2020: Sugar in hindsight

In ancient China, it was believed that the nutritional power of the mighty, protein-rich soy bean needed to be "tamed"....Tempeh, the Indonesian soy-based protein food, might be lesser known than Tofu, but it's one way of taming the golden bean. Vegan chef James De Burca launched De Burca's Tempeh in 2022, the first commercial Tempeh producers in Ireland. Using beans from France to produce Tempeh is one way of keeping food miles down while going plant-based, he says. James whips up a Thai Larb, Tempeh and Aubergine Involtini and Tempeh Bacon to prove its versatility.

Fionnuala Harkin runs a wine workshop in her husband's toolshed in West Cork. What is a sustainable wine: how is it grown, and what does it taste like? Join Ellie and Fionnuala to taste three organic and biodynamic wines from vineyards in Europe that are going the extra mile to protect their environment and farm in harmony with the natural world.  

"Bigger farms and less farmers is where we’re heading; when you’ve no control over the price, all you can do is get bigger.” Meet Sinéad Moran of Gleann Buí farm in Co Mayo. Sinéad and her partner, Mick McGrath, started selling raw milk from their microdairy in 2021. Is there a model here that produces milk sustainably, supports a family and provides quality local food?

A visit to East Waterford Beekeepers' Association with Donal Lehane and a honey tasting in East Cork with Hanna Bäckmo: this episode is as sweet as it gets: beekeepers farm the skies and protect pollinators and their food sources. But what's happening to the native Irish Black Bee, and why is only 8% of the honey consumed in Ireland Irish honey? 

What does a frozen avocado or a palm weevil grub taste like? Meet UK-based, Kerry-born chef and nutritionist Sadhbh Moore, whose book, Sustainable Kitchen, is out this year. What do we mean when we say "sustainable"? And where's the line when it comes to individual responsibility versus corporate or state level environmental actions?  

Green Bites is back! In the first episode of Season Two, we meet Jason Horner, a market gardener who turned to growing seed in 2021 and became the Gaia Foundation's Irish Seed Sovereignty advocate: this episode spans two seasons of Jason's change in career. How has growing seed commercially worked out for him? 

While some EU countries are in the process of banning Glyphosate, the most used herbicide on the planet and the active ingredient in Monsanto's RoundUp, Ireland's Department of Agriculture and Teagasc, the Irish agricultural training and research body, say there's no alternative and that Irish farming is not sustainable without it. Ellie is joined by John Spink, Teagasc's head of Crops and Environment, organic farmer Ross Jackson who runs Lacka Lamb with his wife Amy and farms organic oats and barley, and NUIG researcher Dr Alison Connolly, who is conducting research into glyphosate exposure in Irish farming and non-farming families, for a look at the current state of play regarding the chemical which has been involved in several controversies including high-profile cancer lawsuits in the US and emerging evidence that glyphosate can have negative impacts on bee health.

The closure of the Irish sugar industry in 2005 was a staggering blow to Irish food security. From being self-sufficient in sugar and molasses to importing hundreds of thousands of tonnes of these commodities per year, often from countries whose cheap production relies on horrendous working conditions on sugar cane plantations, it’s difficult to look back on the demolition of the industry as anything other than a retrograde step. Looking back on the salutary tale of the demolition of Ireland’s indigenous sugar industry, whose closure impacted 3,700 beet farmers and thousands of other jobs in light of recent concerns for food security raised by Brexit and the Covid Crisis, what can we learn? From compensation packages for Irish farmers to a particularly sweet deal for Greencore, the food company that shut up shop under pressure from an EU sugar reform scheme: Ellie is joined by Alan Navratil, a farmer whose family history is steeped in the story of Irish sugar, for a 2020 look at Ireland’s lost sugar industry.    

This is a special family-friendly episode of Green Bites, all about the pumpkin.  Join Ellie and her nephew Fionn to carve pumpkins and make pumpkin pie from a very special pumpkin that Ellie got by going to visit vegetable farmers Joe and Sandra Burns. Covering food waste, seed-saving, how pumpkins grow and recipes you can use to make sure you’re getting the most out of your Halloween pumpkin, this podcast episode is tasty food for thought and comes with recipes and video on the podcast website.  www.greenbites.ie 

Green Bites visited with community gardens on Cork's Northside at the end of the Covid-19 lockdown to learn how gardening is not only used therapeutically to aid mental health, but to grow resilient communities.  Community Health officers Sarah Carr, John Paul O'Brien give Ellie a tour of NICHE Community Garden in Knocknaheeny.