Bizarrely enough, it was a car park that I had, at first, been most excited about as I set off on my travels to Limerick.

Not just any old car park, mind, but the Potato Market Car Park (the clue to my excitement was, of course, in the name – I am nothing if not predictable in the matter of all things tuber). Established on the banks of the Shannon in Limerick around 1843, the Potato Market’s primary purpose has not, however, been as a place of trade in potatoes or any other commodity for quite some time. Though the market buildings were refurbished in the 1980s, the riverside location mainly functions as a place in which to park – though admittedly it’s somewhat picturesque as car parks go – with a series of open bays lined along the river and a footbridge leading to the Hunt Museum in the old Custom House building on the opposite bank of the Shannon. Though there was nary a spud to be seen, I think, perhaps, that I just like the fact that Limerick once had such a thing as a Potato Market, even if I can only imagine, fancifully, what it might, at one time, have been like.

The Potato Market, Limerick: nowadays, the only spuds you'll find are the ones in the signage

There’s no need to resort to imagination when it comes to experiencing the bustle of trade in Limerick’s Milk Market, however. Officially established over 200 years ago and nestled in the heart of the city, it remains true to its trading purpose. Having undergone a number of refurbishments in recent years – the most recent of which capped the open market space with an impressive tented roof and added a new food pavilion – the market, and especially the food market on Saturdays, teems with life. When I was there, I gravitated to Peter Ward’s Country Choice, an outpost of his Nenagh deli and café and a showcase for all that is good in food. To shop here is not simply to exchange money for goods but to learn from Peter, if you care to, about the people who have reared that cow, milled that flour or pressed that rapeseed oil. Passion is a common thread which links the traders here and makes this a market that truly connects food to people and, erstwhile potato markets aside, it was food and people that had brought me to Limerick in the first place.

Peter Ward's Country Choice at the Milk Market

Officially, I was in the city to attend an evening at the aforementioned Hunt Museum, organised in advance of Limerick’s upcoming Love Gourmet Week, and which would showcase some of the best of the region’s restaurant fare. The Love Gourmet Week initiative – which will see specially priced menus promoting the best of locally sourced produce at some of Limerick’s finest dining establishments – goes beyond simply wanting to fill restaurant seats, and acknowledges the need for a co-operative effort in order to mark out Limerick’s place on the Irish food map. The Hunt Museum event made that mark in style (and you can see photos of what it all looked like over here).

Over the course of the evening, we dined in a high-ceilinged room once used for the same purpose by ship captains of old, with walls graced by fine Irish art and in the company of people passionate about food, and about Limerick. Though Limerick can get a bad rap at times, ‘the history of the city far outshines the other in-betweens,’ said Nigel Bridge, who delivered eloquent introductions to each course, and we were also treated to an enthralling excerpt from Pigtown, reflective of an era in Limerick’s history where the pork butcher was king and ‘there was nothing left but the squeal.’ Our tables were named after Limerick’s old bacon factories – Denny, Shaw, Matterson and O’Mara – and we dined on six masterfully executed courses: Limerick ham hock and chicken terrine with nettle cream from The Mustard Seed, pan-fried brill with pea purée and bacon jam from The River Bistro, fillet of beef – as reared by 5th generation butcher Noel O’Connor, who sat just across the table – and as prepared by the chefs from the Cornstore. There were more desserts, cheeses and petit fours than you could reasonably eat (but we did anyway) and the event was graced by a spirit of genuine hospitality and warmth. The most generous serving of all, however, was that of reasons to return – I now have much more than the Potato Market to get excited about.

There I go, scribbling in last week's Sunday Times
on value-for-money lunching in Ireland
(the online version, sadly, lives behind the Sunday Times' paywall)

Brian, one of my quotees in last week’s Sunday Times article (which you can glimpse above), is a great man for the ol’ liquid lunch (and yes, we are talking soup, as opposed to anything stronger). Soup, says he, is the bees knees when it comes to make-it-yourself lunches, and, of course, he’s not wrong. So, in an inspired move, I thought this week, that I might make some soup – for lunch, like – except that, by the time I was done, soup had become stew, and lunch had become dinner and such, as the fella says, is life. No matter. I scarfed it down anyway, and you might just do the same.

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Potato, Fish And Tomato Stew

Call it soup, call it stew. Eat it for lunch or have it for dinner. It’s a simple, hearty dish and it doesn’t much matter what you call it or when you eat it.

