Darina for Bandon market anniversary

BALLYMALOE chef Darina Allen will visit Bandon Country Market, to mark its 40th anniversary.

The campaigner and pioneer of local and seasonal Irish foods will call to the indoor market in Weir St on Friday October 7th at 11am. The market is open for business every Friday and Saturday morning, rain, hail or shine, for the last four decades.

 Chairwoman Grace Read said it would be hard to find a more solid representative of what the Country Market stands for, than chef Darina.  ‘We are so thrilled to welcome Darina Allen to Bandon to meet customers.  The Country Market is about simple seasonal food and the very freshest ingredients. We offer great value and great, unpretentious food,’ she said.

Grace, a renowned shortbread maker, has been a member of the market for over 20 years.  ‘Feel free to bring your Darina cookbooks for her to sign,’ she said.  ‘And there will be lots of tasters available to try, too.’

The Bandon market features ‘real baking’, added Grace. ‘It’s the freshest sell-out jams, tray bakes, brown breads and curds and cordials, free range eggs and foraged sundries from red currents, wild garlic to blackberries, herbs and flowers and salad leaves, that you will find anywhere.’ 

Darina Allen is a ‘powerhouse’ in terms of representing Irish food and farming interests, and has single-handedly raised the bar in terms of placing Irish produce with the best in the world, she said.  ‘Currently she is highlighting the Transatlantic Trading And Investment Partnerships (TTIPS) deal which, if successful, will mean the removal of regulatory barriers to transnational corporations – the same barriers that impact on farming, GMOs and labour,’ she said.