While there are lots of delicious Irish currants and berries around, let’s have a ‘jam-session’. Even if you’ve never made a pot of jam in your life, I promise if you follow these few basic rules you’ll manage to turn out batch after batch of fresh tasting jam better than virtually anything you can buy. [...]

RecipesGooseberry NectarGooseberry, Elderflower and Strawberry CompoteMeringue with Raspberries and Rosewater CreamBlackcurrant FoolBlackcurrant CoulisStock Syrup Red Currant Jelly Rustic Peach Tart with Summer BerriesRock or Marsh Samphire with Melted Butter Strawberries, raspberries, loganberries, tay berries and now lots of black, red and white currants. A few weeks ago we feasted on green gooseberry and elderflower tarts, [...]

All over the country people are rediscovering the joy of growing their own vegetables, a little soft fruit, an apple tree or even a few fresh herbs. It’s not just about the economics; there is the sheer thrill of digging your own potatoes, carrots or beets and it is certainly is a thrill having waited [...]

This week lots and lots of salads, just what we all yearn for during this unexpected spell of beautiful weather. Recently chef and cookery teacher Barny Haughton from Bristol came to Ballymaloe Cookery School to do a whole morning on salads. Barny cooked his first serious meal in St Tropez aged 9, when there was [...]

Sometimes if I wake up early enough in the morning to catch Farming Today on BBC Radio 4. It’s always interesting and keeps me in touch with the farming scene across the water. Recently I heard an interesting interview with Andy Inglis from Dunbar, Scotland, who had decided to sell Hebridean seawater as a commercial [...]