Year: 2018
A journey, three turkeys, and what it means to make food.
It’s been a journey. But for our trouble, we have three plump bronze Turkeys weighing around 20lbs each. We had our butcher in Boyle clean and prepare them. He’s deft, careful and skilled. And he gives the kids lollipops. Two are gifts for good friends. People who will come and tend a pulled lamb or […]
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Autumn lamb, beginnings and endings and the cyclical poetry of farming
That moment when the end of things and the beginning of things melts and merges into each other. That’s Autumn. The bushes once bending under the weight of raspberries and rain are now bare. The last of the potatoes lifted. Cooked. Mashed. Served with glistening dark mutton stews. The blackberries are long gone. The sloes […]
Read MoreThe Sparrowhawk
I live in a land of thrushes, and of sparrowhawks. In summer she waits. The female hawk. Perched on the thick overarching hedgerows that border the back roads in summer. The hedges are thronged with thrushes and blackbirds. Safe, hidden in amongst the thorn trees. Bread and butter for sparrowhawks is she can but flush […]
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How to make delicious Irish Buttermilk Brown Soda bread. Thrifty, healthy and sweet.
Today I’m posting the recipe for Buttermilk Brown Soda Bread. With treacle, honey and oats. About as traditionally Irish a thing as you can eat. Simple, healthy, brimful of wholemeal, and delicious. Easy to make. Great to make with kids. Who will devour your wholemeal loaf and ask for more. Best eaten warm from the […]
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Machismo, electric fences, and managing randy rams.
It’s 7 in the morning. The kids open the bedroom door. “There’s a powercut”. It’s still semi dark. But the sun has risen behind the thick grey clouds. Storm Ali, the first of the season has made landfall. We are in the North Roscommon. I propel myself out the door. Quickly. The electric fences are […]
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Free Food from Sligo Global Kitchen and Hawthorn Hill Farm
Sligo Global kitchen is a group of refugees, some in Direct Provision, who cook food, and share it with whoever turns up at their Global Feasts. You can’t cook in Direct Provision. You can’t work. Or study. So. What do you do? You open a Global kitchen that serves food for free to 300 people […]
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Why we graze our sheep and goats on wildflower meadow. (It’s sustainable. They taste great.)
This is a post about flavour. Deep, complex, flavourful lamb and goat. It’s also about wildflowers. Diversity. Sustainable farming. Pine martens. And grazing. But it’s fundamentally about flavour. Which is what grazing boils down to. We believe how we farm gives our lamb, goat and hogget a taste of place. A unique taste that’s a […]
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Adaptability, Cold Antler Farm and Farmer Jenna
Cold Antler Farm is a six acre farm in the USA run by Jenna Woginrich. Graphic designer, blogger, writer, farmer, fiddler, hunter, falconer and soap maker. Hit her up for soap, logos, graphic design work, pork shares, sheep, soap, or lessons in fiddling and falconry. Today’s post is about farming, adaptability, and Cold Antler Farm. […]
Read MoreShearing 2018
The shearers came. Late in the evening. A day before we had agreed. A quick scrambled call gave us an hour to be ready. It’s that way with any harvest on the farm. Work is done when the weather and the workers are there. Schedules are a kind of moveable feast. We gathered metal hurdles […]
Read MoreAt sea on dry land and the sound of ships in the stormy night…
I woke to the sound of the sea. The sound of creaking timbers. The sound is of sea on sand. I live 50 miles from the coast. There was a storm the night before last. The sound was the sound of the forest. In high wind the trees creak and groan. The wind on the […]
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