Organico Bantry

In Organico Cafe yesterday a customer commented on her roasted aubergine and chickpea curry saying that it smelt and tasted amazing. ‘I know why’ she said ‘it’s because it is un-polluted food’.

As I carried on serving lunch I reflected on her comment. I think it is an excellent way to describe our food. We are not trying to serve Cordon Bleu. What we are trying to do is serve tasty, nutritious, clean ‘un-polluted’ food.

Today, our menu contains the following:

Organic Lentil and Pumpkin Stew served with Spelt Bread

Roasted Organic Aubergine and Chickpea Curry served with Organic Brown Rice

Spelt Pizza with sundried tomatoes and Fetta served with 2 Salads

Lentil and Seed Loaf served with Fresh Tomato Sauce, Rice and 1 Salad

Shepherd’s Pie (topped with Organic local potatoes and a red lentil and vegetable base) Served with 2 Salads

Fetta Cheese Salad with either Organic Bulgar Wheat or Quinoa, Organic Tomatoes, Cucumber and Lettuce

Cheese sandwich: Local Gubbeen Cheese or Dubliner

Salad Selections: Wild rice, Quinoa, Bulgar, red Cabbage and Pumpkin Seeds, Beetroot and yoghurt, Potato, Thai Noodles (all made with organic vegetables, sprouts and seeds).

A selection of cakes and cookies from our Bakery, all made with Organic Spelt Flour and served with organic cream.

A selection of Fair Trade Organic Coffees and Teas.

Come over for Lunch sometime - and be sure to let us know what you think!

The popularity of Organic food is on the rise internationally, with major food companies such as Tesco, M & S, Roma and Heinze increasingly their production of ‘Organic’ foods. However, there are good reasons to keep on supporting the origional leaders of the movement such as Whole Earth, Biona, Suma and Meridian (to name but a few), and also to put more effort into finding food that has been grown or produced locally.

The origional Organic companies were set up when Organic was the province of hippies and New Age radicals, not the fashion of the day as it is today. Many of the early companies have extensive environmental schemes, and also are basing their receipes on ‘wholefoods’ rather than refined more ‘popular’ foods. For example, rather than producing an Organic tomato ketchup which tastes exactly like the conventional one but is made with Organic white sugar instead of normal white sugar, Whole Earth formulated a ketchup that is sweetened with fruit juices and tastes of tomatoes not of pure sugar!

A recent article by Alex Renton in this Sunday’s Observer (October 1 2006) asked interesting and difficult questions about where our organic food is flown in from and what is happening to the industry now that Supermarkets have decided that Organic is the future. With the demand for organically grown produce growing but the area of land under organic production falling in the U.K. (it fell by 8% last year) more and more organic food is being imported to Ireland and the U.K., which results in higher prices, increased pollution from increased ‘food miles’ and poorer quality food because it has been picked and stored.

Renton argues that ‘local’ is going to be the new ‘organic’. This, in my opinion, is a challenge to all of us in this industry. Sourcing local organic food is often time consuming, unreliable and expensive, because initially at least you are dealing with a very small producer who is struggling to meet the Organic Certification requirements.

We are waiting too for the Governments of both the U.K. and Ireland to catch up with the trend and start to meaningfully encourage locally produced Organic food. Structured subsidies for small frmers so that if a crop fails (as the organic potato crop did last year) the farmers are not left completely high and dry. Right now this seems like a pipe dream but lets keep on hoping!

Organico Cafe is an oasis of calm and great food in the middle of Bantry. Our specialitiy is reall home cooked good veggie food - which appeals to both veggies and non-veggies! We love expermenting so you never know what delights await you - and then we know how much reliability means when you are feeling low so we always have our regular sausage sandwiches and tasty soups.

We love feedback and suggestions so please contact us is you have any. Our business is costantly evolving and changing and this is often due to customer feedback.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Hannah Dare

Organico Bakery produces one of the biggest ranges of Spelt breads, cakes and scones in West Cork, possibly in Ireland. We have been baking with spelt for nearly 5 years, and we now make 4 different kinds of bread (white & brown yeast; white & brown sourdough; white & brown soda & french sticks, which are a mix of regular yeasted spelt dough with some sourdough mix thrown in for added texture & taste). We also make spelt scones, spelt chocolate chip cookies, spelt oat & raisin cookies, spelt chocolate fudge cake, spelt ginger cake, spelt lemon drizzle cake, spelt Christmas fruit cake, spelt banana cake, spelt Tarte Tartin, spelt chocolate tart & spelt pasties.

