It's rather typical of Sharon Greene, the alchemist behind the elixirs and potions of The Wild Irish Food Company, that she should deflect attention away from her own achievements, and hand the credit for opening her eyes to the vista of wild Irish foods to that great grande dame of the wildness, Kit O Ceirin.
“We share her passion for Irish wild food and it's place in our history, place and folklore”, Ms Greene says of the author of “Wild and Free”.
But The Wild Irish, the company Ms Greene has created with her husband, Gordon, takes that passion, and then makes it magnificently palatable, funkily delicious. Ms Greene translates the wild of the hedgerow, she curates the fruit of the forage, and offers it up for us. Taste the Wild Irish products – the dandelion flower preserve, the Pontack, the potions made from rosehips, from hawthorn, from honeysuckle and more – and you taste the elixir of the ages.
And that sense of the ages is important, for the Gordons are the fifth generation of their family to live on Millhouse Farm, at Shinrone, in County Offaly. They call themselves “custodians”, and the focus of their custody is both microscopically small, and stunningly large: on their 50 acres, there are 20 miles of hedgerow to pore over. 20 miles! Mile after mile of budding fruit, of berries, of seed heads. Mile after mile of change, mile after mile which is always different, unpredictable, swerving away from you, swerving back towards you.
It is in reading the changes of the seasons that the custodianship comes into play, for the custodian is responsible for protecting an asset, and also for keeping it in good condition. You must keep the place where the wild things are in balance, and that is what The Wild Irish do.
Sharon Greene
Archive - all the best places to eat, shop and stay in Ireland. A local guide to local places.
Millhouse Farm, Clonlisk, Shinrone, Birr, Co Offaly
+ 353 85 747 6761