Savour Kilkenny Festival: Great Vegan Menu and Organic Growing with Greenside Up

Beer Garden, Billy Byrnes, John Street, Kilkenny

Billy Byrnes was the home of the Vegan Feast night in honour of the Savour Kilkenny Food Festival. Suffice to say, I was there at 6pm on the button.

Good news for Vegans in Dublin, one of the chefs was Paul Bourke of the restaurant Cornucopia - so you can eat like that every day! And the other was Podge Meade, from Billy Byrnes...So, I'll have to check but I think that means we can eat like that in Kilkenny every day of the week too!

James Burke, Chef of the vegan Cornucopia in Dublin shares summer recipes 

I want to one day write out all those dishes and try making them all but hopefully readers can just about see what was on offer.

On Saturday, I went to the DIY Organic Herbs Workshop at the Small Holders Marquee with Dee Sewell of Greenside Up. At www.greensideup.ie she has a multitude of blogs on how to grow herbs, how to dry and otherwise preserve them and how to use them - for health, medicine, flavour and for a pollinator-friendly garden. And if it is the 'organic' bit that caught your eye, there is alot of information there too, on how to manage weeds and pests without using chemicals!!

Sheep at Savour. Goodness knows why they brought 3 rather than 2 so they had to be so cheek by jowel. Still, their wool had been used to make fabulous blankets that were on the wall inside. There is always the difficulty of shaving someone's coat off without permission. Whatever arguments that they would be hot without it, there is an exploitation and often a violence in the wool industry too that most vegans would consider unnecessary.

Geese at Savour. Absolutely beautiful birds and I hope they, as a couple touched the hearts of many who as a result won't eat one this Christmas.

Turkeys at Savour. Why are they looking away and trying to look busy? Because they don't trust people at all, they only want them dead and plucked. Not a very nice day out for them I suspect.

The next challenge was lined up to be three Argentinian chefs who were coming to stay Bed & Breakfast. I was picturing the wide open spaces of home and all those animals and in a way I was spot on. They arrived exhausted, having been 'making steak sandwiches all day'. Nonetheless, within the miraculous connection of all good souls, we got on great and they liked the pigs and even talked of how they hope to open a sanctuary one day. I love the way that kindness spreads and comes around.

I think all in all, it was a brilliant festival and I was only sorry to miss Frances Walsh doing the Raw Food Workshop. I have done a raw Italian Food workshop in the west and loved it. Now if you really want to get well, raw is the way to go. Eating food raw retains all the vitamins and minerals that the ingredients had in them. But be sure to buy organic fruit and veg or you will be accunulating all that glysophate too. If it is cancer that you're dealing with, it could almost be worth moving to a warm country as the skin of ripe fruit contains some of the most powerful antioxidants of all. Problem is with much of the fruit we get here is that it has been artificially ripened in warehouses and none of those antioxidants have had a chance to form.

Still, healthy mindful eating, detoxing and harmlessness all help in the quest for a healthy happy heart, so it's a good place to start. Another good Kilkenny festival!