A taste apart

A FEW weeks ago I ran a course here at Ballymaloe called ‘How to keep a few chickens in the garden’. It was totally over-subscribed - I was thrilled because keeping hens has been one of my great passions ever since I was a child.

I’ve also had a request for a course on bee-keeping, how to rear a few turkeys for Christmas, how to make butter and simple cheese, and how to grow vegetables. Suddenly, there seems to be a craving to learn forgotten skills, which is music to my ears.

This week, a book entitled Preserved, by Nick Sandler and Johnny Acton, with a foreword by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, arrived on my desk. It is perfect for those more and more disenchanted with the quality of mass-produced food and who crave slow foods, cooked or preserved in the time-honoured way.