I started my day in the dairy this morning with Eileen milking the cows, which was very interesting. It’s a small dairy, and they are only milking four cows at the moment, they stop milking before a cow has a calf to give their body a rest, so that is the reason one...
Three things I’ve never done before… It’s been such a great weekend! Quite a few of the students went to The Blackbird last night for Rock and Roll Bingo – which was the cheesiest thing, reminded me of meat raffles in Australia. The owner of the bar would...
What a gorgeous day it has been today, even if it did start with a cold bath! Mary was heading into Cork this morning and generously offered to drive Nicole, Hannah, Ayane and myself in. We had a wander around The English Market, and explored a bit more of the city....
Week two is over, I’m looking forward to the weekend, but also excited to get into the kitchen again on Monday morning. My morning started off with ripping off a pollock’s head, and then fileting the fish for my fish pie. I was able to make white soda bread again,...
I woke up this morning, put my chef’s whites on, and all I could smell was hot oil – kitchen smells! Thankfully tomorrow is washing day! Had another good day in the kitchen, and managed to make a few extra things. White soda bread, crème caramel with caramel sauce,...
A long day today, but a day filled with so much information. I headed into the school for 7:45 we went out to the compost piles with Tim, where he showed us what he does with each pile, and a few different stages of the compost. The amount of compost that they have...
This will be a short blog post, it’s 10 to 12, just back from The Blackbird where we celebrated Kelly’s birthday – she’s from Vancouver! It’s a calm night here, the sky is incredibly clear, and it’s about -1, brrrrr! Today there was sun, rain, hail, snow, wind, and...
My goal is to be in bed before 11 tonight, I have quickly gotten into a routine here of staying up until well after midnight. The wind howled and howled last night, everyone slowly came into the kitchens this morning saying the same thing, “that wind last night….” and...
Last weekend we were all just arriving at this time, it is crazy to think how quickly the group of us has already become a little family, in each of the cottages, as well as an entire group. Yesterday was a good day, went into Midelton to see the farmers market there...
Week one is done! Although it feels like it’s been ages since I arrived (in the best way possible), it’s only been a week… And what a week it’s been, I am quite sad that only eleven weeks remain. I am the first one up this morning, making...
We had our first lecture day today, which was a bit dull later in the afternoon, but, they will only get better from here. The morning started with Darina making Ballymaloe Cheese Biscuits, Red Current Jelly, and teaching us (for about the third time!) how to make a...
Well, my first real day in the kitchen is complete, and it was a success, which feels quite good. Everyone around the school seems to be less anxious now that all of the unknown bits are out of the way. My shortcut pastry turned out well, but as Rory said today in...
