Alan Jagoe, chair of Agri Aware, walked into the home economics room in Our Lady of Good Counsel School in Ballincollig. A big smile of recognition spread across his face. “Katherine, I never knew this was your school!” Naturally, I answered “yes” as all teachers would, because it’s that ownership that makes us good at the job.
Niall Nicholson had come in a few minutes before him and we’d had a similar rendezvous. Niall farms beef and tillage with his parents Billy and Olga at Huddersfield, Crosshaven. They are one of Agri Aware’s Open Farms for 2019. Next came Micheál O’Crualaoí, butcher and meat processor in Ballincollig. They were quickly followed by Ronan Marshall, from the Cornstore restaurant in Cork city.
Ronan has travelled widely and worked under Gordon Ramsey for three years. The reason for the visit was that OLGC (Our Lady Of Good Counsel) school was one of six winners across the country in the recent Agri Aware Pasture to Plate competition. There was great excitement around the place.
Competition time
In the Autumn of 2018 I had found an envelope in my cubby hole in the staff room. It was an invitation from Agri Aware to enter the Pasture to Plate competition. Schools often get these invitations from all sorts of organisations. I open them and regularly bin them straight away because special schools are usually excluded by reason of age restriction or some other criteria. It annoys me.
There are about 140 special schools in Ireland and it is not that difficult to include a category for special schools or have the competition open and leave the evaluation to the judging panel. Our school in Ballincollig caters for students ranging in age from four to 18 years. They are just as entitled as any other school to have these kinds of opportunities. I made a telephone call to Agri Aware and was delighted that they would allow us to enter the competition. I approached Julie Reardan, the teacher of the appropriate age group of students and together we embarked on the journey of Pasture to Plate.
Back Row (L-R) Producer Micheal O’Crualaoi; winning student John Buckley, chef Ronan Marshall, Alan Jagoe and farmer Niall Nicholson with front row (L-R) winning pupils, Ronan Falvey, Cara Chambers, Julia Jakastas and Ian Cahalane.
Collaborative or team teaching is always very exciting and it brings added energy to a project. The task was to design a recipe that embraced the title. What fun we had and what amazing learning took place. We began with the meaning of pasture. Luckily we had John Buckley a farmer’s son in the group. I always use my farming students to teach their peers about farming. Students respond to them.
We explored where milk came from and what food the cows ate every day. It took a while for us to connect grass to milk and then grass to beef and lamb. After exploring our Irish chefs cook books and taking votes and then discovering ingredients, we decided to make a meat loaf. As it was autumn, Donal O’Regan our horticulture teacher had harvested copious amounts of green tomatoes with the students so we made chutney to go with the meat loaf. Over 30 students got to practice the meatloaf. The project was completed and sent off and we waited and waited and then we forgot about it.
The demonstration
In February a call came from Agri Aware to tell us we were among the winners and that a chef would visit our school to bring our recipe to life. The whole school gathered in the hall and the dignitaries were introduced by Aisling Heidt, principal.
Alan told the students about Agri Aware and Niall, equipped with grass, concentrate and pictures of the beef animals told the story of pasture to plate admirably and suitably for our students. I watched with pride as the farmer’s sons shot up their hands in enthusiasm to answer the questions. It is hugely important that students who are reared on farms are proud of their identity and understand the importance of food production.
Micheál O’Crualaoí told them about his role as a butcher. Then we moved to the kitchen where Ronan Marshall from the Cornstore restaurant brought our recipe to life. The pupils got to mix the meat loaf and enjoyed their celebrity status. It was a lovely experience for our school.
Thank you to Agri Aware and the sponsors, the Restaurants Association, the IFA and the European Commission and to our students for being so brilliant.
The Agri Aware open farm event will be held on bank holiday Monday 6 May on three farms - Dublin, Kildare and Cork. See more here.
Alan Jagoe, chair of Agri Aware, walked into the home economics room in Our Lady of Good Counsel School in Ballincollig. A big smile of recognition spread across his face. “Katherine, I never knew this was your school!” Naturally, I answered “yes” as all teachers would, because it’s that ownership that makes us good at the job.
Niall Nicholson had come in a few minutes before him and we’d had a similar rendezvous. Niall farms beef and tillage with his parents Billy and Olga at Huddersfield, Crosshaven. They are one of Agri Aware’s Open Farms for 2019. Next came Micheál O’Crualaoí, butcher and meat processor in Ballincollig. They were quickly followed by Ronan Marshall, from the Cornstore restaurant in Cork city.
Ronan has travelled widely and worked under Gordon Ramsey for three years. The reason for the visit was that OLGC (Our Lady Of Good Counsel) school was one of six winners across the country in the recent Agri Aware Pasture to Plate competition. There was great excitement around the place.
Competition time
In the Autumn of 2018 I had found an envelope in my cubby hole in the staff room. It was an invitation from Agri Aware to enter the Pasture to Plate competition. Schools often get these invitations from all sorts of organisations. I open them and regularly bin them straight away because special schools are usually excluded by reason of age restriction or some other criteria. It annoys me.
There are about 140 special schools in Ireland and it is not that difficult to include a category for special schools or have the competition open and leave the evaluation to the judging panel. Our school in Ballincollig caters for students ranging in age from four to 18 years. They are just as entitled as any other school to have these kinds of opportunities. I made a telephone call to Agri Aware and was delighted that they would allow us to enter the competition. I approached Julie Reardan, the teacher of the appropriate age group of students and together we embarked on the journey of Pasture to Plate.
Back Row (L-R) Producer Micheal O’Crualaoi; winning student John Buckley, chef Ronan Marshall, Alan Jagoe and farmer Niall Nicholson with front row (L-R) winning pupils, Ronan Falvey, Cara Chambers, Julia Jakastas and Ian Cahalane.
Collaborative or team teaching is always very exciting and it brings added energy to a project. The task was to design a recipe that embraced the title. What fun we had and what amazing learning took place. We began with the meaning of pasture. Luckily we had John Buckley a farmer’s son in the group. I always use my farming students to teach their peers about farming. Students respond to them.
We explored where milk came from and what food the cows ate every day. It took a while for us to connect grass to milk and then grass to beef and lamb. After exploring our Irish chefs cook books and taking votes and then discovering ingredients, we decided to make a meat loaf. As it was autumn, Donal O’Regan our horticulture teacher had harvested copious amounts of green tomatoes with the students so we made chutney to go with the meat loaf. Over 30 students got to practice the meatloaf. The project was completed and sent off and we waited and waited and then we forgot about it.
The demonstration
In February a call came from Agri Aware to tell us we were among the winners and that a chef would visit our school to bring our recipe to life. The whole school gathered in the hall and the dignitaries were introduced by Aisling Heidt, principal.
Alan told the students about Agri Aware and Niall, equipped with grass, concentrate and pictures of the beef animals told the story of pasture to plate admirably and suitably for our students. I watched with pride as the farmer’s sons shot up their hands in enthusiasm to answer the questions. It is hugely important that students who are reared on farms are proud of their identity and understand the importance of food production.
Micheál O’Crualaoí told them about his role as a butcher. Then we moved to the kitchen where Ronan Marshall from the Cornstore restaurant brought our recipe to life. The pupils got to mix the meat loaf and enjoyed their celebrity status. It was a lovely experience for our school.
Thank you to Agri Aware and the sponsors, the Restaurants Association, the IFA and the European Commission and to our students for being so brilliant.
The Agri Aware open farm event will be held on bank holiday Monday 6 May on three farms - Dublin, Kildare and Cork. See more here.
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