Food File: The weekly food news round-up

EAT:ITH at the Fumbally

The Fumbally’s fourth annual series of workshops, discussions and events exploring Ireland’s food culture has a diverse and interesting programme running from September 27th to October 27th.

The Dublin 8 cafe and its adjacent community space, The Stables, will be the base for EAT:ITH, which will bring together some of the country’s most original thinkers, makers and doers around food.

“The aim of the series is to promote a better way of eating and drinking, to expand and connect the various food communities in Ireland, and to shine some light on issues surrounding sustainability and the future of food production,” the organisers say.

Apart from the line-up of workshops and talks, details of which are online at eat-ith.com, there will be Sunday markets, running from 10am to 4pm, with a different theme each week. The first, on September 30th, will focus on cheese, followed on October 7th by vegetables, October 14th on bread and October 21st on fermented foods.

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The series opens on Thursday, September 27th at 7pm with a debate: "Will Dairy be the Death of us", chaired by Alison O'Connor and including as a speaker Irish Times food writer Catherine Cleary. This is free to attend, but it is necessary to register in advance on the EAT:ITH website.

Other events worth signing up for before they sell out are a Toonsbridge Dairy workshop on making mozzarella (Saturday, September 29th, noon-4pm, €140); Vegetables with Katie Sanderson (Saturday, October 6th, noon-4pm, €140), and Sourdough baking and heritage grains with Louise Bannon (Saturday, October 13th, noon-4pm, €140).

The final night dinner, on Saturday, October 27th, will be cooked by Jess Murphy from Kai in Galway, Irish Times columnist Carmel Somers, and Rose Greene, who has worked at In de Wulf in Belgium and at Coombeshead Farm, April Bloomfield and Tom Adams's working farm and dining room in Cornwall. Greene is now setting up a fermented foods business in Ireland.

Tickets for the six-course menu are €60, and Le Caveau will be selling wines from their favourite female winemakers, with discounts offered on their list prices.

‘Enriched’ milk

What could be better for a growing child to drink than a glass of milk? A glass of “enriched” milk perhaps? Connaught Gold has launched Mór Milk, which it says is formulated to include iron, prebiotic fibre, vitamins A, C, D, E, calcium, zinc and iodine. Mór Milk is on sale nationwide and costs €1.65 for a litre carton.

Sampling culture

Culture Night takes places nationwide next Friday, September 21st and food is one of the genres included in the listings. There are food-related happenings all over the country, with a searchable guide online at culturenight.ie.

Among the highlights: Catherine Fulvio of Ballyknocken House & Cookery School will be in Blessington Library (7.45pm-8.45pm) for a free talk on autumn cooking with local ingredients. Pigtown Comes to the Milkmarket (5-10pm) will celebrate all things porcine, with a pig parade, talks, cooking demos and street food on sale as this little piggy goes to Limerick's Milk Market. In Castlebar, Co Mayo, Rua Café and Deli is staying open later than normal to offer Mayo Mezze, 6-8pm, with live music.

Wine-tasting dinner

Ghan House in Carlingford, Co Louth is hosting a Stellenbosch wine-tasting dinner in conjunction with James Nicholson Wines and Tom Hanson-Smith of Journey’s End vineyard, on Wednesday, October 10th (7.30pm). A five-course dinner with four wine pairings is attractively priced at €65, and if you’d like to make a night of it, B&B plus the dinner is available at €135 per person.