Barrows Bounty

Damson Dessert

2011-11-25T10:18:00.000-08:00

I was out collecting damson a few weeks ago and was wondering what I should do with them other than making the usual damson vodka to go with the sloe gin!

I cam across this recpie in a book I have called the Poachers Cookbook. Its an old desert called a cobbler. It was great but my God they are tart little fellas those damsons!

You will need:

750g Damsons

sugar to sweeten (plenty of this needed!)

Cobbler topping:

125g self raising

pinch salt

25g butter

45ml milk

First make the cobbler topping, sieve the flour salt and sugar into a bowl. Rub in the butter and mix in milk to make a soft dough. Roll out to 1cm thick and cut into 5cm rounds.

Cook the fruit with 1 tablespoon of water until the juice begins to run and the fruit is cooked. Spoon the fruit in a dish and cover with over lapping layers of the rounds of cobbler topping.

Bake in a pre heated oven at 220C for 20 minutes.

Dublin Bay Prawns

2011-09-05T08:00:00.000-07:00

I love these guys and when I can get my hands on them I do them this way with garlic.
All you need is :
Uncooked Dublin Bay Prawns
1 clove of garlic
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Chopped parsley

Start off by splitting them down the centre. Lay them out on a wire grill rack. Cut the garlic in half and rub the cut end along the flesh of the prawns. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Stick them under a very hot grill until cooked. Arrange in a big bowel and sprinkle with parsley to garnish.

We had it outside over looking the bay!

Picnic

2011-08-16T04:06:00.000-07:00

While we were away in Kerry we went and had a picnic one day with the gravlax featured in the last post as the star attraction. We went to Lough currane and I caught a few fish which was a bonus!

We ate the gravlax with a mustard dressing on crackers which was only beautiful. The trusty Kelly kettle had an outing as well to keep us supplied with tea!

Irish Gravlax

2011-08-10T05:29:00.000-07:00

Following on from the last post about catching a salmon here is my recipe for gravlax. We don't have a freezer down in Kerry so we needed some way to make the salmon keep as we couldn't eat it all fresh. It is quite easy to make, although not commonly seen in Ireland is very popular in Sweden.

Here are the ingredients:

2 fillets of salmon

100g coarse salt
75g sugar
some crushed pepper

a bunch of dill chopped ( I didn't have fresh dill so used 2 table spoons of dried dill and it made no difference)

Just mix the salt, sugar, dill and pepper together. You need some cling film too.

Lay out some cling film and then lay the salmon skin side down on it, cover it with the salty mixture. Make a sandwich with the salmon fillets with the flesh side facing each other and the skin side facing out.

Wrap up well in clingfilm and put in a container of some sort. Doesn't matter what kind as long as it is not metal. Stick a weight on top and it should take about 3 days. Turn it every day so the brine penetrates the whole lot. It should keep about a fortnight in the fridge

Salmon

2011-08-08T08:05:00.000-07:00

I was in Kerry for a few weeks holidays and on my first day caught my first and only salmon of the trip. I was surprised to catch him as there had been very little rain which is usually needed in order to catch them. The fish fought like a tiger and I ended up with the fish in the river ready to be netted and a drop of about 10 feet from where I was standing on the bank. Nothing for it except to jump into the water which was waist high. I wasnt wearing chest waders, instead my wellies so I got a good soaking. I finally netted the fish which made it all worthwhile and then turned around to climb out. Now while it was easy enough to get into the river it proved a different task to climb the bloody bank back out. I had my rod in one hand and a net with an angry salmon the other. After about ten minutes I was back on dry land. It was one instance when I was glad there was no video, I was quite an undignified picture crawling up the riverbank!

Anyway I got the fish home and decided to eat one half of it fresh and make gravlax with the other half. I will post on the gravlax next time. When I am lucky enough to catch a wild salmon I always do the same thing with it. That is poach it in the fish kettle with some veggies and wine. I then serve it with homemade mayonaise and a cucumber salad. Here are a few pics of dinner that first night with my wife Sandra tucking in!

Pigs go wild

2011-08-05T11:01:00.000-07:00

The pigs went outside today for the first time. I have to say I have done easier things in my time!! In the end we got them out and as you can see in the videos they are loving their new home.

New Arrivals

2011-07-19T04:51:00.000-07:00

Piggie course is full

2011-07-16T07:35:00.000-07:00

The course I was talking about in the last post is now full! Anyone else looking to do it drop me an email and I will let you know if we when we are running the next one. Speaking of pigs we are still waiting to get our new pigs which is cutting it fine for Christmas hams!! I reckon we should be ok as long as we get them in the next week or so. I will keep you posted.

I have been doing a nice bit of fishing recently including some night time seatrouting with Ben. Ben caught his first seatrout which he was most excited about. So excited that he shouted the place down. I was sure he had fallen in and that I would see him floating by any minute. I dont have any pictures of the seatrout but instead a nice brown trout I caught on the barrow.

Pigs are on their way

2011-07-05T05:16:00.000-07:00

This year's pigs will be arriving shortly and we have been busy preparing for them. As always they live in high style with our patented pallet house! Me and Graham spend the other morning building the house that will soon be the home to three piglets. I will be running courses this year on processing your pig. The idea of the course is to show people how to make their own, sausages, salami, parma ham, bacon etc. The course will be run over one day and is strictly on a first come first served basis. Booking being taken now!!!

Woodcock Salad

2011-04-14T14:29:00.000-07:00

I ment to post about this a few months ago when I made it but simply forgot. My pal Tom kindly donated a woodcock to the cause as I was looking for one to tie fishing flies. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth I made a salad up with it for a posh starter one evening.

The problem with woodcock is twofold. One, they are very hard to shoot (especially for me!!!) and two they are very small and as I cant hit them I therefore need to find ways of making them go a very long way.

Mine is bigger than yours!!!

2011-04-14T14:13:00.000-07:00

After coming close a few times I finally managed to catch myself a specimen bass!! I caught this beauty in kerry on razorfish under a bubble float the other week. I am heading down again tomorrow to try and catch her sister!

Homemade Chutney

2010-10-22T13:03:00.000-07:00

At this time every year I make up a big batch of chutney for the long winter ahead. I usually let the last few courgettes grow on into marrows for the purpose along with whatever green tomatoes that look like they wont ripen. It's always a bit different each year depending on what is available. It is safe to say though that marrows, green tomatoes, onions, cooking apples (courtesy of my mum's friend!), sugar, spices and my own cider vinegar( a batch of cider went tits up on me last year and the result was 5 gallons of cider vinegar)

You basically chop everything up and lash it into a big saucepan and cook it slowly for 2 or 3 hours making sure not to allow it to burn by stirring every so often. Pot it up then into sterilised jars and it will keep for months. It improves with keeping for a few weeks I reckon.

We eat it for lunch with cheese and all sorts of cold meats and pate/terrines.

Corrib Mayfly Trout

2010-10-12T03:53:00.001-07:00

This year as every other we head over to the Corrib to try for a few trout during the mayfly. I posted last year about the ins and outs of the fishing so this year I thought I would talk about the other important factor in a day's fishing on Corrib. The lunch! We Always lunch on one of the islands around 2 or 3 in the afternoon and the lunch always involves steak and mushrooms. A bottle of wine along with plenty of tea from the Kelly Kettle keep the troops watered and a few nice fillet steaks from the butcher in Oughterard finish the job.

I stuck a few pictures of the festivities below.

We also caught trout, this beauty went back but was estimated to be 12 or 13 pounds weight!

Redcurrant Jelly

2010-10-12T03:07:00.000-07:00

OK so the summer hols went on a little bit longer than expected! I have tons and tons of stuff to stick on here about the wedding, the stag, the honeymoon as well as the usual stuff at home.

Here is my recipe of the classic accompaniment to venison, terrine, pate and the like

It couldn't be easier to make. Just get equal quantities of both redcurrants and sugar. Boil up the fruit until it realises it's juice (about ten minutes) and then add in the sugar. Boil for eight minutes before straining through muslin and into sterilised jars. Simple as that!

Sorry!

2010-05-31T10:25:00.000-07:00

Guys so sorry for the lack of posts. The wedding thing is taking up all my time. I have loads of things to post about and hope to stick them up in the last few days.

Forcing the garden to produce

2010-04-30T00:40:00.002-07:00

I have been putting the garden under pressure the last month or so. It is always the leanest time in the garden with meagre pickings. One thing you can do to provide you with dessert is to force rhubarb!

I have a few rhubarb plants and force one of them by placing a big black bin over it. This means it grows like mad and gives you an dearly crop.

