Yes, a picture of the sun RISING over the greenhouses this morning! So we managed to wake up for the voluntary gardening class and sleepily trudged off across the gardens and fields, passing Ballymaloe’s gorgeous litter of Gloucester old spot pigs….
They are 5 months old….
....and we eat them at 6! :-(
Gardening was good, learned that a compost heap can reach temperatures of over 70 degrees…see steam....
.....and we also took cuttings of the hallowed sweet geranium plant! So we can start growing our own and take a taste of Ballymaloe home with us! This is actually VERY exciting….
Took cuttings of French tarragon too, and now all our pots are sitting happily on the south facing Pink Cottage windowsill, much to the envy of all the other girls who didn’t manage the 7am start! Then all headed to school for theory day. In the morning Darina and Emer demonstrated how to make a lot of different cheese from scratch. It got slightly confusing as they made them all at the same time, it all just seemed to involve a lot of boiling of milk. Hard to believe they can all taste different, but they did! Had an amazing lunch of tomato and mint soup, soda bread, flatbreads, lamb curry, beetroots, green beans, raiita, paneer with tomato and chilli salsa (one of the cheeses made in the morning, eaten a lot in India), roasted aubergine and tomatoes, lentils, and homemade strawberry ice cream! Then had our afternoon lecture on wine, beginning with the basics e.g. Chardonnay is the name of the grape! Who knew?! Did some tasting, then at 5pm were released into he evening's sunshine to amble down to the beach at Garryvoe…
We rockpooled, walked, waded....(in style)....
.......and went home to cook and sit down around our big table laughing and snorting spaghetti at the dirty, dirty jokes of the deceivingly innocent looking Flo Deneé..... :-)
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