Taste the Island - A Celebration of Ireland's Food and Drink - 2019 Buyers Guide

Food and feasts have always played a central role in Irish history, with farming communities developing pagan festivals to reflect the changing seasons, which informed stages of crop production. Celtic Festivals were celebrated with mass, a feast and dancing. This ritual was a crucial to farming as future crops would be blessed, with gratitude paid for the harvest sown that year as well as the weather, which helped to produce these crops. Irish Mythology There are many references to food and drink in Irish mythology such as Fionn Mac Cumhaill and the Salmon of Knowledge. The anonymous seventh-century “The Hermit’s Song” (Marbán to Guaire) sings of a rich diet of apples, nuts, herbs and cresses, salmon, trout, eggs, sweet mast, honey and strawberries.Wild garlic was commonly gathered as flavouring for Irish dishes. The common stinging nettle forms the basis of a popular soup; once regarded as a food for the poor, it has made its way onto restaurant menus in recent decades. IrishWhiskey From the Gaelic term uisce beatha, translates to mean ‘water of life’ As one of Europe’s earliest distilled beverages, the first record of Irish whiskey dates back to 1405, almost 100 years before it was recorded in Scottish history. IrishWhiskey was the most widely consumed spirit globally in the latter part of the 19th century, with over 88 licensed distilleries in Ireland at that time. Following a period of decline during the 20th century, Irish whiskey is returned now to be the fastest growing spirit in the world and today. The Potato The potato was introduced to Ireland by the late 1500s.Within 200 years it had replaced older staples, including oats and dairy products. The potato became the mainstay of the Irish diet. In the 1840s, the country’s heavy reliance on potatoes led to the disaster known as the Irish Potato Famine. Most Irish farmers grew one particular variety of potato, which turned out to be highly sensitive to disease. A potato blight that had started in Belgium swept the country. In 1845, potato blight destroyed one-third of Ireland’s potato crop and triggered widespread famine, with >1,000,000 reported to have died as a result while a further 2,000,000 people emigrated to other countries. Irish Stout ( ‘Porter’) The brewing of Porter originated in London, England in the early 1720s and quickly became popular as it had a strong flavour, took longer to spoil than other beers, as and was not easily affected by heat, and was cheaper than other beers.Within a few decades large volumes were being exported, while by 1776 it was also being brewed by Arthur Guinness at the St. James’s Gate Brewery. Originally leased in 1759 to Arthur Guinness at IR£45 (Irish pounds) per year for 9,000 years, the St. James’s Gate area has been the home of Guinness ever since. Ireland’s Food Heritage: The Origins of our Celtic Food Traditions 6 SECT ION 4 – IRELAND’ S FOOD HERI TAGE