Sunday, May 24, 2009

Week 5 At Ballymaloe

http://www.lanson.fr/en/maison.htm
Here is Colm and a Lady (cant remember her name sorry ) from Lansons Champagne .
Colm is the sommelier from Ballymaloe House . Colm is now keep a wine Blog here.http://www.cookingisfun.info/wine/
In this wine tasting class we got to try a Lanson vintage and Non Vintage Champagne .

One of the hatched chicks


As I have already said there are 11 nationalities on the course . There is a doctor ,accountant ,lawyer, and all sorts of other really interesting people. Francis has two silver Olympic medals and 3 gold world medals for rowing for Britain .http://www.ara-rowing.org/athlete/frances-houghton

People my pay to come into Demo in the evenings some evening there are many visitors .Last week one of the ladies in Demo Was the owner of Obama's favorite chocolate all the way from Seattle .The owner of Frans chocolate http://www.franschocolates.com/home.php








Everyone always gets a birthday cake on their birthday .











We have made all sorts of bread now we are making sour dough bread with our own home gown yeast .


Extra Classes

Pig

Philip the school butcher teacher some butchering skills in the evenings sometimes . This class is optional . Its great you really get a good idea where you meat is coming from and what parts are from where . This is a skill I would love to study further.



Lamb


















Should we wish to get out of bed an hour before class on Wednesdays we can attend a gardening class . I really like this class this week we all got a French tarragon plant . The gardens here are amazing so this class really is a class not to be missed.

Scopello, beautiful sea



When the sun is warm and the sky incredibly blue, starts "the desire of the sea".
I will tell about a wonderful place, that in addition to its natural beauty, it contains in itself also an inexplicable sense of mystery.



Its name is Scopello, is located in the province of Trapani between Castellammare del Golfo and San Vito Lo Capo, one hour away from Palermo.

The courtyard of Scopello is located on a cliff showing a breathtaking view over the sea where there are two rocks that give the name to Scopello, in greek Skopelos means just rocks, and perhaps the Arabs gave to the town the nickname of Iscubul (rock). The small courtyard is formed by a few stone houses and a “Gebbia” (drinking). The atmosphere is serene, pleasant, air wafts a mild smell of sheep's milk.

Above the rocks there is the Torre bennistra of the sixteenth century and the ruins of a Saracen tower.
Higher up the wood of Scopello, which was one of the estates of Ferdinand III of Bourbon.

To add more charm to the place there is the old "tonnara" now disused, which maintains the structures of the past, and stands where once stood the ancient city of Cetaria (city of tuna), which disappeared along with his tonnara, which was then reconstructed by the Arabs.

What makes this place special is the rocky coastline, broken by the bay pebble Guidaloca by an "emerald sea", not far away the beautiful rocks emerging by a crystal clear water and seem to have been placed there by the hand of a giant mythological.

Near Scopello is the reserve of Zingaro, which is a charming place to walk in nature with a beautiful view and the possibility to reach the beautiful bays where you can have a pleasant swim.Of note for the greedy ones, that in this whole area they can eat very well, and above all can taste the fish cus cus.
Until about fifteen years ago, Scopello was still inhabited by a few people in the place, and there were not tourists, I can still remember the pleasant feeling proven, the smells and the taste special to me, a little strange, who had the cream of my giant ice cream cone, due to the milk just milked. Now tourism has grown, there are restaurants and little hotels, but has not transformed the atmosphere of simplicity and serenity that you can still breathe.