Margaret Browne's Green Barn
Tuesday 10 August 2010
The last three years of Margaret Browne’s life was absorbed, with her usual incredible determination and fighting spirit, in the setting up of her Green Barn Garden Centre, Life Style Store and Café Bistro, on the N25 between Youghal and Killeagh in East Cork, which opened in Autumn 2007. Margaret Browne was never one to take things easy, she worked incredibly hard throughout her life achieving tremenduous success in anything she touched. She first came to promenance about twenty years ago when she won the Calor Gas Housewife of the Year Competition, whilst running her Ballymakeigh Country House Guest House and farm along with her husband Michael, from where tourists from all over the world went home with happy memories of a real Irish experience. Margaret had a smile that lit up a room and she was always a presence. A former nurse and Eurotoque chef, she would have been best known in recent years through her frequent eloquent, humorous and nostalgic, contributions on RTE’s Mooney Show, as “Mooney’s Domestic Goddess”, where through her lyrical distinctive voice, she shared receipes from Ballymakeigh House, stories and lore from her childhood days in Kanturk, her visit to Calcutta to the Hope Foundation’s Orphanage and Hospital, her final battle with ovarian cancer and ultimately her last broadcast just days before she died on St. Patricks day this year, which made compulsive listening.
The Green Barn, located in what was their former Equestrian Centre, has 20,000 square feet of lovely gloriouos shopping and gardening opportunities! The Lifestyle Store has 10,000 square feet with, to the side, another 10,000 square feet of 4 Star Garden Centre, with a large Café Bistro adjacent on the grounds. Not only has it added a new dimension to shopping in Youghal but it is an excellent place to combine shopping with a relaxed lunch and stroll also around the garden centre. Margaret, of course, is greatly missed, but the Green Barn is in the capable hands of husband Michael, son Michael Junior, and his wife Nessa who does all the buying. The Lifestyle Store is a virtual Aladdin’s cave of colourful goodies and gifts from an extensive kitchen section of baking and cooking gadgets, a massive selection of top designers oven to tableware, to handbags, costume jewellery, Foxford throws, giant willow baskets, lamps, delicious French and Irish artisan soaps, to cookery, gardening, lifestyle and kiddies’ books, kitchen dressers, dining and occasional furniture, pretty children’s furniture and toys including Radio Flyers range of red wagon bikes and trikes from Chicago, mirrors and pictures, fabulous Neptune and Leisuregrow garden furniture and planters, Max Benjamin candles, not to mention Margaret Browne’s recipe range of jams and marmalades, made with only natural fruit, sugar and water, no additives, including gooseberry, blackberry and apple, blackcurrant, and strawberry, as well, of course, as Margaret’s cookery book ‘Through My Kitchen Window’ with lots of lovely old world recipes. They also have Mrs. Bridges preserves and biscuits, a full range of Port West clothing, Mad 4 hats, and hand crafted knitted and felt hats and scarves by Patsy Flood O’Connor made in Ireland. They have a great range of greeting cards including cards from the Glen Gallery in Sligo that have a complete range of Irish language and English bilingual cards.
The covered Garden Centre achieved 4 Star status this year from Bord Bia and, in fact, is Cork’s only 4 Star Garden Centre, of which Margaret was very proud in her final days. Here during the autumn they will be holding lectures and seminars on gardening each Saturday and Sunday at 3 pm, covering Coastal Gardening, Autumn Hedging and Trees, Lawn Care, Spring Bulbs, Composting and Autumn Soil Preparation - don’t miss out. Every Saturday morning too sees future enthusiastic gardeners assemble for the kids Mucky Fingers Club – you can’t start them too young – where kids get the opportunity to see things grow and develop for themselves. Muckey Fingers this year will be covering Potato Print T-shirts, Making a Scarecrow, Decorate a pot for Spring bulbs, Halloween Pumpkin Decorating, and Making Christmas decorations. As well as a huge range of trees, shrubs, plants and perrenials they have a big range of herbs in stock as well as a selection of lovely French style garden furniture including Gothic arches and gazebos, tea sets and obelisks.
The latest excitement is the new Farmer’s Market at Green Barn which kicked off on Friday last, and will run weekly every Friday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Remember it is a covered outdoor market - so you won’t get your tootsies wet if it is not a fine day – and there is loads of free parking. Stalls include Declan’s Ryan’s Arbutus artisan breads, Dan Ahern’s organic chicken, beef, lamb, eggs, and turkeys; Noreen Conroy’s Woodside Farm free range pork and bacon products, Thomas Baldwins ice-cream from Knockanore, locally grown fruit, vegetables and honey from Ballycurraginny Farm; Magpie Cottage Dairy’s goats’ cheese and jams. There will be fresh fish from Yawl Bay Seafood; Oonagh Poynton’s coffee trailer with preserves, pate, cakes; fresh country flowers and apple juice from the Little Apple Company; Simon Mould’s Volcano woodfired pizzas; Irish and European cheeses from Mark; The Crepe Man’s crepes; Belgian waffles and O’Flynn’s gourmet sausage sandwiches; Maura Seward’s cupcakes; Mary Delaney’s hen and duck eggs …….…. and more. So, put Friday mornings at Green Barn in your diary.
When you have spent all your money you can then take yourself over to the Café & Bistro for a good wholesome bite to eat – or even just a coffee and a scone. Tadgh Foley is the new Manager here and he is very well known on the Cork hospitality scene. You can either kick start the day at anytime with an all day breakfast, have morning coffee, or a full lunch with dishes such as lamb chops with garlic and herbs served with a red wine jus, or maybe fresh fish of the day, seafood pie, a grilled steak sandwich, or maybe an open smoked salmon sandwich. In the Autumn too there will be a series of upcoming Cookery Demonstrations.
They also have a kiddies colouring area to keep the kids entertained while Mum is doing her shopping and there is a swing and a slide set out on the lawn in front of the restaurant.
The Green Barn is perfect also for group outings – take the pals – the ladies Club – organise a Cookery Demo or a Gardening Talk and lunch. They have a private function room for groups and special occasions with lovely views out over the lawns – and they do a great Sunday lunch.
Margaret can be proud.
Green Barn Garden Centre, Lifestyle Store & Café Bistro,
Inchiquin,
Killeagh,
Co. Cork.
Tel: (024) 90166
www.greenbarn.ie
THIS ARTICLE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE SUNDAY INDEPENDENT ON AUGUST 8, 2010.