Brian Kaller

Jan 19, 2025 | kildare-nationalist.ie | Brian Kaller

LIFE for us consists mostly of working to make money to buy goods from a store, and then to throw the goods away when we are done, to be carted away by magical fairies to Unicorn Land. Or at least, that’s how we think of it, since once our rubbish goes “away” we never think of it again. That has been our custom for only a matter of decades, and already the largest structure created humankind are rubbish dumps.

Jan 12, 2025 | kildare-nationalist.ie | Brian Kaller

FOOD that is shunned in one era might be highly prized in another, and vice versa. Early European colonists in America almost starved before eating the lobsters all around them, and even then they were considered disgusting, used only for feeding prisoners and servants and baiting fishhooks. Only about a hundred years ago did lobster become prized as a delicacy. People today have similarly strange attitudes towards snails.

Dec 8, 2024 | kildare-nationalist.ie | Brian Kaller

IN the last few generations, cookery books – and shows, and channels, and web sites – have grown exponentially into a thousand increasingly ambitious iterations. I can flip across channels and see twee British ladies judging food sculptures under a tent; Japanese chefs wrestling live octopuses, and fat men sitting in diners shouting at the camera and gorging themselves.

Dec 1, 2024 | kildare-nationalist.ie | Brian Kaller

NOW that most other crops have died off for the winter, you might have a garden full of brassicas. Brassicas – the cruciferous vegetables of the cabbage family – made a long and fruitful journey from the scraggly sea kale of its ancestor; today is provides us with one of our healthiest, easiest and most versatile crops, bred for its leaves (cabbage, kale, Bok Choi), its roots (kohlrabi), its flowers (broccoli, cauliflower) its seeds (mustard) and its buds (Brussels sprouts).

Nov 24, 2024 | kildare-nationalist.ie | Brian Kaller

THIS year more than ever it’s important to keep getting lots of vitamins through the winter, and to use everything you can from the garden while it lasts and while there is still daylight and good weather to go outside. Since what you have left varies from year to year and person to person, your recipes might have to get a bit creative. We all, however, enjoy things that warm us up and can be made quickly when we come in from the cold or rain.