Organico.ie

We have moved to www.organico.ie

West Cork Literary Festival Events in Organico Cafe

Evening Events During the week July 3rd - July 9th 2006

Monday 6.30 – 7.30: Launch of an exhibition by Monica Boyle, opened by Hughie O'Donoghue

Tuesday 6.30 – 7.45: An evening of poetry with Leanne O'Sullivan, Micheal McCarthy and Jim O'Donnell (free)

Thursday 6.30 – 7.45: Readings by Celia Bryce and Debbie taylor (free)

Friday 6.30 – 7.45: Music with Ger Wolfe (€10.00 on the door)

Tapas Plates and refreshments served
from 6 pm – 7.30pm every evening

Organico Exhibits Monica Boyle: Inshore

Organico Bantry is delighted to be hosting an exhibition of paintings by Monica Boyle of Beara, Co Cork, which was opened this eveniong by Hughie O'Donaghue. The exhibition is running from the 3rd to the 31st of July. Her paintings are a facinating combination of inkjet and oil, and were described by Hughie in his introduction as 'embodying and expressing the struggle that is an essential part of the Irish landscape'. Hughie congratulated Monica on her representation of that struggle through her work.

Monica describes this exhibition as a record of a 'journey to the interior' in terms both the physical level - they represent the interior landscape of Heir Island - and the emotional level in terms of depicting her deepening relationship with the island and the people who live there.

Bantry the next GM Free Town?

There was rejoicing this morning in Organico when we received the news from GM Free Ireland that BASF have indeffinately postponed their GM potato trials in Co. Meath. What a victory for irish farmers and for Micheal O'Callaghan, the spokesperson for the GM Fee Ireland Network. Apparently, BASF were put off by the restrictions placed on the company by the EPA who demanded that the company pay for the costs of an independant health and environmental impact study.

In Organico we disagree completely with the genetic modification of foods and food seeds, for environmental, health and philosophical reasons. The studies of the environmental and health impacts of eating GM foods and the cross contamination of species are simply not satisfactory. And the situation in Canada where farmer Percy Schmeiser faced a million-dollar law suit from Monsanto because his crops became cross-comtaminated by its GM rapeseed in 1996 is outrageous - and now he is having to launch an expensive lawsuit against the Canadian Government. His charges include:


*Violation of comsumers' rights because they are not being told of the level of GM contamination in their food supply;
*Violation of Farmers' right because of the GM contamination of their crops;
*Suppression of academic freedom, due to the private sector funding of the biotech research;
*Attempts to foist GM terminator seeds on the rest of the world (thee seeds are specially modified to be sterile and therefore farmers cannot save their own seeds for the follwing year).

Percy Schmeiser and Vandana Shiva, the Indain farm leader, are the keynote speakers at a conference in June organised by GM Free Ireland to discuss Ireland's GM policy in Kilkenny on the weekend of June 16-18.

Organico bantry is delighted to support the GM Free Ireland network in stopping the planting of GM crops in Ireland and accross the world. Recently the IAHS, the Irish Association of Healthfood Stores, has come out with an anti-GM position, as has Slow Food Ireland.

Bantry Officially a Fair Trade Town

Liz Ewing, Rachel and Hannah Dare were delighted last night to be at the official launch of Fair Trade Bantry where Mayor Letty Baker was handed Bantry's Certificate by Melanie Dray from the Fair Trade office in Dublin.

The guest of honour was Darina Allen from Ballymaloe House, well known for her tireless support for Fair trade and for Artisan food producers all accross Ireland and beyond. Darina gave an interesting and thought-provoking account of her experience of banana farming in Mexico, where she saw first hand how horrific conditions are for farmers who are shamelessly exploited so that our supermarkets can make slightly bigger margins. Melanie Dray had introduced the topic of bananas, saying that they are the next product on the Fair Trade 'hit list' because of the sheer awfulness of the international banana trade, which uses what she described as the 'dirty dozen' chemicals on bananas which are being shown to cause, among other things, severe fertility problems for the growers and pickers. Fair Trade banana plantation owners, on the other hand, cannot use these chemicals, which in itself reduces the risks immensley.

Darina also brought up the very valid point that Fair Trade begins at home, where our food producers and farmers are generally struggling to make a living because of what she called our idea that we have a 'right' to cheap food. If we value our bodies, she said, we should be prepared to pay for the food we use to fuel them.

The Launch was also attended by Bantry Town Councillor Mary Heggarty (who had a huge role to play in Bantry achieving Fair Trade status), Councillor Aidan McCarthy, and former Mayor Donal Casey as well as Artisan cheese producer Giana Fergusson from Gubbeen Cheese in Schull. Representatives also came from Clonakilty and Kinsale, other Fair Trade Towns in West Cork. Overall - a very interesting evening!

Organico Cafe - Pascal Ungerer Exhibition

Organico Cafe in Bantry is delighted to host an exhibition of the photographic work of Pascal Ungerer.

Pascal is a talented photographer based in West Cork. Visit his website at www.pascalungerer.com

The exhibition is a collection of limited edition black and white studies.

