3 Ladies of Kinsalebeg - Food and Craft
Monday 12 May 2014
WHEN Mary Kay Solomon came to Ireland 11 years ago from the US to work in the computer industry, I doubt she thought she would now be married to an Irishman and living in Killeagh in east Cork, or that she would totally change her career from computers to food. But that is just what she did.
We discovered Mary Kay at Blackwater Country Market located at the longstanding popular Blackwater Garden Centre at Kinsalebeg, in west Waterford. We had been spinning along the N25, heading for Cork, when, just short of Youghal, I spotted a 'Farmers' Market Today' sign. This is not a big, commercial-style arena with lots of stalls, but a cosy country market under one little roof with an amalgam of goods from small artisan food producers, bric a brac, knitwear and wood work, with the very welcoming Mary Kay at the helm.
Mary Kay grew up in Kansas City in midwest America. "I worked in the computer industry for years and there came a point when it was a very stressful job and I was on the road all the time. I decided it was time I did something I really love, so I quit my job, went to Ballymaloe and did the certificate course there.
"I then decided to go into business, go to the markets, do catering and things like that. I had always told myself when I got to that stage I would take a cooking course and if I'd stayed in the States I'd have taken something there, but I was here and I decided I would just go. I enjoyed it, it was a fabulous course."
Mary Kay has travelled the world through her work in the computer industry. "I've lived in Singapore and I've been in China, Malaysia, Thailand and Mexico, so I've learned about ethnic cuisine and I love food," she said.
"We are just a little country market here open on Saturdays and Sundays and we have a lot of people who feed into us, so we have a little of this and a little of that."
Mary Kay had delicious brown breads, scones and Danish pastries. A coeliac herself, Mary Kay does a lot of gluten-free food.
Mary Kay's delicious brownies were made with black beans while a light Italian dressing, made from an American recipe, had garlic, onion, red and green spices and white-wine vinegar. She also had a low-fat spinach dip, red pepper hummus, chicken potpies, tomato and sweet pickle relishes, mushroom and courgette vegetarian tarts, and broccoli and cheddar tarts.
Apple butter was interesting as it doesn't actually contain butter, but you spread it on your toast. Mary Kay explained that it has less sugar than many jams and jellies.
"I feel like a cat that has had nine lives, for I used to be a bartender in a piano bar," joked Mary Kay, as she showed me some pretty children's cardigans. "The woodwork is done by retired men and the women do the knitting.
"We're happy to sell it for them if we can because they are on pensions and it's a little bit of extra cash. They put so much work into them and they are priced so reasonably. We also stock lovely vegetables from Barry's Nursery in Inch, Killeagh, who do organic eggs, wonderful potatoes, purple sprouting broccoli, leeks and cabbage. We have free-range chickens from East Ferry and O'Leary's organic mountain lamb from Beara Peninsula," said Mary Kay.
Look out too for Yellow House sauces in old-style corked medicinal bottles, as well as Heaven Preserved marmalades and jams. Don't forget to buy some plants too.
www.blackwaterplantsplus.ie
Just up the road, I also found Rosalind Ledingham's Simply Irish Knitwear, a retail and wholesale business, which has been running in Kinsalebeg for 30 years.
Sitting behind her large knitting machine, Rosalind told me she was born in Buckinghamshire but grew up in Shanagarry. "My father was from Cavan and he brought the family back to Ireland in 1963 and we moved to Shanagarry then."
Rosalind started her knitting business in 1982. "I was like a lot of housewives at the time in the recession, looking around for something that I could do working from home because I had a clutch of little children.
"I had done fashion design, but I met a knitwear designer and she helped me transpose my fashion design to knitwear." Rosalind supplies a lot of craft and tourist shops around the country with her cotton and linen ranges of cardigans, jumpers and suits in classic designs. She also supplies the Ballymaloe Shop and is generous in her praise.
"I got a lot of support and encouragement from people like Wendy Allen at Ballymaloe and the business grew and grew, so here we are, 32 years on. We also export a bit but at this stage of my career I am beginning to slow down a bit, so I'm not doing big orders for export anymore. I'm just looking after a few customers at home and people who call to the shop here."
As well as her own designs, Rosalind has lots of other lovely handknit jumpers, all individually made by local knitters. Check out the children's cardigans with smashing patterns of ducks and cats. She also has Alpaca sweaters and gorgeous knitwear garments and accessories from Kerry Woollen Mills including great pure new wool socks made with yarn from organically farmed sheep.
Keep looking and you will find knitted hats, Mysore sandalwood soaps from India, 'One Ball Wonder' knitting kits from Cushendale Woollen Mills in Graignamanagh, Co Kilkenny and lovely local pictures by New Zealand artist, Peter Winnington of Greenink Gallery, who comes to Ireland regularly to paint.
www.simplyirish.ie
Nearby at Kilgabriel, Clashmore, Co Waterford, artist Anne O'Leary produces the most wonderful hand-painted and hand-rolled silk scarves and ties.
Born in Cork, Anne studied painting at the Cork School of Art before heading for Paris where she spent the next 10 years. Returning to Ireland in 1975, she established herself as one of the first artists to paint on silk.
"I had studied painting on silk in Paris, and I set up here more by accident than design when I came home. I was making the scarves and my friends were buying them, there was a demand and it grew and grew. Each one is different."
Anne uses wonderful colours, some influenced by the time she spends in the south of France each winter. Her work is available at the House of Ireland on Nassau Street and at the Dublin Airport Terminals, they are also available from Simply Irish – and struck me as really good value for such beautiful items.
www.discoverclashmore.com
First Published in Sunday Independent