Apart from their obvious beauty, they have that wonderful quality of being both addictively bitter and refreshingly juicy at the same time.

Cabbage, the great unsung hero of Irish cooking, has a fresh new image with these recipes.

It might appear that cows milk cheeses pioneered the farmhouse cheese movement here in Ireland and that only recently there has been a huge emergence of amazing quality goats cheeses which are just as varied in their styles as their cow counterparts.

For our food special, our Currabinny duo, James Kavanagh and William Murray, dish up their top festive side plates.

We personally believe black pudding is a hugely versatile, tasty and unique Irish product which is so much more than just being an add-on in a full Irish breakfast.

The cold hard frost of these late November mornings do a wonderful thing to our winter root vegetables, especially the parsnip.

Kobbly, caked in dried earth, warted, whiskered and strange. The celeriac is at first sight, probably one of the ugliest vegetables there is, even amongst other less than beautiful winter roots like parsnip and swedes.

Carrots are useful. They go in stews, soups, casseroles, cakes and make a fine accompaniment to all kinds of meat and fish.

There is something irrepressibly cheerful about pumpkins. They come on the scene just when you need them and don’t linger on too much after. Their bright, orange glow warming up garden patches and grocery store isles on grey Autumn days.

Plums are a wonderful autumn fruit, useful for all sorts of recipes both sweet and savoury. In Ireland we are blessed with wonderfully sweet plums.

In Currabinny, there is a large house right at the cliff’s edge, overlooking the whole of Cork Harbour.

Beetroot, in our memories of childhood eating, seems to be exclusively of the pickled variety, in jars of deep pink liquid; staining hands, clothes and surfaces.

Corn isn’t something we eat a huge amount of although every so often, one does get a craving for the almost honey-like sweetness of the little yellow kernels.

Like most Irish kids of our generation, chillies, spicy food, heat were never really big aspects of our formative eating experiences.

If you happen to find yourself driving down around the hilly farmlands around Macroom in west Cork, you may come across a strange sight.

If we are honest, of all of the meals of the day, breakfast is the one most often skipped.

Of all of the holidays in the year, Easter seems to come and go without much fanfare.

Bitter is in our opinion the most exciting flavour profile in cooking right now.

IN March and April, the leeks which were planted in the hard cold winter soil are harvested.

IN the deep dark winters, sometimes the only thing that will do is a soothing, warming, creamy cauliflower cheese. It is this dish more than any other that has cemented cauliflowers’ place as a staple of winter eating.