Bloom 2010

Burts Bees garden


Crann Garden

More Burts Bees

School garden with Scarecrow

Great day at Bloom on Thursday. If you haven't been there yet, there's still a day to go - it's definitely worth it.

I arrived on Thursday, at 11:30 - opening time was 11:00am - there where huge queues to get in - lots of people arriving by bus. I made straight for the lost and forgotten skills area, where I heard a great talk by Tommy Osborne about killing pigs and making black pudding. Picked up a good tip for next week, when I hope to get some fresh blood form the pigs Joe is killing - adding a handful of salt to the bucket before the blood goes in will keep it liquid.

Then a quick look round all the gardens , and got ready for my talk at the GIY Ireland show garden (which was deservedly awarded a silver medal).

Show gardens I liked - Fiann O'Nualainn other garden ( he also designed the GIY garden), the Burts Bees garden, and the one with the ducks.

The Crann garden was not so beautiful, but made a great point. they had trees and other plants, planted through a much of cardboard. We did something similar in the school with willow, so I can show the students that we are doing the same as some forward thinking garden designers!

Met Suzie Cahn from Carrig Dulra - she was showing a school garden which she created in 2 weeks - good work Suzie!

Had a picnic lunch, delivered my talk - which was well received, and got a few chuckles in the appropriate places.

Had a great walk around the OPW walled garden - to be honest, this kind of permanent garden wows me much more than show gardens - the plants look a lot more natural. I was dead envious of the corn.

Over the years, Bloom has changed from being all about gardens to being a good balance between gardens and food. This is reflected in the gardens - lots had veg growing, and the artisan produce on sale is fabulous. I stocked up on a good few items - Annaharvey mini cakes, smoked sausages, strawberries, juice, and noticed that the Soul Bakery had very little bread left by 3:30pm. It's great to see such wonderful food being produced, and consumers snapping it up!

There's lots for kids to do - and the craft displays are excellent too. A real smith in operation, with real blacksmiths! I may have to bring the boys back tomorrow!

I took loads of photos, but I was using my iPhone, so they could be better. If you'd like to see some wonderful images, Bord Bia organised a photowalk, and the photos are on pixie. Check them out.

And only noticed the fantastic sculpture at the entrance on my way out ...

Bloom tomorrow

Headed to Bloom tomorrow, with my press pass from Bord Bia (thanks guys) clutched in my sweaty hand. And unexpectedly, this week I got an email from Michael Kelly from GIY Ireland who have a garden at Bloom - they have some talks going on at their garden, and have asked me to speak there.

So at 2:00pm tomorrow, I'll be speaking for 15 mins on gardening with kids. Still have to figure out what to say, but I reckon condensing to 15 mins will be the hard part :-) Hope to see you there!

Read about Bloom in the Times today

Lots of Bloom coverage in the Irish times. I think I'll be buying the paper for the photos!

Bloom 2010 - more details

I got an update from Klara Golez at Bord Bia on the Lost and forgotten skills demonstrations at Bloom. And now I want to go there every day! These talks will take place alongside the food market.

Times are subject to change - currently the first talk starts at 12pm and the final talk of the day starts at 4pm. I'd imagine that there will be details posted somewhere at Bloom when you arrive. Here's the line up:

Thursday 3rd June
Blood Pudding and Sausages
History of Irish Farming
Apples and Cider
Cheese-making

Friday
Butter-making
Oysters
Forgotten Skills with Darina Allen
Home baking and preserves

Saturday
Seaweed
Boxty and Irish Potatoes
Guided Tastings with Dillisk and Connemara Peat Whiskey
Honey producing

Sunday
TBC (Possible Smoked Salmon- subject to change)
Seaweed
Soda Bread and Jams
Honey producing

Monday
Boxty
Guided Tasting with Peter Ward
Poitin talk and tasting with Bunratty Poitin

The ones I'm excited about -
Blood Pudding and Sausages
Seaweed
Apples and Cider
Cheese-making

So I'm hoping to get there on Thursday at least. All going well I'll be tweeting about it when I'm there - follow me @greenannabrowne

Bloom 2010 - Lost and forgotten skills

I'm intrigued by something which is getting a minor mention in the Bloom web site. The Artisan tent will host demonstrations of things like cheese making, butter churning, apple pressing and fish smoking. I'd love to see a schedule of when these will take place - guess I'll have to keep an eye on the food part of the site as that info gets worked out.

I've made butter - accidentally, and made a bit of soft cheese, but I'd love to see a mozzarella made - believe it's very easy, and I'd love to see apple juice made too - given that my kids drink so much, it would be cost effective for me to grow a lot more apples! If I get any more info about this, I'll post it here.

Bloom 2010

Now that First Communion is over, I can start looking forward to some fun events. I'll be speaking at the next GIY event in Belevedere - May 20th - I'll be showing how to grow upside down tomatoes.

Then we have the June Bank holiday to look forward to, and 5 days of gardening at Bloom. I found the show very inspirational last year - especially the school garden. See photos above. The weather was fabulous too, which always helps - with 5 days to choose from, there are bound to be a few good ones.

Something else that I love about Bloom - there will be lots of food producers showing their wares - I didn't have a lot of time last year to sample, but a quick trip through the Artisan Food market had me licking my lips.

There was lots of kids to do last year - this year looks to be even better. Maybe I'll have to spend a day there on my own, and another day with the kids :-) Looking forward to getting even more ideas for my Summer camp there.