On 13 June 2018, the news reached us that Myrtle Allen had died, RIP. I believe that the farmers of Ireland will mourn her, understanding that she lifted our produce into the spotlight. She put farmers firmly in the food story. Myrtle was one of those extraordinary women that one expects to go on forever. Determination, creativity and productivity defined her for those of us who didn’t know her very well. In my younger days I regarded her with reverence. I considered her to be the Mrs Beaton of old who had knowledge of all things in the culinary world. Yet, she reminded me of my grandmother who delighted in her work; toiling daily with her hands in the soil, water or flour only pausing to enfold a child in her arms.