The menu: Grow it yourself
and so it is with great pleasure that he heralds the recent official opening of GROW HQ, the GIY National Food Education Centre, to serve as an urban grow school, cookery school, cafe, farm-shop and food gardens.
What’s more, GIY aim to ensure this self-sustaining social enterprise, which has already generated 16 new jobs in Waterford, will attract 250,000 visitors and teach 17,000 people to grow and cook their own food, offering 15 different courses each month for both adults and children, covering growing, cooking, nutrition and sustainable living.
www.growhq.org
All part of the global Climathon movement, a 24-hour ‘hackathon’ (Oct 28) is designed to come up with practical solutions to make local food and agriculture sustainable and climate-smart, focusing in particular on the agri-food sector.
Organised by the Environmental Research Institute, UCC and Energy Cork, representatives from across the food sector (including farmers, hotels, shops and transport companies) will spend 24 uninterrupted hours brainstorming solutions to the challenges of climate change.
To register: www.climathon.climate-kic.org/Cork
The Menu never spurns any opportunity to return to the Burren no matter how grievous the Bould Neidín’s travel-inflicted troubles and the Burren Food Fayre at the Burren Winterage Weekend (Oct 27-30) is a most excellent reason to saddle up once more.
The festival celebrates the ancient tradition of ‘transhumance’, the annual migration of cattle to winter pastures that has, over thousands of years, had such profound effect on the Burren landscape.
Workshops and demos include the very splendid chef Enda McEvoy (Michelin-starred Loam), a home-smoker’s fish course from Birgitta Curtin (Burren Smokehouse) and Nature Connection, focusing on wild roots, nuts and berries, with the Burren Food Trail Café on hand to satisfy all rumbling tums.
What’s more, The Menu may well pop into Gregan’s Castle, for the current special Winterage rate, and the opportunity to sample chef David Hurley’s sensational seasonal game menu.
www.burren.ie / www.greganscastle.com
Diwali, the annual Indian festival of lights, holds a stature in India equivalent to Christmas and Cork Diwali 2016 (Oct 30), a fundraiser (for DAWG Cork Dog Action Welfare Group) at the ‘Barr’s Hurling & Football Club, in Togher, offers a cultural smorgasbord of Indian music and dance.
(Tickets: email diwalicork@gmail.com Annam Supper Club conduct their own Diwali celebrations with another popup (Oct 28).
Email annamkitchencork@gmail.com
A great man for fine Spanish wines, The Menu looks forward to: one of his favourite independent food stores, O’Driscoll’s, in Ballinlough, host a tasting (Oct 28) of Martin Codax www.jjodriscoll.ie while The Twelve host a Sunday Roast (Oct 23) washed down with Ribera del Duoro. www.thetwelvehotel.ie
Whenever The Menu happens upon a new Irish Farmhouse Cheese, he fancies himself akin to an astronomer identifying a new star although no stargazer will ever slice up any new celestial discovery and wash it down with fine white burgundy just as The Menu recently did with wonderful Ballinrostig Homestead Gouda.
When The Menu first tasted Stephen Bender’s gouda cheeses they were still a trifle callow, but sampling sessions since have shown very obvious and ongoing progress.
One of several cheeses Bender produces in East Cork, the plain gouda is creamy and sweet, with lingering toffee-ish caramel notes and The Menu is keenly anticipating Christmas when Bender will have his first batch of goudas ready.
www.ballinrostighomestead.com
