Take me home, Butter Roads
Shandon is to play host to a festival celebrating one of Ireland and Cork's most famous exports - butter.
The Old Butter Roads Festival will be returning to Cork city from 9 to 11 October.
The festival celebrates the unique place Cork holds in Ireland's food history. Beef fattened on the pastures of Cork, Kerry, and Limerick, along with butter churned in farmhouse kitchens, made its way to markets centred around Shandon along 'the Butter Roads'.
The festival offers a mix of free and ticketed events, including demonstrations, talks, tours, and even a butter-themed play.
The Butter Museum will be open for free butter making demonstrations at 12pm each day with no booking required.
Friday evening will see a talk at the museum from Kate Ryan of Flavour.ie and Master Cooper at Midleton Distillery, Killian O'Mahony. It will also see the launch of the 'Butter/Spuds/Cheese/Fish' exhibition at The Firkin Crane, and the Butter Exchange Band playing live on O'Connell Square.
On Saturday, Kate Ryan will take people on a food heritage walking tour, talking about the first foods - blood and milk. The day will finish with a night of food and folk with Butter Roads songs with Ger Wolfe, stories with Maria Gillen, and with the Cronin sisters of the Farmgate Café cooking up bitesize dishes at the English Market.
Sunday will be a day for families, with special events for children. From the sweets of Cork with Shandon Sweets and the Chocolate Shop, to sewing seeds for future harvests with Education for Sustainability, there is fun for the whole family.
The final day will also feature animal-based crafts with both animal origami and pottery of cows and sheep. All events are drop-in and centred on O'Connell Square.
The festival will close with a talk by culinary historian Regina Sexton about spiced beef at the Butter Museum, with tastings of James Nolan's spiced beef from around the corner on Shandon Street.
Festival chairperson Máire Ní Mhurchú said: "It's great to see a festival celebrating the rich food heritage of Cork revived and reimagined.
"In its new home of Shandon, this festival links food producers based in the country with sites that were once the epicentre of Cork commerce ... when Cork was the larder of the world.
"Hundreds of years later Cork is still home to amazing producers, based in both the city and the county," she said.
The festival is supported by Cork City Council, Fáilte Ireland, and Ireland's Ancient East.
This article was produced with the support of the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme funded by Coimisiún na Meán.