At two recent events though I made my cole slaw and it was declared ‘the best ever’??????

So here goes I am sharing it.

Last night I had to make it to get some idea of proportion…. cos normally it is just whipped together!!! and it is all judged by ‘eye’.   This amount made enough for two of us.  I also suspect the reason for the ‘best ever’ tag is the fact that it was freshly made!

Ingredients:

• 1/4 head white cabbage (or any colour cabbage you like to eat raw)
• 1 medium carrot
• Lots of ground black pepper
• 2 – 3 dessert spoons of mayonnaise

Finely slice the cabbage.  I prefer to slice, but you could use a machine or a mandolin.  Peel and grate the carrot.  Add about 12 twists of black pepper (we like the peppery bit).  When you are ready to serve, mix in your mayonnaise.

Et viola!

It was such a timely post, as we have been having a bad time with crazy bureaucracy this past week.

So I thought I’d share our experience thus far.  It truly is a comedy of sorts!  I hope you have the patience to read all the way through…

Back in early 2010 Alfie started questioning why was there no ‘mark’ for free-range pork?  There is for chicken, but not for pork.  There are ‘marks’ for organic pork, but nothing for free-range.  We thought it would be a good accolade for Oldfarm Pork.

So the quest began.  He approached Bord Bia (The Irish Food Board).  They refused to talk to him as an individual farmer.  There had to be an ‘association’.    Hindsight is a wonderful thing, but perhaps we should have seen the flashing lights at this point!

Anyway, Alfie continued on.  He spoke to other free-range pig breeders and the Irish Free Range Association was formed – with about 20 people.  Alfie was nominated as the Chairperson.  And thus the long journey began, as Bord Bia would now talk to a free-range producer.

For 2 years every other month, Alfie travelled to Dublin to sit on the pig meat board. I might point out that the board is mainly made up of industry representatives who were not too keen on having the small producer represented.

Alfie’s hope had been that if they approved a ‘free-range’ label it would include ‘non gmo’ but there was absolutely NO WAY this was going to be allowed.  (Says a lot about our food??? board)

At the end of the 2 years, a framework was agreed as to what the definition of ‘free-range’ was.

Hallelujah I hear you cry!

BUT WAIT!!

As Alfie had worked so hard on this, we thought we ought to be among the first to go through the whole process.  And then the fun began!!!

In March we had a visit from the Bord Bia representative, a very nice man.  He had never ever seen pigs in the outdoors!  He told us we shouldn’t be allowing the hens to mix with the pigs????? Bird flu I think was the reason!  And the best bit…. we shouldn’t have the wild birds landing in the fields!  Righty oh, how am I to stop that???

He was rather shocked we didn’t have the vet’s number pasted on sheds everywhere… and was incredulous that we hadn’t had the vet in over 3 years!

When he left we were left with a list of procedures to put in place.

• A pig health plan
• A farm safety statement
• Water testing
• DNA testing
• Some signs to put up about the place

Nothing too onerous we thought.

We started with the water test.  Alfie called the Environment Section of the County Council to arrange test.  It cannot be done on line, you have to call in!  The cost is €40.  So we drove to Nenagh (a 50 mile round trip).  Thankfully, I stayed in the car!!!!  Alfie went into office….. you cannot pay for the water test with cash!  you cannot pay for water test with card!  you have to use cheque or postal order!!!  See why I was glad I stayed in the car????

So a fuming pig farmer returned to car, we had to drive to post office, queue there and pay €2.90 to get a €40 postal order.  Then drive back to County Council Office.

Test was carried out about 2 weeks later, and there were some minor impurities found in it, so it was suggested we re-test from a different tap.  Another €40.00.  The technician came back, did the second test and graciously accepted €40 CASH!!!

Water passed the test.

The next stage was the DNA test.  The DNA test is arranged via the IFA.  This time it was an expenditure of €80 in order to get the DNA tag and gun.  Alfie risked life and limb sticking this ear tag into Polonius Hogworth on 15th May and sent it away.  Up to this week we had not had a reply, so Alfie called them.

The sample has still not been examined!  Could we have a receipt at least to say we’ve sent you the DNA sample?  You should see what they sent us?  A blank sheet of paper – not headed paper – it could have come from anywhere!  I could have typed it up myself.

