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'