Weekend bites

THIS WEEK I’LL BE EATING...

watercress, which is just coming into season. We’re lucky to have a big pond full of the stuff and it’s fed by a spring. This is important when it comes to picking wild watercress as you need to be sure there are no livestock upstream for fear of liver fluke. You also need to know the difference between it and water hemlock, which is deadly poisonous! Watercress makes great soup and is good with orange in a salad.

TIME TO GROW

March is the busiest month in the garden for people who like to grow their own and GIY have some starter kits for the 65% of Irish people who, according to Bord Bia, want to give it a go. For €35 you get seeds of beetroot, carrots, tomatoes, salad, lettuce, peas, chilli, rocket, squash and courgette, plus seed trays, pots, compost and growing advice from GIY founder, Michael Kelly. This is the Ultimate Starter Grow Box. Other less ambitious packs weigh in at €14.99 and €10. growbox.ie

EATING OUT?

At the time of writing, there are reports that restaurant bookings across the country are down by 80%. Many of the most interesting and innovative restaurants are on a financial knife edge and the Covid-19 outbreak may be just too much of a storm for them to weather.

After this virus finally gives up, we will need our restaurants so we should make an effort to support them through difficult times, as long as we can do so while keeping ourselves and others safe.

NEW AND NOTEWORTHY

Two new restaurants have opened in the lovely village of Ballycotton on the coast of East Cork. Dan Guerin, formerly of the impressive nearby Sage and Kilkenny’s outstanding Campagne, is heading up Cush, while St Colman’s church has become Sea Church with a wildly eclectic menu that includes, bizarrely, ‘Smithwick’s Red Beer Battered Haddock’. Arguably this is a better application than drinking the stuff but why not use a proper local beer? See seachurch.ie, cush.ie