Oh, and by the way, they were shocked to hear we wanted a copy of the results of the DNA test!  They don’t usually issue that? WTF did we pay the €80 for?  I could have sent them a photo of Polonius to prove he is a pig… a big one, almost as big as a small horse, but he’s all pig.

Polonius Hogworth I

If you’ve read this far, I’m sure you’re thinking it can’t get any worse???  You’re wrong?

IT CAN.

Last week Alfie rang Bord Bia to get a list of ‘Quality Approved’ butchers and abattoirs.  Well boys and girls….. the only place we can send our pigs to is to one of the major processors!  The giants like Rossderra and Kepak.

There are no small artisan butchers or abattoirs approved.  I would suspect the annual fee of €2,200 would certainly play a part in this.

We are not willing to send our pigs to the big boys…. we may not get our own pig back.

So where do we go from here?

Alfie wants to continue to see a project he began over 2 years ago through to an end.

Personally, I would like to walk away. We have so far wasted so much time, effort and money on this.  Anyone else have any thoughts?

Portroe Dive Centre on a glorious sunny Saturday afternoon.

Pigs do get sunburnt.

Mind you, it has fascinated me that over the past few months ‘sunburnt pigs’ has been one of the major search engine terms used to land on my blog!  Not sure what country people were searching from, but it sure as anything wasn’t Ireland.

However, for those readers not living in Ireland, we’ve had Summer here!  Yes, sunshine for 10 whole days!  A record for sure!

We had bitterly cold winds all through May and then on 30th May the sun shone…. and did so up to yesterday.

The sunshine has meant that we’ve had to check on the pigs more often than usual to ensure that they have water to drink and water for a wallow (mud bath).

Clarence enjoying a bath and shower

You know the way people say pigs are dirty because they cover themselves in mud? The reason for the mud?  Pigs don’t have sweat glands so have no natural way of cooling down.  Rolling in the mud cools them down, and the mud caking on them draws out the heat.  So it acts as a sunscreen.

I have often considered getting some sort of a spray on sunscreen for them – especially  for the little ones, who aren’t as proficient at rolling in the mud. Sunburnt ears can be quite uncomfortable and I’m sure itchy!  However, when you read about all the nasty chemicals in sunscreens, maybe we should consider the mud option

Gosh, they were all in such bad temper yesterday – heat was getting to them for sure.  Temperatures soared to 27 deg. C on Saturday and Sunday here.

It was cold showers all round.

So if you do keep pigs, remember they need even more attention and more water in hot weather.  And if you don’t keep pigs, don’t ever think they are being ‘dirty’, they are just looking after themselves

We’ve gone to Bloom every year since it started, 7 years ago.  This year we were extremely grateful to recieve a gift of tickets to go on Friday.  We’ve found in past years Thursday or Friday were the best days to go…. as the further it goes into the weekend the bigger the crowds.

So early start and off we headed to Dublin.

Thursday had been a scorcher of a day, so we armed ourselves with sunscreen…. needn’t have bothered the sun never shone on Friday but it didn’t deter us.  In fact it probably made it more pleasant to wander about.

This was as close as we got to sun

I love the Victorian Walled Garden.  It is such a lovely area.  The affect the weather has had on the growing season was really evident in the Walled Garden – so little flowers compared to last year.  I always use the vegetables in the walled garden as a barometer for how my plants should be!  This year we are all at about the same stage….. the courgettes up there are probably just a little ahead of mine.

Next up it was a visit to the show gardens.  I have to say we were both rather disappointed with the show gardens this year.  Maybe it is a sign of the times?  There seemed to be less gardens.  Woodies had a good display of 3 or 4 suburban gardens.  And, yes, of course there were some lovely elements too.

Loved the use of old pallets…. and the perfume from all those herbs was amazing.

We loved the colour of this garden wall.  Should we paint our yard wall?  Or should we go with the lichen look?

Maybe I am becoming a more ‘experienced’ gardener, but one thing that struck me was that a lot of the gardens had plantings that were either out of season or would most definitely not grow outdoors in Ireland.  I know, I know it is all about concept…. but come on we need inspiration to be a little real and achievable.

Chillies & Kumquats

Kumquats and chillies growing outdoors in Ireland?????

