Man of Aran Fudge Blog

Man of Aran Fudge is a member of Meath Artisan Food Group and have been for about five years I think; we are not active members because there are not enough hours in the day: if we are not making fudge we are trying to sell fudge !    We did attend a meeting recently because we are interested in using the web to inform everyone who cares to know  about the variety of food ( not only fudge) that is produced by people at home  in  small way..  Hopefully Meath Artisan Food Group will eventually have a presence on the web that will reflect the small artisan food producer in Meath.

Amazing it was DRY and warm; must have been a first in my memory anyway.  It makes such a difference for the fudge because in any damp conditions it becomes very difficult to work with; very sticky.  This also improves the flavour of the fudge so it is roundabouts and swings. 

Usually Man of Aran Fudge makes a special St. Patrick’s Day Fudge with green (lime) , gold ( lemon ) and white (vanilla ) fudges in layers to represent  Ireland symbolically but we didn’t have time this year and luckily no-one ordered that flavour fudge as a gift from the website so we did not disappoint anyone.

Greetings, Sending an article on St. Brigid whose feast on February 1st 2010

sean mcdonagh ssc

Brigid of Kildare:

Sean McDonagh SSC (January 25th 2010)

On February 1st in Ireland we celebrate the Feast of St. Brigid of Kildare. With St. Patrick and St. Colmcille she is one of the three patron saints of Ireland.

Who is this Brigid and what do we know about her? While it is believed that she was born in the middle of the fifth century, the Life of Brigid (Vita Brigitae) was not written until the later part of the 7th century. It is full of stories and legends that illustrate her faith, hospitality, concern for the poor and oppressed, healing powers and great sensitivity to God’s creation.

Most scholars believe that Brigid was born in Faughart, County Louth around the year 453 A.D , though there is a also a tradition that she was in fact born near the town of Kildare. In the latter version her mother, Broicsech a Christian, was a bondmaid in the household of a local chieftain called Dubthach.

This was a time when the traditional religion of the druids was waning and giving away to the new faith, Christianity. The change over happened in a relatively short period of time and without violence. Around the year 480 A.D Bridget established her abbey in Kildare, in a place which is now occupied by the Church of Ireland Cathedral of St. Brigid. Of course, nothing remains of the original building, as it was most probably constructed from timber, mud and wattles.

Some scholars claim that her monastic foundation may have grown out of a sanctuary for Druidic priestesses who had converted to Christianity. The fact that she presided as Abbess over a monastery which included both men and women, may have a message for the contemporary Catholic Church, where traditional forms of ministry seem to be crumbling. Today women are rightfully seeking a much more inclusive role in every aspect of the Church’s life, including leadership roles.

There was not, of course, a clear break between the druidic past and the emerging Christian faith. No Irish saint embodies this transition better than Brigid. Legends about her are intertwined with stories about female Celtic deities. Her feast day, celebrated at the beginning of the year, coincides with the ancient Druidic feast of Imbolc and retains many features of that festival, especially in relation to holy wells and the ceremonial use of fire. Her Feast points to new life emerging in spring.

Brigid’s fame as a peacemaker has much to teach our modern world. During her life there were many quarrels and wars between rival clans and rival families within clans. Brigid often became involved in reconciling rival factions. There is a legend that she gave away her father’s sword to a poor family so that they could buy food. Today, where almost one billion are constantly hungry, the nations of the world together waste £1.3 million per minute on weapons of war and destruction.

Brigid was a friend of the poor. One of the legends has Brigid resting on the road during a long journey. A wealthy lady heard that the famous Brigid was in the locality and brought her a basket full of delicious apples. No sooner had the gift been presented to the saint, than a group of poor people passed by and asked for food. Without hesitation Brigid gave them the apples. The donor was annoyed and disgusted and said to Brigid, “I brought those apples for you , not for them. Brigid replied, “what is mine is also theirs.” As we watch the death, pain and hunger which followed the recent earthquake in Haiti on our TV screens, we are reminded that there are still many people, in various parts of the world, who are desperately in need of our apples.

Today, when many people are concerned about how humans are destroying creation, Brigid’s closeness to the land should help us regain a new sensitivity to God’s creation. She is often presented as milking cows, churning milk or making butter, shepherding her flocks of sheep and even brewing ale.

Water resources are under stress all across the world and, in the year 2010, almost one billion people lack access to clean, potable water. St. Brigid’s well has attracted pilgrims down through the ages. In pre-Christian Celtic Europe wells were associated with a strong presence of the divine. They were seen as the entrance to the womb of mother earth and therefore as the source of life. Holy wells also became symbols of the source of life within each person. We need to recover this reverence and respect for water in our times.

A Naoimh Bhrid, Muire na nGeal, gui orainn. (St. Brigid, Mary of the Gael, pray for us)

Well if you have read all that you will have noticed it is all about St Brigid not St. Valentine…….

So continuing on from the experiments in the presentation of Man of Aran Fudge I experimented with using the chocolate fudge , melted in a bain-marie, with milk added, as a flan filling.  Delicious!

If anyone out there would like exact measurements I will take a note of them when I make this again.

When Tomás was away in Montbéliard he noticed a chocolatier at a neighbouring stall was selling individual chocolates in just the right size to munch when drinking a cup of coffee.  He talked to the chocolatier and together they found some shapes to suit the fudge!  Great excitement, so for the last ten days  Tomás has been experimenting how he can transfer the swirled fudges e.g peppermint and choc fudge, caramel and vanilla fudge etc into individual shapes.  The easiest to make and probably most popular to eat will be the traditional tiger butter fudge…..If you look at the website you will see where Tomás will be selling his fudge this week and maybe you will have time to visit us there and tell us what you think of this experiment

So now we know where the fudge man was during December, yes the fudge man along with twenty different flavours of fudge was in a wooden chalet in Montbéliard, France. ” Cold! ” he exclaims ” we had cold in Montbéliard, it was minus 18  there, had a job to stop the fudge freezing”.  And which fudge did the people in Montbéliard like?  “Curiously they liked different flavours, banana an choc fudge and orange an choc fudge were more popular than the peppermint choc fudge.  The perennial favourite though was Tiger Butter fudge…..