A new project is underway to locate as many people as possible with memories and experience of traditional Irish food skills that are at risk of being lost.
Do you have experience of cooking, baking, preserving, curing, churning, smoking, growing, rearing, dairying, using traditional Irish methods, often handed down generation to generation?.
Whether curing bacon or salting fish, churning butter, making cheese or boxty, distilling mead and whiskey, cooking with seaweed, preserving fruit, indeed any other foods you remember from years gone by.
The different types of food preparation techniques, and the people who are experienced in using them, will be recorded in an information bank not only as a historical record, but also to pass the skills on and keep them alive.
Siobhán Morris is researching a range of food preparation techniques, on behalf of The Taste Council and Bord Bia who have commissioned the project. Siobhán welcomes all enquiries, regardless of whether the skills are still being used, and on both domestic and commercial levels. And if you don’t have experience yourself, you might know someone who does – get in touch to nominate someone.
Please contact Siobhán on Tel 048 68 659811, Mobile 087 7755799, email [email protected]. or email [email protected]
Darina Allen has very kindly offered a 50 discount to Slow Food Members who attend any of the Forgotten Skills Courses being held at Ballymaloe Cookery School. Anyone interested in attending any of these courses should contact Ballymaloe direct, quoting their Slow Food Membership number – [email protected]
• A Beginners Guide to Beekeeping – Sat Feb 28 – 185 euro
• How to keep a few chickens in the garden – Sat March 7 – 185 euro
• Jams, Chutneys, Pickles and Preserves – Weds & Thurs July 22 and 23 (1 day in total) – 255 euro
• How to build a Smoker and Smoke your own Food – Tues August 11 – 95 euro
• Foraging – A Walk on the Wild Side with Darina Allen – Sat September 26 – 185 euro