You’ll need:

• vegetable oil for frying
• 1 small onion (approx. 100g), finely chopped
• 1 small fennel bulb, trimmed and finely sliced (approx. 100g)
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 2 medium-sized potatoes (approx. 400g), scrubbed and chopped into 0.5cm dice
• 1 tblsp tomato puree
• 1 x 400g tin of tomatoes
• 500ml vegetable stock or water
• 2 small bay leaves
• 1 tsp salt (or less if stock is salty)
• 100g baby spinach leaves
• 400g hake (or other white fish, such as haddock or cod), cut into approx. 1-2cm chunks
• 1-2 tblsp very finely chopped lovage
• 1-2 tblsp very finely chopped flat leaf parsley
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tsp lemon juice or more to taste

The Steps:

• Place a heavy-bottomed saucepan over a medium heat. When hot, add vegetable oil to coat the pan. Add the onion, stir and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the sliced fennel and fry for another 6-7 minutes, then add the garlic and fry for another minute or so.
• Add the diced potato, stir and fry for a minute or two, then add the tomato puree, stir briefly, and add the tinned tomatoes, stock or water, bay leaves and salt. Stir and bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 20 minutes. Add the spinach leaves, stir to mix and simmer for another 10 minutes or until the potatoes are tender.
• Add the fish chunks and simmer for another 5 minutes or until just cooked through.
• Add the chopped lovage, parsley, a couple of twists of black pepper and the lemon juice to taste. Stir in and serve at will.

The Variations:

• Omit the lovage if you like and try perhaps adding a few sprigs of fresh thyme when adding the tomatoes.

The Results:

• Stew (or very thick, chunky soup) for 3-4

Perhaps unsurprisingly, what with the recent passing of my Da, I am, these days, all about comfort food, seeking solace in sweetness, in soothing, creamy textures, in foods fondly remembered and – somewhat predictably for me – in spuds. Today, that meant a simple gratin, with potatoes poached in milk and baked with crispy skins on top – a dish made in my mother’s kitchen with basic, unfussy ingredients and enjoyed with that most comforting thing of all, family.

Sunday spuds

So reads an entry made just three weeks ago today in the diary that sits on the table beside my Dad’s armchair.

Said spuds are the ones that were planted by Dad’s good friend and neighbour, John’O, in my parents’ greenhouse, after what was probably a good deal of friendly, if characteristically unsubtle, prompting from Dad. Though he himself was no longer fit for the kind of physical exertion involved, he remained, nevertheless – and as his career as an army officer and community fundraiser par excellence had always demonstrated – a supremely able director of operations. He was pleased as punch at the thought that he would have new potatoes in May – around the same time that he expected news of a much anticipated great-grandchild – and, while he needed no preparation for news of family arrivals, he had advised John’O to get the garden fork from the garage and leave it in the greenhouse, ready to lift the spuds when the time would come.

Yes, the potatoes in the greenhouse are indeed up

In the end, though, Dad’s time came first. While the potatoes continue to grow apace, he will not sit down with us to enjoy this year’s extra early harvest, nor will we hear him laugh while John’O reminds him that, sure, they weren’t his spuds anyway. Just over a week ago, peacefully and surrounded by those who meant most, the Guinness man, the potatoes man, the man with unusual breakfast habits, and my most beloved father, slipped away.

Dad giving forth, as was his wont

He leaves a larger-than-life gap, which we will cram with memories. He leaves a life well-lived, for which we are grateful, and more. And though we stay behind and gather the harvest without him, we will keep for him, always, a spud or two in store.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis. Ní bheidh a leithéid arís ann.

Darina Allen's volume on Irish Traditional Cooking

“Writing it has been a labour of salvage as well as one of love.”

So writes Darina Allen in her introduction to Irish Traditional Cooking. First published nearly 20 years ago, the blurb on the front cover tells you that this newly released edition includes over 100 new recipes, which is all well and good, except for the fact that, when they say new, I really rather think they mean old. For this book is all about old Irish recipes and ways with Irish food that, to a greater or lesser extent, had fallen into neglect in recent decades, as traditional cooking and true home economy had given way, first, to the lure of new-fangled shop-bought bread and later, to the convenience of a growing number of packaged and processed foods. We are learning to appreciate some of these traditional food ways again, however – “even as half the country is living on pre-cooked foods from garage foodcourts, there is a deep craving among growing numbers of people for forgotten flavours and fresh local foods,” says Darina – so a re-publication of this volume is timely.

