CONNOISSEUR / HUGO ARNOLD:Peter Ward's favourite three words: "Keep it local"
LAST MONTH MORE than 400 people sat down in the late September sunshine and ate lunch on Lower Kenyon Street in Nenagh. Everything bar one ingredient was organic and all of it local. The feast was as long as the late-summer shadows and the cost? €20 a head, €10 for those up to student level, including apple juice and cider.
The food was supplied via a network of local organic producers with beef from Michael Seymour's farm in Borrisokane, supplemented by Stella Coffey and Richard Auler's Ladybird organic sirloin-plus burgers (the entire meat from the animal is used in the burgers). The potatoes were Cara and came from Mossfield Organic Farm. The carrots came from Philip Draper of Coolnagrower Organic Produce along with the beetroot. The tomatoes and salads were provided by Dermot O'Meara's Sunny Meadow Organic Farm.
All produce was purchased at retail prices, the labour came free. And what on Friday morning was going to be a modest 40-plus people had become over 400 by Sunday afternoon. This year it was Nenagh, but why not next year all over the country?
Mastermind of the event, Peter Ward, is in no doubt that this is possible. Local events around the country using local suppliers to produce a local lunch. Why not? This is really what a harvest feast should be about and it is his view that every town and village in Ireland should have one. What better way, he argues, to bring together farmers' markets and country markets, producers and consumers. Artisan producers in Ireland currently number several hundred but there is potential for this to run to thousands (New Zealand, with a population similar to ours is often cited as an example). What most of these fledgling producers lack however, is visibility, exposure, championing and access to those most likely to buy their produce - locals.
This event was a chance to bring the community together under a common banner of good food and surely what an initiative like National Organic Week should all be about. Making the event accessible and affordable was, according to Ward, crucial to its success. Lots of voluntary labour not only achieves this but helps to foster the crucial community spirit.
Nenagh restaurants were involved, with each one cooking 400 servings of one thing. The only stipulation was that traditional supply routes had to be curtailed and substituted with local, organic and seasonal produce. This structure allowed the workload to be spread, but it also enabled engagement as all the chefs were encouraged to cook their ingredient as they liked.
The hope is that these same restaurants and more around the country might look to source more of their food locally all of the time. "It is about so much more than having some fancy relish," according to Ward. "It's more about straight up ordinary food - like potatoes and carrots."
For anyone keen to organise a similar event next year, the advice is to engage with the municipal authorities from the outset. In this case the local Garda sorted out barriers, which was fortunate as two long tables seating 200 people each took up rather more than the pavement. Next year the hope is the road might be closed so another table can be added.
Weather concerns were never an issue. Local pubs, a music venue and a nightclub all offered to host the crowds in their individual premises if the heavens opened.
Ward is almost evangelical about the possibilities. Imagine if you had a local national food week, he points out. You could tie up the markets, farmers, schools, hotels . . . the list is endless. None of this is easy and will not occur overnight but it can, should and will happen.
And the one non-organic ingredient? The apples used in the apple tarts. Not because organic apples are hard to get but for Ward the local apples on farms all around the town are far more valuable.
"How could I pass gold like that by for an event like this?" he asked.
www.countrychoice.ie