Mountain Ways Ireland

10/08/2024

Foraging at Lúnasa in the South Armagh sunshine.
☀️☀️☀️
Thanks everybody from near and far for spending the few hours with us.
🍄🍄🍄🍄
We even had a few fungi friends making an appearance in the pasture.
🌿🌿🌿🌿🌿
The South Armagh Lúnasa festival runs for another couple of weeks, check out some of the other great events on offer.

☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️☀️

Why not join us on September 28th for our 'Fungi, Roots and Berries' experience

Book directly through the link below ...only a small number of tickets left 👇👇👇👇

https://www.mountainwaysireland.com/foraging/mushrooms-and-fungi/
́nasa
Discover Northern Ireland Ring Of Gullion AONB

21/07/2024

Thanks Joanne for choosing Mountain Ways Ireland for your event yesterday.

Turned in to a great few hours despite the weather! 🍃🍄

22/05/2024

I spent a great couple of days as part of the Community of Irish Herbalists, at Herbfeast and then on to The Plant Medicine School in the Sunny South East, Co. Wexford.
Really great to meet and be taught by some of the best medical herbalists in the world.

😊☀️

A great bit of craic in the middle of all the teachings as well.
The plants, herbs and fungi as always at the centre of it all☘️🌿🌾🪴☘️

Ring Of Gullion AONB

18/05/2024

A great day foraging in the foothills today ☘️☀️

Ring Of Gullion AONB
Visit Mourne

21/04/2024

21/04/2024

Yesterday in the South Armagh sunshine, we launched a brand new experience ....

'Foraging and Farming Through The Ages'

We were one of 15 fantastic new outdoor experiences to launch as part of The Mourne Gullion Strangford Outdoor Adventure Festival.

🌞🌞🌞☀️☀️☀️

This is something that I've been developing for quite a while and ties together many things that I am passionate about ...wild food, foraging, farming history and heritage.That legacy can be traced back at least 6,000 years in the Ring of Gullion, South Armagh Landscape.

🌱🌱🌱🥔🥔🥔

Our guests learned how to dig 'priddy rigs' with the ancient hand digging tool, The Loy.
These are unique and made to suit the individual. I had mine handcrafted in Donegal.
😊
Whoever first called these 'Lazy Beds' never dug one ! Later on in the tour, we shared a poignant moment as we walked through those same 'famine beds' that my ancestors dug on our 'Cargas' farm on the lower slopes of Slieve Gullion.

Contrary to the normal narrative, guests learned exactly how the famine, An Gorta Mór, devastated our Cloch Choinne Townland.

But, it wasn't all a sad story and it's not all history ! 6,000 years since the first neolithic farmers and over 170 years since the famine we are still here and part of a thriving and proud South Armagh community.

💚💚💚☘️

Above all, our guests had a really enjoyable day and as usual, the wild food tasters went down well.


Ring Of Gullion AONB Visit Mourne Mourne Gullion Strangford Geopark Loy Association Ireland

25/03/2024

We held our first 'Spring Greens, Forage , Ferment and Feast' event yesterday and what a way to kickstart the wild food season!
💚💚☘️
This full day immersion experience paid homage to an ancient Irish custom of 'Creamhfeis/ Crimfeis' - for centuries, at this very time of year, Tribal Irish Chieftains demanded that they be honoured with a feast offering of wild garlic and cheese / milk. Failure to provide was on penalty of a fine.
🫣
A bit like getting our taxes in order and still over one thousand years later some things never change - I doubt the tax man would accept a dish of my fermented wild garlic cheese , delicious and all as it is 😉
🌱🌱🌱

We spent the day foraging, fermenting and feasting ....everything from Homegrown Irish Garlic butters and cheeses to more international flavours of Sauerkraut and Kimchi.
Here in the Ring of Gullion, South Armagh, we have a rich cultural legacy of plant based cures, wild medicine and food heritage as diverse as any part of the world.
We are committed to reviving and preserving that knowledge.
❤️💚🌱☘️
Yesterday we made new friends and got reacquainted with more regular visitors, thank you for supporting us.

22/12/2023

Foraging Gift Voucher & New Events for 2024🎅 ! - https://mailchi.mp/07a78dc3a76d/spring-into-the-ring-of-gullion-st-patricks-day-5436274
Discover Northern Ireland Tourism Ireland Good Food Ireland

03/12/2023

As part of the autumn fest, we ran our final foraging event of 2023 last Sunday. We foraged for fungi, roots and berries and also had a look at some cultivated mushrooms and the processes involved.
🍄🫚🍒
Thanks to everyone who came along and spent the day with us making our sold out event such a success.

❤️💚
The day started with a lovely heart warming medicinal mushroom and root latte.
☕
During the day, we looked at many wild species...edible, medicinal and poisonous but all beautiful. Birch polypore, scaly wood mushroom, wood blewit, Turkey tails, Auricularia, amethyst deceiver to name a few.

We also looked at many different roots and how to process them ... tasting some of their lovely wild flavours along the way - raw and baked
Savoury Hawthorn berry sauce, leathers and other wild berries, seeds and nuts were tasted in one way or another.
We still have a few bottles of elderberry 🍾🥂😉

The group were shown how to properly ID wild fungi using a key and other resources.