Organic Bakery Ireland - Organico Bantry

In Organico Bakery we bake fresh bread every day using only the best organic flour, water, yeast and sea salt - and lots of TLC! Our bakery specialises in hand made organic produce.

Our bakers, Sean and Sue, have become experts in baking wholemeal spelt, wheat, rye, granery and unbleached white breads and also a range of delicious cakes, cookies, scones, baps, pizzas and muffins. All the flours used organic flour, the water is filtered, the eggs are free range and local, the oil is extra virgin.

Our range includes:

Breads
Wholemeal Spelt
White Spelt
White Spelt with seeds and herbs
Wholemeal Spelt with seeds and herbs
Sourdough Spelt
Wholemeal Wheat
Wholemeal with seeds and herbs
Unbleached White
Sourdough Rye
Ballymaloe Rich Soda
Rachel's Fruit Soda (more like a cake than a bread - delicious for breakfast!)
Cakes & Cookies
Spelt scones
Wheat scones
Spelt Date Slice
Spelt Choc Chip Cookies
Spelt Oat and Raisin Cookies
Spelt Chocolate Brownies
Spelt Ginger Cake
Spelt Banana cake
Apple and Cinnamon Cake (made with rice flour)
Spelt Chocolate Cake


We also take special orders if a particualr reciepe is required - to find out which days this service is available call (027) 51391

Organic Ireland

In Organico Bantry we believe it is vital to support the development of the Irish Organic sector. There is certainly a growing awareness of and demand for organic food in Ireland; you only have to see the new 'organic' ranges in our Irish supermarkets to see that! However, there is far too much Organic food imported into Ireland and we would like to see that reduced and more food grown and processed locally.



According to Organic Europe a survey conducted in Ireland shows that 30% of Irish consumers are prepared to pay a 20-25% premium for organic food. This is bourne out by our own experience in running our wholefood shop where well over 75% of the food we sell is organic. In our cafe we source nearly 100% organic ingredients - because the food is vegetarian it is easier although during most of the year this means we rely mainly on imported produce. When we can though we get our greens and salads locally as well as eggs, courgettes, peas, beans, and of course potatoes (though last year the blight was a real pain! Wiped out our 2 suppliers completely.)




Even given that at the moment we are using so much imported vegetables, the food in our cafe tastes so much better than non-organic food, especially the salads. How anyone could eat a non-organic carrot at the moment I have no idea - they just do not have the flavour I expect. And while it's true that you will pay more for the organic carrot I would challenge anyone who has tasted the difference to tell me the choice is hard.



Even in the home of cheap food, the US, consumers have indicated a willingness to pay higher prices for their food. A website I found extolling the virtues of 'cheap food' (called Cheap Eats!) admits that 'A recent poll of food attitudes found 71 percent of Americans claiming that they wouldn't mind paying more to buy food grown near where they live or food grown in ways that protect the environment'. Furthermore, the author says that 'Retail sales of organic foods, which cost considerably more than regular items, are growing at a torrid pace. The Department of Agriculture expects them to hit $20 billion a year by 2005, up from $1 billion in 1990.'


For us, in our business of running an Organic cafe, bakery and wholefood shop, this growth in the Organic sector is obviously important. But as I started out saying, we are also very committed to buying more organic food that is grown locally. Please contact us if you are growers or manufacturers of Organic foods in Ireland!


Organico Bantry is owned by Hannah and Rachel Dare; contact at (027) 51391

Bantry - a Fair Trade Town

Organico is delighted to announce that Bantry has just this week been awarded Fair Trade Town status. This was due in no small part to the hard work and committment of the Commitee, including Mayor Letty Baker and Town Councillor Mary Heggarty as well as some local tradespeople (including Hannah Dare and Liz Ewing from Organico).

In order to qualify for Fair Trade Town status, Bantry had to fulfill the requirements of a town of 10,000 even though it has a population of more like 3,000. However, this was in fact very easy as the local businesses were only too delighted to get behind the iniative. From Organico's perspective it was no problem at all as we were already promoting Fair Trade through both our shop and our Cafe - in fact we have been for years. Our Cafe was the first in Bantry to supply Fair Trade coffee exclusively and we stock over 50 Fair Trade products in our shop, including all kinds of foods, as well as soaps, incense, wine, and a huge variety of coffees and teas.

As the manager of Organico Shop Liz Ewing has been seeking out new fair Trade products ever since the Fair Trade Mark was established. We are in the business of inspiring people to think about what they are buying and Liz feels that supporting Fair Trade is doing just that. For this reason Mayor Letty Baker asked us to be the Flagship business for the Fair Trade iniative which we were only too delighted to be. Because we are primariy interested in Organic we do try to always stock the organic Fair Trade products; we feel that if products are being grown using harmful chemicals then the workers are not being treated fairly!

For anyone passing through Bantry who is interested in Fair Trade why not call in to Organico Cafe for a cup of Fair Trade (and Organic) coffee, tea or Hot Chocolate. We are open 10 - 5 pm Mondays to Saturdays except for public holidays. We also serve an extensive lunch menu and a range of tasty home-baked cakes and scones!


Organico Cafe, Glengarriff Rd., Bantry, Co. Cork, Ireland. Phone +353 (0)27 51391