Guatemalan chef Debora Fadul will join Irish-born potato farmer Maria Flynn of Ballymakenny Farm for a very special online demonstration, Wild And Traditional Food Recovery (April 6) in conjunction with the Irish aid NGO Trócaire.
Geopolitical events allied to the impact of climate change mean that the whole area of food security, sovereignty and resilience has gone from obscure subject to mainstream debate in just a few years.
The Menu is delighted to learn of this initiative by Trócaire to celebrate how diversity provides food security and how the use of wild and traditional foods can have a beneficial nutritional impact while making a positive fiscal contribution.
The demonstration will feature dishes prepared with traditional and wild foods from Ireland and developing countries to improve nutrition, food security and farmers’ incomes, while demonstrating how the use of traditional foods can protect biodiversity and combat climate change.
Maria will share the story of herself and her husband David making their farm more economically viable and sustainable by switching to heirloom crops, while Debora Fadul will demonstrate a Guatemalan corn dish and demonstrate the importance of repopularizing traditional foods in today’s processed world.
Farmers and field agents working with Trócaire who run food fairs and seed banks in Guatemala and Zimbabwe will also describe their wild and traditional food recovery activities.
The event is free, register online here.
The menu will cover this year’s Food on the Edge Symposium (October 17/18) in more detail as it nears its return to the Airfield Estate in Dublin, after the pandemic has diluted all of these events over the past two years. . Early Bird tickets are now on sale at €250 for two days, including lunch on both days
And, as a taste of things to come, confirmed chef speakers include Rasmus Monk, of Copenhagen’s Alchemist restaurant, Paolo Casagrande, of Barcelona’s 3-star Michelin Lasarte, Calum Franklin, “the pie king” of The Pie Room in London’s Holborn Dining Room, Søren Ørbek Ledet, co-owner and sommelier of 3-star Michelin Geranium, Denmark, Simon Rogan, of 3-star L’Enclume, and Matt Orlando, of Amass, Copenhagen . Also in attendance will be a host of other authors, chefs and activists, including food educator Alice Zaslavsky, Kai Galway’s Jess Murphy, social gastronomy disruptor Joshna Maharaj and food and cities thought leader, Carolyn Steel.
Early Bird ticket closing date for 2-day tickets is June 30, foodontheedge.ie
APC Microbiome Ireland, the world’s leading SFI research center headquartered at UCC, is seeking participants for a study of how coffee consumption affects the brain and gut microbiota of healthy adults aged 30-50 years. They’ll be looking for bodies like The Menu, for whom the daily cup of coffee is as essential as H2O, just as they’ll be looking for non-coffee drinkers.
Specifically, they require moderate coffee drinkers (three to five cups a day), living near Cork City, to make four in-person visits to the lab over six weeks, while non-coffee drinkers will only have only to do two, the first of which can be done online. Moderate coffee consumption can have a positive impact on human health and the study hopes to learn more about the effect of coffee consumption on gut microbiota, stress and cognition.
Coffee Drinkers & Non-coffee Drinkers – We are Looking for Healthy Volunteers
Anyone looking for top quality lamb for a traditional Easter Sunday dinner (and a bit more to put in the freezer) would do well to jump on a very special offer from Calvey’s of Achill.
To celebrate their recent Irish Food Writers Guild Food Award, they’re offering a side of their very good Salt Marsh Lamb, reviewed earlier in this column, for just €120 delivered to your doorstep anywhere in the country.
ahillllamb.ie
The Menu continues its quest for immortality, or at least a good chance to see the next decade, with the latest addition to its daily diet.
Biasol Super Milled grains come in the form of a fine powder derived from spent grains left over from the beer brewing process, which accounts for 85% of all brewing waste. Highly commendable, Biasol’s founders, siblings Niamh and Ruairi Dooley instead turned this waste from Irish craft brewers into a highly nutritious superfood with multiple applications, becoming Ireland’s first official member of the Upcycled Food Association. , a non-profit working to prevent food waste and to derive the maximum nutritional benefits and uses from all foods.
Cereals are extremely high in fiber and protein, contain beta-glucans which can help lower cholesterol and stabilize blood sugar and insulin levels, and are packed with amino acids and minerals, including iron, zinc, calcium and abundant B vitamins.
The menu has forced it upon itself and offspring in all sorts of edible Trojans: smoothies, overnight oats, and porridge, for breakfast; and soups, stews, broths and sauces, for lunch and dinner. It is especially good in the “mid-range” of the savory dishes flavor profile and adds depth of flavor to any homemade savory offering.
BiaSol also offers a line of pre-mixed dry products including Scone Mix, Brown Bread Mix and Cookie Mix.
Biaisol.ie