Organico Bantry

This drink is a favourite nearly year-round in Organico Cafe. It’s nice and easy to make at home so why not give it a try! We adopted the recipe from the Leon recipe book (thanks guys!).

Ingredients
200 mls Lemon Juice, 50g Ginger, 1 big bunch fresh Rosemary
5 Tbsp Local Honey (use Manuka Honey if you are feeling a cold coming on)
(this makes a syrup you can keep in your fridge for a week or more)

Heat the juice, ginger and rosemary, stirring in the honey after 20 minutes and turn off the heat. Let cool completely, then poor into a sterilised bottle (you can leave all the bits in there – it gets yummier every day!).

To make a mug of Cold Buster use 4 tablespoons of the syrup and top up with boiling water and extra honey if desired.

Our new board…just a few of our tasty treats!

Times are tough in West Cork at the moment and Organico Cafe is trying something new! We’re busy Monday to Friday but have been quiet on Saturdays, so we have come up with a great idea – grab a copy of The Grapevine* this week, bring a friend and we’ll offer you an amazing “Buy one Get one Free” offer on any food!

This is a great chance to take a friend for a Free Lunch! Introduce someone to the delights of Organico’s Hot Lunches which include daily specials such as:

• Chicken Curry made with Free Range Chicken
• Vegetarian Three Bean Chili
• Thai Fish Cakes
• Shepard’s Pie with Organic Beef
• Cauliflower & Chickpea Madras
• Grilled Goat’s Cheese Bruschetta with caramelised onions and pesto

Or choose from a delicious selection of sandwiches, coffee and cake or bowl of delicious warming organic soup.

This offer is running every Saturday from now until Christmas!

So that’s our idea – what do you think? Just grab a copy of The Grapevine and bring it in with you – and let us make your Saturdays happier as well as healthier!

*Bring a friend with you and for every meal (or sandwich or coffee & cake) bought you will get a similar or cheaper meal free of charge to eat on the premises there and then! We’re happy because more people get to taste our delicious food. So it’s Win Win for everyone!

*December Issue

Organico Cafe is delighted to present work by Cork artist Aoife O’Brien. Aoife’s work is subtle yet it draws you in – I concur with her statement below that her work is evocative of places we might have known. This show really is worth a visit!

Artists Statement

Visual perception i.e. Interpreting and understanding what we see, is thought to consist of 80% memory and 20% input through the eyes. 1I explore this estimation in my work by offering the viewer depictions or suggestions of imagery, which lead the viewer into his or her own interpretation of what is represented. The aim of the work is to create pictorial spaces, which toy with the viewer’s impulse to believe in them. The fictional compositions hold a tension between reality and fantasy. Anonymity prevails; distancing the viewer from reality, yet the work is strangely evocative of places we sense we might know.

Aoife’s Biography

Born in 1987. Aoife graduated with a BA (Hons) from Crawford College of Art and Design in 2009. Following a successful graduate exhibition she was awarded with a bursary studio space in Backwater Artists Group. Since then she has exhibited in Fledglings ’09 and was invited back to CCAD for a two-person show for Culture Night 2009, as well as exhibiting at The Space, South Mall, Cork, Sirius Arts Centre, Cobh, The Crow Gallery, Temple Bar, Dublin and The Crawford Art Gallery, Emmet Place, Cork and most recently in Seen/Unseen as past of Westport Arts Festival 2010. She has also had two solo exhibitions, the first at Basement Project Space, Cork and the second at Backwater Artists Group, Cork. Her work is represented in collections, including the Office of Public Works and Cork Institute of Technology. She is currently undertaking a residency at Belmont Mill Artists Studios, Co. Offaly.

We have just started shipping our breads and cakes (although not the iced ones yet!) to the whole of Ireland – we have had inquiries over the years but have never actually worked it all out. Now we have found an excellent courier service (Fastways) who guarantee next day delivery if you order at the start or the middle of the week and take very good care of their parcels.

We take orders by email and will call for credit card details. The best idea is to order to fill your freezer (our breads and spelt scones freeze very well) with some treats on the side (our spelt chocolate chip cookies keep for minimum 2 weeks). We bag up everything for maximum freshness and of course everything is freshly baked on the day we send it so even if you don’t freeze it you will get 3-4 days out of a loaf (the Soda breads keep fresh the longest). For more information on our Bakery see here.

So here is our price list:

Spelt Breads and Cakes
Large Wholemeal Spelt (Organic Spelt Flour, Yeast, Sea Salt, Water) 3.90
Large White Spelt (Organic Spelt Flour, Yeast, Sea Salt, Water) 3.90
Large WM/WH Seedy Spelt (Sunflower, Sesame, Hemp, Poppy & Pumpkin Seeds added) 4.70
Large WM/WH Sourdough Spelt (SD culture & a small amount of yeast) 4.50
Spelt Seedy Soda (smaller loaf) 3.50

Spelt Sourdough Health Bread (small dense loaf, no wheat or dairy, lots of seeds, and spirulina; slice thinly and eat with hummus, cream cheese, pates)  3.75

Spelt Scones (brown with fruit; white with lemon) .95c
Savoury Spelt Scones (Cheese and herbs) 1.25 each
Spelt Chocolate Chip Cookies (Extra Large) 1.50
Spelt Ginger Bread (Dark Ginger) 5.50
Spelt Orange Chocolate Brownies 1.30

Spelt Christmas Cakes (large and small) and Mince Pies (small but very tasty):
(all yet to be priced; usually the Cakes are from €30 – €45 and the Mince Pies are €12 for 13)

Wheat Breads

Large Wholemeal 2.50
Large Granary (Wheat & brown wheat flour with a little rye flour and some whole grains) 2.50
Very Large Ballymaloe Nutritious Soda (Buttermilk, eggs, seeds…all the good stuff!!) 3.75

Postage: €10.50 for up to 30 kg

We work best if you order on a Friday for delivery on a Tuesday; order on Monday for Delivery on a Wednesday; and order on Tuesday for delivery on a Thursday. Last orders for the week would be order on Wednesday for delivery on a Friday.

