This article is from page 17 of the 2011-08-16 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 17 JPG
FRESH wild mushrooms are the latest ingredient to be added to the list for the fourth annual Clare Harvest Banquet which will take place at the Auburn Lodge Hotel in Ennis this August.
The charity banquet, which is made up solely of fresh ingredients which can be found within the county borders, will come to Ennis for the first time ever, having completely sold out its three previous banquets in Ennistymon.
This year’s event will be cooked by five expert Clare chefs, with one chef taking responsibility for each of the courses on offer. All proceeds from the event will go towards the ASTRAL Charity, which helps protect families in some of the poorest parts of Mongolia.
The charity has a long established link with the county and felt made by the charity in Mongolia is currently sold in the Upstairs Downstairs charity shop in Ennistymon.
“The format of the event is the same. If we want salt, then we need to dry sea salt from off the Clare coast; if we want butter, then we need to make it ourselves in the churn,” said event organiser Sinéad Ní Gháirbhith.
“We have two mushroom experts this year who are going to find us some Clare mushrooms to use, which should be interesting. There is no one farming mushrooms in Clare at the moment so this will be a new thing for the banquet.
“Every year, we seem to be able to find new ingredients and this year is no exception. You need to have experts when you are talking about wild mushrooms because you need to be sure that they are not poisonous.
“We are in Ennis this year for the first time so we are hoping to unite the county and bring people from the east, west, north and south of Clare together for the event. The banquet will take place in the Auburn Lodge, who have been very good to us and giving us the run of their kitchen for the evening.
“Every penny raised will go to the Mongolian charity. I am so dedicated to this charity because I know that this is a matter of life and death if this money goes out or not.”
This year’s banquet will take place on Saturday, October 1 and tickets are available from the Auburn Lodge on 065 6821247 and from the Upstairs Downstairs shop in Ennistymon.