I loved this water fountain…. but his nibs says you’d need some water pump to run it…. but I can dream can’t I?  I think it would be a lovely feature in the back yard

For us the postcard gardens were so much more interesting.  There were some lovely achievable ideas there.

A lovely photo of Dee and Sandra from the Community Garden Network.

The highlights of the day for us….. catching up with friends, lounging on the Elephant seats and chatting with Dee from Greensideup (who was there with the Community Garden Network… look at their yarn wrap garden), and John and Colette from As Seen by C.  Meeting the ‘real’ people behind some twitter names – Peter from Donegan Landscaping and David from Beyond the Wild Garden.

The lowlights…. everything seemed to be crammed in this year.  I don’t know was there more exhibitors or less space.  It was so difficult to find things.

And the PARKING!  We wanted to park in the ‘red’ carpark as research beforehand had indicated it was closest to Entrance 1.  So silly us followed the ‘red’ carparking signs, to only discover that all the carparking signs were red and we had parked in the ‘yellow’ carpark!!! (By the way, there was nothing to indicate that we parked in the ‘yellow’ carpark – it was just a sensible car attendant informed us as such).  We weren’t the only people to be fooled by this… we met others who couldn’t find their car after the event as they too thought they had parked in the ‘red’ carpark!  Dear organisers – it would be simple to use the colour coding on the signage too!

I cannot believe it is a month ago (28th April) that I attended the photography course given by Suzanna Crampton of Zwartbles fame.  It has taken me that long to sort through photographs and decide which ones to share with you.

Let me tell you I took 399 photographs on my camera – reached full capacity on the card.  AND I also took about 20 photos on the phone.  That is an awful lot of photographs in one day.

I think I had been one of the first to book the course when Dee from Greenside Up first posted about.  Dee had volunteered to assist Suzanna in the organisation of the course.  Then it turned out we were going to have a visitor that weekend, so I booked Daili in too.  The pair of us headed off on a bright Spring morning to Kilkenny and were the first to arrive.

We mucked in helping Suzanna lay out some of her own photographs to share with the group. Her photographs are amazing – there were some beautiful shots of animals and plants in Africa.  If you ever get a chance to see them, they really are beautiful.

The other 10 or 12 people arrived amid cups of tea and cake and biscuits.  Then it was time to get started.

Suzanna really made sense when talking about composition and the rule of thirds.  All of which I had heard before, but suddenly it was making complete sense.  I loved her explanation of why none of us like photographs of ourselves!  Because when we look in a mirror we obviously see a ‘mirror’ image of ourselves and photographs therefore are all wrong!!!!  Think about it.

Then it was off to the great outdoors to practice what we had learned with Suzanna talking to each of us on an individual basis and guiding and coaxing us through our shots.

Everything in the centre – wrong composition

Getting better – more balance

I love this one…. hope teacher does too

I liked this old table – just for the handles alone. Not sure if it is a good or bad photo?

Just as the rain started we dashed back indoors for a delicious lunch – completely forgot to take photographs of lunch! Whoops!

Then back outside where our teacher challenged us with a number of different tasks.  Keeping the subject out of the centre of the photo.  Action shots – of Pepper and the doves.

Pepper giving chase to his ball.

love the reflection in the window in this one

Finally we headed off to meet the wonderful sheep….. what posers some of them are…. they do love having their photographs taken.

All the sheep coming to see if we have any food…

Is this a poser? There is a certain aloofness in that look!

I particularly love this one! Why can’t pigs stand and pose like this?

When we’d exhausted all our cameras, it was back inside for more tea and cake, and once again, Suzanna took the time to go through each person’s photographs commenting, praising, encouraging and suggesting.  The lady has amazing patience!

Both Daili and I left Kilkenny that Sunday evening so fired up and completely abuzz about how much photography we were going to do.

I know I learned so much.  Now I have to get out there and practice.  And as Suzanna said with a digital camera keep taking photos.  I think, teacher, I may have been too good a pupil on the day with 399 photos!!!!

If you ever ever see that Suzanna is doing a course – don’t hesitate book yourself in immediately.  I know I want to do another.

