Simple blackberry tart with fennel blossom
Before it’s too late for blackberries – and there are still lots out there – get out and grab as many as you can. Even if you only eat them there on the spot,...
Category: Grow
In the garden with the veggies, hens and turkeys
Damson, Stout and Vanilla Jam
I’m keeping an eagle eye on some trees at the moment. Hidden in the hedgerows of the fields that surround the cottage, there is a store of purplish-black gold for those who know where...
In Season: Homemade Elderflower Cordial
First published on Irish Country Living. At the cottage we are surrounded by elder. The ditches on three sides of our half acre plot are spotted at irregular intervals with the gnarled trees. Ignored for...
Read: Farming in the heart of Dublin in Irish Country Living + Clementine and Cinnamon Shortbread
The idea of farm to fork is all very well but, if you live in Dublin city or suburbs, it’s not so easy to see it in action. Unless you head to Dundrum, that...
Listen – Culture File: Alys Fowler’s Letters to a Beekeeper
To paraphrase the Lorax, Alys Fowler ‘speaks for the bees.’ She was at the Ballymaloe Litfest in May, talking about self-funding her latest book Letters to a Beekeeper through internet publisher Unbound. It’s a...
Thursday jamborees: Damson Amaretto Jam
This time two years ago, we had a four-week-old baby, an obstreperous two-and-a-half-year-old, a newly renovated – but not entirely finished – cottage and a six-month-old brewery. There was no time, no money, and precious little peace.
So I made jam.
Actually, to be entirely precise, after morning naps on Thursdays, I grabbed a box of jam jars, a pair of girls and drove over to my mother’s house for lunch. In contrast to the chaos at home, the table would be laid, kettle boiling, floor swept – and an extra pair of hands ready to dandle a baby.
Garden gluts: Sausagemeat, Courgette and Apple Plait
Every year we plant one – one – courgette plant. Every year we still manage to have a glut. I’ve been getting more strict with these summer squash, always trying to pick them when...
My homemade Crème de Cassis in The Irish Times and other blackcurrant ideas
It’s been a good year for blackcurrants. Normally I have to battle it out with the blackbirds to get a share for my kitchen but this year they have been able to gorge themselves...