Menu: Cider tour weekend, Ballydehob Jazz, and delicious honey from native Irish black bees
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The Menu is meeting and hearing of more and more conventional farmers who are looking very seriously at moving into an alternative forms of agriculture, of mixing traditional farming practices from not too long ago, perhaps 50 or 60 years, when all farming was, in essence, ‘organic’, and wedding that to modern technology and innovation. Not only does this increasingly become an environmental imperative but it also makes economic sense as the cost of conventional inputs, especially chemical additions, continue to skyrocket.
Key to any truly sustainable change will be breaking our co-dependent relationship with the current model of industrial monoculture, so Diversify Diversification (April 22), an online webinar hosted by Sustainable Ireland Coop/Cultivate will examine in detail the topic of diversification in farming food and rural Ireland, looking on and off-farm diversification, and wider impacts on farm incomes, biodiversity, climate adaptation and mitigation and rural revitalisation.
- Registration essential: eventbrite.ie/e/diversify-diversification-whats-possible-in-rural-ireland-tickets-304771408487
Feeding Ourselves 2022 (April 23) goes one better with a live in-person WeCreate event at Cloughjordan Ecovillage, in County Tipperary, the return of the annual gathering for agro-ecological farmers and workers, community food and environmental advocates, and those interested in cooperatives, local resilience, fair food systems and rural regeneration. The Menu sincerely hopes some curious conventional farmers will join in as this event is always a tremendous melting pot of ideas and innovation, probably the most important ingredients for the future welfare and prosperity of the land and all who work on it.
- Feeding Ourselves 2022 (cultivate.ie) for details.
A Cider Tour Weekend (April 22/23) at Longueville House is a splendid combination of education, entertainment and epicurean excellence in lovely Longueville House, near Mallow, which includes a tour of the estate, orchards and gardens, followed by cider and apple brandy tastings, including two nights dinner and B&B.
Fresh from a few days in West Cork, including a most pleasurable sampling of the Ballydehob Trad festival, The Menu notes that next on the calendar for a little village that punches like a true heavyweight is the Ballydehob Jazz Festival 2022 (April 29 to May 2) with more than 30 free performances plus the now legendary Jazz Parade.
Of special interest to The Menu is the Jazz Food & Crafts Market selling food, original artwork and crafts, with the festival putting a call out (contact ballyjazzmarket@gmail.com) to all food producers wishing to set up stall for what promises to be a very wild and wonderful weekend.
Dining Week (April 19-28) is a nationwide promotion for new hospitality booking platform, Early Table, with up to 300 participating restaurants, with restaurants nationwide invited to sign up. Simply book in three easy steps and the only fee is a charity donation of €1 per person to secure your table, all donated to St. Vincent De Paul, to help those experiencing food poverty. Early diners will also receive a 25% discount on food.
Finally, congratulations to national food legend Frank Hederman, of Belvelly Smoke House, near Cobh, who has become the first Irish winner of the prestigious Walter Scheel Medal — an annual prize recognising outstanding contributions to European culinary culture, previous winners including Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger of Taittinger Champagne and Spanish Chef Ferran Adrià of El Bulli.
The Menu rarely uses the word, ‘artisan’, so greatly has it been traduced and devalued down through the years, but Hederman is an exceptionally gifted artisan, a sublime alchemist of smoke, which he uses to transform premium primary produce into some of the most truly exquisite fare to have ever graced The Menu’s table.
Ailbhe Gerrard’s Brookfield Farm, in County Tipperary, near Lough Derg, is a superb example of an inspirational and innovative commitment to working the land in a regenerative manner that returns value and meaning to the word ‘sustainable’, and The Menu finds a jar of her Brookfield Farm Honey makes for an especially fine expression of the essence of her overall work.
Raw and unprocessed and derived from native Irish black bees, especially suited to the ‘moist’ Irish climate, The Menu’s sampling revealed a gorgeous amber honey, toffee-ish caramel sweetness offset by faint notes of astringent clove and bright, light floral notes of blossom flowers.
A great believer that the concept of terroir covers all foodstuffs, not just wine, The Menu engineered a serendipitous pairing with one of his most favourite Irish cheeses, Cáis na Tíre sheep’s gouda-style cheese, also from County Tipperary and settled into a prolonged bout of feasting on same, sweet salty caramel cheese finding its epicurean soul mate in Ailbhe’s immaculate honey.
As with most premium Irish unblended ‘single origin’ honeys, this is a finite product, so consumers need to seek out and support beekeepers in their own locality. However, the Brookfield Farm Bee Supporter Hiveshare option does increase chances of accessing Ailbhe’s honey as well as offering an educational immersion in a vital part of the planetary ecosystem.
Rather than offering a share in the hive’s output, this option offers a ‘share’ in the beekeeping experience, which means, should the hive die or leave the hive, the customer doesn’t share the loss. It also includes a tasting set of six jars of raw honey, BF’s handmade beeswax candles and an invitation to their annual Honey Celebration Day on the farm, all in all, making for a very nice present for a special birthday or anniversary?