Amongst recipes from legendary Irish cookery writers like Maura Laverty, you’ll find others in the book that have been gleaned from family recollections or from newspaper cuttings kept down through the years. The book started life when Darina wrote to regional papers looking for readers to send in their old recipes, and she travelled up and down the country in the pursuit of same. Recipes with names like protestant lemonade and cocklety soup alone make this a book worth reading, though it is a work that is much more than the sum of its collected parts. It is evocative of the landscapes and people of times past, and of a way of life and of eating that has become increasingly rare.

Potato drops, one of the many potato recipes in Darina's book

The chapter on potatoes – because of course, in a book like this, they warrant a chapter unto themselves – includes many variations on the classics of champ, boxty, colcannon and potato bread, as well as dishes with wonderful names like bruisy (potatoes mashed with butter and young nettles), stampy (grated potatoes mixed with flour and egg and fried), stovies (sliced potatoes, fried with onions and beef dripping), poundies (potatoes mashed with butter, salt, pepper and gravy) and pandy (potatoes mashed with lots of butter and cream). I wanted to curl up and pull them around me like a big comfort blanket. With these potato drops, that’s exactly what I did.

You know what they say – if you want to get something done, ask a busy person, and Sheila Kiely is nothing if not busy. Mother to six, including two sets of twins, Cork-based Sheila is now also the proud parent of her first cookbook, Gimme The Recipe, to go with her blog of the same name.

Gimme The Book

The back cover of the book tells you that this volume is about easy food ideas for said busy people, recipes that don’t involve long lists of ingredients or anything that you won’t find at your local supermarket. It’s all honest-to-goodness, family-friendly stuff – think beef stew, lasagne and homemade chicken nuggets, as well as brownies, tarts and crumbles – along with practical ideas for family gatherings and tips on getting kids involved in the kitchen. In other words, and as Sheila herself describes it, it’s a book that hopes (and I suspect, succeeds) in answering, in a very practical and accessible way, that perennial question of “what’s for dinner Mom?”

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Crispy Potato Skins

On the spud front (because, let’s face it, that is my singular obsession in life), Sheila’s book includes a number of simple, classic recipes, namely for stuffed baked potatoes, potato wedges and crispy potato skins. What I liked about the potato skins recipe was the sheer practicality of it all – if you’re preparing mash for dinner, then here is a speedily prepared snack for hungry kids that can be made from the peelings that you would probably have otherwise discarded.

It also reminded me of how easy these are to make, and prompted me to stop what I was doing and just go make some, because there really is very little effort involved – just take your peelings, toss in oil, season, bake, then add a little cheese at the end. Sheila uses olive oil and cheddar cheese, I adapted things slightly and used some mature Coolea cheese and rapeseed oil, along with a little sprinkle of ground cumin, because that’s how I roll.

You’ll need:

• 6-8 medium-sized potatoes
• 1.5 tblsp olive or rapeseed oil
• coarse salt
• approx. 50g cheddar or other hard cheese, grated
• sprinkling of ground cumin (optional)

You’ll also need:

• A baking tray (or trays) large enough to accommodate the potato skins.

The Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 200C
• Scrub your potatoes and peel them thickly. I’m going to assume that you’ll use the peeled potatoes for some other purpose, such as mash.
• Toss the potato skins in the oil and a little coarse salt and spread on a baking tray.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the potato skins have crisped up, then sprinkle with the cheese and a little ground cumin, if using. Return to the oven for another 3-5 minutes to allow the cheese to melt, then dig in.

The Variations:

• Parmesan, Gruyère or any other cheese of your liking can be used here. You can add some chilli powder or cayenne pepper, as Sheila suggests, or any other spices that take your fancy, such as smoked paprika.

The Results:

• Serves 4-6 as a snack

In at number 40 on the Hot 100 list:
yes, it's my top-of-the-pops moment

Well, well, well. I appear to be operating at a sizzle these days, at least if this year’s Food and Wine Magazine Hot 100 list is anything to go by. Amongst mentions in the list for fellow bloggers Niamh Shields from Eat Like A Girl, Aoife Carrigy from Holy Mackerel and Joanna Schaffalitzky from Smorgasblog – lovely ladies all – I was very flattered to see this here blog listed for the second year.

And if, as the Food and Wine citation says, this is the place to come for potato recipes, then I’d better get some spuds on now, hadn’t I?

