I’ve got a bunch of tickets to be won for some of the absolutely fantastic lineup of events at this weekend’s Ballymaloe Litfest, so see below for competition rules:
It’s rather astonishing when you think about it but this weekend’s inaugural Ballymaloe Literary Festival of Food and Wine is the very first of its kind worldwide. Well, whatever way you slice it, this is just about the finest lineups of food and wine writers ever assembled in the world, to the best of my knowledge, some of the greatest practitioners of their craft working today, including several of my personal favourites and with Claudia Roden right up there at the very top of the pile. My 20-minute conversation with her last week for an article in the Irish Examiner turned into a two-hour marathon and I am still perfectly happy to go and listen to her for another few hours this weekend at the festival. She is quite simply the greatest living food writer and even when you stack her up against those who have since moved on to the great kitchen in the sky, I’ll take her over most others. I have no doubt that this weekend is the start of something very big for the future and not just on a local or even national scale; this one’s going global, a keeper, for sure. Will you be able to wear a ‘I-was-there-at-the-very-first-Ballymaloe-Litfest’ t-shirt in years to come?
But Claudia talking about the Food of Spain is just one event in a fantastic lineup of talks/debates/conversations/lectures/rants and whatever you’re having yourself in the Ballymaloe Grainstore. To be in with a chance of winning a pair of tickets to one of the main events on Saturday or Sunday in the Grainstore, share a fond food memory in the comments section below — first 25 replies win a pair of tickets. NB please list your preferred choice of events in order, 1 to 5.
Joe McNamee: Food Writer 
One of my earliest memories is strawberry picking on a farm in Virginia. Instead of collecting them, I decided it was more fun to eat them all until my stomach ached!! There’s a photo of me covered in strawberry juice at home which captures the absolute feeling of bliss. Pure food heaven!!
Hi Maeve, if you email your phone no to me (the menu@examiner.ie) I’ll give you details on your tickets, Joe
Hi Maeve, I’m not sure if you ever got down to the Litfest but I experienced all manner of technical failures over the weekend and am only now seeing this message. So very sorry but if you could email your contact details to me via themenu@examiner.ie, I shall endeavour to make it up to you, joe
Oh btw Joe, if I win a ticket to the fest I would like something on Sat avo if poss!
Hi Deirdre, if you email your phone no to me (the menu@examiner.ie) I’ll give you details on your tickets, Joe
A fond food memory of mine is being allowed stay home from school for a few days to cook dinner for the meitheal during the silage harvest on our family farm- it was all hands on deck. The food was hearty but great; steaming piles of fluffy mash with beef stew, followed up with apple sponge drowned in custard and gallons of tea. My 12 year old self was so proud of what we produced every day- a forerunner of the pop-up restaurant!
List of preference:
Claudia Roden
Digesting Unsavoury Truths
Edible Education
A questions & answers special
Jancis Robinson
-but I’d be delighted to attend anyone!
Hi Helen, if you email your phone no to me (the menu@examiner.ie) I’ll give you details on your tickets, Joe
Hi Helen, I’m not sure if you ever got down to the Litfest but I experienced all manner of technical failures over the weekend and am only now seeing this message. So very sorry but if you could email your contact details to me via themenu@examiner.ie, I shall endeavour to make it up to you, joe
Had hoped to go to Ballymaloe this weekend but couldn’t find a serviced site for the campervan anywhere within bicycling range. Galactic cross section of speakers..we’ll all be feeling the waves from this event for a long time. Have a great time.
Joe…email to the examiner email address you gave failed to send.
Being a spud-growing virgin until 2012 – if you discount my straw mulch attempt in 2005 – there was great excitement when the harvesting started. Those Sarpo miras look so luscious as their purplish tones shine out in the soil. A quick shake and scrub – they were actually blemishless – and into to pot for a boil. The candles were lit and dinner was served with a smile: Puy lentils, chard, my secret sauce and Sarpo spuds – a feast fit for us hungry farmers. And note the spuds were blight free in a summer where blight flourished and those spuds were definitely GM-free, courtesy of the Sarvarí Trust. Lesson 1: there are blight resistant potatoes available and we don’t need genetically modification of potatoes to keep spuds on the table.
Would love to attend Lit Fest. New spuds cooked in sea water on a stove in a caravan in Roscarbery.
Hi Stella, I’m not sure if you ever got down to the Litfest but I experienced all manner of technical failures over the weekend and am only now seeing this message. So very sorry but if you could email your contact details to me via themenu@examiner.ie, I shall endeavour to make it up to you, joe
Hi Hilary, I’m not sure if you ever got down to the Litfest but I experienced all manner of technical failures over the weekend and am only now seeing this message. So very sorry but if you could email your contact details to me via themenu@examiner.ie, I shall endeavour to make it up to you, joe