Honest2Goodness Farmer's Market Newsletter 18th March 2010

Welcome to this week’s Market Newsletter!

Tune into Pat Kenny’s show tomorrow (Friday) at 11.20 to hear Mary Kelly of Moonshine Farm being interviewed by Pat, as a result of winning an Irish Food Writers Award 2010 (and congrats to Mary and Gerry for winning the award!). Mary has promised to give the market a plug, if at all possible, during the interview. We wish her the best of luck with it!

Many thanks to those of you who brought along some much-needed extra books for our Charity Bookstall last Saturday. There is still plenty of scope for more books on the stall, so if you forgot to bring them along last week, throw them into the boot of the car, or beside the bicycle this evening.

Talking of cycling and charity, our charity of the month for March is Mission Malawi (http://www.missionmalawi.co.uk/index.php), as our brother Iarla is doing a 500k cycle in Malawi and Mozambique in May, and he is looking to raise money to support this charity. We think that this is a great cause (although we also think that he may be a bit mad to attempt the 500k cycle!).

As we have noticed quite a few people coming to the market on their trusty bikes, we have now installed two bike racks just inside the door of the market, sourced by our intrepid occasional guitar-playing guest act – thanks Matt! Feel free to use the bike-racks when you come to shop at the market.

Have you heard about Phizzfest yet? There are great plans coming together for a community Arts Festival this September (9^th to 12^th) in Phibsboro, including a food market. To help raise funds for the festival, there is a pub quiz on the 26^th of March in the Bohemian Lounge, starting at 8pm. The website for the festival is at www.phizzfest.ie

Stallholder news:

There will be lots of great fish available again this Sat from Gannet, and as usual, Cailean is happy to fillet, skin or otherwise prepare your fish of choice. We got some great hake from him last week – cooked it simply coated with a little spelt flour, then pan fried in olive oil and a little butter for about two minutes on each side, then finished it off in the oven for about another three minutes – it tasted great!

Dublin Meath Growers are now stocking selected fruit at their stall, alongside their great value veggies, and their David Llewellyn apple juices and apple cider vinegars.

Jim Ryan tells us that his special this weekend will be on sausages – he is reducing the price by 20%, making them €6.15 per kilo. So, Sunday morning brunch can feature a feast of sausages!

Trevor from Manuka Honey apologises for his continued absence - he wont be at the market on Saturday.

At the wine stall, where Brid will be covering for Colm this weekend, the wine specials are a French red wine from Bordeaux, Dasvin Bel Air and an Italian rose, from Masciarelli. The red is a medium to full-bodied wine, with ripe tannins, priced at €17.75 for one bottle. It is on special offer of 10% off when you buy two bottles, and 20% off when you buy six.

We all sampled the rose recently when Angela from Masciarelli and Luigi Valori visited us, and while it may be a little early for summer wines, this rose is so good, we wanted you to try it out sooner rather than later. This rose wine is made from the Montepulciano grape which gives it excellent depth of flavour & colour. Its really a cleverly disguised red wine that you can drink at lower temperatures and with lighter foods like fish and seafood.

€13.50/btl

less 10% for 2

or 20% off 6

We also have Montalto Sauvignon Blanc 'Collezione de la Famiglia' - a medal winner from Decanter, Mondus Vini & International Wine Challenge competitions - on promotion. The wine shows warmer climate flavours than usual for Sauvignon with passionfruit to the fore.

€12.00/btl

less 10% for 2

or 20% off 6

As you can see from the photo (and apologies for the picture quality), we really enjoyed the visit from our Italian suppliers!

Photo showing (left to right): Aine, Angela, Luigi and Colm

At the café, the hot dish of the day will be our spicy Indian Lamb casserole, and our soup will be Thai Broccoli.

Recipes from last weekend are now on the website: the carrot and cumin soup is here, the Thai Chicken is here and the cookery demo recipe of tomato and fennel marinade for pork is here. Because Brid is covering for Colm at the Wine Stall at the weekend, there wont be a cookery demo on Saturday – sorry about that! She is still available to answer any culinary questions, and might even be able to answer some of your wine queries as well.

Once again, please forward the newsletter to any food or wine lovers that you know and if you have yet to visit the market, this is the link to our location map. Let us know by emailing us at brid@honest2goodness.ie if you would like us to send you your own copy of the newsletter each week.

Hope you have time to visit us this Sat!

Brid & Colm

Honest2Goodness Indoor Farmer's Market

www.honest2goodness.ie

'Quality starts at the point of origin'
contact Brid at 087-6294713 for any market information

Honest2Goodness Farmer's Market Newsletter 11th March 2010

Welcome to this week’s Market Newsletter!

Springclean your bookshelves!

Our Charity Bookstall shelves are looking a bit bare! So, why not do a quick spring-clean of your bookshelves and other book hiding places and bring them along to the market on Saturday? You’ll be clearing out clutter, so you’ll feel good about that, and knowing that your books will end up turning into cash for charities, will make you feel even better! If you are involved in a local charity or voluntary group or club and want to take-over the bookstall for a couple of weeks to raise money, then talk to us at the market about it.

