Joanna Blythman was in Town

Joanna Blythman is a Scottish investigative food journalist, writer and commentator on food chain, covering subject as salmon farming, supermarkets, intensive pineapple production and the causes of obesity. She has won several awards for her books which highlight the power supermarkets have these days, what our children eat and how to avoid GM foods.

Cork Free Choice Consumer Group invited Joanna over to the Crawford Gallery to talk about 'What's in our Food' and if I wasn't already convinced that processed food is total rubbish - I would be now. I actually started to refuse processed food and ready-made meals because they taste simply horrendous and I do like my flavour. I never thought about the health side of things and what it can do to our body. Joanna read out some of the ingredients in processed food and most of them were first of all non-pronounceable and secondly I have never heard of. So that was a bit frightening especially because I consider myself a bit of a fountain of knowledge when it comes to food.

Anyhow, Joanna was a bit nervous when she gave her speech (mostly supported by her notes) but when it came to the Q&A's she was in her element, being able to answer them all. Obviously her knowledge is based on the UK laws and regulations but since they are not too different from ours, we were able to learn a lot more.

Darina Allen and her brother Rory were under the listeners and you could see by their approving nods that they totally agreed with Joanna's informative evening.

Kitty, from Nano Nagle Centre in Mallow was also attending and we had a lovely chat about her upcoming new TV show where people are shown how to create a vegetable garden. Kitty was on of the 'Helping Angels' of Richard Corrigan for his City Farm project in Blackpool a while back. So watch this space for further updates on this project.

If you want to learn more about the 'stuff' that is in our food, make sure you read one of Joanna's books (available on Amazon) or follow one of the links below:

http://www.food-info.net/uk/ingredientlist.htm
http://nutrition.about.com/od/askyournutritionist/f/processedfoods.htm
http://www.ukfoodguide.net/enumeric.htm

Cork Free Choice Consumer Group

Cork Free Choice Consumer Group presents

What’s in our Food?

With Joanna Blythman

Distinguished British investigative journalist and broadcaster who is passionate about good quality foods.

Crawford Art Gallery Café

Thursday 24^th Feb at 7.30pm

Entrance 6 euro including tea & coffee

Free Cork Choice Event

MICHAEL KELLY

Best-selling author and broadcaster,

Social Entrepreneur Ireland Award 2009

Arthur Guinness Award 2010

Founder of the

'GROW IT YOURSELF' movement

He will speak on self sufficiency, sustainability and how to get good food from the back garden.

Crawford Art Gallery Café

Thursday 27^th Jan at 7.30pm

Entrance 6 euro including tea & coffee

Last Week

The start of last week was very quiet, didn't do much other than tomato chutney. Thursday I was suppose to go to Bubble Brother's wine tasting in the castle but decided instead to pay Cork Free Choice Consumer Group a visit in the Crawford Gallery. Ann Crowley who spent years in the Middle East introduced vegetarian food from Lebanon, Egypt etc. She shared some of her early memories on how food played an important part of everyday life. She was joined by Zico Ali (from Annie's Gastro Pub) who cooked up some amazing dishes and Samah (didn't catch the last name) who told us a bit about Egyptian Christians. There were too many dishes to list them all but I hope that Zico will publish a cook book soon..... (my wishful thinking anyway).

Lorraine invited me to her first wine night in Blarney and it was a great success. We were 6 girls (and all giggly) and each one brought a bottle of white wine. And as always, tastes are different and it was amazing to see how we rated the wines. Forgot to get the overall rating from Lorraine. Anyhow, the food was amazing, the wine kept coming and the company was outstanding....had a great time (only problem was, I had to get up early on Saturday to go to college)

Carol came over last night and we had a lovely bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon and had a girly heart to heart. Today is going to be a bit easy. Have to do some studying and meeting some friends later in Mahon....and we are ready for the new week ahead.

Hope ye all had a great weekend as well - keep dining and wining...

Grow your own

If you go regularly to the Farmer's Market in the Coalquay (Cornmarket Street), you will have met Caroline Robinson. Not only is she member of the Green Party of Ireland but also chairperson of the Irish Food Market Traders Association. If you think that is her normal jhob....nope, she is actually a vegetable farmer who is dedicated in using NO chemicals whatsoever in her soil.

Caroline hosted an evening last night in the Victoria Hotel (Patrick Street) where she told a big audience about how to prepare your soil, to start sowing and how to keep track of the weeds. She is full of excitment when it comes to growing vegetables the natural and we all were delighted that she took time out of her busy schedule. There is almost nothing she doesn't know about gardening and she convinced everyone that we all can do it.

I even won a raffle with great goodies from Interior Living of McCurtain Street. Simone Kelly (owner of Interior Living) is very much involved in the food scene of Cork and she and Caroline presented a fantastic evening. My goody bag included Pink Salt from Himalaya, olive oil from Sicily, Rhubarb & Ginger Jam of Natures Bounty (they won the Bridgestone Award in 2008), tin of tomatoes from San marzano, DonAntonio Pasta, Green Saffron spice mix and a French Cognac Vinegar...my cooking for the weekend is laid out now :-)