We usually either make a compote of the rhubarb and mix it muesli and natural yogurt for brekkie or make a pie or crumble.

The method is the same for both. Fire the chopped rhubarb into a saucepan with a little sugar and cook until it has softened. Simple as that

Tom Doorley digs the Bounty!

2010-04-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

Been meaning to put this up. I recieved this message from food writer Tom Doorley about barrowsbounty.com.
"Hiya Liam. This looks really good. Keep up the good work. You have inspired me to start blogging again".
I must be doing something right!!! Good man Tom!

Trout Cakes

2010-04-20T10:47:00.000-07:00

I was out recently fishing and caught the trout pictured below. Happy days says I, the perfect excuse to try out my new fish kettle!
We make fish cakes quite a bit and serve them with a salad and some sweet chili jam and they always go down well.

I cooked the trout in a bottle of white wine topped up with some water along with onions garlic and some herbs. The principal is the same no matter what fish you are cooking in a fish kettle. You bring it to the boil, then simmer for 5 minutes and take it off the heat and allow to cool by which time the fish is cooked to perfection!

Next take the meat off the fish making sure there are no bones and make up the cakes.

This is the recipe I follow:

450g cooked deboned fish
grated rind and juice of 1 lime

4 spring onions finely chopped

1 red chili deseeded and finely chopped

1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger

1 teaspoon crushed garlic

3 tablespoons coriander leaves

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

125g white breadcrumbs

salt and pepper

Mix the fish, lime rind and juice, spring onions, chili, ginger, garlic, chopped coriander, mayonnaise, and breadcrumbs until they make a smooth paste (make sure to mix really well). Season to taste.

Divide the mixture into 12 equal portions, make them into balls and then flatten the balls to make the cakes.

Heat the frying pan and add some oil. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes on each side until golden brown.

Job Done!

RIP Betty

2010-04-09T10:52:00.000-07:00

RIP Betty. The postman flattened poor Betty yesterday morning:(

Not easy being a hen in Bounty land

The Barrow's Bounty

2010-03-25T14:17:00.000-07:00

Our local river the Barrow threw up a nice bounty last week when the trout season opened.

I managed to get down to the river on Patrick's day to try my luck. It is always a bit hit and miss at this time of year as the trout recover from the rigours of spawning and the weather is a bit cold for loads of flies to be about. You may think that I am setting the scene for a fishless story but you would be mistaken! I managed to winkle out six trout in a couple of hours so I was thrilled.

Kentucky Fried Bunny

2010-03-18T06:48:00.000-07:00

We had a pal over the other night for tea and I decided to try Kentucky Fried Bunny on here. I was a bit dubious as she is not renowned as the most adventurous eater (Sorry Yvonne!!). She surprised me mind you and between us we polished off the bunny no problems.

The problem sometimes with rabbit is that it can be a bit tough so in order to combat that I cooked it in the oven at 180 C for about an hour with some onions, rosemary and covered with oil.

I then simply coated the pieces in flour and rolled them in egg before giving them a final coating of bread crumbs spiked with cayenne pepper, salt and pepper. Then deep fat fry them for 3 or 4 minutes until browned.

I served them up with a garlic mayo!

Parma sucess!........... at last!

2010-03-12T12:58:00.000-08:00

Those of you who have been following my blog for the last year will no doubt recall last year's parma disaster! (For those of you that haven't here it is http://barrowsbounty.blogspot.com/2009/06/my-first-disaster.html)

Enough to say it was not a roaring success. Thankfully this year things seem to be on the up. Our hams have been hanging in a stable since October and one was finally cut down from the rafters this week. Needless to say it didn't look pretty but was scrubbed down with vinegar to remove all unpleasantness and then ceremoniously cut up ready for eating.

We were a but sceptical about eating it after what happened last year and I cant say I am proud of what happened next but needs must. George our working cocker was hanging round like a bad smell once he got a whiff of the ham and at the same instant both Sandy and I looked at each other and it was decided. George would be our parma Guinea Pig! He seemed keen, if not a little suspicious as to why he was getting such a treat but didn't look the gift horse in the mouth! We monitored him closely over the next few hours and can report that there seemed to be no ill affects other than an almighty thirst.

That was enough convincing for me and after waiting for two years I got my first taste of my own air dried ham! What a revelation. It was super and is now being had with brekkie (with melon), lunch(on a sambo) and dinner (on a pizza). All the hard ache was worth while!

Winter Beach fishing

2010-03-08T09:10:00.000-08:00

Me and a few pals went to Kerry recently to try for a salmon and do some night beach fishing for the bass. We were lucky with the weather in so far as it wasn't raining( always a bonus in Kerry!) but Jesus it was cold!
We spent the days on the river bank chasing the salmon and then took to the beach after dinner each night. We did question our sanity a few times mind you as we pulled on our wet cold gear in the shed and wondered whether we would not have been better off settling down for the evening in one of the local pubs. Anyway we persisted and made our way down to the local strand armed with plenty of lugworm and razorfish for bait. We were staying with a pal of mine who organises fishing trips at his fishing lodge which he runs with his partner Lynn.
We set up the gear and cast out into the surf more in hope than expectation with it being so cold. All was quiet for about 20 minutes and then we heard a shout as Neil had hooked a bass. It wasn't a big fish, about 2 lbs but was very welcome all the same and was quickly released. We hoped that it might be a sign of things to come but unfortunately that was it, not another sausage was to be had. Things looked up though when our host produced the hot toddys to cheer up our flagging spirits!!! I will be back down over Easter and hope to have a bit more luck as the water temperature should have improved.

Me catching a salmon in Kerry

2010-03-01T08:07:00.000-08:00

Feeling Fruity!

2010-02-25T08:13:00.000-08:00

I have had fruity thoughts on my mind all week, finally I decided on raspberries and blackcurrants after much consideration. I planted both out this week in defiance of the weather and in the hope of a long hot summer! Agnes the hen was paying close attention as you can see.

I reckon they are probably the best of the soft fruits to have a go at as they are hardy and don't need as much sun as some other fruits. I stuck in three bushes of both and am hoping for the best. We had great success last year making ice cream and sorbet from ill gotten berries and hopefully we can repeat it again this year with our own 100% kosher ones!

Falconry

2010-02-22T04:43:00.000-08:00

I was lucky enough recently to be invited along by a neighbour to watch him hunt his falcons. We were hunting pheasant over his britany spaniel. We headed out to a place we knew held some pheasants and up went the gyr/peregrine falcon. The falcon climbed and climbed until it was only a dot in the sky and then hovered directly over us. The dog was doing his do looking for pheasants in the field below and then he set. There was a pheasant in front of us in the undergrowth! As the pheasant got up the falcon swooped, I couldnt believe the speed of the bird as it came out of the heavens. We were lucky enough to get another pheasant up before we called it a day and we saw the falcon swoop once more. Amazing!

This picture is of me with a Harris

Save our Bass!

2010-02-17T11:18:00.000-08:00

New Hope

2010-02-09T10:55:00.001-08:00

I cant beilieve it is nearly a year since I wrote my first ever post which was about how my seedling were getting on in the garden. Well it is the time of year to start thinking of what I shall be eating later on in the garden.
The first seeds to get started are the early peas and the broad beans. The broad beans are very important as they tend to be the first of this years main crops and I hope by getting an early start that they should be ready around late May.
They are as you see going great guns along with the peas in this little tray which is on the window in the kitchen. I find this the best way to give the seeds the best start at this early stage.

George out hunting

2010-02-07T13:15:00.000-08:00

Plans for the year

2010-02-01T10:01:00.000-08:00

Firstly sorry for the break in posting. I was in hibernation with Christmas and the snow!

I really just wanted to let you all know what the plans for the coming year are going to be.

I will be continuing to try and grow as much of our vegetables and fruit as possible. The pigs and laying hens will also feature along with trying to find as much wild food as possible.. A new departure will be chickens for the table. Me and a buddy of mine are going to raise some chickens for eating so I will keep you posted as to how we get on!

The big project for the year however is going to be our wedding which is happening in June. I think I may have bitten off more than I can chew here as I want to try and have all the food for the wedding either home grown produce or wild food! At 150 people it is by far the biggest challenge I have attempted in the garden and kitchen.

We are having a marquee and the idea is to have a relaxed homemade wedding with all our friends and family. The food (hopefully!!) will be some canapes of wild food followed by a whole spit roast pig with salads and vegetables from the garden and then some kind of seasonal dessert which will feature our eggs and fruit. God its a bit overwhelming when you actually write it all down!

