Hugo Arnold is inspired by a visit to the Organic Centre at Rossinver
The contrast could not have been greater. The previous night I had eaten in one of Dublin's most expensive restaurants, a multi-course feast with wines to match and a bill in keeping with all the razzmatazz. Now I was sitting in the wilds of Leitrim, feasting on organic potato tart, dark-hued beef tomatoes dressed with herbs and a little oil, and a salad of mixed and unusual salad leaves. The flavours were big and robust, the resulting juices mopped up with good, chunky bread made that morning. To be honest, were it not for the absence of a glass of red wine, I was happier in the wilds of Leitrim.
The Organic Centre at Rossinver is a sea of activity. Everywhere, there are vegetables, and people seem hugely busy, weeding, pruning, harvesting, cooking. Founded in 1995 as a non-profit-making company with charitable status, the centre runs courses, operates a café and plays host to a range of activities, all linked to the organic theme. You can learn how to cook and heal with food, how to grow things in polytunnels, all about potatoes, fruit and grains, breads and sourdough, goat-keeping, bee-keeping, even cheese-making.
This trip happened around the same time as I came across a rather nifty brochure from the Department of Agriculture and Food, called "Your guide to organic food and farming". Not only is it full of lovely pictures, it has a calendar showing the seasonality of foods, highlighting on a monthly basis what we can expect in terms of vegetables. This month, for example, we can have red cabbage, chicory, endive and lamb's lettuce, next month it is Brussels sprouts, and in December, all the root vegetables and cabbages. (It's so good, we ripped off the idea for our illustration - Ed.) So what are we doing buying tomatoes and mange tout, red peppers and peas when the autumn produce is so good?
Organic farming promotes natural systems; production methods avoid the use of synthetic pesticides and soluble fertilisers; it places particular emphasis on animal welfare; and food is produced to standards which do not permit the use of genetically modified organisms or food irradiation throughout the food chain.
I regard myself as an organic enthusiast rather than an out-and-out convert, but none of us really knows the downsides of eating intensively cultivated foods. Our children are among the first to be exposed to it on a massive scale. The following largely vegetarian recipes might well be better when made with organic produce.
See also www.theorganiccentre.ie