Welcome to a week in the country

With Dr Catherine Keena

Teagasc Countryside Management Specialist

Look out for haws on whitethorn or hawthorn – depending on where you are from. The majority of farmers and people from the countryside call it whitethorn, according to a survey at the Ploughing. It is also known as sceach, meaning thorn, which includes whitethorn and blackthorn.

For Hedgerow Week ‘23, why not join the Signpost webinar on Friday 1 September from 9.30am to 10.30am on hedge planting and management on www.teagasc.ie/sustainableagriculture. Or come to Kildalton (Friday 1 Sept), Grange (Monday 4 Sept), Ballyhaise (Tuesday 5 Sept), Athenry (Wednesday 6 Sept), Clonakilty (Thursday 7 Sept) or Curtins Moorepark (Friday 8 Sept) all at 11am to learn more about hedges.

Hedgerow Week is an initiative of Teagasc and The Heritage Council.

Dear Janine,

As a writer and a tutor of creative writing I was deeply grateful to Irish Country Living for highlighting my work recently.

I am often asked if there were readers in my childhood home and if this evoked a passion for writing. Looking back, a constant in my home was the Irish Farmers Journal. It was a steady presence. It was read cover to cover. Parts of it were divided out and passed from one person to the next. So having the opportunity to have my work featured in it felt like I had come full circle. I certainly feel my late father, who was an avid reader of the Farmers Journal, would have approved.

During the process of the feature, it revealed things to me that I had forgotten. It brought back images of a childhood steeped in nature in rural Ireland. It reminded me how growing up on a farm taught me so much about life. I am very grateful to have revisited those memories and very grateful to the writer of the feature, Maria Moynihan, for her empathy, insight, and creative craft in writing it.

The estimated cost of going to college for a person staying in student accommodation

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“No matter how frightening a thought we may experience, it is still only a thought; and we have the power to change each one.”

Health, Claire Lyons Forde

In this week’s online Meet The Maker, Maria Moynihan chats to Ruth Cahill of Kildare-based greetings card and illustration company Duck Blue

We’re so fortunate to have an abundance of gorgeous fruit in season. Now is the time to save some of this harvest for the winter months.

We often forget that our freezer is the first port of call to preserving food. Most fruit freezes well, you just have to plan how you want to use it later before freezing. For example, it’s good to freeze some fruit as it is – simply wash it beforehand, dry it and place in freezer bags or containers – and defrost as needed to use in tarts, pastries and other desserts. Or you may want to pre-make some dishes and freeze so they can go straight into the oven, or create coulis or compotes from your fruit before freezing.

– Dee Laffan