seasonal strawberries and the all-Ireland farmers' market competition

this weekend, the inaugural All-Ireland Farmers' Market Competition is on. For more on it, go to this new enviro blog I'm involved in. You could also download a form to enter, even at this late stage, here. (Scroll down a wee bit!)

Finally, why not try to get down to the south east this weekend for a foodie fest in Strawberry country?

Here's an article on seasonal organic strawberries in Ireland to whet your appetite
Even the most perfect of products seems to become more perfect when you add the word organic to the title. Champagne is fine but organic champagne is finer. For better and worse, organic just adds that touch of class, in both senses of the word. The same goes for strawberries.

Each year, in Wimbledon, 28,000 kilos of strawberries, and 7000 litres of cream are consumed. But which would you rather sir: the organic or the conventional?

Even on the Galway route out of Sligo at the moment, there are little huts on the side of the road selling strawberries from Wexford. But if you want Irish organic strawberries, you have to go right down to the sunny south east.

But if you want Irish organic strawberries, you have to go right down to the south.
Growers like Billy Clifford, Paul van Bree and Tony Miller in Cork and Kerry produce strawberries, as does Grace Maher in Carlow and the Organic Centre in Wexford.

The Centre, which specialises in training people in commercial horticulture, sells at all four farmers' markets in the county: Wexford on Fridays and Enniscorthy, New Ross and Gorey on Saturdays

There can�t be a more perfect product at the moment: local, seasonal and organic: for those of us in the rest of the country, we�re trying to choose between imported organic, often from as far a field as the US, and Irish conventional.

I spoke to Pat Roache of the Organic Centre Wexford about their strawberries.

They grow Elsanta, Cambridge Vigour and Cambridge Favourite. Elsanta is the typical, big, juicy early strawberry, one that can easily compete with the best of the conventional in terms of aesthetics and flavour.

For those with a more refined palate, and an interest in heritage, the two Cambridge strawberries are popular. Vigour has a touch of bitterness, less uniformity in shape and size, while favourite is very sweet and small.

�The Cambridge seem to stand up well to the wet: they don�t seem to suffer from mildew as much�. Last �Summer�, Pat and his colleagues got plenty of opportunity to test this hypothesis out.

�We grow just under � acre of strawberries at the moment, which we sell through our shop and at the markets in the county. Technically, the strawberries are grown on the in-conversion part of our site, so they are not officially organic as of yet. Obviously in-conversion means that the farming practices are organic, and we�ll soon have that section full certified too�.

Wexford farmers� market shoppers don�t know how lucky they are. The strawberries actually retail for the same price as their conventional counterparts: �10 for a kilo and �5 for 500 grams.

The Centre is primarily a training centre for those interested in commercial organic horticulture - they offer 8 FETAC level 5 courses. On their 34 acre site, they grow 20 varieties of vegetables and have four large and one smaller polytunnel.

Two exciting upcoming events are looming large on Pat�s radar. At the end of the month, there is the inaugural all-Ireland farmers� market competition. This will be held on 28th and 29th June, and carries �5000 prize money. The event will be held in Enniscorthy as part of the annual Enniscorthy Strawberry Fair.

The other is the Irish Terra Madre, the biggest Slow Food event ever to be held in Ireland. This falls on the 4th-7th September.

Finally, if you fancy learning more, don�t forget that the Wexford Organic Centre is also a Teagasc demonstration farm: their open day falls on Friday the 19th September at 6pm, when horticulture and field-scale vegetables will be the focus.

And in the meantime, if you are on your way to Rosslare to catch a boat, or on your way back from a trip away, why not drop in to the farm shop for a punnet of those classy strawberries?

To contact the Organic Centre Wexford, call 051-428375 or visit www.wexfordpartnership.ie and click on the Organic centre link on the left.