irish artisans

today we went on a school field trip. the 62 (minus a few) of us met in the school car park at 7.45am, boarded a coach bus and set off to meet some of the amazing artisans who are making a difference for the food industry here in ireland.

our first stop was the belvelly smoke house near cobh. here, frank hederman smokes organic salmon, mackerel, mussels and eel as well as porridge and butter. he explained the process of cold smoking and hot smoking and the difference between the two.

at 9.15 we got back on the bus and drove to mahon point to experience the mahon point farmers' market. darina's son-in-law is the driving force behind this successful famers' market which is only open on thursdays. here, local artisans and specialist food producers sell a variety of food - free-range meat and poultry, local fish, organic fruit, vegetables and herbs, cured meats, farmhouse cheeses, herbs, jams, relishes, pickles, breads, cakes and biscuits. we had an hour to explore the stalls and try some of the different fare. i had a hazelnut americano from o'conaill's hot chocolate stall and a bowl of chicken curry from green saffron (which is a spice company run by a past ballymaloe student). the mediterranean stall (below) had the most beautiful olives, sundried tomatoes and mozzarella cheeses and the guy working there was happy to give me and hazel a hard time.

we left mahon point at 11am and headed to cashel blue cheese in co. tipperary. award winning farmhouse cheese makers jane and louis grubb created cashel blue cheese in 1984. their unique product is (impressively) made entirely by hand from whole un-homogenised cows' milk.

we had a proper cheese tasting of three different cheeses (a 7 week old, a 9 week old and a 10 week old) and a tour of the cheese making facilities.

we left cashel blue at 2.30pm and took the scenic route to lismore. the views of the irish countryside were just incredible. at one point, our bus driver stopped so we could see the three counties - cork, limerick and tipperary - that meet up with each other.

in lismore, we broke up into two groups. the group i was in went to the summer house first. it's an adorable tea shop owned and run by a past ballymaloe student, owen madden, who gave us a tour of the kitchen and shared his business experience with us.

we thanked owen and walked a few doors down to o'brien's chop house. o'brien's is owned by justin and jenny green and was opened in 2009, which was quite risky considering the recession going on. his advice to those of us wanting to open our own restaurant was to make sure we had good ambiance, good food and a good location.

justin talked about his two favorite events at o'brien's, st. patrick's day and christmas eve. on both holidays, they have a set dinner menu and then after eating, a piano is moved outside onto the patio and a singalong session takes place. events, he told us, that are well loved by the locals and tourists alike. o'brien's also holds a beer and curry fest on the last friday of every month.

from o'brien's, we walked down the street to mcgrath's, the lismore butcher shop. michael mcgrath, who owns the shop, and his son gave us a tour of the shop and the slaughter room. not a business i would want to get into, but extremely interesting to learn about (in my opinion).

we got back on the bus a final time, leaving lismore around 5.45pm and returning to ballymaloe an hour later. while i had listened to my ipod earlier in the day, i gave my attention to my seatmate, matt, and spent the ride home listening to stories of his travels to south america. he had me laughing, asking questions and feeling pangs of jealousy. i think i know where i need to visit next...