GET THIS:The recent Lamb Fair in Roscommon brought farmers, families and townsfolk together, writes Hugo Arnold
ROSCOMMON IS SOMETHING of a happening town. Building activity is rife. There are branches of Aldi and Lidl sprouting on the flat ground surrounding the hill the town is built on. They join Dunnes Stores and Tesco. That is quite a lot of retail space for a town of 5,000 people.
Walk up the high street and into the market square however, and the shops are busy, at least for the moment. From hardware to fashion, electronics to mobile phones - small, largely independent shops make the street welcoming and accessible. On the left, up by the tourist office and museum, is Gleeson's Market Deli, which opened recently.
Mary and Eamonn Gleeson bake 40 loaves of brown bread every day, along with 60 or so scones. They also bake a leg of ham in a stock heady with orange juice, cloves, star anise and juniper berries. Together with organic turkey breasts, marinated Irish chicken and smoked salmon from the Burren Smokehouse, they sell sandwiches that are, to quote Mary Gleeson, "everything a supermarket or branded sandwich is not."
Seasonal and local produce might be the food philosophy of the day, but the truth really is in the eating. At Gleeson's you can get all five of the Mossfield organic cheeses, pasta that is made in Sligo, Kelly's black pudding from Mayo, Seamus Moran's LoTide seaweed sausages, Ballycross apple juice, and chutneys that are made in the shop, to name just a few examples.
If you are shopping for supper, there are trays of lasagne, an aubergine and courgette bake and a substantial main course such as chicken tagine, which will have come straight from the couple's cafe a few doors down the street. Home-cooked food that just happens to be cooked in a shop. Looking for more choice? Gleeson's frozen meals are but a hand-stretch away.
If you order a sandwich, you can choose from a dill and onion roll, a white bloomer, or rustic French bread. Sliced white pan bread is not available. These breads all come fresh out of the same oven as the scones and brown bread. In winter there is soup. And on Fridays the farmers' market is immediately next door, so you can buy vegetables that have come straight off the stalls.
There are some who might say this is all rather unremarkable, the sort of thing we have been doing for years. But this is far from the case. Sourcing Irish produce, particularly in rural areas, is surprisingly difficult, and addressing this was one of the aims of the recent Roscommon Lamb Festival, which the Gleesons were instrumental in creating.
Teaching rural Ireland about lamb seems like an odd idea. But the event was such a success it is to be run again next year. Sheep shearing in the town square, along with subsequent weaving and knitting demonstrations, proved an eye-opener for many. The beauty contest - lambs rather than people - had children grooming and parading their prized woolly friends. And to end proceedings, Rachel Allen cooked a lamb feast for 200 on the Saturday night, featuring lamb cured by James McGeough, as well as lamb sausages.
The idea behind the event was to encourage the integration of farming, the town and children, and clearly the idea of local sourcing and local production has an audience.
There are rooms to rent above Gleeson's - the building is powered by solar panels and is about as energy efficient as it is possible to get - and recently a New Zealand couple travelling around the country stayed for three nights. They were on a tight budget and so each evening they would come down to the shop, buy a bottle of wine, a few salads, some cheese and a main course and retire to their room. Local, seasonal, Irish and fresh.
Gleeson's Market Deli, Market Square, Roscommon, 090-6626954