The rain seems to have abated, at least for the past few days and the forecast looks good. But, a lot of grain crops were lost this season which means a hard winter for many Irish farmers. The markets are still brimming with fresh vegetables and I have a few interesting cookery demos scheduled. See demos and events. Last week I took a much needed break and met Carolyn Evans in Rome. Carolyn is a good friend who did the brilliant layout for Coming Home To Cook. It was great to see a friend from my other home , New Jersey! We spent 4 days in very hot and sunny weather. What can one say about Rome? It’s a fascinating city that I’m thrilled I visited, although we skimmed the surface, we covered a lot of ground in 4 days and met wonderful people. We stayed at a lovely convent right across from Museo Vaticano for only 55 euro a night for the room. Contact me if you want their info. This week I have the 1st Annual Clare Harvest Banquet which takes place on friday night, Sept. 19, to work on and I recruited my friend Pete (of Pete and Emma) who is a Chef, to come help. For info on the Banquet see demos and events. But, the most exciting thing I did this week was visit CaherConnell Fort in the Burren to see a dig. A team of Archaeologists have unearthed 2 -10,000 year old human remains. These are the oldest human skeletons found in Ireland. Most of the remains are of a teenage girl and the other is possibly an infant. My friends, Kim and Fergal O’Shea are Archaelogists with TVAS Ireland. This is a major find and Kim’s picture, holding the skull, was in a dozen Europen newspapers. Kim gave me a detailed description of the chamber, the remains, the animal bones and tools that were excavated. It was fascinating and as we were standing on a slight incline overlooking the beautiful fields of the Burren on a gorgeous hot, sunny day it was hard not to wonder what life was like for Ireland’s first people. go to www.tvasireland.ie for pictures, news and updates. Slan, Mary