Roast Potato Soup
Today's soup - selected this morning before the spouse went shopping - is roast potato. The weather has been lovely just lately and today promised more of the same. Suddenly, at around 8 o'clock, thunder rolled and then the rain fell, stopping again shortly afterwards. But back to the potatoes. This soup contains floury potatoes, which are roasted separately, before putting into a pan with shallots, garlic, parsnip and vegetable stock (prepared by the spouse recently). I am not a fan of parsnips, but hoped that the yet to be added cream, bacon and onions would help to disguise the taste.
The bacon and onions are fried separately and served as a topping. This week I was the only one not too keen on the soup. The younger offspring joined his father and brother in voting it a good soup. All three would like to have it again.
The older offspring asked about having a beef soup - he missed the Hungarian goulash back in June - so I checked the index of The Soup Book to see what's on offer. The list includes beef and green bean, beef chilli, Mexican chilli bean, oxtail and pot au feu. What caught our attention was the lavishly titled Italian wedding soup, so that's what I'll be making soon.
Another Location, Another Soup
This morning the younger offspring and I accompanied the spouse to Mullingar, Co Westmeath, where he would be working for an hour or so. While he hobnobbed with a couple of minor celebrities (he doesn't meet the A-listers. That's my department), the younger offspring and I drove on through the town, passing the statue of Joe Dolan on our way, and travelled on to Belvedere House. We had a quick lunch in the Courtyard Cafe. I opted for the homemade vegetable soup, which was definitely homemade.
Despite the rain, Belvedere House and its gardens were well worth the trip. I took some photos of bees in the Victorian walled garden, but the camera is not well suited to that particular job.
Bee Buzz
Last week I came across the following news items:
- Spoonful of sugar may make honey bees' greatest destroyer back down (Irish Times, 31st August)
- Bumble bees get rare buzz in the Burren (Irish Independent, 28th August)
- European Union bee health project
- County Dublin Beekeepers' Association's special lecture (6th September) on beekeeping in New Zealand.
- a video of a girl dressed as a bee dancing to a song
- Vanishing of the Bees e-magazine
- Urban Beekeeping (e-magazine)
- Bee Keeping - An Introductory Course by Paul Peacock
- The Story of Honey
Sowing the Seeds of Doubt
In my last blog (28th August) I reported that someone from Irish Seed Savers had phoned to ask me to consider attending a different beekeeping course. I didn't want to change my arrangements, so declined the offer. During the week I received an e-mail message saying that only two other people were booked into the Getting the bees ready for winter course and that they (Irish Seed Savers) would let me know if they would have to cancel the course. Oh no! Fingers and bees' knees crossed, everyone.
Anyway, here's a link to a story about Irish Seed Savers that appeared in the Irish Times last Saturday. Saving seeds of the future from threats of the present.
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