I will post on here as to how I am getting on with the preperations, whether it be catching a wild salmon to growing the vegetables or trying to encourage the pig to grow so it is ready for June!!

The picture above is of me and George spending some man time on our local shoot which we have been doing quite a lot of while we have been away.

Winter Garden

2009-12-14T06:46:00.000-08:00

It is a quiet time in the garden at this time of year but that's not to say that it is not still producing veggies for us. I am not really in a position to offer growing tips about brassica such as brussel sprouts and purple sprouting broccoli because they as often fail on me as bloody grow.

We don't however starve during the winter and at the moment we have Swiss chard, brussel sprouts, purple sprouting broccoli, kale and spinach in the garden. We are lucky like that here in Ireland because the winter is not as harsh as in other countries. The Swiss chard even manages to keep a bit of colour in the garden at this time of year.

The chickens have stopped laying pretty much and between them we only get two or three eggs a week. Once the days start getting longer again that will all change. They still seem happy enough mind you.

Parma Update

2009-12-09T07:25:00.000-08:00

After last year's disaster with my homemade parma ham I thought I had better give proper attention to this year's one. Up until last week things had been going great. I lavished my ham with all the love a ham could ever want. He lived in the fridge for the first 30 days wrapped up in cling film while the cure worked it's way through the 8KGs of meat. It was then unwrapped and lovingly hung in the hot press for 3 days before being moved to what would have been it's final resting place in the spare room. It should have stayed there in the spare room for at least a month if not two before it would have been ready at a constant temperature of 15 degrees and 70% humidity. Alas this was not to be. After a couple of days a porky perfume started wafting from the spare room and although not unpleasant it certainly raised a few eyebrows from both my fiancee, Sandy and my gun dog, George. George was very enthusiastic about the origins of the new smell, Sandy less so. And so it was on day five that the parma ham had to find a new home.

After much thought it was decided that an unused stable would be the next best place for my prize ham. We built a vermin proof cage to stop any little beasts treating themselves to my prize ham before I get to sample it. It isn't the right temperature and it isn't the right humidity but I am hoping that the ham will be happy in it's new home and that in a few months I in turn will be happy with how my ham turned out.

Chanterelle Pizza

2009-11-18T09:37:00.000-08:00

I made this pizza in much the same as my nettle pizza. I fried the chanterelles with some of my homemade pancetta in a pan for a few minutes and then topped my base with some tomato sauce, mozzarella and the mushroom and bacon toppings. Pretty sexy even if I say so myself!!!

Mushroom Magic

2009-11-11T07:54:00.000-08:00

I went out for a shot the other day with a pal of mine and found some wild mushrooms. I saw them hidden in a hedgerow and was in there like a shot. I was pretty sure they were chanterelles straight away but my pal was a bit more cautious. There was a comment made that if I was seen running round the parish in the nip that night he would know that they were not the harmless chanterelles I thought them to be!!!

I got my mushroom identification book out and I was spot on!!! Just to be sure though I fried off only one and ate it myself. I told Sandy that if I went a bit mad that night to blame the mushrooms. I woke up the following morning thank God, so they definitely were Chanterelles!

Along with the Cep, chanterelles are the kings of the mushroom world and are seriously tasty. They grow under beech and oak and are easy enough to identify. They are orange and look kind of like a trumpet. They smell slightly of apricots too which can only be a good thing! Happily they fruit in the same spot year after year so I should be able to have a reliable supply from now on!!!

I will show you what I did with them in the next post.

200 Facebook Members

2009-11-03T02:29:00.000-08:00

To celebrate our facebook group getting 200 members, I am going to give away some of the bounty! This will include some our homemade chorizo, pancetta and bacon!To win the bounty simply finish this sentence and post it on facebook wall!
I deserve the Barrow's Bounty because...............................

Super Ted

2009-10-28T06:13:00.000-07:00

To give you all a break from the piggy posts I thought I would tell you about a pretty cool Swedish fella with a Cork accent. He too is a bit of a pig fancier and has brought the art of spit roasting them to a new level.

I met Ted last year at an event he was doing the food for. There were not enough people to justify doing a whole pig so Ted improvised and cooked full sirloins of beef. They were absolutely fantastic. He also cooked a paella of rabbit and had some fantastic salads. His cooking is a breath of fresh air as is his enthusiasm for local organic produce. Ted has strong ties with Ballymaloe and shares many of the same values in his cooking.

His company is called Wildside Catering and his website is well worth a look at http://www.wildsidecatering.ie/

Success

2009-10-25T03:38:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that I felt pretty smug this morning tucking into my bank holiday fry up. It consisted of eggs from the girls, a potato cake made with spuds from the garden and taking pride of place was out own dry cured bacon and our own sausages. Doesn't get much better than this. Makes all the hard work worthwhile!

Salami

2009-10-21T03:02:00.000-07:00

What a week! It all been very porky around the place since the pigs came home last Wednesday. Over the next few posts I will show you what we have done with all the pork and how we try and preserve it for use over the winter.

First off is salami, we made 17kg of Chorizo and 34kg of two French types of dried sausage. One is smoked and will be ready in about a month and the other will take 6 months to mature. Between the lot we should be OK for salami for the whole year.

The way we make them is basically the same no matter what the variety, the only difference being the spices we add and if they are smoked or not. Some also take longer to mature.

We start off with the meat (We get the butcher to mince it for us as there is some hardship in trying to mince over 50kg of meat with a hand mincer!). This is lean minced pork and the back fat from a pig which is mixed thoroughly by hand. We then add in 2% salt by weight to the mince and fat mixture. You then add in whatever spices you want (chorizo would have lots of garlic and paprika, the French saucisson would have less garlic but have quatre espiece as the dominant flavour).

We stuffed the mixture into beef middles (Beef Intestines) and tied each salami off with a piece of string. It is important that they are as tight as possible because the salami will reduce in size by 40% and beyond. I then hung the salami in the spare room for a few days at room temperature before the saucisson went into the smoker for 3 or 4 days. It then joined it's pal the chorizo hanging up outside in Graham's porch. The chorizo will be ready in a week or so and the first of the French stuff will be ready in a month.

Next post I will tackle the parma ham. God I hope it turns out better than last year's one!

Allotments.ie

2009-10-12T02:29:00.000-07:00

I have meant to put up a post about this site for a while. I found it a few months ago and have been dropping in to the site on a fairly regular basis since. It is run by a chap called James Kilkelly who is a trained gardener. Now I go by the seat of my pants in the garden more often than not but this guy really knows his stuff and on this site keeps the likes of me on the right road.
The site does a few different things very well. It is a blog in much the same way as this one, it has a very good vegtable growing guide, it has an informative forum and also a list of where you can get allotments right around Ireland. Well worth a look!

So Many Choices

2009-10-09T02:29:00.000-07:00

Ok, now that the pigs are gone my mind starts thinking about all the porky delights we will be enjoying for the best part of the next year. After much consideration here is what we are going to do with the meat.

2 yards of prime roasting loin of pork:

3 yards of dry cured back bacon ( some smoked, some green)

1 yard of dry cured bacon joints

3 back legs for a parma ham style cure

3 back legs for nearly too big Christmas hams

6 yards of pancetta

About 120lb of toulouse sausage

about 60lb of saucisson and chorizo

loads of ribs

12 trotters

Seems a lot of meat processing when you write it down like that. I think I need a drink!

From Pigs to Pork

2009-10-07T03:22:00.000-07:00

I am just back from bringing the pigs to the abattoir. We use a small local place which is only 10 mins away so there is little or no stress on the pigs. That to me is very important as the last thing I want is for the pigs to be stressed at the end after going to such effort trying to ensure they have lived happy, stress free lives up to that point.
I always feel bad about bringing the poor pigs to be killed. They don't have a clue and happily root around as we load them up. I suppose that's the whole point, that they are so unaware of what is about to happen and that they root around and do what comes naturally right up until the end. I don't take for granted my right to eat meat at all and I think I have an obligation to try and make sure if I do eat meat it comes from animals who have lived happy natural lives and that when the time does come they are killed in a quick, humane way which does not cause them any stress.
I will go back to collect the offal and carcasses this afternoon. I will drop the pigs over to the butcher and then make pate with the liver. I will also eat the kidneys as we try to have use everything except the oink with our own pigs. I think if you are going to kill an animal to eat the least you can do is treat the animal with respect and use every last bit of it.

A Barrow full of Marrows!