If you need Spelt Cakes please ask for a quote – we make a delicious Chocolate Cake but you would need to ice it…

All the best from Organico Bakery! Please use our forms to make your first enquiry and we will email you back asap.

In our enthusiasm for rare ancient “Superfoods’’ which we hope might unlock the secret of eternal health, we can often overlook the simple, abundant, local foods that might enrich our health. I think one of the most overlooked foods locally is seaweed. This month I decided to focus on seaweed and share some of the amazing information I have read about the benefits of adding it to our diet.

Historically in Ireland seaweeds have been used in soups and stews, as a cough remedy/convalescent food, for pain-reducing baths, as a glaze for pottery, an ingredient in soap, Read more…

If you are looking for an alternative to plastic bottled water we’ve found a great stainless steel bottle range!

They are non toxic (made from food grade stainless steel – so they don’t need a liner like aluminium bottles), recycleable, durable and great fun colours. Buy our stainless steel bottles here…

Onya 500 ml Blue Stainless Steel Bottle 100% Foodsafe BPA & Aluminium free Ergonomic attractive design Large stainless steel threads Stainless steel lid Wide mouth

Hello to all brave parents out there who are considering Real Nappies! Don’t worry, it’s very straight forward, if it wasn’t I wouldn’t be using them myself every day. If you have the time, I would suggest coming down to lovely Bantry Town and booking a Real Nappy Consultation with me. I can show you exactly how the system works and we can discuss what, when, how many…no pressure to buy, but if you wish to, we stock Little Comfort Nappies and sell the Full Pack at a fantastic 20% off the RSP.

We also have loads of other baby accessories including Olives and Applesauce slings which have a useful newborn insert so they are ready to go when you are!

If you are considering this, the days consultations are available are Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays (Friday is a good day as the market is on and the whole town is full of life). You can make a nice day of it and take a walk around Bantry House and have a healthy yummy lunch in our Cafe!

My personal opinion is that it is better to already have your nappies before your little one is born, as for a considerable time after the birth (especially if this is your first!) any decisions other than ‘will I have a cup of tea?’ are very hard to make, and so are any journeys. So get all those jobs done now – while you can still think!!

If you live too far to call down I am available by phone and we can ship Full Packs for a small charge. Just email me your phone number and I will give you a call (But we recently had a visit from some lovely girls and their mum from Limerick West who had a good day by all accounts!).

Hannah

How healthy is milk?? By Hannah Dare of Organico Bantry. (Published in the West Cork People October 2010)

We are constantly told that milk and dairy products are essential for our health. But what if that is simply not true? What if, instead, milk products are not suitable for adults and should be only eaten very rarely? This month I have been reading about milk and its connections to serious illnesses like breast and prostate cancer, and looking at whether it is actually a good source of minerals or protein. Given that I really enjoy cheese and milky coffee, this has been difficult to research, but I am more and more convinced that we should enjoy dairy products as a treat rather than as the backbone of our diet. Have a read and see what you think.
Read more…

I’d like to start a new section of the website devoted to Simple Meal Ideas, meaning not quite recipes but more inspiration to help you decide what to eat at those times when you just can’t think! I’m planning to invite customers and friends to add theirs also so we all get to share each others’ tasty, quick and easy meals.

Tonight I made a warm Puy lentil rice salad with caramelised onions and loads of herbs, with veggies and feta cheese. The veggies could be roasted (for example peppers, aubergine, onions, courgette) or sauted (leeks, kale, cherry tomatoes and butternut squash) or any combination you have to hand – it’s nice if they are juicy and seasonal. If you wanted to dress it up you could make an aubergine gratin in a rich tomato sauce…it goes really well with the lentils and rice. You could leave out the feta then.

For the lentils and rice I cooked 1 cup of brown rice (with 2 cups of water in a pan with a lid for 35 minutes) and 1/2 a cup of puy lentils (in lots of water until al dente) and mixed them together with some caramelised onion (4 small red onions with a little oil over a low heat for 20 minutes). You drain the lentils before mixing them, and the rice should be cooked through. Then add a few handfuls of chopped parsley and corriander, a glug of olive oil, a little balsamic and lots of soya sauce and pepper.

Serve with a generous amount of crumbeld feta. The salad is great the next day also, just check the seasoning. Enjoy! By Hannah

And the 2010 Organico winners are:

Rik Appleby for his wonderful slogan:

”I love organic, it’s energetic, no process, all most-ness, soul food, whole food, cleanses the mind, empowers the body and makes us shine!”

Well done Rik – your goody bag will be waiting for you!

Runners up are:

Toma Mcullim:

I want to smell the windblown, I want GM free
I’m listening out to the birds and bees.
See animals thriving and care for their fate.
I’m tasting the love on my plate.
Touch out to the natural,
Essential it’s sensual
Organically great.

And Sandra Gough:

Finest ingredients,
Expertly tended.
Leaves palates pleased and tummies contented!

And last but not least – Ed for hs cheeky one:

‘I don’t eat organic yet,
I like to shop in Lidl
Is that something I should regret?
and ruin my consumerist idyl?’

The runners up all receive a Cafe voucher for €25 – call in sometime and enjoy! (Maybe Ed will be convinced…;-))