Green Bites

Season one of Green Bites, the Irish Food Sustainability Podcast, launches on Friday the 17th of July. Listen on podcast platforms or on www.greenbites.ie

What does a frozen avocado or a palm weevil grub taste like? Meet UK-based, Kerry-born chef and nutritionist Sadhbh Moore, whose book, Sustainable Kitchen, is out this year. What do we mean when we say "sustainable"? And where's the line when it comes to individual responsibility versus corporate or state level environmental actions?

Do you think a vegan diet will save the world? This episode might make you think again.

We meet Sligo farmer and artist Clive Bright, whose 120 acre organic farm raises 100% grass-fed beef for Clive’s direct-to-customer company The Rare Ruminare. Clive has transformed his farm from standard dairy, complete with spraying and fertilisers, to the mob-grazing system he uses today, where trees play a vital role in improving his pastures. He’s been certified organic for six years.

Clive believes a truly sustainable food system necessarily includes livestock. In revolutionising his approach to farming, he says he's managed to insulate his livelihood against the commodity market and a food system he sees as broken.

Where does our flour come from? Can Ireland grow wheat and other milling grains? Green Bites follows the story of flour from farm to loaf with Emma Clutterbuck of Oak Forest Mills in Co Kilkenny and Cork-based baker Ben Lebon of The Natural Foods Bakery.

In ancient China, it was believed that the nutritional power of the mighty, protein-rich soy bean needed to be "tamed"....Tempeh, the Indonesian soy-based protein food, might be lesser known than Tofu, but it's one way of taming the golden bean. Vegan chef James De Burca launched De Burca's Tempeh in 2022, the first commercial Tempeh producers in Ireland. Using beans from France to produce Tempeh is one way of keeping food miles down while going plant-based, he says. James whips up a Thai Larb, Tempeh and Aubergine Involtini and Tempeh Bacon to prove its versatility.