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Cheese and Potato Soufflés

This recipe – marking not only the first known sighting of a soufflé on The Daily Spud, but the first attempt at same in my kitchen – is adapted from one by Stephen McArdle of The Arch Bistro which appeared in last week’s Irish Times Potato Special. You can find the original, along with plenty of other spud recipes, here – I added some garlic and rosemary, left out the spring onions which I didn’t have, and swapped the cream for milk. The result is composed entirely of ingredients which, in my house, I never don’t have, and which makes it all the more likely that I’ll make these again, especially as I’m always game for a bit of fluffy cheesy potato action, even if the soufflés did sink not long after emerging from the oven.

For the mashed potato, if you have some leftover mash, then by all means use that. Otherwise, either bake some potatoes and scoop out the flesh to use here, or boil or steam some potatoes as you would for regular mash.

Ok, so they collapsed a bit before I could get the shot...
...they still tasted good though

For the potatoes:

• 250g plain mashed potato
• 5 tblsp milk, warmed
• vegetable oil for frying
• 1 small onion, about 100g, very finely chopped
• salt
• 2 cloves garlic
• 0.5 tsp finely chopped rosemary needles

For the soufflés:

• 50g butter
• 50g plain flour
• 300ml milk
• 100g mature cheddar, grated
• salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 3 egg yolks
• 4 egg whites

You’ll also need:

• A whisk for beating the eggs, 6 large ramekins (around 250-300ml capacity each) and a baking tray to hold them.

The Steps:

• Preheat your oven to 200C and grease your ramekins with butter and lightly dust with flour.
• If your mashed potato is cold, heat it gently (either give it a quick blast in the microwave, place it in a bowl over some hot water or give it a few minutes in the oven, covered). Mix together the mashed potato and 5 tblsp of milk.
• Place a frying pan over a medium heat. When hot, add some vegetable oil to coat. Add the chopped onion along with a pinch of salt and gently sauté for 6-8 minutes, until softened and translucent.
• Add the garlic and rosemary and stir and fry for another 1-2 minutes, then remove from the heat.
• Stir the onion mixture into the mashed potatoes.
• Place a small pot over a medium heat. Add the butter and allow it to melt, then add the flour and stir together.
• Gradually add the 300ml milk, stirring all the time, and bring to a gentle boil.
• Whisk in the mashed potatoes, followed by the grated cheddar. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
• Remove the mixture from the heat and leave to cool for a minute or so, then beat in the egg yolks.
• In a medium-sized bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks (around 2 minutes). Fold approx. one third of the egg whites into the potato mixture and, once incorporated, fold the remainder in gently.
• Divide the soufflé mixture amongst the ramekins (each should be around three quarters full) and place on a baking tray.
• Bake for about 18 minutes, taking care not to open the oven during that time. Once baked, you can turn the soufflés out gently onto serving dishes or just serve as they are in their ramekins, along with some salad greens.

The Variations:

• You can vary the cheese and seasonings to your taste – perhaps try some goat’s cheese and thyme instead of cheddar and rosemary – or swap out the herbs for some warm Indian spices, like cumin or some mustard seeds perhaps.

The Results:

• Make 6 soufflés

WJ Kavanagh, Dorset St.

Now here’s something that I couldn’t be more pleased about – the opening of WJ Kavanagh’s on Dorset St., by the people who brought you L. Mulligan Grocer. The Mulligan’s crew have done nothing short of redefine what it means to be an Irish pub with Irish grub and Dublin is a better place because of their endeavours. The new premises is bigger and brighter than L. Mulligan’s and (as co-owner Seáneen describes it) the menu will be lighter to match. There will be lunches, there will be coffee (with the assistance of coffee meisters from 3FE), and jam jar cocktails will join craft beer, whiskeys and whiskies on the drinks list. There will also be afternoons – many I hope – spent in the nook by the fireplace. I’m happy because it’s here and even happier because it’s near.

Before I nestle into the nook in Kavanagh’s and get too comfortable to ever move again, I suppose I should let you in on a few other bits of Dublin dining (and wining) news that have come my way this week:

Dine in Dublin

Dine in Dublin returns next week, running from March 26th to April 1st, with over 50 restaurants in and around Dublin city centre offering value-for-money special set menus, and with many of the participating restaurants also hosting events and activities throughout the week. You’ll get the low-down on the offers available – including a €15 raw lunch menu at Rustic Stone and a €45 five course tasting menu at Pichet – on the Dine in Dublin website. Meanwhile I’m still digesting after a lovely sampler brunch hosted at Café Novo in The Westbury and which featured mini-versions of all dishes on their Dine in Dublin menu. Five desserts in one sitting? Oh go on then.

