Us Irish, we like to wrap our arms around our talent and not let go. So even as Clodagh McKenna clocked up millions of viewers on TV shows in the US and in the UK, or during the years when she was living and working in restaurants in France and Italy, it was ok. After all, she is a Cork girl at heart. But the time has come where we have to concede to sharing her with our British neighbours on the back of her most recent book Clodagh at Home, in which she calls Broadspear in Hampshire her ‘forever home.’
“Oh, this is absolutely my forever home,” Clodagh enthuses as we chat and simultaneously record an episode of This is Country Living podcast. “I think you reach a certain age and I’m now in my 50s where I’ve worked very intensely. And I’ve had such a passion for it, whether that was running farmer’s markets back in the day or writing books or running the restaurants. But it’s wonderful to get to a point where my home is the centre of my life, which I’d never had before, it was my work which was always first.”
When Harry met Clodagh
Clodagh’s path led to Broadspear when she met and married Harry Herbert, son of The 7th Earl of Carnarvon. But their life appears to be more agricultural than aristocratic, having embarked on a restoration project, not just of the cottage but of the surrounding farmland.
“When Harry and I moved into Broadspear nearly nine years ago, it was like a car crash. The honest situation? It was a big cottage that was covered in black, dead ivy. There was an asbestos building that was falling down right there in the middle. Nothing was growing, we had one fig tree which was really kind of bizarre in the middle of it all. And two, maybe three apple trees.”
They had plans, big plans to restore it to its former glory even though, “it was overwhelming the amount of work that had to be done. But I think it’s like the Irish in me or maybe just growing up always having to deal with hard work that I just [get on with it]. I get over the overwhelm by just getting stuck in and getting the job done.”
The journey from “car crash” to a functioning farm with woodland pigs, Aberdeen Angus, ducks, bees, a fruit and vegetable garden, and even an Irish pub is detailed in a collection of essays interspersed with 120 recipes in her new book. While this is her 10th cookbook, Clodagh at Home has allowed her reflect on nearly a decade of work on the land.
It really started from the bottom up, concentrating on strengthening and enriching the soil, “because the soil is everything. And we got beehives, which was so important for pollination. We started growing vegetables and slowly, we did it bit by bit.”
The Aberdeen Angus was later added into the mix. “We sustainably rear our cows in a field rotation system. They’re grass fed cows, they get moved from one field to another as needed… they have transformed the land and the soil.
“We now have wild irises, [but] when we first arrived, the fields looked a mess. And the cattle, that’s their glory. They manage all of that.
“You get to know the animals… and respect them. The pigs are in the woodlands and they are turning up the woods like nobody’s business... it’s full circle.”
While the farm isn’t commercial, Clodagh describes the operation as being more old school.
“It's that kind of self-sufficiency. I call it a farm, I mean, it is physically a farm, but we don’t sell our produce so I’m not under that pressure." She continues that, “We grow fruit and vegetables and rear our animals for ourselves, and family, as well as the local community. So we have a little box and a WhatsApp group with our closest friends in the area and we’re able to manage it that way.”
While plenty of chefs boast about cooking seasonally, Clodagh says their farm has given her a whole new appreciation for this.
“I never go into a supermarket now and buy a vegetable, I just go to my garden. Even if I was so dying to have asparagus in the autumn, I would never do it. I want my chard, my root vegetables. That’s what I should be eating. I feel that’s what my body is craving.”
As well as reviving the land, Clodagh has developed a new grá for restoring old buildings. First up, there was the pickling shed.
“This was an old shed that was falling down, and I was thinking, we need a shed for all the vegetables, the fruit, the eggs, everything that comes in from our farm. Those go straight in there and then I can sort everything. We also keep the beef and pork in there, it’s like my larder."
But the real passion project came in the form of a pub, an Irish pub called The Cork Arms. Amongst the woods in Broadspear, Clodagh came upon a little hut that had fallen down. “There was barbed wire everywhere. And I hate a mess,” says Clodagh, laughing. Determined to clean it up saying, “we can’t have the land looking like this,” it also sparked the idea of a little pub in the woods.
At that stage they were working on the woodland management plan and the walled garden so Harry’s reply to Clodagh’s “amazing idea” was an insistent, “No, no, no, you’re doing too much already. That’s not going to happen.”
Wedding plans
But when the couple started planning their wedding at Broadspear, the concept of the pub quietly started to resurface.
“I priced up a marquee…and it was like, like tens and tens of thousands of pounds. I thought, a) we can’t afford this, and b) there is no way I’m putting that money into something that’s only going to be here for a few days,” she says.
And so planning began to restore the hut into an Irish pub, working with a tree surgeon to use trees from the farm. “Nobody knew about [the pub] ahead of the wedding. My family went crazy, everyone goes crazy for the pub. It’s a proper bar with an open fire.”
Of course, a keg was installed and with the Guinness flowing, The Cork Arms has become the location for some pretty spectacular seisiúns. Clodagh has even shared sneak peeks on her Instagram, including the lock-ins with her pal Imelda May.
“We celebrate everything there from New Year’s Eve to Christmas Eve. We go there Christmas Day after mass and have Carlingford Irish oysters and Guinness.
“St Patrick’s Day is a huge party. Not a huge amount of people but we put a lot of effort into it. I cook all delicious Irish traditional dishes, like my mom’s lamb stew and colcannon. Oysters, prawns in little half pint glasses with homemade mayonnaise. And of course, Guinness cake. A real taste of home.”
English Market
When Clodagh goes home to Cork one of the first things she does is “go to the English Market.” First thing is to grab a coffee. “I’ll visit Jenny on The Sandwich Stall and her husband Toby is in the olive stall (The Real Olive Company). Or I’ll go to Coffee Central coffee… and I visit Mary there and I get all the gossip, not saying she is a gossiper. But because so many people are walking past, everybody kind of sits [to chat].”
Sometimes it's lunch at Farmgate Café before, “picking up bits and pieces from On the Pig’s Back.” Then it’s onto K O’Connell’s where “I always bring home a side of smoked salmon and I just love the chat with them too. And gorgeous, delicious smoked fish from Frank Hederman... definitely tonnes from the olive stall, like their beautiful mozzarella (Toonsbridge Mozzarella). ABC for some really good bread or Arbutus Bread,” as well as mentioning spiced beef from Tom Durkan.
“I miss home, I miss Cork all the time. I go back like every month to see family and friends.” But while Cork is her first home, for Clodagh McKenna her heart is firmly in Broadspear, her forever home.
Clodagh At Home by Clodagh McKenna. Publisher, Kyle Books, €26 (hardback).
LISTEN: Clodagh McKenna talks about farm life and her Irish pub. See the QR code below with your phone to listen to the podcast.
