Market Newsletter 30th September 2010

Welcome to this week's newsletter. We are just back from Abruzzo in Italy, with its rolling vine-covered hills and valleys, where we had a lovely time.

If you are thinking of early planning for next year's holiday, this is a wonderful part of Italy, and food and accommodation are both great quality and tremendous value. More information next week!

Honest2Goodness Food Hero Competition

We are working through the various nominations for our Food Hero competition, and will send out a separate email on how to vote online.  We will have paper-based voting forms at the market this Saturday and next Saturday

 Stallholder news this week:

We have two new food stallholders starting with us this Saturday.

The first is The Curry Sauce Co, who have vacuum-sealed fresh sauces and Martin and Ann  will have them all available for you to taste before you buy on Saturday. We have been hearing about these sauces for quite some time now, so we hope you enjoy trying them out! They are approved by the Coeliac Society so are great for the gluten-intolerant...

 

'A Little Taste of Heaven'

The second new stallholder is Ann Marie from Trim in Co. Meath (yes another Meath person!) and she has a variety of cakes on sale, ranging from cup-cakes through to more traditional cakes. She is really looking forward to joining us!

A third new stall will be an exhibition of slate-based food and wine paintings drawn by local artist Marie. The paintings are also for sale.

Stephane from Gannet Fish tells me that Cailean will have black sole on special this Saturday, at €19.50 per kg; he also mentioned to me that the fishing hauls at the moment arent great, so that the usual range of fish might be a bit restricted.

Sheila from Dublin Meath Growers will be back with us on Saturday and they will have new season Celeriac available for sale.

Pascale from Phoenix Delites had a lot of her stock stolen from her vehicle this week, so she is hoping to be able to replenish stock in time for Saturday.

 

At the Pantry, we will have goats milk and goat's cheese on tasting from local producer Dominic & Fionnuala Gryson, who have a goats farm at Tara Co. Meath. Contrary to what you might expect, the milk has a very clean smell and taste - not goaty at all! We plan on having a regular supply of both the milk and the cheese from next week. We've had a full delivery of fresh ice-cream this week, so lots to choose from!

The Wine Stall is continuing the Italian theme with our wine specials of the week. The photo above was taken on Saturday last in Abruzzo - we heard that the grapes need about another 20 days before they will be picked by hand. Our white wine of the week is from Luigi Valori, his Trebbiano d'Abruzzo, with its flavours of lemon, green apple, pear and peach. The usual price is €14 per bottle, we will have it on sale on Saturday for €11.90.

Our red wine is from our other supplier in Abruzzo, Masciarelli, and it is their Montepulciano d'Abruzzo Classic Line, tasting of redcurrant, cherry, violets and tobacco. It is usually priced at €14.50, and is available on Saturday for €12.30.

 At the Cafe,  the hot dish is  Italian Meatb'alls with a herby tomato sauce, made from Jim Ryan's lamb, and our soup will be Autumn Vegetable.