Dine in Dublin sampler at The Westbury's Café Novo:
top left: chicken liver parfait, sticky slow cooked ribs & caesar salad
top right: daube of beef, catch of the day & rack of pork;
bottom left: crème brûlée & lemon posset
bottom right: pear & almond tart, warm chocolate brownie, rhubarb & ginger crumble

Jacob’s Creek ‘Wine & Dine Experience’ Roadshow

Following on from last year’s outing at the crypt in Christchurch Cathedral, the Jacob’s Creek ‘Wine & Dine Experience’ will visit Dublin, Cork, Galway and Waterford during March and April. For one night in each location, 50 guests will take part in a free wine tasting masterclass, under the guidance of wine expert David Whelehan, and an award winning chef in each county will create a three course dinner menu to match the wines on offer.

Events kick off in Dublin on March 27th, followed by Cork on April 4th, Galway on April 19th and Waterford on April 26th. To request a reservation, visit facebook.com/jacobscreekireland and enter your details on the ‘The Wine and Dine Experience’ tab or email jacobscreek@idl.ie with Jacob’s Creek ‘Wine & Dine Experience’ in the subject line, your name, date of birth, and contact details for you and a guest. Also please include which county event you would like to attend. Places are limited and guests will be chosen at random.

Zenato Wine Tasting

In association with Premier Wine Training, Alberto Zenato will present a tasting of Zenato wines in Dublin on Sunday evening, April 15th, in the Radisson Blu Royal Hotel on Golden Lane.

Zenato is one of Veneto’s most illustrious wine families and famous for its award-winning Amarone. Alberto will introduce and taste nine Zenato wines, both white and red. Space is limited and places, which cost €20 per person, must be booked in advance via www.premierwinetraining.com.

Vive La Superquinn French Wine Sale

The Superquinn French wine and food sale will be happening in store for three weeks from March 28th. As part of the event, Jean Christophe Novelli will be cooking up some French-themed dishes using Irish ingredients at in-store demos on Friday 30th March (Kilkenny), Saturday 31st March (Lucan, Swords and Sutton) and Sunday 1st April (Bray, Blackrock and Knocklyon).

Spuds make the cover of yesterday's Irish Times magazine

What’s that you say? Spuds in the news again? Yes indeed, the fact that we Irish are eating less of them seems to be a topic that we simply – and somewhat ironically – cannot get enough of.

This time, it was the turn of the Irish Times magazine, with potatoes front and centre in yesterday’s Paddy’s Day edition. In the magazine, Róisín Ingle got to grips with the realities of potato consumption in modern Ireland, mainly by way of an interview with Tom Keogh of Keogh’s Potatoes but, wise lady that she clearly is, she solicited my opinion too (you can read the full article at your leisure over here). The magazine also included the word on chips from Kevin Thornton and a slew of fine looking potato recipes from Domini Kemp, Kevin Dundon and Sunil Ghai, among others. Plenty to keep a spud lover engaged and happy over the national holiday, then.

Paddy's Day spud special:
Keogh's shamrock and sour cream flavoured crisps

Speaking of St. Patrick’s Day, it did not escape the attention of several readers that there was a distinct lack of Paddys Day Food Parade in these parts this year. While the organising of same simply got away from me this time ’round, you can trust that I did make sure to enjoy some Paddy’s Day food yesterday, not least of which were some of Keogh’s shamrock and sour cream flavoured crisps (yes, made with real shamrock), a product that is both tasty and damn clever. And, needless to remark, I couldn’t let the occasion of Paddy’s Day pass without making something green and spudworthy myself.

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Herby Baked Potatoes

Róisín Ingle’s piece in the Irish Times yesterday reported – and this is especially noteworthy for those who persist in thinking that spuds are fattening – that Jackie O.’s favourite diet food was a baked potato with caviar. Now, while I’m not exactly prone to having caviar about the place, I will never be more than an hour away from the joys of a baked potato.

Here, I made a simple salsa verde – which sounds so much better than green sauce – from what fresh green herbs I had, mixed with lime juice and some lovely Derrycamma extra virgin rapeseed oil with lemon (one of the winners at the recent Irish Food Writers’ Guild awards). That, in turn, I stirred through the contents of a baked potato. Simple, tangy, tasty and green. Of course, you can replace the lemon oil with another good quality extra virgin olive or rapeseed oil and add a little lemon juice or zest.

