Do you know your Cucumbers?

Why do shoppers prefer to buy their cucumbers, well aged, wrapped in tight plastic, imported from abroad when freshly picked, Kilkenny grown cucumbers are available? If a cucumber is bought on the day it is picked and eaten soon afterwards, the flavour is incomparable.

Four different types of freshly picked cucumber available from Glasrai, Gowran, Co. Kilkenny

Each variety of cucumber has a slightly different flavour, so it is worth trying them all. The small smooth green Lebanese ones are our favourite. The prickly ones at the bottom are gerkins, which are delicious when pickled.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Red Currant & Lavender Jelly for the Easter Lamb

At Nashtown Castle our preserves, jellies and pickles are made seasonally with local seasonal produce where possible. They are home grown and home made. Here is our list of the preserves that are currently available.

Nashtown Castle Red Currant & Lavender Jelly for Easter

• Apple Jelly - made with apples from an old traditional Kilkenny orchard
• Apple & Lavender Jelly - made with our homegrown lavender
• Bitter Orange Marmalade - this is our only preserve that has no locally grown ingredients
• Cucumber Pickle - made with three varieties of cucumber, grown in our garden
• Gooseberry & Apple Jelly - has a subtle gooseberry flavour
• Pickled Red Cabbage - robust old fashioned pickle, made with our own red cabbage
• Pumpkin, Ginger & Orange Marmalade - more like a relish, delicious with cold meat
• Spicy Pumpkin Chutney - perfect with cold beef and a baked potato
• Red Currant and Lavender Jelly - to be eaten with the Easter roast lamb. Fresh mint will be difficult to find as Easter is so early this year, so here is a great alternative

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Nashtown Castle Pickles & Preserves

SLOW FOOD, REAL FOOD
The garden and orchard surrounding the site of Nashtown Castle, are located on some of the best quality limestone land in Kilkenny, ideal for growing vegetables and fruit. In 1778, references to the adjoining farm indicate that good quality cider apples and potatoes were being successfully grown here. By 1801, a peach house and a green house were in existance - great status symbols, in their day.

Nashtown Castle Pickles and Preserves

We have a surplus of fruit and vegetables, grown on this exceptionally fertile soil. So, in accordance with our waste, not want not philosophy, we pickle and preserve that surplus. Having respect for the plants so carefully nurtured, we only use the best quality real ingredients to mix with them when creating our pickles and preserves. If we can find local and Irish ones of sufficient quality, then we use them in preference.

Nashtown Pickles and Hedgerow Jelly

Nashtown Castle Green Tomato Pickle is made with heritage varieties of tomatoes and is based on a Canadian Chow Chow recipe, using cider vinegar from Tipperary and Malvern sea salt, with tumeric which is reputed to have many healthy properties.
Nashtown Castle Green Tomato Chutney is created with the same home grown tomatoes, along with our neighbours' apples (our trees were bare this year) and our own white onions and garlic. This chutney is based on an old fashioned classic recipe. The more mature this chutney becomes, the better it tastes.
Nashtown Castle Cucumber Pickle consists of the 3 different types of cucumbers grown here combined with our white onions and our mild garlic.
Nashtown Castle Hedgerow Jelly is always a joy to make. It depends entirely on the autumnal wild fruits that are available to us, as we forage around the local hedgerows. Each year is different. This year elderberries were few in number, the blackberries were late, some normally dependable crab apple trees had no fruit on them, however the rose hips and haws were plentiful.

Nashtown Castle pickles and preserves are made in small batches using seasonal produce, so when they run out, we have to wait until the following year before we make more. Recipes maybe altered to reflect availability of local products.

Nashtown Castle pickles and preserves are available from Glasrai & Goodies, in Gowran, County Kilkenny, Ireland and in Phelans' vegetable shop on Ormond Street, in Kilkenny City, Ireland.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com

Cucumbers Pickled in Gin

Cucumbers are thought to have originated in India and were probably cultivated in Western Asia for at least a thousand years before their introduction to Europe. The Romans were fond of them, perhaps they introduced them to Britain. After their reintroduction, the Victorians became fond of growing them in hot beds.
A large range of varieties grow well in Kilkenny and fruit freely, provided they are protected by a greenhouse or polytunnel.

Freshly picked Cucumbers, grown in Kilkenny

Our cucumber plants have produced a glut of cucumbers and it became imperative act quickly to preserve some for the lean winter months, before the frost hit them. Different varieties produce different sized cucumbers, there are a vast range of types. This recipe uses medium sized ones.

Cucumber pickled in Gin

It is important to use the best quality gin you can afford, in this case it was a certain gin, that is flavoured by cucumbers, and is thus particularly suitable.

RECIPE

Ingredients:

2 medium sized cucumbers, thinly sliced

200 ml white wine vinegar

100 ml good quality gin

I homegrown whole green chili, thinly sliced

1/2 homegrown onion, thinly sliced

2 tablespoons finely chopped mint

Zest of 1 lime

4 juniper berries

2 teaspoons of sea salt

1 teaspoon sugar

3-4 drops lime oil

Add the salt to the cucumbers (in this case, one was left with its skin on and the other has its skin removed) and onion in a bowl with the chili, then weigh them down with a heavy plate for approx three hours. Then rinse.

Heat up the vinegar, juniper, sugar and lime zest. Bring to boil, add the cucumbers, onion and chili. Simmer for a couple of minutes, then add freshly picked and chopped mint and the gin and then place in sterilised jars.

This pickle makes a wonderful compliment to cold beef.

Email: kilkennyseakale@gmail.com