2009-10-02T04:02:00.000-07:00

Well not quite but not too far off. The picture is of some of the squashes we have in the garden. I think they look brilliant and they will store for a few months without too much trouble. There is loads of things you can do with them like make soup, risotto or do them in the oven with cream. You cut the top off one and scoop out the seeds and then fill the cavity with cream, cheese and a little nutmeg. Pop the lid back on and stick it into the oven for 20 minutes or so.

I am having my pig buddy Graham over this evening to have a serious chat about how much longer Sausage, Bacon and Salami are going to be living the good life!

Rabbit Pie

2009-09-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

Sorry about the delay in posting but it has been a mad few weeks. I went over to Spain for a friend's wedding and liked it so much I went and got engaged myself!
I promised last time to let you know what I did with the rabbit, well, I made a traditional rabbit pie. I unfortunately don't have any pictures because "someone" probably rightly decided that pictures of our engagement were more important than my rabbit pie! So here you have it without the pictures, but I can assure you that it looked and tasted delicious.
I prepared the rabbit (Which I will show you how to do in a later post) so that I was left with cubes of meat off the bone, which were very similar to chicken breast.
Here is the recipe:
1 rabbit,
150g button mushrooms, quartered
600ml mushroom soup,
50g chopped parsley,
1 pack of puff pastry,
1 beaten egg,

Mix the rabbit, mushrooms, soup and parsley together. Transfer to an oven dish. Roll out the pack of pastry and cover the oven dish with it. Lightly push down the edges with your fingertips. Trim off any excess pastry and glaze with the beaten egg.
Put the pie into an oven at 180 for 20 mins or until the top is golden brown.

Bunnies

2009-09-12T09:16:00.000-07:00

I went out this morning with a neighbour to try and bag a bunny. I have to admit I have not been having much luck in the last few days trying to get one. That was put right today and we got one in no time. My primary reason for needing a few rabbits is to give George a few retrieves on game before the pheasant season which starts on November 1st. Of course there is the added bonus that rabbit is delicious!

The idea with rabbit shooting is quite simple, you either shoot them with a small rifle from a good distance or you hunt them in cover with a spaniel. The ideal cover is gorse and that kind of thing. George hunts through the cover and when a rabbit bolts he sits, you shoot the rabbit with a shotgun and he retrieves the rabbit to you. It is vital that the dog sits as soon as he flushes the rabbit to allow you a safe shot. The last thing you need is your dog chasing the rabbit while you try and take the shot!

I am still undecided as to what to do in the kitchen with the rabbit this time, bunny burgers, rabbit kebabs or a terrine. I will post soon and show what I decided on.

Going out now out fly fishing for a few brown trout now as the weather is glorious followed by a few pints with Ross our local vet. Not a bad Saturday all in all.

"Sundried" Tomatoes

2009-09-10T00:50:00.000-07:00

This time of year is all about preserving the glut of produce for the dark winter ahead. We always try and preserve as many tomatoes as we can ( not that easy because it is hard not to eat the buggers straight off the plant). I grew only cherry tomatoes this year but grew a few different varieties. One that I missed out on though was the sungold which my pig buddy Graham grew. They are the sweetest, tastiest tomatoes I ever tasted and are definitely top of my list for next year.

Seeing as we don't get enough sun in Carlow to sun dry the tomatoes I need to cheat a little. Instead of doing as the Italians do and allowing them to dry under the sun I need a little help from the oven!

The method is very simple. Get a wire rack and put the oven on its lowest setting, around 50 or 60 degrees. Next cut your tomatoes in half and place on the wire rack with the cut side facing up. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle some sugar and salt over them. Into the oven they go for an hour before turning them over so that the cut part is on the wire rack. They need another 11 hours in the oven before they are done. They turn out "semi sundried" with this amount of time in the oven which is how I prefer them. To store them simply out them in a jar and top them up with olive oil and maybe some dried herbs such as oregano.

Venison Liver Pate

2009-09-05T06:51:00.000-07:00

OK so as promised here is my recipe for liver pate. It also works great for the pigs liver and I am pretty sure lamb would be good too.

You will need:

800g Liver

400g Minced pork belly ( ask your butcher to mince it for you.)

1 onion

3 cloves garlic

100g bread crumbs

a handful of sage chopped

a wine glass of port

pinch of nutmeg

salt and pepper

streaky rashers

Chop or mince the liver and onion. You want it good and fine so a food processor would do the job. Mix all the other ingredients in with it.

Line a bread tin with the rashers and fill with the mixture. Cover with greased foil and put in a bain marie. cook in the centre of an oven for 1 1/2 hours at 170 degrees. Allow to cool in the tin and then turn out when cold. It should last about a week in the fridge. It also freezes very well.

Deer Stalking

2009-09-03T02:07:00.000-07:00

I got out of bed at 4.30am on Tuesday morning.I heard a few grumbles from beside me about not making too much noise, not forgetting to lock the door on the way out and being mad! I got up none the less and got changed in the dark into the clothes I had laid out the previous night. I made some coffee, stuck it in the travel mug and I was away.

It was the first day of the deer stalking season and I was going out with some neighbours to try our luck. You have to be on the mountain ready and waiting before first light in order to find the deer before they go back into the woods for the day.

We put on all our camouflage gear and hit off up the mountain very quietly. The deer have a great sense of smell and super hearing so we have to make sure the wind is in our faces and that we tread as lightly as we can. My neighbour commented the other morning that we would have to float up the mountain instead of walking because the wind was so light and our footsteps would carry for a long way. All of you that know me know I am not the smallest chap so floating up mountains is not my strong point!

When we did get up there we saw plenty of deer and even managed to bag one. It was all over by 7.30 and I headed home for a traditional stalkers breakfast of mushroom and deer liver. I will post next time about what I did in the kitchen with the rest of the liver.

Piggie Update

2009-08-31T03:55:00.000-07:00

A few people have been asking me how the pigs are getting on. Well the answer is that they are getting on grand, getting good and fat! We have had a fairly incident free time with them so far apart from the breaking out phase they went through about a month ago. I am putting it down to adolescent testosterone (in the pigs, not me!) and not enough respect for the electric fence. Why they want to break out is beyond me as they have loads of room and greens in their own field. And to make matters worse when they do break out they don't do anything, just root around on the far side of the fence. It is porcine delinquency, nothing less.

Now is the time of year to figure out exactly what to do with the meat. I am thinking I will cure more of my meat this year than I did last year as I found it went further in the kitchen. Especially the chorizo and pancetta. I am less sure as to whether I should risk another whole leg on a parma ham after last year's disaster. We still have a while left before they go away so we have a while longer to consider the options

Garden Soup

2009-08-28T01:29:00.000-07:00

I just thought this recipe might be of interest to some of you. We like a roast chicken every now and again like everyone else. As of yet I have not gone down the road of rearing chickens for the table. This is partly due to just not having gotten round to it and partly because George sometimes retrieves the laying hens (Puts them off laying something terrible but otherwise doesn’t seem to trouble them too much). God knows what he would do to little chicks.
As we don’t rear our own we try to buy organic or at least free range birds. However as everyone knows they are bloody expensive full stop and especially so when compared with the 4.99 bird we see in the supermarkets. I refuse to buy this kind of meat so we find ways to make the organic bird go further. This is typically what we do. Roast chicken dinner is first on the list. I then strip the rest of the meat from the bird and we will have chicken pasta, risotto or chicken and broccoli bake. Finally I make a stock with the carcass and make this soup.
The stock is easy, just break up the carcass and add some carrots and onions along with some bay and any other herbs you have. Barely cover it with water and simmer for 2 or 3 hours. Top up the water if needed and that’s it.All you do then is strain the stock. I add whatever vegetables happen to be in season at the time. This can include spuds, carrots, peas, beans, kale, and anything else that takes your fancy. The only trick is to make sure to cut everything into pieces the same size. So if using peas for example, make sure that you chop the spuds and carrots into pea size chunks so everything cooks at the same time. The other thing to note is that I didn’t season with salt during the stock making process. It can easily turn out too salty, so you are much better off seasoning when the soup is ready

Beany Hummus

2009-08-20T02:02:00.000-07:00

When we got back from holiday the broad beans were nearly gone over the top. I made up this hummus to try and use them up and it was delicious.

I simply cooked the beans in salted boiling water and then added some mint, olive oil and lemon juice and fired them all into the blender. It turned out well which is more then I can say for my droopy sprouts!