Jim Ryan, the market farmer & butcher has started an online farm diary, and here is the link to it: http://ryansfarm.com/diary/. You’ll be able to follow the farm news and stories over the coming months.

Dublin-Meath Growers asked me to let you know that as unfortunately Irish carrots are now out of season, their carrots this weekend will be of English origin.

As an extension of our cookery demonstrations, we are pleased to announce that Brid will be running a bread-making workshop on 27^th March 2010. The workshop will take place in the afternoon in our Market kitchen and numbers are limited to 6. Participants will be hands on and will be guided through the making of focaccia bread (we will have tastings of this available at the pantry on Saturday) and our healthy spelt bread, which we already sell through the café/pantry. You can reserve a spot by emailing us.

Manuka Honey will not be at the market this Saturday, and Trevor sends his apologies to all his regular customers.

However, Mico of Kingfisher Teas will be there with her wonderful array of teas, herbal tisanes and other interesting concoctions. My own favourite is her peppermint tea, but you’ll discover your own by trying out any of her dozens of options at the market.

At the café, we will have a small supply of carrot cake, chocolate cup-cakes & Tunisian orange cake – if you would like us to put some aside for you, let us know by return email and we’ll reserve some for you. We have started using Moonshine Farm’s organic milk for our hot chocolate, cappucini and lattes, so they taste even better! Our soup of the day on Saturday will be carrot and cumin and our hot dish of the day will be Thai Chicken. Both our soups and hot dish are available to take home with you so that you can have market produce already prepared for you.

At the pantry, the Carrigaline cheese which went down really well when we had it on tasting, is due to be delivered to us before the market starts on Saturday. Its taste profile is very mild, with a nice texture and nutty flavours. Anybody who tasted the Moonshine Farm cheese (an Emmental-style cheese) also loved it!

The Wine Stall specials on Saturday will be Burgundy delights, the white being a Saint Veran from the Cave des Grands Cru (2007). A full-bodied, rounded and buttery wine, it is usually priced at €14 – it will be on offer on Saturday for €11.90 (15% discount) when you buy one bottle, or an even better value of €10.50 a bottle when you buy six. On the red wine front, we have our Chateau de Bois, AC Bourgogne 2007. Tastes of red-currents, liquorice, cherry and pepper, in a medium-bodied wine. The usual price is €15, and it will be available at €12.75 for one bottle, or again with a 25% discount on purchases of six bottles – bringing the price down to €11.25 per bottle.

New recipes on the website this week – carrot cake is here and celeriac and garlic soup is here. Talk to Brid on Sat if you want any detail of the recipes explained!

Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday,

Brid & Colm

Honest2Goodness Farmer's Market Newsletter 4th March 2010

Market Newsletter 4^th March 2010

Hello and welcome to this week’s newsletter from Honest2Goodness Farmer’s Market

We are delighted to welcome a new stallholder to the market this weekend. Mary and Gerry Kelly of Moonshine Farm in Westmeath are joining our growing community and will have organic dairy products available at their stall, including milk (available in 2 litre containers), cheese and yogurts. Already active at the Food Co-op Market for many years, we look forward to their joining us on the northside!

Talking of organics, we’ve had quite a few enquiries from people asking if we will be doing organic vegetables and fruit. We have taken that on board and we are talking to someone at the moment who may be able to supply us with organic in season salad leaves, vegetables and fruit. So, watch this space for further information, or ask us at the market.

Sunday week (14th March) is Mother’s Day. And, while we hesitate to buy into the whole commercialism around such days, we do think that Mothers deserve (and probably expect!) some token of appreciation for all their efforts over the years! So, why not think about some of Aine’s chocolates, or a nice cake from Blazing Salads or the Honest2Goodness café (taking orders this weekend for cup-cakes, carrot cake and Tunisian Orange & Almond Cake), or even simply a pot of preserves, jams or some Manuka honey; a bottle of wine would also fit the bill nicely!

As the weather is finally improving (we hope!), we should have some potted plants available at the Vegetable stall, and we are expecting a sample pot to be available on Sat. They will happily take orders for next weekend.

Specials this week include:

From Gannet Fishmongers: ‘Our special this week will be John Dory, lots of it and monk fish, we re expecting a very good landing tomorrow’, according to Stephane

From Dublin/Meath Growers: special on Celeriac – buy one, get one free

From Jim Ryan, Butchers - special on bacon joints

From the Spud Man – special on the last of the seasonal oranges – big juicy oranges for just 75c

From Trevor @ The Manuka Honey stall

‘For the month of March we are giving away a free jar of 5+ 250g jar when a 500g jar of 10+, 15+ and 20+ is purchased and a free packet of sweets with a 500g jar of 5+. Also we have gift bags available for Mothers Day.’

Colm's Wine specials:

White wine special is from Burgundy in France, and is 'Macon Lugny La Sandarine. This is a full-bodied creamy white wine, and matches excellently with chicken dishes. Normally priced at €14, it is on special offer of €11.90 for a single bottle, and if you buy six, each bottle will only cost €9.80.