And if you fancied going for an Irish version of the Jackie O. spud, you could (if you could get your hands on some) crown your potato with some Goatsbridge trout caviar, which has to be one of the most exciting Irish food product launches of recent times.

For the potatoes:

• 2 large potatoes (around 300-400g), preferably floury
• olive oil or other vegetable oil
• coarse salt
• butter to taste
• 1 tblsp sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds, toasted (optional)

For the salsa verde:

• approx. 5 tblsp chopped flat leaf parsley
• approx. 5 tblsp chopped fresh coriander (leaves and thin stems)
• approx. 5 tblsp chopped fennel leaves
• 1.5 tblsp freshly squeezed lime juice or more to taste
• 1.5 tblsp lemon oil (or substitute extra virgin olive oil or rapeseed oil and a dash of lemon juice to taste)
• coarse salt to taste

You’ll also need:

• A small baking tray for the spuds and a small blender for the salsa verde (optional)

The Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 200C
• Scrub the potatoes and dry them. Prick the skin all over using a fork or small knife, which will allow steam to escape while cooking.
• Brush the potato skin with olive oil or other vegetable oil and sprinkle with salt.
• Place the potatoes on a baking tray (or directly on an oven rack) and bake until tender, which should take somewhere between an hour and an hour and a quarter, depending on size, variety and your oven. The skin should be crisp, the flesh tender. Skewer a potato to test if you need to.
• While the potatoes are baking, whiz together the parsley, coriander, fennel, lime juice and lemon oil using a small blender – alternatively, chop the herbs very finely and mix with the juice and oil. Add coarse salt to taste.
• When the potatoes are done, split them open and scoop out the flesh. Mix with butter to taste and add the herb mixture. Adjust the seasoning to your liking and refill the baked potato shells. Top with toasted sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds if you like and enjoy on their own or perhaps with some white fish.

The Variations:

• Like any baked potato, the variations are endless. Vary the salsa verde to your taste and to what herbs you have – you could substitute mint for fennel, say – or perhaps add some capers.

The Results:

• Baked potatoes for 2

Container planting of potatoes underway in the polytunnels at the Organic Centre

March is here and that can mean one thing, and one thing only to a spud: that it’s time, once again, for the Organic Centre’s annual Potato Day. Time to meet my buddy Dave Langford and his rare, old and unusual potatoes, time to top up the ol’ seed potato stocks in advance of planting and, this year, having spent the past three years as a more-than-interested observer at the event, time for me to stand up and speak.

Just a small selection at the Organic Centre of the many containers - from bins
and buckets to bags - in which you can happily plant a spud

As part of the program for the day, Hans Wieland, under whose able stewardship the centre is run, asked me to say a few words about the supposed decline in the popularity of the spud hereabouts, something which I have had cause to mention on these pages before. While it was, given the occasion, a case of preaching to the converted, I hope people got the message that it’s not all doom and gloom for the potato. In a move shamelessly stolen from Pádraic Óg Gallagher of The Boxty House, I had a 5.5kg bag of spuds passed around the room, roughly equivalent to the average daily adult intake of potatoes in Ireland around the time of the famine. Compared to that little lot, you could say we’re all eating less spuds than we used to, though, if the powers-that-be want to reverse the present downward trend in sales of fresh potatoes, they will need to engage in some creative marketing and education to remind people of just what a versatile and nutritious addition to our diet the potato is.

Some serious spud business up for discussion

I was also much interested in one of the other talks which took place at the event, with organic farmer John Brennan, of the No To GM campaign, speaking on the subject of the application by Teagasc for a license to conduct outdoor trials of GM potatoes here in Ireland. Concerns were raised, among others, about the necessarily limited range of parameters which the trial could test and the unpredictability of outcomes under other soil conditions, not to mention the ill-advisedness of going down the GM route when Europe has a distinctly anti-GM food bias. Dave Langford, no great fan of GM methods either, also had some words to say on the subject of biodiversity, the sad demise of the James Long Keeping onion as an example of diversity lost, and the dangers of dependence on an ever-reducing set of species for our food.

Biodiversity in action:
a tiny fraction of Dave Langford's 300-strong potato collection,
including the Yam, a maincrop potato dating from 1771

Anyone interested in voicing their concerns about the proposed GM trials can add their names to a petition against the GM move and are recommended to do so soon, as the deadline for submissions to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to whom Teagasc have applied for the relevant license, is March 27th. So, if the issue moves you, then get moving.