Then after our walk it was back to the barn to taste my wild mushroom soup and cook up some of what I had foraged over the previous couple of days including beautiful wood blewits, agaricus sp. as well as sumptuous cultivated oyster mushrooms.

These 'Pleurotus ostreatus' grow wild in the Ring of Gullion but on this occasion we had the next best thing ...supplied by .
Jemmy Mc Cann who produces these delightful tasting mushrooms is just a few miles over the road from me and has an absolute passion for what he does.

Ard Mhacha Shiitake Mushrooms

03/11/2023

Come foraging for the day as part of Autumn Fest 2023. The story of wild food and medicine is as much part of our heritage as is song, poetry, storytelling.

🍄🌿🫐

As autumn moves to winter we find less and less to forage or so it seems to the untrained eye.

🍁🍂🍃🍁

Join me, Sunday 26th November, on a wild food exploration day and together we will begin to peel back the layers to the mysterious kingdom of fungi, roots and berries.

To book or learn more, click on the link 👇
https://www.mountainwaysireland.com/foraging/mushrooms-and-fungi/


Visit Mourne Mourne Gullion Strangford Geopark Discover Northern Ireland

26/10/2023

What a great day sharing the history and folklore of this magical place we call home. Thanks to a great bunch of students and staff from our local school St.Pauls.

05/10/2023

02/10/2023

We picked the right day this week to host a group of industry CEOs for our ,Myth and Legend tour on Slieve Gullion.
⛰️
Slieve Gullion or the South Armagh landscape below never fail to impress.
🍎🌿
By chance, we bumped into Mick Boyle and his wife Robin, owners of Killeavy Castle Estate at the lake. They had a warm welcome for their guests.

21/09/2023

It was a real pleasure to host this group of Austrian ladies on a culinary themed media visit of the North.

🌱🍎🍏🍒🥧

We were their first stop on a week long itinerary of sights and flavours throughout Northern Ireland.We made sure they tasted a wide range of our homegrown and wild foods, foraged and preserved right here in the beautiful orchard county at Slieve Gullion's Foot.

🥂🌼🌿

On a cool Autumn evening, they were welcomed with a warming mug of fresh from the garden Lemon Verbena herbal tea.They sampled everything from wild Garlic Kimchi, Salty Sweet fermented Penny Bun mushrooms (Noma Style), Armagh Cider Vinegar, Pickled Chanterelle, Ginger Magnolia Buds, Seaweed seasoned home made cheese with garlic flower buds, Cloughinnea Cider, Elderflower and Berry Biscuits and much much more...

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Hopefully our unique blend of storytelling, heritage, nature connection, our love for wild foods and sense of place left a lasting impression.

💚

Thank you TourismNI and Tourism Ireland for choosing us to kick off the tour

21/09/2023

It was a real pleasure to host this group of Austrian ladies on a culinary themed media visit of the North.

🌱🍎🍏🍒🥧

We were their first stop on a week long itinerary of sights and flavours throughout Northern Ireland.We made sure they tasted a wide range of our homegrown and wild foods, foraged and preserved right here in the beautiful orchard county at Slieve Gullion's Foot.

🥂🌼🌿

On a cool Autumn evening, they were welcomed with a warming mug of fresh from the garden Lemon Verbena herbal tea.They sampled everything from wild Garlic Kimchi, Salty Sweet fermented Penny Bun mushrooms (Noma Style), Armagh Cider Vinegar, Pickled Chanterelle, Ginger Magnolia Buds, Seaweed seasoned home made cheese with garlic flower buds, Cloughinnea Cider, Elderflower and Berry Biscuits and much much more...

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Hopefully our unique blend of storytelling, heritage, nature connection, our love for wild foods and sense of place left a lasting impression.

💚

Thank you TourismNI Discover Northern Ireland and Tourism Ireland for choosing us.
Ring Of Gullion AONB

03/09/2023

Great company, great weather, great food ...no better way to spend a Saturday 😊

My daughter Éimear cooked a beautiful blackberry and apple crumble all foraged within 50 yards of our back door.
🫐🍒🍏🍎

It's not every day you get to welcome world class musicians Zoë Conway + John Mc Intyre who played electric picnic the night before!
🎻🎸🎶🎻

Autumn is definitely starting to show in all her glory...Hips, Haws, Sloes, Elderberry, Blackberry, Common Hogweed seeds, Hazelnuts all ripening in the hedgerows right now.
🌱
Thanks to all who shared the day with us

27/08/2023

We had a nice foraging day yesterday despite the odd heavy shower.
🌈☔🌤️
Autumn is most definitely early and spring / summer abundance is now all about the wild berries, fruit and seeds.
🍒☘️
A small bit of what was on the menu....
hogweed seed cake,
homemade kefir cheese with pepper dulce seaweed,
Blackberry jam,
Elderberry syrup desert,
Elderberry 🍾🥂

🍒🌱
Next week's event is sold out but we'll be posting new Autumnal dates soon

28/07/2023

It was a pleasure to welcome members of EOS IT Solutions team all the way from The USA and Mayo to Slieve Gullion.
🏞️⛰️☘️