On the red wine front, we have a great Italian wine from Sicily. The main grape is Nero d'Avola, a native local grape, with some merlot added in to round out the wine. Very drinkable, so be warned! Normally priced at €9.99, a single bottle will coswt you €8.50 on Saturday, while if you go for 6 bottles, each one will only cost you €8.

This week's recipes:

Our recipes from last weekend are now on the website: the goulash recipe is here and the bean & bacon soup is here. A few people wanted the mayonnaise recipe again, so it is here.

If you have any great recipes that you would like to share with the Honest2Goodness community, then please forward them to us, and we'll publish them on the website!

Soup of the day on Sat will be Celeriac and herb, and dish of the day will be a French peasant-style Lamb Casserole

As usual, please feel free to forward the newsletter to friends and neighbours, we are delighted to share our news with one and all! If you have received the newsletter from a friend, and you wish to be included directly, just drop us an email at brid@honest2goodness.ie

Hope to see you on Saturday - as usual we are open from 9.30 to 4pm.

Anyone needing directions, ring Brid at 087-6294713

Brid & Colm

Honest2Goodness
www.honest2goodness.ie

'Quality starts at the point of origin'

Honest2Goodness Farmer's Market Newsletter 25th February 2010

Thinking of spring planters and window boxes to brighten up your garden?

I was talking to John Hogan of the Dublin Meath Growers last week about getting a few planted up pots and window-boxes to have for sale at the market (I dont know about your front garden, but mine is looking very bedraggled and sad right now!). John's advice is to hold off for a couple more weeks before attempting to either plant spring planting in the ground, or buying any made-up planters. The weather has been too bad, and the ground too cold, so that most plants will have a tough time surviving outdoors until things warm up a bit. He promises to have some at the market when the time is right.

_______________________

Another rugby weekend beckons...

_________________________

With that in mind, you can check out our recommendations for food management on Saturday evening on the website here. We offer you some great ideas for before, during and after the match! One of them is based on Jim Ryans special offer of the week, which is a special offer of 20% off his round roasts.

Veggies – Dublin Meath Growers remind you that in season vegetables include: Carrots, Celeriac, Parsnips, Potatoes, sprouts, cabbage, turnip.

There is a special offer on brussel sprouts this Sat, with a packet of sprouts available at 50% discount.

The Spud Man has four types of potato currently available - they are Records, Golden Wonders, Roosters and Kerr Pinks, all from Stephen and Marina Hatton's farm in Wexford

Café News:

Last weekend the Tunisian Orange Cake and lemon and poppy-seed muffins were consumed with gusto, alongside the excellent mini-apple pies that are proving really popular, so they will be available again this coming Sat! We will also be experimenting with some strawberry yogurt muffins.

Soup of the day will be Bean, Bacon and Vegetable and the hot dish of the day is Beef Goulash (based on a recipe that I spotted on Dermot Skehanes food blog... which I then proceeded to make changes to his recipe! He has a really nice food blog which you should check out! ). The Goulash would be ideal for that easy option for the rugby-focused fans!

Pantry:

Our tasting of the Carrigaline cheese went down really well last weekend, (the cheese is semi-soft, with a delicate flavor, becoming piquant with age). We will be stocking it in the coming weeks, so if you want to buy some this weekend, get there early as there is only a half block available til the full stock comes in next week.

The Goats Log is perfect for grilling at the moment, and we are offering it at an even better price than usual at €1 for 100g, which is a 30% reduction.

Wine offers and tastings this week:

To match Jim Ryan's roast beef, we have a red Bordeaux on special offer this week - 15% off for one bottle, and 25% for 6, so instead of the usual €12.50, you pay €10.60 when buying one bottle and €9.35 per bottle when buying six. The wine is our Chene de Margot, from the Cote de Blaye, and it is a medium to full-bodied tannic red wine.

On the white wine front, our special of the week is an award winning Italian white from Montalto's 'collezione di famiglia' (which I think translates as 'family collection' - anyone who has better Italian than mine can correct me if I am wrong!), a really delicious sauvignon blance from Sicily. Price-wise it is on at a special offer price of €10.35 per bottle for single purchases and €9.20 when buying six.

Recipes:

As usual, we have published a couple of new recipes to the FOOD section of the website. Our Thai Chicken recipe is here and our cauliflower and Cashel blue Cheese soup is here.
If we have forgotten to publish a recipe that we demonstrated or cooked in the kitchen, dont hesitate to ask us for it!

And, finally, finally, please forward the newsletter to other food & wine lovers. If you received the newsletter from a friend, and you would like to be on our mailing list, please email us at brid@honest2goodness.ie and we'll send you your own copy each week. Attached is a map of where to find us in Dublin Industrial Estate - just take the right turn after Lidl - check it out before you travel, as we are a bit off the beaten track!

Brid (& Colm)

Honest2Goodness
www.honest2goodness.ie

'Quality starts at the point of origin'