The National Dairy Council will be Milking It at this year’s Bord Bia Bloom taking part in the Phoenix Park, June Bank Holiday weekend. NDC has joined forces with Airfield Estate in Dublin this year to create The Sustainable Kitchen at NDC’s garden with a series of talks, recipe demos and tastings over the five days with MC and Food Writer Dee Laffan.
Airfield’s cooking teacher Lisa Davies will be cooking a selection of delicious recipes throughout the five days that follow the principles of a modern sustainable diet. Celebrating quality Irish dairy with “in season” fruit and vegetables and herbs which also be growing in the NDC kitchen garden which will include Chard, Artichokes ,Broad/runner beans, Cabbage, Onions, Garlic, Lovage, Summer berries, Lettuce, and herbs. Lisa will also be teaching some lucky schoolkids how to make butter by hand and a ricotta cheese.
Claire Mac Evilly, CEO at Airfield Estate said,
“Airfield Estate is delighted to be involved with NDC at their garden at Bloom this year and to be running The Sustainable Kitchen. As a farm and learning centre, Airfield is Dublin’s sustainable food hub showcasing how food is produced and sustainability practices. Two-thirds of Irish people live in urban areas and many school children and students are disconnected from where food comes from so it’s great to use this opportunity to bridge this gap and educate people on this very important element of living well.”
Food writer and broadcaster Aisling Larkin will also be cooking a delicious menu of dishes at Bloom to celebrate World Milk Day on Saturday 1st June. Aisling is a well-known regular on the Six O’clock show on Virgin Media as well as her work with Ciaran Cuddihy on Newstalk. Aisling will also be taking part in a “Milk Tasting” with a panel of experts. Milk and wine are both made from living products, one is made by soil in the plants – the other is also made by the soil, with the cow in between.!
Designed by Hungarian Garden Designer and regular at Bloom, Tünde Perry, the garden is designed as an impactful space forging a deeper connection between Irish consumers and sustainable dairy production as well as promoting the essential nutritional credentials and great taste of Irish Dairy. Designed to capture people’s imagination and promote a greater understanding of Ireland’s dairy production system and outstanding nutrition credentials from locally produced dairy produce.
The National Dairy Council runs the School Milk Scheme which is funded by the European Union and one of the objectives is to increase milk consumption in schools, there will be a number of nutrition focused talks including a talk on Food in Schools hosted by Airfield Estate’s Dr Kirstie McAdoo, Head of Education at Airfield, Dietician Louise Reynolds, Dr Amanda McCloat from St Angela’s College and Mark O’Brien from Carlow Educate Together National School.
Cathy Curran, Head of Communications with NDC said “We are delighted to be at Bord Bia Bloom again this year and to connect with Airfield Estate to create The Sustainable Kitchen. There is still a real disconnect from grass to glass between the urban consumer and farm and we need to capture opportunities to tell the food production story at a largely urban consumer event. Everyone is conscious now of eating more mindfully both for health and for planet so we will be promoting this type of eating over the five days with food that is In season, local, affordable, and nutritious”.