Christmas ideas – woodcraft & gifts
John has a lovely new range of hardwood chopping boards and natural edged woodturning available now.
A selection of his work is on display in Quay Arts Centre in Ballina and we also have a range here on display in our cabin. There is a variety of hardwood chopping boards from small cheese and baguette boards up to large cutting boards, all in elm, oak & beech. Woodturned pieces include lamps, bud vases, salt & pepper sets, candleholders and decorative bottlestoppers. Prices start from under 10 euro – all are unique gifts.
For special orders contact John on 087 2273299
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‘cheffactor.ie’ competition – votes needed!
A few things came together today which led me to enter a competition for a cookery course in Ballymaloe that I would dearly love to win… I have the ingredients – I would love to train to make the most of them…
SO – having entered a photo of me, Fionn and a dish I prepared, I now need as many people as possible to vote for me, by logging on to www.cheffactor.ie – and voting. If you notice that the photo is a little offside it’s because it was taken by Ryan (Fionn’s 4 year old twin brother)… we had to get a high angle and he was up for the challenge! I think he did a great job…
Everything in the photo was grown & homemade here – the bread, the ingredients for the tart (garlic, leek, spinach, eggs), the tomato chutney, the rocket, the vinegarette, the flowers – even the chopping board was made by John… So – please give your support and vote for Elaine’s leek, spinach and feta tart on www.cheffactor.ie.
I will make cake for you when I get trained up! THANK YOU!!!
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Ordering produce – note
We will not be open for orders for Friday 19th or 26th August.
Our produce is now available by preorder via email, text or phone, if possible by Thursday for orders to be collected on Friday. Please see the updated list of ‘this week’s produce’ for current produce available for order.
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Herbs, flowers and plants for your garden
We are sowing a large supply of salads, leaves, herbs and flowers at the moment.
The list of young transplants ready for your garden and plants that we will have ready in the next month is:
Pot herbs – 1l pot:
Coriander End April
Parsley
Dill
Basil End May
Chives
Clary sage
Bronze fennel
Thyme
Oregano
Sage
Veg plants:
Mixed garden pack:
Ready to plant out tailor made pack for garden –
Lettuce, leeks, scallions, cabbage, courette, pumpkin, broccoli, kale, beetroot, spinach Mid May
Courgette plants Mid May
Pumpkin plants Mid May
We are also making up a range of herb and flower window boxes and bowls – these can be made to order from early May.
Please contact Elaine for further info. – 087 6187908
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‘soup box’ winter offer for 10 euro
We are introducing a new veg box for winter produce, with the aim of keeping cost down, whilst still providing wholesome core winter veg to supply a family.
Contents:
Potatoes
Carrots
Onions
Parsnip
Leek
Celery or celeriac
This will be worth a total of 11.50 – costing 10.00 per box.
It is available for collection only every Friday 12 – 5pm
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Carrot, tomato & Orange soup
This soup was in this week’s Sunday Independent, under the title ‘Hello Sunshine’. I made it today – all in the house loved it. Definitely a sunny and warming comfort soup.
Ingredients:
40g butter
1 tbsp olive or sunflower oil
1 medium onion, chopped
500g carrots, peeled & chopped
200g potatoes, peeled & chopped
2 sticks of celery, finely chopped
salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp ground cumin
900ml chicken stock
400g chopped tomatoes (tinned are fine at this time of year)
Juice of 2 oranges (3 if you prefer)
3 tbsps chopped chives
200ml creme fraiche – or use cream to finish
1. Put butter & oil into a heavy pan. Add chopped onion and saute without browning. Add chopped carrots, potatoes and celery.
2. Season with salt & pepper. Add sugar and cook very gently with lid on to sweat the veg for about 5 mins. Stir occasionally.
3. Stir in the cumin, chicken stock and chopped tomatoes. Bring to the boil, lower heat and cover the pan with a lid.
Cook until the veg are tender, about 20-30 mins.
4. Blitz the soup in a blender and return to the pan.
5. Add the orange juice and reheat.
6. Taste and adjust seasoning as required. Stir in 2 tbsps of the chives and some of the creme fraiche.
7. To serve, sprinkle with a little chives and creme fraiche or cream.
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Sowing for Spring 2011
2011 growing season was officially launched today with our first bed of tunnel potatoes sown – first earlies, Orla. It’s always a great feeling to have the first potato bed in the ground. And so off we go again for the year…
Together with the autumn sown seed we now have a few crops underway – garlic, beetroot, onions and broad beans are also coming on well from October sowing. It’s a help to feel at least a part of our Spring work is underway.
Plenty still ahead of course… the first of the spring salads and spinach will be sown in the morning and put onto the heated cables to germinate for March planting.
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Parsnip & Pancetta Tagliatelle with Parmesan & Butter
Parsnip & Pancetta Tagliatelle with Parmesan & Butter
Thanks to Kathy for this recipe – it is a great combination of sweet parsnip with salty parmesan and bacon, and is a very child friendly supper.
12 slices of pancetta of dry cured streaky bacon (smoked optional)
1 handful fresh rosemary
4 good knobs of butter
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
2 parsnips, peeled, halved and finely sliced lengthways
450g/1lb dried tagliatelle
3 good handfuls of grated parmesan
Sea salt & grated pepper
In a large, non-stick frying pan fry the pancetta/bacon and herbs in half of
the butter for 2 minutes, then add the garlic and parsnips. Cook for a
further 3 minutes on medium heat, until pancetta is slightly golden and the
parsnips have softened nicely.
Cool pasta, drain, reserving a little of the cooking water. Mix the pasta
with the parsnips and pancetta and stir in the rest of your butter and the
Parmesan. Adding a little of the cooking water to loosen the mixture and
make it creamy and shiny Season to taste.
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Parsnip & Pancetta Tagliatelle with Parmesan & Butter
Parsnip & Pancetta Tagliatelle with Parmesan & Butter
12 slices of pancetta of dry cured streaky bacon (smoked optional)
1 handful fresh rosemary
4 good knobs of butter
2 cloves of garlic, finely sliced
2 parsnips, peeled, halved and finely sliced lengthways
450g/1lb dried tagliatelle
3 good handfuls of grated parmesan
Sea salt & grated pepper
In a large, non-stick frying pan fry the pancetta/bacon and herbs in half of
the butter for 2 minutes, then add the garlic and parsnips. Cook for a
further 3 minutes on medium heat, until pancetta is slightly golden and the
parsnips have softened nicely.
Cool pasta, drain, reserving a little of the cooking water. Mix the pasta
with the parsnips and pancetta and stir in the rest of your butter and the
Parmesan. Adding a little of the cooking water to loosen the mixture and
make it creamy and shiny Season to taste.
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Recipe index – season by season
At this time of year it can seem that the range of Irish produce is limited by comparison with the endless possibilities of mid summer, but there are loads of varied and really tasty recipes using winter produce. It just requires a bit of thought to break out the habits that we can fall into when we think of a particular ingredient and how it can be used.
With this in mind I am working on an index of recipes that I have come across in various books and from customers and friends that use ingredients in season in Ireland during that season. I will break it into each of the four seasons and hope to add to the index as I find new ideas over the year. You can see the index under it’s own heading on the website subject list.
Please send on any ideas that you would like included. Some of the recipes are already detailed on the website – if you see a recipe that you would like, but I haven’t yet added the detailed instructions please feel free to contact me – it will prompt me to type up the full recipe!
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