Foraging for natural food

PICKING blackberries in the countryside was one of the great summer pleasures for generations of Irish children.

Now, the concept of foraging for a wide range of natural food has become a global experience.

That’s because wild foods are rich in vitamins, minerals and trace elements — all vital ingredients in healthy and wholesome produce.

Eleanor Leahy, proprietor of Nibbles Food Emporium in Millstreet, an award-winning artisan bakery, is passionate about combining foraged ingredients with home-grown produce.

She makes soups from nettles and chickweed, cordials and champagne from elderflower and elderberry, jams from rose petal and dandelion, sorbet from honeysuckle, syrup from rose-hip and much more beside.

Eleanor finds many of the ingredients growing in and around the 500-acre Millstreet Country Park where she runs the Nibbles in the Park cafe.

She also has a cafe in Millstreet Town and has a space at weekly Farmers’ Markets in Macroom (Tuesday), Ballincollig (Wednesday), Mallow (Friday), and Rathmore and Douglas (both on Saturday).

Now she is planning to develop online sales and is also focusing on more jams, pickles, and preserves.

Eleanor grows tomatoes, cucumbers, and beetroot in poly tunnels at the Country Park, while all her jams and preserves are home made.

The nettle soup she served at the Millstreet Country Park last year was hugely popular.

“There is nothing new in nettle soup. It has been around for centuries but it sold out that weekend,” she said.

That was yet another indication that people want to reconnect with their roots through good authentic food.

“Our philosophy is to produce real food as nature intended without any additives, preservatives or improvers, using the best quality and locally sourced ingredients,” she said.

Eleanor’s passion for food is matched with a desire to preserve the best of previous lifestyle traditions and the ‘waste not, want not’ philosophy of past generations. For instance, she buys green gingham from Tangney’s drapery shop in Millstreet for use as covers for her jam jars and to give that homemade touch.

She also put up notices last summer looking for jam jars which she washes and sterilises for reuse. The public reaction was positive.

Eleanor, who graduated as student of the year from CIT in 1999, represented Ireland in the European Silver Whisk competition in Brussels.

She specialised as a pastry chef before changing direction to start her own business in 2004.

A native of Renanirree in mid-Cork, she initially concentrated on the cafe, bakery and catering end of the business and developing a clientele for the gluten-free-dietary restriction sector.

As the downturn in the economy loomed, she embraced the farmers’ markets as an expansion of her customer base.

Awards soon followed for Nibbles, which now employs six people and has established itself as a brand name.

It won a Blas na hÉireann gold medal in 2009 for the best dessert (pear and almond tart).

The following year it took the top award in the All-Ireland Farmers’ Market competition and was runner up in 2011.

Last year, it won a Great Taste gold star for a gluten-free luxury fruit cake.

Eleanor is a firm believer in farmers’ markets, where her parents Christy and Kathleen Leahy, help her out.

She said these markets are still going strong, but the recession has brought about a change in buying habits.

The days when customers would buy certain produce to have at home “just in case” somebody called are gone,

“People are now just buying the basics. They know exactly what they want, and thankfully still supporting Nibbles,” said Eleanor.