Forget the Guinness- wear a potato for St. Patrick's Day!

Earth Apple Jewellery, by Jane Way

Are you ready to enjoy something different, fun, & beautiful? I thought this was perfect to share with you, especially for St. Patrick's Day. Look at this-- jewelry handmade from potatoes! :-)

 I'll let Jane tell you the story:

How exciting to be asked by Susan to write a post about my potato jewellery, just in time for St.Patrick’s Day. Yes you heard right – my Earth Apple Jewellery is hand made from potatoes! And as Susan said, one of the first things people associate with Ireland is potatoes. 

 Dorrigo, New South Wales, Australia, by Jane Way

I grew up on a farm in Lincolnshire, England, where my Dad grew potatoes. I married an Aussie and came to Dorrigo, in New South Wales, half way between Sydney and Brisbane. Dorrigo is a great spud growing region with a lovely climate, plenty of rain (too much recently!) and wonderful red volcanic soil. You’ll see from the photo that this area has many similarities with Ireland. 

So guess what? That’s right, we grew potatoes! Years went by and my love of the potato extended to crafts like potato printing. Then lo and behold I found on the internet (where else?) that you could make beads from potatoes. A craft where I could unleash my creativity and use my beloved potatoes…. I was hooked! 

Lewins Honeyeater on Watarah , Jane Way

Take a look at my blog Earth Apple Jane, to see some more of the pieces I have made, or to see some of the things that inspire my jewellery, and I think you will agree that it is quirky, fun and unique. It is also light weight, easy to wear and eco-friendly. I now use local organically grown potatoes. I sell sometimes at the local market and shops, and I have an online shop. 

I should explain that the name Earth Apple is taken from the French for potato, pomme de terre or literally “apple of the earth”. Similarly in Dutch it is aardappel. I see the Irish call them praties, purdies and pirries. But I think I’ll still stick with the name Earth Apple! 

Jane Way's Earth Apple Potato Jewelery

Making the beads is a slow process as the pieces of potato have to be completely dried and then sealed, painted and decorated (this is the part I enjoy the most!) sealed again and then made into earrings, pendants and necklaces. I sometimes use leaf prints or feathers etc, to embellish my pendants. It’s fun and I love using serendipitous finds from my walks to enhance my jewellery. 

You never know what shape the pieces will end up, so that always adds an element of surprise. The character of the bead then influences the final design. So do the textures and colours of the natural world around me, the birds, mountains, rainforest…….I could go on and on! 

I really enjoy turning the humble spud into a beautiful piece of jewellery for someone to wear and treasure. 

Reversible potato necklace, Jane Way

Thank you Susan for giving me this opportunity to talk to your readers. 

Have a wonderful Paddy’s Day Susan, and everyone!

Thank you, Jane! I love your unique jewelry, and its international 'flavor'  :-) 

Everyone, be sure to read Jane's blog- there are more lovely photos of nature in Australia there, as well as of jewelry!

 You can get in touch with Jane through her shop, her blog or by email : earthapplejewellery@gmail.com

And of course there is always Face Book and Twitter ! 

Earth Apple potato earrings by Jane Way

Happy St Patrick's Day, everyone!

Forget the Guinness- 

eat a potato & wear one, too! 

If you's like to see our village's parades, click here and also here. 

Happy Paddy's Day! 

St Patricks Day Parade 2012 Graiguenamanagh, Ireland

 

Paddy's Day is always a good bit of fun here in Graig- have a look at some photos of this years parade :-) 

The photos all are shown in just 1 minute 37 seconds- the video just loops after that. 

*Don't ask why, I couldn't make it load with music otherwise; have a few grey hairs to prove it*

Edward Hayden (check out his fab recipes here) and Fergal Byrne ( his website: http://fergalbphotography.wordpress.com/  & you can also see a few more photos of his here) were kind enough to share these photos with me, as I  missed the parade due to nurse duty with 4 sick dogs! *Don't ask about that, either!* Just enjoy the video :-)

And for 2011's parade photos & wee video, click here! 

