Berry Lodge Cookery School Accommodation Restaurant
Recipe Archive
Soups, Starters
- White Soda Bread
- Salad of avocado, boilie cheese, lettuce greens, minted roast peppers and tomato salad with red currant vinaigrette
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Main Dishes
- Irish Stew
- Chicken stuffed with sage, mozzarella and garlic confit
- Roast Turkey with Lemon, Onion and Herb Stuffing
- Broccoli and Leek Puree
CHRISTMAS AT BERRY LODGE
Christmas is a very traditional time at Berry Lodge. It is family time but our family is different as it is a group of people from Ireland and other countries who for various reasons do not want to spend Christmas at home but want a traditional Christmas deep in the heart of the West of Ireland by the sea. We seldom get snow and many of our Christmases are dry, dark or damp days without too much wind or frost. The countryside is lit up with the candles flickering in the windows, the Christmas trees in the sitting rooms and the smells of spices and ham cooking in the kitchen. We light candles, sing carols, have minced pies and mulled wine and we talk about times past and remember when all our families were together. Sometimes we shed a tear but when all that is over we eat the traditional feast of a Berry Lodge Christmas. We have goose which was the tradition of this house and this countryside until the late fifties when we feasted on the bronze turkeys. We raised those turkeys ourselves and it was the duty of my brother PJ to feed these morning and evening. In return, when the turkeys were sold, he got pocket money. One such year he got the princely sum of a half-crown or two shillings and six pence and like all children he was showing it off to us when it fell from his hand, down between one of the floor boards in the sitting room. Years past and when I was renovating Berry Lodge ten years ago he reminded me about the money and when the boards were lifted, sure enough there it was sitting exactly where he had told me. You should have seen his face light up on its return. A Christmas memory with a happy ending!
Christmas is a very traditional time at Berry Lodge. It is family time but our family is different as it is a group of people from Ireland and other countries who for various reasons do not want to spend Christmas at home but want a traditional Christmas deep in the heart of the West of Ireland by the sea. We seldom get snow and many of our Christmases are dry, dark or damp days without too much wind or frost. The countryside is lit up with the candles flickering in the windows, the Christmas trees in the sitting rooms and the smells of spices and ham cooking in the kitchen. We light candles, sing carols, have minced pies and mulled wine and we talk about times past and remember when all our families were together. Sometimes we shed a tear but when all that is over we eat the traditional feast of a Berry Lodge Christmas. We have goose which was the tradition of this house and this countryside until the late fifties when we feasted on the bronze turkeys. We raised those turkeys ourselves and it was the duty of my brother PJ to feed these morning and evening. In return, when the turkeys were sold, he got pocket money. One such year he got the princely sum of a half-crown or two shillings and six pence and like all children he was showing it off to us when it fell from his hand, down between one of the floor boards in the sitting room. Years past and when I was renovating Berry Lodge ten years ago he reminded me about the money and when the boards were lifted, sure enough there it was sitting exactly where he had told me. You should have seen his face light up on its return. A Christmas memory with a happy ending!