FOR YEARS the “inner hippy” in me has longed to go to a rock festival but I’ve always chickened out at the last minute for a variety of reasons — those huge crowds seemed scary and would I not look and feel completely ridiculous in the midst of all those be-bopping young people.

One of my favourite easy entertaining tricks is to serve a selection of Irish artisan charcuterie from inspired producers like Fingal Ferguson and Frank Krawczyk from Schull, west Cork and James McGeough from Oughterard, County Galway.

IT has all the ingredients to be one of the country’s tastiest festivals this year.

Fingal Gets Gold: Congratulations to Fingal Ferguson of Gubbeen Farmhouse Products Ltd. on winning a gold medal at the Great Taste Awards 2007 for his delicious chorizo sausage. www.gubbeen.co.

A gorgeous little salad which totally depends on good ingredients.

Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers new paperback series, the River Café Pocket books, cost around €13. They feature delicious recipes from London’s acclaimed River Café.

OTTO KUNZE and his wife Hilde run a restaurant with rooms in Dunworley, near Butlerstown in west Cork.

MIDLETON Farmers’ Market celebrated its fifth birthday at Whit weekend. Since it started, the growth of the Farmers’ Market Movement has been nothing short of phenomenal. There are now well over 100 markets in Ireland and others are opening at the rate of one a week.

SLOW FOOD West Cork and the Schull ICA recently teamed up to host an event where guild members and their friends and local farming families could meet the foodmakers who sell at the local farmers’ markets.

FOR the past few weeks, I’ve been taking regular phone calls from American food writers who are ‘filing copy’ for their St Patrick’s Day columns - from Nebraska to Chicago, New York to Ohio.

THIS week we feature two other Eurotoque award winners: West Cork Natural Cheese, and Frank Krawczyk of West Cork salamis.