We have a regular bread stall in Bantry Market from April through to December, and from the stall we sell our breads and cakes as well as Spelt Pizza, Spelt Focaccias with all kinds of yummy toppings.
The flour we have found to be the best for the cakes and breads is Hildegard Health Organic Spelt Flour, which we also sell for home baking in our healthfood shop. We also sell Hildegard pastas, as well as the excellent Biona Spelt Pastas and Finestra de la Cielo cookies and crackers.

Drop in and enjoy! More receipes and tips for cooking and baking with spelt to follow.

In Organico Cafe we offer a wide selection for people who are coeliac or are trying to avoid Gluten, dairy, wheat, sugar, salt or saturated fats. Our aims are simple: to provide healthy, tasty and interesting food for everyone. We specialise in vegetarian foods because we believe that they are healthier and we are so enjoying cooking with vegetables, sprouts, beans, pulses and cheeses that we are not thinking of changing at this time, though we will keep you posted! Our customers are not all vegetarians but they all seem to love our food, so we must be doing something right!

All our soups are gluten free, dairy free and wheat free. We make our own stocks so we can be sure of this. Our curries and chilies are the same. We make all our own burgers, falafals and sausages, so we can tell you exactly what is in all of them. We use a lot of unusual grains such as Quinoa which is hugely popular as a salad and is also great in chillies. Our salads are all made fresh and on the premesis and with the exception of obvious ones like Bulgar wheat salad or couscous salad are gluten free.

We also offer a delicious gluten free cake made with apples, rice and millet flours, almonds and cinnamon, which is popular with coeliacs and non coeliacs too.
We can also make breads and cakes to order - we have a great receipe for GF chocolate cake and also for chocolate brownies.

In our shop we offer loads of GF pastas, crackers, bars, chocolate, sauces, and cooking ingredients.

More on this topic to follow.

It’s been a great summer for fruit and we’ve had the best of local mixed with some great exotic fruits. Our policy is to try and keep our food miles down and to that end we’ve had some great local berries this year. The highlight for me was the strawberries. You know, the kind of strawberries that make you tingle because they are packed with flavour - the kind you remember from your childhood.

We’ve also had some delicious exotic fruits to satisfy our customers requirements, however we’re trying to promote local in season fruits and vegetables and educate our customers with respect to the seasonality of supply and the impact of flying food all over the world.

In Organico, Bantry, we have noted a dramatic raise over the past few years in the demand for Organic food from our Irish customers. When our shop first opened in the early 1990’s our customer base was nearly exclusively non-Irish - known as ‘Blow-ins’ in West Cork terms. Now we have more that 75% Irish customers. This shift has occured as Organic food, herbal remedies and natural cosmetics have become more mainstream, and also as our shop has become more familiar and accessible to the local community.

Our father, Alan Dare, who started the shop in the early ’90’s, became well known for his free advice on how to stay healthy and how to use simple and affordable remedies such as cider vinegar to achieve and maintain health. Alan set the tone for Organico Shop from the very beginning as a place where customers are not urged to buy the most expensive product but instead are given all the options and information they need to make informed choices about their own health.

Organico was one of the first, if not the first, healthfood shops in Ireland to sell Dr Vogel’s outstanding Echinaforce (which Alan had to import from the UK as no supplier here in Ireland was selling it). Alan was also one of the first people in the country to recommend Citricidal or Grapefruit Seed Extract. And all this was despite the fact that when he first opened he was determined to sell only foods. Such was the demand that now we have an extensive range of non-food products.

But we are still completely committed to Organic food. Opening Organico Cafe recently is us putting our money where our mouth is. All our veggies, pulses, grains, flours, sugar, coffee, and milk are organic. We use organic mayo, ketchup, vinegars, yoghurt, juices, soya milk, & teas. Click here to see our Menu.

Whether to go for Organic certification for the cafe is an onging question which is complicated by the fact that many of our local organic suppliers are not certified and we like to be able to buy locally. Also there are some items which are not available in the quantities we need in Ireland and which, if we used them now, would mean we had to charge much higher priced for our food. Butter is one of these products - if anyone out there knows of an Irish organic butter supplier who would supply us in bulk please let us know!

For the best vegetarian lunch in West Cork, visit Organico Cafe in Bantry. We serve a full menu of Organic Vegetarian food all year round - soups and sandwhiches; salads plates and stews; curries and pasties. We also serve delicious organic Fair Trade coffee, cakes, scones and snacks from our bakery next door.

Organico Cafe is part of a family run business based in Bantry, West Cork, the home of Ireland’s gourmet food movement. West Cork is known for its cheeses, seafood, cured fish and meats, so we decided to complement all the interesting meat and fish restaurants by opening an exceptional organic vegetarian cafe for both locals and tourists who feel like a change. We already had a thriving healthfood shop and bakery, and a cafe seemed a logical next step.