The song, When the World was Yours and Mine, was created especially for the JMOB TV commercial in 2012. Following an overwhelming reaction to the song, (JMOB received calls, emails and youtube comments), they decided to use the song to try to raise some money for Temple Street Children’s Hospital.

The song is now available for download from iTunes.  Each time it is downloaded, at a cost of €1.29, a minimum of 80 cents will go directly to Temple Street (JMOB are making no profit from this song – the balance of the money is the necessary administration fees charged by iTunes).  So if you like the song…. go on download it and donate.

I remember picnics like that – where the bonnet of the car was used as the table!  And despite the fact that there was probably an easterly gale blowing you were told to ‘run about and you’ll get warm’.

When we went off on a family picnic the Primus stove was always brought along to make the tea!  My Mum used to send us kids into total strangers houses to ‘ask the nice lady for some water for the kettle’!  Can you imagine that happening today?

We hated doing it but there was no way you were going to say no to Mum!

And the seaside sandwiches….. who liked sand sandwiches???

Other memories this video evoked were of the old old ads!!!  Yes, I am old!!!! (well kind of!)  The radio was always on in our house and it is the radio ads I remember.

I can still sing along to Johnston, Mooney and O’Brien for your favourite family pan!  

Or the other one – again for a bakery – which I am sure Johnston, Mooney & O’Brien will forgive me for mentioning was the

K   for Kennedy’s

E  for Energy

N

N for Nice and Nourishing

E for Enjoyment

D for Delicious

Y

S means Your Satisfied

God, how sad is that? And then again it just shows how the power of advertising permeates into our brain!!!!!

When I was approached by Johnson Mooney & O’Brien to share a recipe, we chatted and I asked a few questions.  As regular readers will know I am wheat intolerant – but that doesn’t stop me from using wheat when cooking for others.  Unfortunately, JM&O’B don’t have a spelt range yet.  The other question I asked was with regard to their policy on gmo…. I am thrilled to tell you they use gmo-free grain in all their range.  Well done guys!

So as the video had brought back memories of my Mum and my Nana I thought it appropriate to share an really really old-style recipe that would have been a regular dessert in our house – Queen of Puddings.

Queen of Puddings was traditionally made with the breadcrumbs soaked in milk and eggs, and baked, topped with raspberry or strawberry jam and then a final topping of meringue.  You can use any bread from the Johnston, Mooney & O’Brien range – brown, white, sliced, buns – it doesn’t matter.

This is my version which involves two of our favourite ingredients rhubarb which we have a major crop of this year and ginger!

Ingredients:

•  4 oz/ 100 g rhubarb
• Sugar to taste

• 1/2 pt milk/ .284 litre
• 1 oz/25 g fresh root ginger, finely chopped
• 2 oz/ 50 g breadcrumbs
• 2 oz/ 50 g caster sugar
• 1 oz/ 25 g butter
• 2 egg yolks

• 2 egg whites
• 2 oz caster sugar + a tablespoon

Method:

There are basically three stages to this recipe.

Firstly stew your washed and chopped rhubarb with the sugar and a dash of water – this can be done the night before – do some extra and you can have stewed rhubarb and yoghurt for breakfast

The next day peel and chop your ginger. Put it and the milk in a clean saucepan, bring slowly to the boil, turn off the heat and leave to infuse for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile make your breadcrumbs.  You can take the easy option and just blitz a couple of slices of bread in the processor which I did, or if you have smallies in the house, this is a great way for them to help, breaking the bread slices down to crumbs

Grease your pie dish and have your breadcrumbs ready.  Strain the milk over the breadcrumbs and add the caster sugar and butter to the breadcrumbs.  Give it a stir to ensure that the butter melts and sugar dissolves.

Leave to stand for 30 minutes.

Heat your oven to 180 deg.  Bake your pie for 30 minutes – it should be just set.

Remove from oven and spread your stewed rhubarb over the top.

Whisk your egg whites and 2 oz of caster sugar until stiff.   Spread this over the rhubarb and sprinkle over the final tablespoon of caster sugar.

Return pie to the oven and bake for a further 10 – 15 minutes until the meringue is golden brown.

I know, I know it seems like a lot of work and an awful lot of sugar.  Honestly, though it isn’t a lot of work, it’s just a few different stages that can be done while your doing something else, and of course, it is totally worth it!

Enjoy

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