Fish cakes are incredibly easy to make and delicious to eat. They also suit the more experimental chef as once you get the basic consistency sorted you can chop and change ingredients to suit your taste.

We love roast turkey crown. Its quick to cook, its easy to carve, its economical, its good for you and best of all its got that great turkey flavor. Check out how easy this recipe is, perfect on a winters day with roast veg or on a summers day with a crunchy side salad.

This recipe involves using a very old cooking method which uses pastry to seal the pot. The result is a beautifully moist and tender chicken. The pastry only takes a couple of minutes to prepare and you needn’t worry about getting the mixture of ingredients perfect as its not going to be eaten.

This recipe involves starting the cooking process on your bbq grill, so you get those amazing charcoal-smoky flavors mixing it up with all the herbs and spices, then finishing the job in an oven. For this reason its a good idea to have something else to throw on the grill, no point wasting all that heat.

I had only spoke to Thomas Slater on the phone the one time prior to our meeting, thus ensuring that I had no idea what he looked like. So our initial encounter in the yard with a very reserved and stony faced gent had us already thinking that this could be a long day, but then that all changed. Out from the house bounded a very young and welcoming Thomas. An outstretched hand with a good farmers grip ensuring that any apprehension be immediately banished.

Deciding to start with the pigs, Slaters also farm free range ducks and geese, we made our way to another yard next door (a country next door, i.e. about half a mile up the road). This included a large new shed and stables, surrounded by fields where the pigs run riot during the day, before retiring into the shed if they feel cold or tired. Thomas had explained that his pigs are a cross between the rare breeds, saddleback or tamworth and the more common large white.

I had never entered a field of young and rowdy pigs before, its quite an experience. Pigs, Thomas informed us, are extremely inquisitive, and as we soon discovered, answered their inquisitiveness by rushing towards the object of interest (us) and tasting it. In my case, my jeans, with Mike his boots seemed to hit the spot. My role on the shoot quickly became apparent, distract the pigs away from Mike and keep the camera bag and tripod above head height of a pig. As the second objective required both hands I was left to achieve the first objective by standing still and enduring the attention.

Being tasted, not bitten but definitely nibbled by the pigs and yes the shoe was well and truly on the other foot, was not an all together bad experience. If nothing else, it was an effective introduction to the animals. I’ve had experience of other livestock in my past, and for the most part found them ‘grand’. These animals on the other hand were like a big bunch of wild kids milling around and having the crack. They were very much ‘jerks’ and seemed to revel it the opportunity to pursue this way of life. In short, my kind of people. After the ‘kids’ we were introduced to the sous and then the mighty boar. What became very apparent throughout the day was the affection Thomas has for his animals. Whilst obviously not pets, his manner with them and the sous in particular, who like nothing better that a good scratch which they lined up to receive from him, was incredible.

Being the first generation of Slater to farm the free range pigs, Thomas has had to make some big decisions since he undertook this in 2009. To some of you reading this, and myself, it might sound like a no brainer if you have the land, after all it tastes so fantastic, however, when you realise that only 1% of pork in Ireland (compared to at least 40% in the UK, whats that all about?) is farmed free range, it’s not a decision made lightly. In doing what he does Thomas is choosing the road far less travelled.

After the pigs we were shown the geese and the ducks both of which are kept in large fields. A much shorter visit which was fine by us as it was quite difficult to even get near them and of course they lacked all the character of the pigs.

After the shoot, Thomas, true to form, invited us in for a cup of tea. We talked a bit about the business, the challenges involved in competing with the mass producing farms, communicating the benefits of free range farming and of course the consumers ever tightening budgets. However upon leaving, the one absolute impression that I was left with was that this guy is passionate about what he does, cares about his animals, delivers a fantastic product and one way or another is determined to make it work. Well done Thomas.

Words: Aad / studioaad.com
Photography: Mike O’Toole / mikeotoole.com