I put off transplanting the Brussels sprouts until the peas and beans were cleared from the raised bed. As a result they were a bit too big to be moving. They all wilted and I am not sure if they are all going to make it! My pal Ross was particularly keen to make sure I included this bad news story on the blog to show that county live has its ups and downs too!!! If a few wilted sprouts is the worst of it I think I will manage just fine

Holidays

2009-07-31T07:26:00.001-07:00

Hi All. I am away on holidays for the next week and a half in Kerry and I dont have internet access so no posting for a while!

Nicoise Salad

2009-07-27T04:15:00.000-07:00

As promised last week here is one of our staples during the summer. I sometimes substitute the traditional tuna for some home smoked mackerel as in this case. Otherwise bar the olives pretty much everything else comes straight from the garden.

You can chop and change as you please with the quantities of the varies components depending on personnel taste. I don't tend to over load it with spuds for example.

Essentially you will need:

French beans,

Baby potatoes,

Tomatoes,

Eggs,

Lettuce,

Olives,

Tuna (or smoked mackerel in this case)

And for the dressing:

100ml olive oil,

100ml sunflower oil,

100ml wine or cider vinegar,

tea spoon of mustard,

clove of garlic,

teaspoon of honey,

To make the dressing fire it all into a blender and blitz for a few seconds!

Cook the potatoes, beans and hard boil the eggs. Cool them all under the cold tap.

Next dress the lettuce with the dressing. Place at the bottom of the bowl. The potatoes need to be dressed next before putting into the bowl. The tomatoes and french beans go on top. Sprinkle the rest of the dressing over the salad now before adding some olives, quartered hard boiled eggs and fish.

Couldn't be simpler!

Full Bloom

2009-07-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

The garden is finally pulling it's weight now and our only problem is trying to keep on top of it all. The courgettes are going great guns and we are harvesting them on a weekly basis. I will just have to try and find some way to preserve them for the winter. Anyone got any ideas as to how???

The peas and beans are all now doing well and we are enjoying them a couple of times a week. The broad beans are coming to an end but I am hoping that the French beans and the peas will continue on until October. Fingers crossed!

The tomatoes have just started to ripen and it looks like a bumper crop. In saying that it wouldn't be too hard to beat last years performance which was about 5 tomatoes in total!

I have for a while been meaning to put up a recipe for Nicoise Salad, one of our favorite staples here which we have at least once a week. I will try and get that up in the next few days.

Fly Fishing for Bass

2009-07-14T06:20:00.000-07:00

My favorite type of fishing is fly fishing for bass in the sea. It has become popular in the last few years and is called swffing or salt water fly fishing by those in the know. I fish mainly with my two brothers and we are lucky enough that we have a family holiday home in Ballinskelligs near Waterville so we have plenty of opportunity to fish for bass. The bass pictured above was caught on a recent trip with my brothers and weighted about 5.5 lbs. We return the vast majority of fish and only keep the odd one for the table. Bass in Irish waters are extremly slow growing and a 10lb fish may well be 20 years old so catch and release is vital.

We fish often with a local guide called John Quinlan who has taught us a huge amount about this type of fishing. He has some videos of his clients fly fishing in Ballinskelligs Bay(click here for the link)
Anyway we kept one of the 18 bass on a recent weekend mission and here is what we did with it!

I have two favorite ways of cooking the fish. The first is to pan roast a fillet which I will go through in another post in the future, the second way is to BBQ the fish whole or with the head removed if it is too large.

I simply gut the fish and and dry out the cavity. If I am leaving the head on it is important to cut out the gills. One other tip I have found useful is not to descale the fish when cooking like this. The bass have very large thick scales and I find that if you BBQ the fish the scales give some protection to the delicate flesh against the fierce heat of the fire. To finish the preperation cut three deep slashes in each side of the fish and stuff slices of lime into the slashes. I also put some wedges of lime in the cavity along with some salt and pepper.

It is hard to say exactly how long to leave the fish on the heat as each BBQ will vary but I have found 7-8 mins on each side about right. To find out if the fish is cooked see if the flesh lifts off the backbone. If it does it is you are laughing, if not stickit on for a few more minutes! As you can see from the pictures I use a gadget which holds the fish together and avoids sticking to the BBQ. They can be picked up anywhere that sells BBQ stuff.

When the fish is cooked carefully remove the skin (remember that those scales are still on there) I usually serve it in portions rather than bring the whole fish to the table but the choice is yours.

Goes well with rice or maybe a green salad.

River Cottage Part 2

2009-07-09T01:44:00.000-07:00

Following on from the last post Hugh arrived around midday to take the afternoon part of the course. I suppose Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall is River Cottage to most people so it was great that I managed to get on a course that he was attending. He rocked in driving his battered old Landy and did a cookery demo for us. He cooked our starter for lunch which was chicken livers on toast. Essentially it was chicken livers fried off with some sherry mustard and other bits and pieces. Anyone that would like the recipe just leave a comment on this post and I will pass it on to you.

After the cooking demo he spent some time going round having a chat to everyone, signing books and getting pictures taken. While this was going on the rest of the staff were transforming the barn where we had the morning's classes into a dining room. We were promptly called for dinner which was their own roast chicken with all the trimmings and very nice it was too. A nice touch was that they had placed eggs at various seats around the table which we were not allowed to sit at. The hosts for the day plus Hugh then sat in these seats and moved around the table throughout the meal. It was really nice to be able to have a chat with them all and was probably the highlight of the day for me.

After lunch there was a Q and A session followed by a class on how to kill, pluck and clean a chicken. River Cottage's head chef Gillon Meller or Gill as everyone called him took us through the process and gave everyone great confidence, especially those that had not attempted anything like this before. We all got our own bird to have a go at which we were given to bring home at the end of the day.

It was about 5pm by then and the day was over. Everyone was given a signed copy of the River Cottage cookbook. For those that already had it they were allowed choose something else from the on site shop. I took home a signed copy of the Beyond River Cottage DVD. This was only a small thing but it showed the effort everyone made to make the visit to River Cottage as enjoyable as possible. Nothing was too much trouble.

With that we all jumped up onto the back of the tractor and returned to the real world after our River Cottage treatment! A very worthwhile day out and a must for anyone who finds themselves down Dorset way!

River Cottage Part 1

2009-07-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

Before I got the chickens I went over to Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's River Cottage for a course called "All About Chickens". I was pretty excited needless to say about the whole thing.

Anyway we headed off to Dorset the day before and spent some time at Lyme Regis which was deadly. It is a real old fashioned seaside resort which has plenty of cool cafes and arty farty shops. We ate sourdough pizza at a fantastic local bakery for lunch.

The following day we got a taxi to the River Cottage HQ car park and then made the final leg of the journey down an old lane on the back of a tractor! All very rustic.

We had some elderflower cordial and homemade biscuits on arrival and then straight into the course. The morning session was hosted by Richard Hicks and Pammy Riggs from the TV series. They went through all the basics for someone wanting to keep some laying hens and showed us around River cottage's"chickenopolis". We also got the see all the other bits and pieces including the pigs and their various vegetable gardens.

It was a very hands on kind of day and both Richard and Pammy really knew their stuff and answered any questions we had. It was also obvious that both of them were mad about chickens and their enthusiasm rubbed off on many of the people at the event.

Hugh was due to join us then at noon to cook for us and take the afternoon session. I will let you know how that went in the next post.

Hen Problems

2009-06-30T01:37:00.000-07:00

I went out to the hens one day last week to collect the eggs as per normal and found a few ticks in their run. On closer inspection I found a fair few more. Disaster! They were mainly brown little fellas with a few of the dreaded red mite thrown in.

Only one thing for it, I had to completely gut the house including nest boxes and perches and give it a good dose of good old fashioned jeyes fluid and hot water. I left that for two days and then went at it with a blow torch to make sure I didn't miss any. I also dosed the hens in case any lice were on them.

Happily the hens have moved back in and all is well. I will have to keep a close eye on them for the next week or so to make sure I got rid of all of them.

Not Everyone is Enjoying the Fine Weather

2009-06-25T07:12:00.001-07:00

While the rest of us are out and about soaking up the sunshine there is only little chap who is not very happy at all. Poor George is not all that well suited to the heat and spends his time sitting in the shade panting. It makes it difficult to do any training with him even if you do it at 6am, it is just too hot and he is buggered after 5 mins

Normally I do some training with him twice a day, once in the morning and then again in the evening. I hunted with him last season but he was still only a baby and it will not be until this November that we see how he is going to turn out. The signs are positive enough and he has matured and improved hugely in the last few months.

I still take him down to Arklow to train with Donal, who runs Delvin Kennels. Its a great set up down there and in fairness Donal has been great in helping me get the dog right.

