Clams!!
A gushing, Gwyneth-type cascade of praise for.......CLAMS!! From Donegal, driven down here to the Carrick-on-Shannon lowlands by one wonderful Killybegs fishmonger, Mr. Gerry Blain (I'll snap a photo for you of this lovely man who could have had a second career in the movies). Gerry sells his fish at the Farmers' Market that comes and goes like a circus every Thursday in the Market Yard in Carrick.
I bought a hefty bag o'clams and an even heftier bag o' scallops in their pretty shells from Gerry yesterday--getting in the stock for the Christmas visitors. But I couldn't wait til THEN, so threw some clams in the pot with wine and garlic for a yummy spaghetti with white clam sauce for din-din last night. My daughter picked the tiny, sweet and tender clam bodies out of their shells and hand fed me (while proclaiming they looked "yucky"). Then she made the clam shells talk, of course.
For ages, there was not a clam to be had here in Leitrim. You'd have to have gone to the coast in Mayo, Sligo or Donegal to find someone selling fresh shellfish. But thanks to Gerry (sainthood would not be out of order here), that has all changed, changed, utterly changed. And I couldn't disagree more with the likes of Michael Harding who hark back to the good old poor days in Carrick when hardly a fresh carrot was to be found in the place. Yes, there's a plethora of shitboxes and ranchburgers blighting the landscape here now thanks to short-term greed, bad planning, graft and worse. But it's not all bad. Prosperity has merits. Clams, for one. John McGahern was delighted that a better life had come, through prosperity, to the denizens of Leitrim. He may have written about misery, especially about how the power-hungry in the Church preyed upon the miserable, but he was wise enough not to love poverty, nor wish it upon his fellow man.
Spotted in the pre-1990 Warsaw-style queue that quickly formed in front of Gerry's fish stall: Mari-aymone Djeribi who bought periwinkles, scallops and oysters. This Leitrim-based- Parisienne visual artist, poet, book-maker, publisher, farmer (I'll stop here, but there's more; you can visit mermaid turbulence, her publishing/book/art website to begin to get a picture) has her own farmers' market stall in Boyle on Saturdays; Maison Djeribi. She bakes the best bread and pastries ever, anywhere, bar none. And with inimitable style. You haven't lived, etc. Go to Boyle, Saturdays 10 to 4 (she's closed for the first two weeks in January though).
I bought a hefty bag o'clams and an even heftier bag o' scallops in their pretty shells from Gerry yesterday--getting in the stock for the Christmas visitors. But I couldn't wait til THEN, so threw some clams in the pot with wine and garlic for a yummy spaghetti with white clam sauce for din-din last night. My daughter picked the tiny, sweet and tender clam bodies out of their shells and hand fed me (while proclaiming they looked "yucky"). Then she made the clam shells talk, of course.
For ages, there was not a clam to be had here in Leitrim. You'd have to have gone to the coast in Mayo, Sligo or Donegal to find someone selling fresh shellfish. But thanks to Gerry (sainthood would not be out of order here), that has all changed, changed, utterly changed. And I couldn't disagree more with the likes of Michael Harding who hark back to the good old poor days in Carrick when hardly a fresh carrot was to be found in the place. Yes, there's a plethora of shitboxes and ranchburgers blighting the landscape here now thanks to short-term greed, bad planning, graft and worse. But it's not all bad. Prosperity has merits. Clams, for one. John McGahern was delighted that a better life had come, through prosperity, to the denizens of Leitrim. He may have written about misery, especially about how the power-hungry in the Church preyed upon the miserable, but he was wise enough not to love poverty, nor wish it upon his fellow man.
Spotted in the pre-1990 Warsaw-style queue that quickly formed in front of Gerry's fish stall: Mari-aymone Djeribi who bought periwinkles, scallops and oysters. This Leitrim-based- Parisienne visual artist, poet, book-maker, publisher, farmer (I'll stop here, but there's more; you can visit mermaid turbulence, her publishing/book/art website to begin to get a picture) has her own farmers' market stall in Boyle on Saturdays; Maison Djeribi. She bakes the best bread and pastries ever, anywhere, bar none. And with inimitable style. You haven't lived, etc. Go to Boyle, Saturdays 10 to 4 (she's closed for the first two weeks in January though).
posted by Alice Lyons at 10:38 AM
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