Sunshine, gardens and food, oh my!
Yes, indeed. I spent a good deal of the past gloriously sunny weekend attending Bloom, a 5-day celebration of all things garden held in Dublin’s magnificent Phoenix Park. I was there thanks to Bord Bia (the Irish Food Board), who very kindly provided me with a media pass, which I milked for all it was worth availed of over the course of the event. This essentially meant that I camped out in the artisan food market and sampled my little heart out (all in the name of research, you understand). So much good stuff – fabulous goats cheese from Bluebell Falls, Helen Gee’s superb homemade jams (almost as good as the Mammy’s), excellent sweet onion relish from Laragh Stuart (which I will be doing my best to re-create sometime soon) and lots more besides.
I was also, of course, greatly interested in the food bursting forth from various gardens at the show. The current appetite for growing your own was not lost on the organisers and the show included a specially commissioned replica of the White House vegetable garden.
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