The
invitation to be key speaker at The Organic Centre's Potato Day in Leitrim was
the excuse I needed to cross the small pond, renew old potato friendships and
develop new. It was good to eat again at Mulligan's in the Stoneybatter. They supply an amazing range of Irish and
foreign ales. Friday was a fine day and ideal for a quick survey of seed potato
outlets in Co. Wicklow with Colm. Had a quick look at Mount Usher Garden and vowed
to return at leisure; not a potato in sight.
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| Copper spray on sale with seed potatoes - gardeners do not know how lethal this stuff is! |
Dinner at Podraig Galligher's The
Boxty House in Temple Bar. As you would expect, he uses substantial
quantities of ware spuds and is keen to put Sarpos on the menu and grow some Sarpos as decoration for outside the restaurant.
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| Podraig's Potato Scratchings are made from thin slices of Boxty - scrummy. |
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| Turf-smoked salmon with Lumper potatoes |
Colm
O’Callaghan drove us to Leitrim on Saturday in time for a great potato
lunch. We had a sharp audience for the
Sarpo talk although I hear 6-nations game kept some at home. After much potato
crack, Colm drove us back via the stunning scenery of Kinlough and Enniskillin,
diving in and out of NI Co. Fermanagh – real blight (and famine) country.
Sunday
was a grand day. We met farmer John Swabby-Miller at Red Cross, Co. Wicklow to
see his part-harvested crop of Axona.
Although planted late, the crop grew away fast and smothered a huge weed
population including thistles. The field where the Axonas were still to harvest
was totally free of weeds and the test digs yielded excellent samples that
Kaethe will offer to the great and the good of the Dublin food scene. John grows a range of veg for his farmers’
market at Red Cross. He is offering to
grow plots of all the Sarpos for demonstration in the summer.
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| Axona samples look in excellent condition |
