Ireland Represents!

Of course I stumbled across the Ireland section of Salone del Gusto on the first day. They had two stalls: one represented by Bord Bia, the Irish Food Board, selling smoked salmon on Irish brown bread, a cheese plate, juicy roast beef and O'Hara's craft beers on tap while the other one was showcasing Ireland's only Slow Food Presidia: Irish Raw Milk Cheeses. Unlike most presidias that are focused on one product, this one covers the entire island and the qualified producers are dedicated to making high-quality artisinal  raw milk cheese coming from their own herds. I instantly made friends with one of the cheese makers, Peter Thomas and his hilariously-flirty friend Sean O'Connor, a chef from Ennis, and went back to visit every day. 

"I've never been to Abruzzo, let's go there," "I want to eat something spicy, let's go to Calabria" or "Let's meet in Ireland at 5" were common phrases during the weekend. Luckily, Ireland was in an easy spot to meet up and a perfect stop for some pints and Irish cheese. After the summer, having talked about Irish cheeses so much, I finally had to opportunity to give my friends a taste. And they loved it! 

The cheeses that are part of the presidium include: Breda Maher's Cooleeney Cheese, Fermoy Natural Cheeses by the Shinnicks which includes the award winning St Gall, Silk Cropp's Corleggy Cheese, Maja Binder's Dingle Penninsula Cheese (one made with seaweed), Durrus Cheese by Jeffa Gill, Peter Thomas' Glydefarm cheese, Lucy Hayes' cheese from Mount Callan Farmhouse, the Tiernan's Glebe Brethan Cheese and a favourite, St Tola organic goat cheese. 

Peter Thomas, the maker of Bellingham Blue, gave Catherine and I each a huge chunk of his two and a half year old blue cheese. Apparently blue cheese that has been aged that long is unheard of in Italy so when he was at the last Salone del Gusto, he told Slow Food that in two years he would bring a two year old blue cheese - and here it was! He told us many stories of people who have sought after the creamy cheese. 

The Gardeners

The Irish band that played one day - I was so glad we stopped by at the right time to hear - caused a traffic jam in the corner of the pavilion, but it was definitely worth it to get bumped into. They were fantastic. Everyone in the Ireland corner was always so friendly and jolly, most likely drunk; it made me so happy.

I also attended the Ireland regional meeting at Terra Madre. The description was Regional Meeting: Ireland/India and I had no idea how the speakers were going to connect the two or what they had in common.  The only thing I could think of was my friendship with Sindhu, but I hardly think that's what Slow Food had in mind. As I walked in though, the room was divided into the two countries: India at the back by the stage and Ireland sitting in a circle by the door. Looking around, I couldn't help but smile at how Irish they looked. duh. The regional meetings, as I said earlier, were where the conviviums from certain countries could get together to discuss what projects they've been working on, a place to share experiences, swap ideas, network connections, and express an overall feeling of empowered togetherness. For Ireland, the Emerald Isle, they talked about the issues surrounding being a full-force, all-encompassing-of-the-meaning green nation. It is an agricultural/farming island, but the huge multi-national corporations are a huge problem that encourage obesity. The speakers believe that it's not just about telling the youth to eat their veggies, but to get them involved.

Slow Food NE Ireland introduced Lagan College's Radical Dream Canteen. They were also happy that the people from Belfast visited the Ireland regional meeting and not UK.

Valerie O'Connor, a food writer and photograher talking about the importance of the elderly - how they have the knowledge we need to pass on to the youth. In front of her Ciaran Cuffe, Minister of Horticulture and Trevor Sargent of the Green Party.

Darina Allen of Ballymaloe and East Cork convivium of Slow Food Ireland President took notes and help lead the meeting. In the green, Evan Doyle, talked about GYI (Grow It Yourself Ireland) and Marian Byrne

I liked how they talked about Ireland's strong food traditions, that they can feel it in their blood whether they know it or not - they know that carrots are kept in the sand to preserve them in the winter, they know that a cross is cut on the top of brown bread before it's baked - why? they just know. 

Despite popular belief, Ireland has really good regional and local foods - they know it, I know it, maybe the rest of the world doesn't know it, but they need to rediscover it to teach the future generations.

I loved the story Darina Allen told about a meeting she had in Parliament and during the lunch they offered cheeses, but to her horror, none of them were Irish. What a lost opportunity to promote Irish food. Around the circle, everyone shook their head in disbelief, ashamed and deeply agreeing to each other under their breath, "disgraceful." These people know, and believe, how good their cheese is. 

Jules came with me to the meeting. Even though it was a regional meeting that I felt attached to, I said to him, "you don't have to stay," but he did until he had to leave for a tasting work shop. He said it was interesting to hear because even though he knows nothing about Ireland, their problems are universal. We could have been in any regional meeting, the problems would be similar. 

I went up to Darina Allen afterwards to shake her hand and told her what a pleasure it was to listen to her speak. How could I not? I want to get a pair of neon green Converses like hers. It was a great opportunity, whether in this regional meeting or another, for everyone to come together, to connect, share, interact and leave feeling 100% about paving the way of the future.