A Whirlwind few days!!

I arrived about 5.30 on Sunday evening after a shorter journey than expected from Dublin. Once registered I was shown to my house. To my surprise I was lucky enough to have my own bathroom, result!! My house, known on site as “Mrs Walsh’s House”, is a carbon copy of the house straight out of the film The Holiday with Cameron Diaz. Unfortunately Cameron Diaz is not one of my house mates  : ( 

Once settled, I unloaded my car and went to the welcome dinner which consisted of homemade pizzas baked in the schools very own wood burning pizza oven. As you can imagine they were delicious and left me wanting more!!!!! After dinner we all made our way to the pub in Ballycotton for some live music and I suppose a chance to try and get to know everyone. Being sensible I decided to drive so I could be fresh as a daisy for my first day as a Ballymaloe student!.

On our first morning we were feed a delicious brekkie consisting of homemade breads and jam, freshly squeezed OJ and a cup of cha to wash it all down, YUM YUM!! The one and only Darina Allen then gave us a tour on the school and its gardens. It was incredible to see where all the veg, herbs and vast selection of salad leaves that we use for our daily recipes come from along with chicken coops, pigs and cattle. The produce is literally picked in the morning, prepared and then eaten that afternoon, you can’t get fresher than that!

Once the THREE HOUR tour was finished we were ushered into the demo kitchen for a chat with Darina. She explained rules and various bit of information we would need to know. However little did I know that as I was sitting there listening to Darina, my car was blocking the laneway into the school and so the waste disposal track could not get by. The lecture was interrupted by the secretary and an announcement was made!! “Who owns the blue car blocking the lane?” Instantly I knew straight away that it was my car. I wanted to crawl up in a ball and pretend I wasn’t even there. I reluctantly owned and in front of 50 odd people left the talk to move my car. Very embarrassing and also not a great start to the course. Darina laughed it off afterwards but I was worried I would have a black mark beside my name. EEK!!

The school and it's ethos is very clear, the message that filters through is that produce must be fresh and organic where possible and also everything has a use!! For example once the oranges are juiced for the breakfast, the peels are then boiled in sugar and water to make flavoured citrus syrup. The boiled peels are then dried out and used as firelighters!! In the house and all over the grounds recycling is a priority and it makes you think where all the rubbish you produce actually goes or what other use it could have!?

Peeps please to continue eatmywordswithrelish to read and follow my blog. Photos to come of my journey here in Ballymaloe. I have been so  lazy but more so exhausted from our intensive days to get a few photos together but will do ASAP!!

Talk soon!!