So back to my weather problem! The only thing I can do with him when it is like this is to take him down to the river. He loves to retrieve dummies from the river and 20 minutes of swimming and he is knackered. If I tried to give him that much exercise in a field in this heat the poor little fella would collapse. I also just do some obedience training to try and put manners on him but this is simply following commands so the heat doesn't affect it.

Picnic Time

2009-06-22T12:52:00.000-07:00

With all the sunshine we decided to go on a picnic the other week. There is a cool wood nearby to where we lived so we set off with a few pals. I had made a goat's cheese and asparagus tart using our hen's eggs and we picked some wild garlic along the way to have as a salad with it.

I also made some homemade Lemonade. Easiest thing in the world to do. Boil up a pint of water with one pound of sugar for a couple of minutes to make a syrup( This will store in your fridge for several weeks). Allow to cool. Add about 450ml of the syrup to 1.5 litres of water along with the juice of 2 oranges, 3 lemons and some chopped mint. Easy as that.

Lobster Fishing

2009-06-17T02:18:00.000-07:00

We have always had a few lobster pots in Kerry. We throw them every summer and do alright for ourselves. We catch the odd lobster and plenty of edible crabs.
The idea is simple enough, get a lobster pot, tie a rope to it with a buoy attached to the end and then throw it into the sea somewhere that is good and rocky! We bait ours with mackerel and generally leave them out overnight. The following day you lift the pots and hope you have a nice lobster in there rather than an angry conger eel.

Once you have caught your lobster keep him in a bucket of sea water and try not to give him a name like my girlfriend once did. It made it all the harder to eat "Larry" that evening for dinner!
The prescribed way of cooking lobster is to put your live lobster in the freezer for 20 minutes, while he is in the freezer boil up a big pot of salted water. Pop the lobster into the water and simmer for about 15 minutes for the first pound and if you are lucky enough to catch a really big one 10 minutes per additional pound.

My favorite thing to do with a lobster is make the classic French dish, Lobster thermidor.

Here is what you need for 2 people:

1 lobster about 1kg

half an onion finely chopped,

20g butter

half glass of white wine

200ml of bechamel sauce ( just google bechamel and there are loads of really good recipes)

1 teaspoon of English mustard

Sprig of tarragon, chopped

50g Gruyere cheese or cheddar at a push.

pinch of cayenne pepper
salt and pepper

Cook the lobster as described above. Split the lobster length ways. To do this turn him on his back and cut through with a sharp heavy knife. Scoop out the meat from the tail and the brown meat from the head. Remove the nasty bits from the head so that you are left with two empty shell halves.

Sweat the onions with the butter in a frying pan until soft and then add the wine. Reduce until you are left with a tablespoon of liquid. Stir in the bechamel sauce along with the tarragon and mustard and simmer for a minute or two. Take off the heat and add three quarters of the cheese, the cayenne pepper and the lobster meat. Season with salt and pepper and mix well. Next simply fill the empty shells with the mixture and top off with the remaining cheese. Pop under a hot grill until brown and bubbling.

Bringing Home the Bacon

2009-06-14T02:28:00.000-07:00

Finally the house is ready and we are able to pick up our new pigs, an easy enough task you would think. Not so! Last year we had a relatively easy time of it and everything went smoothly enough. Let me explain why this was not the case this time around!

First of all we had to pick the pigs up in Dublin and not 20 minutes down the road in Kilkenny like last time. We decided on a Gloucester old spot cross breed and plumped for three male weaners. Last year we had two saddlebacks which were a brother and sister. We went for the all male route this time in order to avoid any worries about a romance starting!

When we arrived at our destination Graham backed up the horse box close to the door of the stable where the piglets were housed. All we had to do now was entice the weaners up the ramp with a bucket of feed. They went everywhere except up the bloody ramp and then were joined by an escapee who wanted to come to Carlow with her three brothers. Eventually after a lot of pushing, shoving and squealing we had the correct three pigs in the back of the horsebox and were on our way.

Just as we were on our way out we were told that the pigs are not trained to an electric fence. Now to the uninitiated this may not seem like a big deal but believe me it can cause huge headaches. The thing is that pigs are born escapologists and ordinarily from very early on you keep them in a secure run which has a strand of electric wire inside the fence. The idea behind it is that the piglets learn to respect the wire while having a solid fence the other side of it to stop them running through the wire when they get a belt from it. Anyways we were not in a position to let our new pigs out into their run this evening or any evening until we trained them to the wire.

We got home at around 9pm having decided to call our three weaners Sausage, Bacon and Salami. It was also decided that we put the piglets into a stable for the night until we figure out the best way to introduce them to their run.

We built a run from old pallets around the house and tied a strand of electric wire around the inside of it. After two days of being in this the pigs were ready to be set free into their run and none of them have escaped so far touch wood!

They are starting to settle in now after a few days. I think they were pretty miserable for the first few days what with being away from their brothers and sisters and getting used to their new environment.

Piggie Accommodation

2009-06-09T03:08:00.000-07:00

It's the time of year to start thinking about pigs again. I bought 3 weaners this year along with two pals. Now before they arrive there are a few bits and pieces that need to be done in preparation for them. People often ask "How do I get started in pigs" and to be honest pigs don't need too much TLC and are happy out just rooting around, one thing they do need however is a house of some kind and to be securely fenced in. As you can see from the below picture we buy our pig house flat pack from IKEA.

So a few days ago myself and Graham set about getting the pigs run set up for them. They need plenty of shade in their run and we have found the rougher a piece of ground it is the more the pigs like it as they have more to root up. They are amazingly efficient at clearing ground including briars, nettles and any other nasties you could mention and leave it weed free and ready for sowing. Our run is about a third of an acre and has plenty of trees. It is also pretty wild as you can see which is no harm at all.

We set about strimming around the exterior in order for us to be able to put up an electric fence. You are recommended to have 3 strands of electric wire or tape to keep the little escapologists in! Pigs might not look it but they are fast, super fast and sneaky along with it so be warned and make sure your fencing is up to the job!

Finally we built the house. This is a simple job and we use crates, stakes and roofing felt to create a "rustic" style pig house. The pigs don't seem to care mind you so long as it is warm and keeps the rain and wind out. We will be picking the pigs up in the next few days so fingers crossed that it will go smoothly.

My First Disaster

2009-06-04T00:00:00.000-07:00

OK, that may not be 100% accurate, I have had other mini disasters like my tomatoes and courgettes last year, but nothing really serious. That all changed yesterday I am afraid when I finally cut down my first ever homemade parma ham. This particular ham used to belong to our pig called "Sausage", so it had a certain sentimentality attached to it.

I will admit that I had my doubts as to whether everything was OK with the ham, but I thought at worst I might just lose some of it. When I cut it down yesterday, 9 months after we hung it up all that changed. First of all there were maggots happily living underneath the double layer of muslin I had the ham wrapped in. Trying to be optimistic I said " It could still be grand if we just cut a little away where the maggots have been chomping. How wrong I was. The picture above shows the sight that greeted me when I cut into my precious ham. Needless to say the air turned blue!

We thought we had done everything right and in fairness all our other attempts at charcuterie turned out great. However as you can see this was a complete disaster. The basic idea with this kind of ham is very simple, you bury it in salt for a set period and then hang it up somewhere nice and breezy for months on end. Where we went wrong I reckon is not burying it in the salt for long enough. They say up to about a month for a big leg, but I only had mine in for 15 days. The reason for this is that I had read online that if you leave it in for a month it will be a bit salty when you come to eat it. Big mistake! The salt is what preserves it. So next year I will put it in the salt for longer. In the meantime though I will practice with some bought pork, maybe a loin and see how I get on. I certainly don't want to waste another full ham by getting it wrong.

As I was cleaning up after the surgery on the ham I looked out the window and was greeted by this sunset. I suppose even with the odd porky disaster life here isn't all that bad!

Mayfly Madness

2009-06-01T01:07:00.000-07:00

Every year around this time fishermen become preoccupied with the mayfly. The usual greeting at this time between fishermen is, "Are you going west?" or "Are you going to the mayfly?". What they are asking is are you going to the great western loughs such as Corrib or Mask to join in with the annual mayfly hatch with takes place from mid May for a couple of weeks.

The trout go crazy for the mayfly and often the big wise old trout who cannot be tempted to take your hook at any other time of year throws caution to the wind and gorges on this seasonal treat, often to his own demise!

