayden is a busy man: not only does he have a regular cookery slot on TV3’s popular Ireland AM programme and a column in the Sunday World, but the day job finds him teaching in the Cookery School at Dunbrody House in Co Wexford – and he also gives classes at Waterford Institute of Technology.
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There is nowhere like Ashford Castle - and, thanks to an exceptionally talented and dedicated team headed up by Executive Head Chef, Stefan Matz, in the kitchen and Maître d’ Robert Bowe front of house, the dining experience matches up to the magnificent backdrop.
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As Lucy Madden mentions in this month’s Insider View, the magnificent Great Western Greenway in Co Mayo opened in 2010. The longest off-road walking and cycling trail in Ireland, it meanders 17.5km along the line of the famous Newport/Mulranny Railway, which closed in 1937...
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While April was a busy month planting, watering and calving, May is also a busy month for us at our organic farm. Our allotment holders are enjoying their first salad crops. In the Castlefarm garden our first polytunnel crops are starting to bear fruit - soon we will be enjoying our own cucumber and courgettes.
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Ireland’s future is unquestionably in food production. At long last we are recognising the fact that Ireland is in an enviable position in terms of natural resources – we are an island nation on the edge of Europe with 400 million affluent consumers on our doorstep. We’ve got acres of fertile soil, plenty of water, a long growing season, a thriving artisan and specialist food production industry, plus a green clean image.
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Imported asparagus may be available all year round but there is nothing to beat the treat of having locally grown asparagus in its short spring season, which traditionally begins on 23rd April and ends on Midsummer Day. This feathery-foliaged herbaceous perennial grows to about 1 metre/3ft tall and takes several years to develop enough of the precious stems to allow harvesting; stems are picked when young and tender...
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