Just been reading the always entertaining and
informative Red Nose Wine Blog and, in the context of his talking about local food, Red Nose mentioned Harry’s Restaurant in Donegal and Donal Doherty of Harry’s is quoted as saying it is their intention is to get all their food from “one small beautiful peninsula – Inishowen”.
informative Red Nose Wine Blog and, in the context of his talking about local food, Red Nose mentioned Harry’s Restaurant in Donegal and Donal Doherty of Harry’s is quoted as saying it is their intention is to get all their food from “one small beautiful peninsula – Inishowen”.
Perhaps the reasons are environmental, maybe “micro” patriotic. The intention has been on their site for quite a while and I hope it wasn't the spark that gave the Iranians the idea to ban state TV from teaching foreign recipes which you can read about here.
I’m all for buying local. When I think local I think Irish though obviously for things like lettuces well you wouldn't want to be going further than your local market.
But for the likes of cheese and preserves, I think it would be a pity to confine yourself too much. Not buy anything from Waterford or Tipp? A bit extreme. Not my style.
Just yesterday, this post appeared on the Facebook account of Beal Organic Cheese “We are bringing our Beal Cheddars to Nuremburg in Germany next week to see what they think (",).... The Organics market is booming over there at the moment so it should be good...”
In the last day or two I saw a Tweet from Tipp’s Cooleeney Cheese : “Just back from San Francisco Trade Fair where the interest in Irish Farmhouse cheese is better than ever”. Hardly local! If the US and Germany adopted Iran’s extreme view? Doesn’t bear thinking about.
Love thy neighbour, even non-Cork neighbours. I practise what I preach; on the very day that Cooleeney tweet appeared, I was enjoying, at mid-day, a chunk of gorgeously creamy Cooleeney Farmhouse Cheese along with a delicious Mango Relish produced by yet another Tipperary cheesemaker Bay Lough, both bought in On The Pig’s Back in the English Market.
By all means buy local, but let’s cross the county bounds from time to time. Otherwise, things could get dull around here!
Oh, by the way, Harry’s local is elastic. It is worth taking a look at their website. Starts off with the Inishowen declaration but at the end thanks its suppliers who include firms from Louth, Meath, Derry and Belfast. Now take a look at the menus – they are fantastic. It is a must visit and the scenery there is also fantastic.
There is a very serious side to all this of course. Read this eye-opening Monday tweet by IrishFoodies Irish Food Bloggers RT @guardianfood Video: salad slaves in Spain - who really provides our vegetables? gu.com/p/2md95/tw
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