Arguably the hub of the excitement is Oughterard, with every boat and gillie long since booked out. As for finding a bed, good luck! The whole place feels like it has gone mayfly mad.
Traditionally it was called "duffer's fortnight" due to the fact that no matter how bad an angler you were you couldn't but catch trout at this time of year.

The method most often used is called dapping. Dapping is a very simple method of fishing. The main prerequisite is wind which blows out your line ahead of a drifting boat. Attached to the end of your line is a hook with two or three mayfly impaled to it. You keep the flies tripping across the surface of the water until hopefully a big wild brown trout throws caution to the wind and makes a lunge for it. It is truly spectacular to see a big brownie appearing out of a wave to attack your fly. It always catches me by surprise a little bit no matter how hard I am concentrating!

A typical mayfly day on the lough begins with a leisurely breakfast. People hit the water from about 10 until 12. Usually you fish for a few hours before pulling in on one of the loughs islands for lunch. Lunch is a very important part of the day with wine always playing a big part. Some people go the whole hog and bring a BBQ to cook steaks, however we usually tend to have something cold and easy to eat. It has been known to have a snooze at this point before heading back out to try and tempt another few trout. Some people fish right on into the night but most people will finish up around 6 or 7, just in time to head home for a shower and then out for dinner and a few pints.

Ice Cream

2009-05-29T00:33:00.000-07:00

As promised I went off and bought an ice cream machine on the back of all this fruit I will shortly have. I brought it home with fierce excitement along with some cream and set about making the first batch. When it comes to ice cream I have to admit that I do like plain, so therefore I choose vanilla as my first experiment.

It is simple enough to make, you just need some cream, egg yokes, sugar, water and in this case vanilla. How I came to acquire an industrial sized bag of 300 vanilla pods is a long story but suffice to say it came from Sweden via Tahiti or some such place in the back of a smart car!

All you have to do is scald the cream in a saucepan and throw in a vanilla pod which has been cut length ways. Leave that cool while you make a syrup with the water and sugar. Next beat the egg yokes and add the syrup. Lastly whisk the cream into the egg mixture and lash it all into the machine.

It was at this stage that I decided to read the instructions on the ice cream machine and discovered you have to freeze the bloody thing for 12 hours before use. Needless to say this setback dented my enthusiasm considerably. When it was finally ready to go I simply poured the mixture into the machine and turned it on for 20 minutes. What came out of it was the tastiest ice cream I have ever had. An unqualified success!

Fruity Delights

2009-05-25T01:30:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we went to the local fruit farm, Malone's Fruit Farm for an open day. It was great in fairness and the weather was fantastic. They have a farm shop out there where they sell their produce and they make their own jam and chutney on site.

Yesterday they had a mini local market on along with tours of the farm by Tom, who owns the farm with his wife Elizabeth. He brought us all around the farm and explained what everything was and gave great tips on how to grow the crops. The main crops are raspberries and strawberries but they grow all sorts of unusual stuff like tayberries and loganberries.

The best part of the day was when we could buy some plants to start off our own little fruit garden. Fruit has been sadly missing up until now in our garden. I put that right yesterday and bought plenty of raspberries and strawberries. The strawberries are grown in grow bags and should last three seasons. I can however take runners or baby plants from them and I should get around 10 years from what I bought yesterday! The raspberries are not difficult at all, or so I am lead to believe. You stick them in the ground, give them some support and away you go!

I am on a bit of a fruit buzz at the moment so I am going off to rashly purchase an ice cream machine to put all this fruit to good use! I will keep you posted as to how I get on with it!

How does your garden grow

2009-05-21T08:32:00.000-07:00

Things are really kicking off now in the garden with everything growing like mad. Still not much to eat apart from lettuce and rocket though. I should be enjoying nice crisp radishes by now but I either have some Fraggles living at the bottom of the garden or some mice have taken up residence and are helping themselves.

I do have some good news on the war against pests and seem to be getting the upper hand with the slugs eventually, but not until they decimated my courgettes and squashes. I had to go to the garden centre yesterday and buy some plugs to replenish my stocks! As I said before I am trying to grow everything from seed as against buying plugs (small plants bought from garden centres). The cost difference is massive. You can buy a pack of seeds for a couple of euro and it can have hundreds of seeds in it while I paid €4 a pop for some squashes yesterday!

I am nearly all planted up now for the summer and it wont be long now before it is a struggle to keep on top of everything. It just grows so fast and can go over the top just as quick. We do of course have methods to preserve many things for the winter and I will be sharing with you the various recipes as we go along.

We try hard to pick a variety of crops that will not just give us food during the summer but also right through the winter and spring, not always an easy task. Below is a list of what we are growing this year and when we should be able to harvest it.

We have Spinach and Lettuce all year round along with;

January; Brussels Sprouts, Kale and Swiss Chard

February; Kale.

March; Kale and Purple sprouting broccoli.

April; Purple sprouting broccoli.

May; Radish, Rocket and Broad beans

June; Radish, Rocket, Potatoes and Broad beans

July; Radish, Rocket, Potatoes, Peas, French Beans, Courgette and Broad beans

August; Radish, Rocket, Potatoes, Peas, French Beans, Courgette and Tomatoes

September; Garlic, Rocket, Potatoes, Peas, French Beans, Courgette and Tomatoes

October; Peas, Squash

November; Brussels Sprouts, Kale and Swiss Chard

December; Brussels Sprouts, Kale and Swiss Chard

Piggies

2009-05-19T14:21:00.000-07:00

Following on from the hens and George let me introduce the pigs to you. Me and my pig buddy Graham keep a few pigs each year for our own use. I wont lie to you it is a bit of hassle, not cheap, they are buggers to move anywhere, they eat you out of house and home, they do bite but on the flipside they just taste so good! We name ours which was against all advice but we tried not to lose focus on why we were keeping them, and so it came to be that they were called Sausage and Bacon!

This post is really just to give you an idea of what we do with them but over the summer I hope to give you a blow by blow account of how things go this year.
Essentially the idea is simple you buy a few weaners at 8 or 10 weeks old and you fatten them all summer and kill them in late autumn or early winter(just in time for Christmas!). You then have pork and porky products nearly all year long. We are still enjoying them now nearly 8 months since we killed our first pig and there is still a Parma ham hanging up in Graham’s porch that may or may not be ok. More of our tales of woe with the Parma ham in a later post.

We don’t kill them at home but take them to the local abattoir and they give us back the pork a few days later. We then turn it into all sorts of things. We make our own sausages, bacon, Christmas hams, Parma hams, chorizo, saucisson, pancetta, pate, you name it we have given it a shot. Some things have gone a bit tits up but I couldn’t say anything was unpleasant, just not what we expected. We usually draft in some help from friends for our "Pig Weekend" and have a big pig party to celebrate the life of Sausage and Bacon, almost like an Irish wake! The menu is predominantly porky as you can imagine however last year even a veggie managed to get in. She didn’t complain much although I am not sure there was much for her to eat!

So that’s it for now on the piggies. I will keep you posted on how we are getting on with the new batch over the summer; no doubt there will be plenty of fun and games.
In the mean time here are some pics of last year's piggie adventure.

Seaside Snails

2009-05-13T14:54:00.000-07:00

Ever since I was tiny I have always eaten periwinkles. They are small sea snails that live in the tidal zone along most rocky shore lines. When we were young me and my brothers would head off to the shore with some buckets while on family holidays. Every stone would be upturned in the hope that it would have loads of the little snails hanging on underneath. Very often they did just like in this photo and in no time we would have collected enough to bring home.

We were always under strict instructions from my Dad. The Periwinkles had to be in water when we picked them and we were only to pick the dark ones and not the coloured ones like the red one in the picture.

I went back to pick some in our old spot not so long ago to find things exactly as they had been twenty odd years ago. It was fun to wander round looking under the same rocks I did with my brothers all those years ago. And the funny thing was that I was just as amazed this time as I used to be as a child with all the various little creatures you uncover. The only difference was that as a kid I didn't know what these strange creatures were whereas now I do, and so it gave me some great clues as to what my favorite fish, the bass would be dining on when the tide came in later in the day. Needless to say if I know what they expect to find to eat it makes them a little easier to catch!!! So I picked a few crabs I found to use as bait later in the day. But how I got on with those bass is for another post another day!

Anyway, back to the winkles. I got the little fellas home and straight into a saucepan of salted water for 10 minutes. And then the job of getting them out of their shells. They have a little "door" that has to be removed before you "winkle" them out carefully with a needle being careful not to break their tales. Its a time consuming job best enjoyed with a glass of wine!

