Altogether Now, "The Wheels On The Bus Go Round & Round....."

Early-ish start today for our tour and oh my word, it was cold - the first leg of the trip over to West Cork was an hour and a half, through all these postcard-perfect little villages, lots of cows and sheep and ridiculously green grass, honestly it looks painted! I tried to take pics but it was horribly grey and overcast and nothing really came out. We arrived at Ummera Smoked Products in Timoleague and because there were so many of us the owner, Anthony Cresswell spoke to us all outside where I was masquerading as a snowman. For once I'm really not exaggerating but it was about 5 degrees, I could feel the cold through my boots (and two pairs of socks) and it was onwards and upwards from there and by the end of the talk I was ready to apply for a job at Madame Tussauds - it was really interesting though and their products are phenomenal, the thick cut smoked salmon was like butter, better than anything I have ever tasted, I just wanted to eat the whole plate and if there'd been some scrambled eggs and toast nearby I'd have been in utter heaven.

Smokin' salmon............

Back to the bus, YAY, where we defrosted on our way to the next stop, Carrigaline Farmhouse Cheeses, a few miles outside of Cork City. First priority when we arrived there was to get the tea and coffee organised and we did this in style - tea cups and saucers, teapots, whole tea leaves, milk in jugs, the coffee filter machine and all sorts of sponge cakes - the temperature had maybe moved up by a degree or two but it was still bitter and the tea went down an absolute treat.

What would the world be without tea??
Margie, Mary, Sophie, Moya, Charlotte & Jemima

Health and hygiene obviously plays a huge role at each of these producer's farms, particularly so in Ireland where regulations are very tight and so to go into the cheese production area we had to don some rather fetching disposable attire - shower cap, plastic coat and plastic booties over our shoes, probably not going to start a new trend but I was almost sad to give up my sexy plastic coat, was the warmest part of my day!

From there we headed to the Farmers' Market at Mahon Point, just outside Cork and it was great, all sorts of incredible little stalls selling too many good things to eat - we had lunch there and spoke to some of the producers, it was lovely. Before heading back onto the bus, I had to pee and to do that meant going into the Mahon Point Shopping Mall - the market is located just outside the centre - and oh my, it's a good thing I knew that Rory was waiting outside tapping his watch because I had to don blinkers when I walked past the biggest Zara store I've ever seen and we don't have Zara at home so the magnetic pull was a shocker, so going to have to make a return visit I'm afraid..................the only thing better than Zara was the indoor defrosting moment, sheer bliss.

Next stop was the English Market (I have no idea why it's called that), anyway it's located right in the heart of Cork City and is just the most incredible find, a veritable warren of stalls, you could lose yourself for hours and I so wish we'd had more time there - the array of food products on sale was fantastic, things I've honestly never seen before, a few dodgy bits like pig's trotters and whole cow tongues that I could do without but it just goes to show that there's a market for everything - there were lots of chefs from Cork's hotels and restaurants and that's always got to be a good thing, right.

Second last stop was Arbutus Bakery in Cork, an artisan bakery that supplies many of the top hotels and restaurants in the county and on a busy day, produces up to 5,000 loaves of bread - they make about 20 different types and there were a few that sounded particularly good - almond bread anyone?

Last stop was a small Italian restaurant in Midleton, the nearest town to us, about 8 miles from the school, which is owned and run by a former Ballymaloe student - they spoke to us about all the elements of setting up a restaurant from scratch and then - because we hadn't eaten enough today already - they gave us these fantastic anitpasta plates and then the best pizza you've ever seen, a llloooonnnggg oval, literally over a metre long which they make on special request for big tables, with the toppings changing every 20 cms or so to something different, my section was parma ham and artichoke, I just couldn't say no - wish I had a pic of this but my blasted camera battery died just as the pizza came out the oven so I'll just have to go back and see it again, it really did die, I'm not just angling for a return visit..................

And that was that, home just before 6 and huge thanks to Rory for putting up with us all the whole day, if anyone deserves a large glass of wine tonight it's him although I'm having one too - dinner was a strictly liquid only affair so it may as well be good old wine, I couldn't eat so much as an undersized peanut right now!