Slow and Easy Ireland

            I recently flew home to Schull, a small seaside town nestled in the far southwestern corner of County Cork in Southern Ireland. I had come to visit my parents who’ve owned a farm on a little patch of pristine coastline for thirty years. When I first visited Ireland as a young man, the Emerald Isles reputation for food left something to be desired, as it was not uncommon to actually hear your food being plopped into the deep fryer from the kitchen in the back of almost any restaurant. Aside from amazing hand made breads, dairy products, and the ubiquitous beer, it seemed like Irish cuisine had little to offer. But times have changed.

            My stepmother Ava has her own cook book in print called At Home in Ireland, and an intimate knowledge of the country side and its wonderful people, so she graciously carted me around to all of the local farmers markets and places of interest, where two experiences stand out as the highlight of my food adventure. The first was a Slow Food sponsored dinner spent at Good Things Café in the small town of Durus, owned by Chef Carmel Somers. Carmel who had worked with the legendary Jane Grigson, hosted a crab dressing demonstration taught by Nicola Nesbitt, an English transplant who sells her crabs at many of the local markets. Crab dressing is the art of deconstructing a cooked crab, mixing the various types of meat with lemon or mayonnaise, and then attractively putting it back together again. In attendance were some of Irelands top food artisan’s, Tom & Giana Ferguson of Gubbeen Cheese & Smokehouse, chef Steven Caviston of Caviston’s seafood restaurant in Dublin, food writers John and Sally McKenna, as well as several other notable scientists and restaurant owners. It was a lively evening full of impassioned conversation, laughter and great food. Afterwards, I joined Steven Cavistion and his lovely girlfriend at a local pub, and then we went to Gubbeen to visit with Tom and Giana’s son Fingal who runs the smokehouse.

            Fingal and Steven kept me entertained well into the morning with lively stories about their world of food and its cast of characters. All of which was capped off by a tour of the smokehouse at four in the morning, where handmade sausages, bacon, and cured pig of all sorts and kinds, hung in neat rows inside the coolers. Eager, but bleary eyed, I was also given a tour of the fully sustainable farm, where Giana’s “Cheesemakers Herd” (several breeds) of cows provides milk for the cheese, some of which is smoked, while the remainder is allowed to mature naturally.  Pigs are then fed the leftover whey, and the meat is cured with herbs grown organically by Fingal’s sister Clovisse, while another sister Rosie works along side her father Tom to keep the farm organized. Its tough work, done on freezing wind whipped mornings, amidst the wheezing and snarling of fat hogs, random encounters with wobbly double-breasted Cornish hens, and methane infused mist. But the Ferguson’s pull it off with surprising love and dedication towards nurturing the best from their land, while at the same time retaining its integrity.     

            My next encounter was at the world famous Ballymaloe School of Cookery just north of Cork city, which is run by another prominent family headed by Darina Allen, who is probably Ireland’s most famous food personality, with a slew of books and television shows to her credit. In conjunction with her daughter Rachel (a television personality in her own right), her son Rory, and her head chef (who is also named Rory) they run two of the most incredible sets of property I have seen in a long time. First there is the cooking school, which is an elaborate working farm with many acres of manicured gardens, green houses and assorted livestock, used to support a fully functional training facility. The school is equipped with four large teaching kitchens, accommodations for sizeable groups of students and visitors alike, as well as a restaurant. During my visit the student body of about eighty, seemed to be almost entirely comprised of young women, which made me smile, because I knew that had I been about twenty five years younger I would have enrolled on the spot. Then there is the beautiful Ballymaloe House, run by Rory Allen, that’s down the road from the school about a mile or so, and just as spectacular in its own right.

            In short, I returned from Ireland feeling not only well fed and refreshed, but proud to know that there are still many people left in the world that care about this planet and its resources in the same way that I like to think we do here in Sonoma County.