The blustery wind has blown the hawthorn blossom off prematurely and the roadsides are strewn with forlorn flowers and sycamore leaves. But the countryside looks untouched; it’s green and lush, it’s bright and beautiful. I wear my sunglasses on top of my head or put them in my pocket so I can admire her in full blown, vibrant summery technicolour.
A quick aside; whilst I’m not usually one for blowing my own trumpet or indulging in praise I feel it important to tell you about our win for Best Cafe in Ulster at the recent Irish Restaurant Awards. This award reflects the hard work and dedication of our incredble staff and it is for them. Secondly I am on the TV chatting with the wonderful Suzie Lee about blackberries, see here.
The strawberries have arrived, the polytunnel is full of salad leaves and the soft herbs are complimenting every meal. And yet each week we buy at least two bunches of bananas, packed into the lunch bags of the little ones daily for school. We’ve oranges too, lemons, chocolate, tinned tomatoes and fish, dried pulses, tofu and various other things in the larder or the fridge. I consider the food miles, the ethics, the seasons. I try to minimise the ultra processed items (regretting the fact that cereal is on the shelves), I make sure as much as possible is organic. But then I start to get myself in a muddle.
I shout all the time about the importance of seasonal food, I’ve been talking about it for so long now I see it losing its meaning; along with those overused phrases that once held such weight, now promoted proudly on signage or menus at chain shops and eateries. Artisan, Organic, Heritage, handmade and the slightly comedic hand roasted or hand cooked (ouch!) can all be eyebrow raising terms when faced with the actual product. Larger food companies (even some smaller food businesses) are savvy and opportunistic, latching onto a popular term alongwith clever branding to help boost their own sales to the detriment of smaller independants; as seen by the disastrous and misleading use of sourdough or the comparison in price in these, frankly, uncomparable products.
Our collective problem is that we trust them, or worse, that we don’t care.
Seasonal food is immensely important to me, by this I mean eating as locally as possible but this doesn’t have to apply to everything. You can see from my list that I can’t grab a banana at the farm shop or pick lemons in the local orchards. We’ve no cacao trees, no access to tomato gluts year-round, very little pulses and no one growing soy beans to make tofu. I do my best to balance it out. I grow some of my own things, I only buy Irish dairy, eggs from our own chickens, vegetables from our local growers or the greengrocer; buying veg appropriate for the time of year as much as possible. I try and get the produce we can’t grow here from smaller, independant companies with traceability and strong humanitarian and environmental ethics. I apply this to other things too; coffee, clothing, toiletries…where does it end?
I actually believe that our bodies are clever enough, if we listen to them, to help dictate what we eat and more than often this actually reflects the seasons availability. Think of craving a bowl of nourishing soup or stew on a cold day or after an illness, or a salad with juicy freshness at the height of summer. But then I wonder about global seasonality, we can get anything we want no matter the time of year, perhaps this helps support an economy of farmers elsewhere? Though similtaneously I feel dubious that it’ll be to the benefit of the farmer when I hear on the news this morning about children as young as five picking jasmine through the night for the massive multinational cosmetic companies for pence. Oh what a muddled mess.
Years ago, just like many people, I was fairly ignorant to the workings of the cynical food system (and indeed capitalism as a whole). Thankfully I was brought up with homecooked meals, veg from the garden, sacks of spuds from the local farmer and quality food which gave me an appreciation and respect for real food. I have memories of mum smelling and carefully choosing the tomatoes in the grocers, baking bread, which she still does and her delight at the first strawberries; sprinkling them in sugar and serving with masses of cold thick cream. My gleeful feelings and excitment of food rely on seasonal anticipation or the opportunity for creativity (the season of kale and turnip!) This is the most exciting time of year for food, everything I love to eat is ahead of us and most of it invloves very little cooking, allowing for more time outside. Whilst I grow my own I still get bogged down in the fact that some of the produce I grow is in the polytunnel so I’ve created an artificial environment for these things; therefore they aren’t exactly seasonal to me? Even more muddled.
And then there were Irish beans…
Maurice, our farmer friend from Tipperary sent me some beautiful Irish beans which he grew on his farm alongside grain. Beans are known to have the unique ability to fix nitrogen, taking it from the air and sending it to the roots where it is transformed into a nitrogen compound which in turn restores the soil with vital nutrients. Since grains are a huge part of my life I’ve been really excited to try their new friends in baking and cooking too. This could be the start of the Irish bean revolution! I milled some dried beans into flour and used them to make a gorgeous pastry which I made into some beautiful savoury tarts and I also cooked the beans and make a tasty summery stew. I’ll be trying out more recipes this week; one of our favourites were the bean flour onion bhajis in our milk bun baps with free range egg mayo. An exciting future for pulses!
I write all this for you this week to keep showing the beauty of our world, while I’m watching in utter devastated disbelief the horror we are seeing in Palestine.
I feel this middle so keenly. Thank you for writing about it without platitudes and with a lovely dash of authenticity. There are no easy answers and I’m so grateful to hear that muddling through with good intentions is often the best we can do. Viva the bean revolution 🤟🏼
Big Congratulations (though so belated) on your award! I’m so delighted to see you and your husband’s and your staff’s creative and hard work recognized 😊
And please keep sharing about eating local and seasonal food. Living in the Pacific Northwest USA in a farming community, I do my best too (local produce, flour from the next county, but buying Irish butter and cheese and canned (tinned) Italian tomatoes). Still, all we can do is keep trying!