The Irish and their vegetables have always been something of a puzzle. How is it that at flower shows and country fetes you can marvel at the delicate tints and perfect flesh of rosy carrots, silvery leeks, snow-white cauliflowers, tomatoes glowing with health, green peas in matchless pods, broad beans and lettuces, radishes and cabbages all bursting with freshness and variety, and then find, all too often, in Irish kitchens, particularly those of hotel restaurants, the saddest sorriest apologies for vegetables that can be seen anywhere in the world.
For centuries Irish vegetables have been the subject of ridicule amongst the better-educated of other nations. An eighteenth-century foreign visitor observed that the Irishman''s meat was normally accompanied by ''a few cabbage leaves boiled in plain water over which they pour a sauce made of flour and butter; the usual method of dressing vegetables in Ireland'', and another remarked that the excessive eating of these uninspiring greens ''made the Irishman a dull animal''. When you choose fresh vegetables, take those that have a just-gathered freshness about them, as their fine flavour is gradually lost with the passing of the hours; just picked vegetables have a very special creaminess of texture too, which is even more quickly lost. To preserve their freshness, once picked or brought home from the shop, it was once advised to lay vegetables out of the draught on to a stone flagged floor. Now they go into the compartment designed for their storage in the refrigerator, or, if this is full, can be wrapped in polythene and placed on the lowest shelf. One thing that the English Market has is fresh fruit & vegetables, this can be seen at the many stalls in the market.
