A journey of senses with the new generation of Irish food
Ireland is not only a beer and stew destination when we talk about food, it becomes day by day more of a gourmet one. From the nutty flavoured organic wheat milled by James Kelly in Kildare and his brand Ballymore Organics, to the always surprising veggie box put together by Sean Hussey and his wife Jane, going to Karen from Nugents Fresh Produce that delivers tasty veggies and Irish dishes, to local supermarkets where you can find fresh goodies as Fresh&fruity in Lucan village, to Cashel Crozier cheese -one of its kind in Ireland. Add then the lovely Ballymakenny Pink fir potatoes and a drop of honey – from Olly’s Farm.
Honestly I would say it’s not only a matter of buying and just eating, but discovering, appreciating and enjoying the products with your family every evening. The new generation of Irish food that you can cook from scratch is a journey of senses for many of us. But what made this shift? Let’s find out together after speaking with some of these producers:
Veggies boxes delivered to your door
Lots of producers were selling directly to restaurants, but after Covid-19 hit there was no market for them, Sean Hussey of Hussey’s farm recalls. “It was a Saturday evening and we were talking: let’s try a vegetable box, you can’t stop the plants from growing, we need to do something”, he remembers, “let’s deliver for people cocooning”. One of the first producers added was Drummond house garlic, then 5-6 followed. And if after the first lockdown some of the clients returned to supermarket shopping, they still retained 80% of clients so there was for sure a market for local products out there. “Simply to put like this, my wife Jane does 200 to 300 boxes a week, not any more than that! She does the boxes, nobody can do this any better than her so we kept going. Jane knows what she wants on her plate when doing the meal planning for the boxes, from putting together a salad or cooking with carrots, parsnips, our veg box is different from the day before. We always try to put seasonal products which we can source from Ireland, then add if any other needed peppers, cucumbers, basically why go to the supermarket for them?” A fresh journey for the farmer coming from a family with tradition in growing and selling vegetables, to one that has become a successful one. We can now find not 5-6 producers on the website, but mveg&fruits boxes, Wildwood Vinegar, Achill Island fudge and sea salt or Corleggy Creeny Cheese and so many, many more.
“A veg box changes a lot of people’s habits, some people now eat less meat and have become more creative when cooking. Also, in summer we thought of adding some fruits and started delivering mixed boxes, we managed to do this as well. Then July and August were decisive for some growers. Because we saw that we still had our usual clients, we decided that we were going to continue and keep only some restaurants that fitted our profile”, Sean remembers.
Taste of Irish flour and sourdough recipes
“We are in world of commoditised, mass produced, for the most part unsustainably produced, globally traded and thus cheap wheat. I wanted to completely turn that around and to grow and mill flour in Ireland again, but with the focus on small scale, sustainable production, with true provenance and a flavour and story that evolves from year to year. Some wheats for example durum, cannot produce a viable yield here, or cannot grow here at all, and these are justifiably imported. However many others can, and these are being grown and milled by a small group of small craft millers that have established over the last few years. I call this rebirth of small artisan mills the New Wave of Irish Craft Millers. Its a diverse mix, with everyone doing something a bit different”, explained James Kelly from Ballymore Organics. And the challenge was to slowly change the habits of customers. “People were disconnected from food, its origins and its story, something that happened insidiously over time. However growing awareness of these issues and the understanding that food is fundamental, is driving change for the better”, he adds. Obviously lockdown taught many of us how to bake our own bread, prepare a sourdough starter and – most important – discover the local producers and restaurants that delivered directly to our homes. “Lockdown gave people a chance to reconnect with food; time which would have been spent commuting was spent in the kitchen, cooking wholesome meals that people just didn’t have time to prepare previously. It has also given us a new found appreciation for the experince of dining out, and we have some superb restaurants in this little country. Provenance and sustainablly produced ingredients from producers little and local have become essential to a new generation of chefs that have brought a new dynamism to the Irish food scene. Right now they’re fighting for their survival and they need the support of patrons now more than ever”, James adds.
Say cheese and smile 🙂
And what is more suitable on a fresh loaf made from Irish flour than a tasty blue cheese? Smile and cheese 🙂 The story of Cashel cheese starts in 1984 when the family started making the first Farmhouse produced Irish Blue Cheese – Cashel Blue that is made from cows milk – and in the 1990s they thought it would be interesting to make a sheep’s milk version. “Sheep’s milk blue cheese is very respected by gourmets for example Roquefort, so why not an Irish version, in 2015 and 2017 it won Super Gold in the French cheese competition le mondial du Froma”, adds Sarah Furno, co-owner of Cashel Farmhouse Cheesemakers.
The cheese market in Ireland has changed a lot in the last 40 years, both in terms of range of product and consumer profile. While Cheddar remains the mainstay of production there is approximately 15 tons of speciality cheese sold in Ireland from types of milk that didn’t exist in the 80’s we learn from Sarah. “Today the Irish consumer can and does enjoy sheeps milk, buffalo and goats milk cheese. The most popular styles of cheese after Cheddar today are Mozzarella and then goats cheese, obviously a lot of what is consumed is mass produced imported versions, the Irish Farmhouse versions are really respected by both the Irish consumer and International consumer for their taste quality”, she says.
What 2021 has on the plate for the local artisans?
“I will be expanding my production of flour and porridge oats, but I don’t want to lose the connection with the land, the crops and the mill, so it will be a measured expansion. There will be a few new products next year, and what feels like a natural and inevitable evolution into new enterprises, currently top secret, but keep an eye on Ballymore Organics in 2021”, James says. He mills stoneground plain, wholemeal flour and porridge oats single-varietal and have nutty flavour. The flour is unbleached and without additives, while the oats are not steam cooked during milling to preserve the full flavour and nutritional benefits of the oats we all eat during these cold mornings.
“We enjoy doing this, we have actually a better life balance as it is more enjoyable to deliver to households than to restaurants because you get to meet and speak to people. A lot of them would never buy some products they have in the box, they would never try this and now they either cook it, give it to a neighbour”, Sean says. A great sense of community, no?
“It is a difficult time. Specialty Cheese is very linked to the restaurant trade and chefs. Priority 1 will be to make sure our sheeps milk cheese gets back on both Irish and international menus. We are working in developing the European market with sales into specialty delicatessens predominantly. This is very important as the new taxes as a result of Brexit on our Blue cheeses will be very tough for us. We are also working of course on new products with seaweed and natural smoke”, reveals Sarah.
With so many, many good local products and Christmas approaching let’s buy local.
Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. The articles contains interviews with some of the local producers discovered and from where I’ve bought products.