People are always blown away... first by the landscape then by the thousands of years of history and culture written in the fields, hillsides and mountains.
Stories retold as handed down through countles generations of mountainy people.
👋😊

If you're interested in corporate events or group bookings just contact us by email 👇
[email protected]
Ring Of Gullion AONB Visit Mourne

19/07/2023

Delighted to welcome Simon Parker and his lovely wife Alana to our home and farm today. Simon is an award winning travel writer, broadcaster, film maker, journalist...and so much more.
🚴🏔️

He has cycled, hiked, paraglided and sailed all over the globe documenting his journeys along the way .
☘️
We were more than happy to showcase The Ring of Gullion, South Armagh as part of his foodie cycle tour of counties Armagh and Down.
Simon and Alana had a taste of our 'Foraging in the Foothills' and 'Booley and Butter' tour.

🥂🍄🌮🍅🍓🍒

I had my foraging chef's hat on today as well. Wild delights foraged from the local seashore, forests and fields were the highlights of a very welcome lunch.
🌿
The Slieve Gullion Chanterelles pickled in Spiced Armagh Apple Cider Vinegar were a firm favourite.
😊
The home made kefir cheese seasoned with toasted sleabhac and pepper dulce seaweeds weren't far behind 👍
Visit Mourne Ring of Gullion Ring Of Gullion AONB

08/07/2023

On our sold out foraging walk today, in the South Armagh Sunshine, we popped our first bottle of Elderflower 'Champagne'.

🍾🥂

Every Homebrewer thinks his tipple is fantastic but I have to say, vintage 2023 definitely doesn't disappoint.

🍸🥂😃

Again thanks to a great group of people from across the country.
Great craic and stories shared.

☘️

Among other tasty nibbles, we had home baked elderflower biscuits , seasonal herbal teas and wild garlic preserves.

Our next walk, Foraging at Lúnasa, on 19th August is filling fast, why not join us, you can book here👇

https://www.mountainwaysireland.com/events/foraging-in-summer/

06/07/2023

Looking out on this wet July evening, it's hard to think that only three weeks ago in early June, the sun was shining in a clear blue sky.

🌞🌞🌞

BBQs were fired up from one end of the country to the other. The heady aroma of elderflowers was heavy in the air and we captured some of that in a classic of the foragers calendar.
'Elderflower Champagne'.

🍾🌿🤩

Safe to say we got a good ferment with plenty of sparkle, all safely refrigerated to share with our guests on future walks.

20/06/2023

We had a really nice group out foraging at the weekend. Homemade wild garlic kefir cheese, wild seasonal teas and elderflower cordial, nettle seed and elderberry yoghurt with homegrown strawberries were a few of the hedgerow delights on offer.
#

16/06/2023

A great day and evening yesterday spent in the company of legends in the arts of fermentation.
💯
Mara King Ozuké
&
Kirsten Shockey
FermentWorks
😀
What a great location and beautiful weather at The Ulster Folk Museum.
🌞🍹🍾🌿
Fermentation in all its guises is something that I've been enjoying for a good few years but these are some of the people who I learn from.
🌟🤩
The focus for this workshop was on capturing wild yeasts and home made vinegars but all things 'cultured' were touched on.
It's great to meet people with a similar passion from all over Ireland, Belfast to Cork and from Hong Kong to Oregon.

Thanks to Derbhla Reynolds The Cultured Club for making this happen.

It takes a lot to convince any Irishman to purposely change perfectly good alcohol into a vinegar.
😉

06/06/2023

Twenty plus litres of Elderflower Champagne on the brew.
🍾 🥂

Now just to wait for the natural yeasts begin to work their magic.

04/06/2023

Foraging in the glorious sun yesterday.
🌞

Not a day for nettle soup but the chilled elderflower cordial and cool deserts were very welcome.
🍹🍸🥂🍨

Lovely group of people and I learned a few things from our youngest forager, Emanuel.

01/06/2023

Summer is here 🌞
First batch of elderflower cordial made but look at the lengths I go to for my foraging guests this weekend.
😂
Not recommended, nor for the fainthearted but to reach the highest and perfectly ripe pollen laden blooms takes a bit of ingenuity.

Make sure to smell those flowers
😉😹
Cattle shed with a view 🌿

20/05/2023

A few snaps from our walk today.
😄
Thanks everyone from near and far for joining us. New friends and new connections made but as always the plants and wild food at Slieve Gullion's foot were the stars of the show.
🌿🍄☘️
Maybe you could join us on our next outing, Saturday June 3rd , booking link 👇

https://www.mountainwaysireland.com/ -events

16/05/2023

We'd love you to join us foraging in the beautiful foothills of Slieve Gullion, County Armagh.
🤗
Our spring series of walks were SOLD OUT including next Saturday 20th May, Thank you all very much !
👏
Don't be disappointed - SPACES AVAILABLE for our walk in two weeks time, Saturday 3rd June and other scheduled summer dates bookable by clicking on the following link...
https://www.mountainwaysireland.com/events/foraging-in-summer/