Back to the land?

Last week I read an article about Darina Allen, who seems to be the Alice Waters of Ireland. She was one of the first people to embrace traditional Irish cooking and make it a bit more refined - she was all about the locavorism when everyone in Ireland was a locavore by default and there was no caché to it.

Now, of course, there is caché, and so her books sell very well. I bought my mom a copy of "Forgotten Skills of Cooking: The Time-Honored Ways are the Best - Over 700 Recipes Show You Why" as an early mother's day present. It's perfect for my mom and dad, who, aside from being uber Irish (they're going next week), are now occupying some beginning-homesteader niche. They tapped trees for maple syrup a few weeks ago, they just got their beehives, and they've started their spring garden.

My dad will be stocking the pond with fish once it's been dug (my interest is more in swimming in it, but whatever). They're also planning to get larger animals - probably a goat, maybe ducks. The goat will be for milk and cheese, the ducks for eggs and eating.

And, as my mom said in an email, the book lays out how to make flavored liquor, so she is planning to buy giant bottles of gin and vodka. Between the booze and my dad's homebrew, I think their middle-of-nowhere house might wind up the place to be.