Paddy's Day at medieval 'village of the monks,' Graignamanagh, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland! 2011

Happy Paddy's Day from Graignamanagh, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland!

looking out over the bridge before the parade

The crowd starts to gather

The 1st of 12 Cistercian monk statues due to be placed around Graignamanagh makes his debut.
He'll be found returning to Duiske Abbey after working in the surrounding fields.

Would our monk perhaps have had a cart like this?

This one might be a little small!

The monks may have loved to have a contraption like this!

But they might have been unimpressed by these machines!

After the noise of the big fella, a nice relaxed pint is called for! Maybe our monk isn't on his way back to the Abbey- perhaps he's on his way to the pub now, like many of us. It is time for some music & chatter! Happy St. Patrick's Day from Graignamanagh!

PS: The Graignamanagh Historical Society will be giving a talk on the ''Medieval Stone Carvings of County Kilkenny'' on Fri 25 March, 8pm in the Graig library.

Irish treats & treasures for Paddy's Day :The Sunday Sampler

Seeing as how Thursday is Paddy's Day, here are a few tasty samples to whet your appetite- literally & figuratively!

According to the journal.ie, ''For the second year in a row, a national food survey has shown that the traditional Irish dish of bacon and cabbage is the most popular meal in the country.'' As my job is running a garden centre where we sell way more cabbage plants & seeds than any other veg, I can't argue with that. 

My hubby makes a tasty variation on the bacon & cabbage, with brussel sprouts. I know what you're thinking, but they are in the same family as cabbage, & I promise these are really good! You wouldn't know you were eating brussels! 

Another traditional Irish favorite is Guinness. Like Kristin at Dinner Du Jour, I'm not really a fan of drinking it, but in cooking it is wonderful. Here's a link to her blog post featuring Steak & Guinness pie, & Chocolate Guinness Cake-- she's got few other recipe links for Paddy's Day there, too. 

Doyle's in Graiguenamanagh. Yes, it is also a hardware shop. Photo by meophamman on flickr 

If you fancy a pint of the black stuff in here in Graignamanagh after our Paddy's Day parade, why not try the Cosy Inn, Matt Doyle's, or O'Shea's, or, well, I could go on! Why not do a pub tour & try them all for yourself ;-) 

Dungarvan beers- vegan friendly, even! photo by irishcraftbeer 

But Guinness is not the only beer in Ireland! Craft brewing here is starting to take off, and Beoir.org has many of them listed. Here's their calendar of beer-y events, and do look around their website for lots of cool craft beer info, & where you can buy the beers. Dungarvan Brewing Co. is a new local-ish company that has some of Terry's favorite craft beers. And ooh!-- just as I was going to publish this, a wonderful new blog post came up from fabulous foodie Simply Splendiferous which fits in perfectly with the Dungarvan beer & food themes. Here it is: http://simplysplendiferous.com/2011/03/saint-patricks-day-irish-beef-and-stout-stew-and-a-new-irish-stout.html Nice!

If you would like to find a bit of non-edible treasure for Paddy's Day, why not join in on this online treasure hunt! You can win fab handcrafted items from Etsy Ireland. The clues go up on their Facebook page daily, so you can scroll back & catch any you may have missed, in time for the last clue on the 15th. 

Last but not least, to get you in the parade spirit, here's last year's RTE TV's snippets of parades

all around the country (& elsewhere!) It is fun to watch, but if you don't want to see it all, skim forward to around minute 17.05 to see Graignamanagh's parade-- maybe we'll see you here this year, or in the future! Enjoy!

A little Graignamanagh parade ;-) photo by Sharon Cheong 

On the last Sunday Sampler I posted links to the big St Patrick's Day Festival in Dublin & other events going on around the time, so check it out if you missed it. Have a wonderful St. Patrick's day where ever you are!