Darina Allen: Time to feast as Hunger Gap ends

The Hungry Gap is almost over, that’s the name gardeners give to the three or four weeks between the end of the winter vegetables — roots, kale and leeks —and the beginning of the summer bounty when there is little or no fresh produce available in gardens and virtually no greens on supermarket shelves. People all over the country are discovering the seasonal treasures in their own parishes, local honey producers, farmhouse cheese makers, fish smokers, poultry and egg producers, charcuterie makers and artisans of all shapes and sizes.

We’re so fortunate to be in the midst of a 100-acre organic farm in East Cork with hens, pigs, cows, a micro diary which yields Jersey milk, homemade butter, buttermilk, yoghurt and thick rich cream everyday. There’s a Bread Shed in a converted mega trailer and a Fermentation Palace in another repurposed trailer, but best of all is an acre block of greenhouses (a relic of a horticultural enterprise which operated right into the 1970s) which we now use as a protected garden. Although it’s not heated, the crops mature two or three weeks earlier than outdoor vegetables and herbs.