In Season Farm 2.53

Chefs in the country’s Capital are raving about micro vegetables! It’s the new thing and we’ve found the man that made it happen! Brendan Guinan brings the big boys of the cooking world a real treat of tastes in teeny weeny form! His homegrown seasonal veggies, in baby sizes, adorn the most prestigious of plates, don’t you know?!

Brendan has latched onto a very smart niche market – but that idea comes with the weight of many years of horticultural experience. Brendan is a graduate of Warrenstown Horticultural College Co. Meath, with a Diploma in Commercial Horticulture under his belt. Working experience followed, with a potato grower, then in baby leaves, salads, and eventually, micro salads. He’s expanded that to micro vegetables too. These little miniatures captured Brendan’s imagination, and that of the top chefs of the country.

In peak growing season, you’re likely to find boxes of fresh picked baby vegetables ready to be delivered to one or other of Dublin's top chefs. Tiny radishes, parsnips, carrots, beetroots, budding pak choi and little shallots plus punnets of pea shoots, cress, mizuna, red radish leaves, green broccoli leaves, sorrel, coriander and rocket leaves ready for delivery. These are in the earliest stages of growth, young and tender, and totally adored by those who have ever eaten them. You’ve tasted nothing till you’ve tasted these micro wonders!

Brendan's wife Margaret has taken his carefully grown produce one step further, to create her own range of pickles and chutneys. The In Season Farm label includes Tomato Relish, Pickled Baby Beetroots, Golden Beetroot Relish which goes perfectly with Irish Goat's Cheese, gorgeous little Paris Market Carrots, pickled whole and Pickled Baby Red Onions. Semi Sundried Tomatoes come on stream in summer when Brendan's tunnels are in full production. Margaret uses nothing but natural ingredients in her pickles and chutneys, creating them in small batches by hand in her production kitchen in Drogheda town. There are no huge vats of bubbling chutney, nor big automated bottling line here. It's just Margaret's elbow grease for chopping, cooking, hand stirring and bottling Brendan's freshly harvested vegetables, that makes this range unique and exciting.