Milk is Magic

A long day today, but a day filled with so much information. I headed into the school for 7:45 we went out to the compost piles with Tim, where he showed us what he does with each pile, and a few different stages of the compost. The amount of compost that they have here is incredible, they use it to keep down pests and bugs that will attack their veg and various plants as they grow. At the humus stage (when they start to use it), the compost is full of bacteria that those pests will feed on rather than coming up from the soil to nibble on the leaves etc. Imagine a single garage without a roof, they have seven concrete silos that are that size where they keep their compost, each silo has compost at a different stage, and generally it takes each heap a year to be at the humus stage, at this point it is ready for use.

The inner temperature of a compost heap will get up to 60 C, and at that point it will actually pasteurize the heap – interesting. I was able to chat with Tim about our maggot infested, okay, maybe that’s a little dramatic... The maggots living in our compost, and he said not to worry, just continue, get the moisture out and let oxygen into the heap and it will be fine. There was a gorgeous sunrise over the farm this morning, and it was cold, cold, the puddles were all frozen, and the pebbles had a skim of ice on them, which made it quite hard for walking, especially in wellies.

We started the morning with tray bakes, which were the biscuit of the week, Darina hates the term “tray bake,” but can’t think of another word for them, I don’t disagree. They were simple, but all of them tasted so good. They take about 3 minutes to make, and are quick to bake too, which is always a bonus. Raspberry and coconut, chocolate and hazelnut, spiced orange, lemon drizzle, blueberry with cinnamon sugar, plum and almond, and coffee and pecan.

After the tray bake session, we moved right along, Eddie O’Neill who is a food scientist, and works a lot with artisanal food producers around the country was a guest in today’s lecture. His passion is dairy, and particularly cheese making, he and Darina introduced us to how milk is separated from cream. Once you've done that, you can easily make butter, buttermilk, yoghurt, cheese (ricotta, cottage cheese, gouda, cheddar, and paneer were made in today's demo). Of course Darina talked about uses for all of the things that were made. We had a lovely lunch made by the teachers, and then it was onto the wine lecture with Colm and Peter, we tried two Rieslings, White Burgundy, a Red Burgundy and a Pinot Noir. We sadly won't see Colm and Peter again until week 5. Wednesday afternoons might not be the same! I always say that it’s the last drink that leaves you with a hangover, never the ones that came before… Colm today was explaining how people try to blame tannins in wine for a hangover, “probably was the three gin and tonics, three glasses of wine, and glass of port that left you with a hangover, yet people still try to say it was the tannin in the wine.”

It is now raining / snowing, and bloody cold, we are all tucked in for the night, and I plan to turn in early tonight to be rested for my morning’s cooking.

I keep on about the Irish and their butter, in Cork they have a butter museum, which would be neat to visit.

“That field always made good butter.” Local Supplier of Butter to Ballymaloe House (several years ago)

Snow in the countryside.	A very expensive decanter, which can double decant a bottle of wine.	Tim at one of the compost heaps.
Sunrise on the farm!	Some of the tray bakes!	Eddie carefully stirring the curds for his cheese.
Eddie, Emer, Darina and Pat after the lecture.