Chef and Irish Country Living food writer Janine Kennedy is taking to the Irish Farmers Journal stage to share tips, recipes and stories around eating seasonally and locally.

Janine, a multi-award winning journalist, hails from eastern Canada, where she grew up in Cape Breton Island on her family’s pedigree Highland cattle beef farm.

Since 2013, she has lived in Co Tipperary with her husband and three daughters on their family-run dairy farm.

As a chef, Janine has gone from opening busy Toronto-based restaurants to cooking in her farmhouse kitchen and writing about food in rural Ireland.

With Irish Country Living, she travels the island of Ireland visiting and chatting with chefs, food producers and farmers and has found a true calling for telling their stories – most recently with her podcast series, Food Island, which you’ll find wherever you listen to your Irish Farmers Journal podcasts.

She is thrilled to be able to go back to her original love – cooking – on the stage at this year’s National Ploughing Championships with three days of engaging cookery demonstrations (and maybe even a few samples).

Leaning into eating seasonally means developing a closer relationship with your local producers and farmers. September is a wonderful time of year to develop these relationships and start building up your own local food community.

Lamb; apples; fresh, locally grown vegetables and farmhouse cheeses are found in every village and town in Ireland and, at this time of year, they are truly at their peak.

Janine is going to dive into a few of her favourite recipes to accompany the autumn season – freshly fried apple fritters with a zingy, sweet glaze; mildly spiced lamb koftas and farm-fresh ricotta-style cheese you can make in your own kitchen with just a few staple ingredients.