Organico Cafe has been a resounding success. Initially trade was slow, which was a blessing as we were only finding our feet. But now, well into our 2nd year, we have made a name for ourselves in West Cork for delicious food which suits both vegetarians and also non-vegetarians who are open to trying something new. We are not completely vegetarian ourselves, which enables us to put together a menu which appeals to pretty much everyone - even some picky Italian students who were visiting the area found the Falafal Sandwhich to their taste!

Although our first focus in on the food, the Cafe is a great meeting place for people interested in living well in West Cork. We host meeting of West Cork Environmental Forum; of West Cork Homeopathy discussion groups, fundraiser evenings and regular Exhibitions of local Artists work. We also have internet available.

Our menu in Organico Cafe changes regularly, but here is a taster…

Today’s Menu

Soups

• Courgette, mint & split pea soup served with fresh spelt bread
• Italian bean stew served with fresh spelt bread

Main Courses

• 3-Bean Vegetable Chilli, served with brown rice, grated cheddar & tsatziki
• Summer Tart (roasted cherry tomatoes & fetta) served with a choice of 2 salads
• Thai Vegetable Curry, served with a choice of 2 salads
• Courgette Fritters, served with a choice of 2 salads

Salads

• Courgette & carrot with a lemon olive oil dressing
• Brown rice with a yoghurt/tahini dressing
• Quinoa with mint & cherry tomatoes
• Thai noodles with a spicy peanut dressing
• Mixed beans with a sweett chilli dressing
• Marinated chickpeas with a garlic/lemon dressing

Sandwiches

• Falafals in a spelt bap with hummus, tahini dressing, tomatoes, cucumber & lettuce
• Lentil burger in a spelt bap with Tsatziki, tomatoes, cucumber, lettuce & relish
• Veggie sausages in a spelt bap with mayo & tomato ketchup; tomatoes, cucumber & lettuce
• Cheese Sandwich: A choice of cheddar, local goat’s cheese, fetta or local Gubbeen cheese in a spelt bap with mayo, chutney, tomatoes, cucumber & lettuce

Salad Plates

• A choice of a 2 or a 3 salad plate with either hummus or a choice of cheeses; served with fresh breads

Fresh Smoothie ( a blend of pure organic fruit - a meal in a glass!)

• Peach, banana & strawberry

Deserts

• Chocolate cake, Lemon Drizzle cake, Ginger Cake, Banana Cake (all made in our bakery using spelt flour)

We pride ourselves in the quality of our ingredients which are primarily organic and/or locally grown.

In Organico Bantry we believe it is vital to support the development of the Irish Organic sector. There is certainly a growing awareness of and demand for organic food in Ireland; you only have to see the new ‘organic’ ranges in our Irish supermarkets to see that! However, there is far too much Organic food imported into Ireland and we would like to see that reduced and more food grown and processed locally.

According to Organic Europe a survey conducted in Ireland shows that 30% of Irish consumers are prepared to pay a 20-25% premium for organic food. This is bourne out by our own experience in running our wholefood shop where well over 75% of the food we sell is organic. In our cafe we source nearly 100% organic ingredients - because the food is vegetarian it is easier although during most of the year this means we rely mainly on imported produce. When we can though we get our greens and salads locally as well as eggs, courgettes, peas, beans, and of course potatoes (though last year the blight was a real pain! Wiped out our 2 suppliers completely.)

Even given that at the moment we are using so much imported vegetables, the food in our cafe tastes so much better than non-organic food, especially the salads. How anyone could eat a non-organic carrot at the moment I have no idea - they just do not have the flavour I expect. And while it’s true that you will pay more for the organic carrot I would challenge anyone who has tasted the difference to tell me the choice is hard.

Even in the home of cheap food, the US, consumers have indicated a willingness to pay higher prices for their food. A website I found extolling the virtues of ‘cheap food’ (called Cheap Eats!) admits that ‘A recent poll of food attitudes found 71 percent of Americans claiming that they wouldn’t mind paying more to buy food grown near where they live or food grown in ways that protect the environment’. Furthermore, the author says that ‘Retail sales of organic foods, which cost considerably more than regular items, are growing at a torrid pace. The Department of Agriculture expects them to hit $20 billion a year by 2005, up from $1 billion in 1990.’

For us, in our business of running an Organic cafe, bakery and wholefood shop, this growth in the Organic sector is obviously important. But as I started out saying, we are also very committed to buying more organic food that is grown locally. Please contact us if you are growers or manufacturers of Organic foods in Ireland!

Organico Bantry is owned by Hannah and Rachel Dare; contact at (027) 51391