Once you have the winkles out of their shell you simply season them with salt and then splash on some vinegar and away you go. We usually eat them just like that with cocktail sticks. Their appearance might freak you out initially but persevere, the taste well makes up for it! One little word of warning. You must be 100% confident about the water quality when collecting and shellfish. If in any doubt throw it out and you should avoid any nasty belt of food poisoning. Happy foraging!

Trout Fishing on Lough Namona in kerry

2009-05-13T07:33:00.000-07:00

I fish quite a bit with a guide in south Kerry called John Quinlan (pictured with me on the left) . He runs fishing holidays with his partner Lynn at Thatch Cottage. He guides for all sorts of species from salmon and trout in rivers and lakes to mullet, pollock and of course bass in the sea. Fly fishing is his thing and he has helped me catch plenty of those wiley Kerry fish over the years. I will post more about the sea fishing in another post but I am more concerned today with telling you about a recent trip we had on my favorite Kerry lake called Namona.

John, my brother and I headed out early in the morning full of misplaced optimism which is always the case! We never seem to learn and always think that this is going to be the day when we catch trout after trout and salmon after salmon!

We fished for salmon for a while at the point where the river drains into the lough and although the conditions were good we didnt have a touch. We changed tack and went after the brown trout and sea trout that abound in the lake. The brownies are never big fish in these lakes due to the acidity of the water. There simply isnt the same level of insects that live in the limestone lakes of the west so these little trout are always hungry and therefore in theory easier to catch!

We met a few brownies and some small sea trout and fished on untill we had enough for lunch. We usually break for lunch and barbecue the mornings catch on the lakeshore washed down with plenty of tea. I am not sure if it is the beauty of the scencery, the fact that we are enevitably starving after our morning's efforts or just the plain fact that the fish are super fresh but they taste superb.

No fancy preperation here. We simply gut the fishing, wash them out in the lake itself and stick them on the barbecue for 10 mins or so. We eat them with our fingers on homemade bread and then sit back with a mug of tea that was brewed in the kelly kettle and admire the view while lunch is digested. It has been known for us to fall asleep in the heather and wake up an hour later cursing that we have missed the best of the fishing but I suppose thats all part of it.

In the afternoon we met several more trout and landed a fair few of them. At one point John spotted a White-tailed Sea Eagle soaring up above the lake. We must have watched it for ten minutes and it didnt beat it's wings once. It just used the thermal wind current to get higher and higher into the sky. It really was a wonderful thing to see and made the day for us. Unfortunatly I have heard since that the eagle was killed by someone who laid poison on meat.

We fished on untill dusk and picked up a few more fish, nothing spectacular but a great day was had by all.

George

2009-05-12T15:43:00.000-07:00

As I said in an earlier post the hens are little or no trouble at all, on the opposite side of the spectrum to the hens we have George who is nothing but trouble.

George is an 18 month old working cocker spaniel who dosnt realise how good he has it. The working cocker is a gundog and I use George to shoot pheasant and woodcock in the winter and to shoot rabbits in the summer

That descripion does, in fairness, make him sound like a solid, workmanlike kind of a dog which couldn't be further from the truth. Below is just an example of what he is capable of. I like to call it "A morning's work". It was a magazine I had bought that morning!

Brewing Cider

2009-05-11T01:38:00.000-07:00

I started brewing cider nearly two years ago and have been making steady progress since. The first few batches went bananas on me and were way too strong, up around the 13% mark I reckon. Since then I have been honing my skills and while it may not be Champagne de Carlow it has at least become drinkable! I prefer a sweet cider which is why my first batch went so crazy( I added too much sugar). In essence cider making is very simple, yeast loves sugar and after it eats the sugar the by product is alcohol. Apple juice has sugar in it, so you just add some yeast and away you go. Here is how I brew my stuff.

Equipment:

1 Carboy (just a container to hold your brew)

1 additional carboy or bucket.

1 airlock

yeast
Funnel, tube and some bottles

Apple juice

Lactose

Hydrometer

When we started first we picked and pressed the apples to make the juice which broke our hearts so now I just buy apple juice from either Lidl for €1 a litre or from a local fruit farm in bulk.

It is simplicity itself to make. Just sterilise all your equipment with Milton or such like. Pour the juice into your carboy. Take a reading with your hydrometer. This allows you to figure out how strong your brew will be. I use this calculator to help me. So once you have done that throw your yeast in(you can buy cider yeast and all other equipment at a home brew website. I buy mine from The Home Brew Company which are an Irish outfit). Finally stick your airlock on and sit tight for as long as it takes!

You will know it is ready when it stops bubbling and the reading on your hydrometer is around 1000 and more importantly it has the same reading for a few days in a row ( this may take weeks and weeks). After this stage I syphon off the brew into a sterilised container leaving the sediment behind. I then clean the original carboy and pour the cider back into it. It is usually at this stage that I sweeten the brew. I have been using lactose which is a sweetener that does not contain sugar and therefore the yeast cannot turn it into alcohol. You simply heat some of the brew and dissolve the lactose into it. Pour it into your cider to taste, be careful not to over sweeten! I like to leave it under the airlock in the carboy for another few months in order to allow more sediment to settle on the bottom. This gives a less cloudy cider.

The final stage after that is to bottle it. Again sterilise everything with Milton. Put one teaspoon of sugar into each pint bottle which will make it fizzy. Pour in your cider and leave for as long as you can. I find around 6 months works well for me. There you have it a recession proof tipple for 50 cent a pint!!

The Girls

2009-05-09T09:50:00.000-07:00

Over the next few days I will try and introduce you to the various characters here at Barrows Bounty.

First off here are the hens, Agnes and Betty. Betty is the one closest to the camera and Agnes is in the backround. To be honest I dont really trust Agnes there is something sneaky about her and I suspect she isnt pulling her weight in the egg production stakes! On the whole though these two little troupers are the least hassle of all and day in day out they go about their business of scratching away and making us plenty of eggs

Hungry Time

2009-05-09T01:53:00.000-07:00

This is always the hungry time of the year when all the last of the purple sprouting broccoli has finished and we are still weeks away from the first of this year’s harvest. The shooting season is over and the trout in the rivers are yet to take a fly readily so it really is hard times!

One thing that is a bit unusual but delicious is to make pizza from the humble nettle. It is one of my favourite soups and by all accounts is full of vitamin C, iron and natural histamines. It is said that the nettles have more nutritional benefit when they are young before they flower. Only pick the tender tops mind you.

I recommend you try it as it is easy to find and identify nettles and takes no time to throw together.

The recipe I use is as follows.

Preheat oven to the max! The hotter the better

250g of pizza dough for each big pizza (you can find recipes in any cook book or online)
2 big handfuls of nettles for each pizza.
100g of grated mozzarella cheese
Garlic infused extra virgin olive oil (or simply use the plain oil and 1 clove of garlic chopped)
A few blobs of Ricotta cheese

Roll your dough out and place in a floured baking tray. Brush the garlic infused olive oil onto the dough. Sprinkle the mozzarella on the pizza and then place the nettles tops on the mozzarella. Finish it off with some ricotta, salt and pepper.

It should take just under 10 mins to cook. But beware and keep an eye on it so the toppings don’t burn.
I have always had better success with really thin bases as the heat in a domestic oven isn’t anywhere near that of a commercial pizza oven.

It's a War Out There

2009-05-09T01:38:00.000-07:00

It’s all activity this time of year getting the garden going. I have four raised bed and two mini poly tunnels to plant up. Up until this year I have cheated a bit and used plugs which are small plants bought from the garden centre instead of growing my own vegetables from seed. This year I have bitten the bullet and have been trying to grow all my own veg from seed with varying degrees of success.

I started off in early March with broad beans and peas and have followed with all the rest in the last month. It all seemed to be going grand at the start and I had every window sill in the house taken over with seed trays full of the different veg. Since then however I have waging war on an assortment of pests who are hell bend on destroying all my hard work.

The pigeons are laying siege to my peas, the rabbits I suspect are sneaking in at night and helping themselves to my baby lettuces but the bane of my life at the moment are the bloody slugs! I don’t use any chemicals but I sorely tempted at the moment to scatter a liberal amount of slug pellets to try and deter the buggers.

I have put out beer traps which essentially are jars full of beer. The wisdom is that they the slugs love the stuff, have a swig, get a bit pissed and fall in! I don’t know what I am doing wrong, it seems the slugs are loving the beer but instead of falling to a drunken death the beer seems to give them extra vigour with which to launch their next attack on my seedlings! The nightly rounds with a torch and a scissors will have to continue for a while longer yet!