Category Archives: Latest from the Pond

Fish Wives Cookery Book

FishWives – A Fish Recipe Book

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Fish Wives - A Fish Recipe Cookery Book from Goatsbridge Trout Farm

Walt Disney once said “The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing”. This is exactly what I decide to do a few weeks ago when I opened yet another fish recipe book that did not include Rainbow trout in its index. I felt it was time to stop moaning about it and do something once and for all.  Yes folks, I have decided to edit a fish recipe book featuring almost nothing except Trout recipes! This will however, be a fish recipe book with a difference.

Hospice Africa Uganda

All profits will go to an amazing charity Hospice Africa Uganda. My connection is that my sister, journalist Miriam Donohoe, has been working with the charity in Kampala as a volunteer since January 2016. The mission of Hospice Africa Uganda is to end pain and suffering faced by thousands in Africa due to poor health services and to ensure that seriously ill people die pain free, in peace, comfort and dignity.

Fish Recipe Cook Book

The cookery book is to be called “Fishwives”, with a selection of what I hope are mainly trout recipes from women in Ireland and Uganda from diverse backgrounds and professions. But if it’s not a trout recipe that’s okay – you could still be a fishwife!

Goatsbridge Trout is funding the entire cost of designing and producing the book. Proceeds from sales will go to Hospice Africa Uganda. The book will cost €20 and I am printing 3,000 copies, €15 from each sale will go to Hospice Africa Uganda. The other €5 is the print cost. I have an ambitious target to raise €40,000 for Hospice Africa Uganda, to be channeled through Hospice Africa Ireland, a board which fund raises and supports Hospice Africa Uganda.

Have a read of  one of the many articles written by my sister Miriam since she arrived in Uganda. It will give you a great account of the work of hospice and the huge need.

So here is my ask. Would you contribute your favourite trout or fish recipe for the book? What I need is:

  • A fish recipe plus a digital picture of the recipe – a basic photo is fine as we will be reproducing the picture after testing the recipe.
  • A short biography, not more than 125 words.
  • A high resolution profile picture of yourself. If you don’t have one at hand I can arrange for one to be taken at your convenience.

The deadline for submission is 31st July 2016.

Fish Wives - A Fish Recipe Cookery Book from Goatsbridge Trout

See example Fish Wives sample cook book page from Caroline Hennessy

I have a book designer in Slater design and a printer sourced and commissioned for the project. The plan is to launch the book at The Savour Kilkenny Food Festival on Friday 28th October 2016. Why not put your thinking hats on and send me on your favourite trout recipe along with your details to goatsbridge@gmail.com. We have a limit on the number of recipes but who knows, we may publish a second book!

Where to buy the Book?

The Fishwives – A Cookbook by Goatsbridge book can be purchased from:

  • Here on our website
  • Book Centre Waterford
  • Kilkenny Book Centre
  • Loughboy SuperValu Kilkenny
  • Arkeen Store Waterford
  • Butler’s Pantry Dublin
  • Supervalu Thomastown
  • Amazon Online

As an old friend of mine once said

“We are here to do good to others. What the others are here for I do not know”!!

Bobby – New years resolution 2016

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Bobby - New Year Resolutions 2016

New Year is a time to reflect and take stock of what worked well last year and what is needed to happen differently for the year ahead.

I always take out an A4 page after Christmas and physically write down my objectives. I hate the term New Year’s resolution perhaps because I always feel resolutions are hard to keep and objective are something to be attained.

Yesterday I sat in my office and began to write. I lay out my objectives to gain more market share for our range of products, to add one more product to that range, to improve fish yield by 1 % and so on.   I then talked about digitizing and streamlining everything possible to reduce the time, expense, and waste, continuing to foster and build a more robust company culture encouraging personal development among staff. I suggested concentrating my energy into fewer things and I even committed to continuing the family forum sessions we begum after Christmas as a result of something I read in Orla Carmody’ s new book  “Perform as a Leader “.

I was then kicked back into reality when I received a beautiful text reply from my fellow Kilkenny businessman and friend Bobby Kerr. It stopped me in my tracks as I was engrossed in my plans.

Bobby, as you probably all know by now, was diagnosed with head and neck cancer a number of months ago. He came out quite publically to tell the nation of his plight, but a plight that befalls approximately 35,000 people in Ireland every year so he is not alone. The fact that Bobby is a much loved public figure meant that his honesty and openness just may have helped many people, especially men in Ireland, to take action and look after themselves better, something that men seem to be very reluctant to do for some reason .

So I do not want to take this opportunity to detail my objectives for the business, but to talk about what is truly important, something that has hit home for Bobby as a result of the harrowing times he has experienced over the last three months.

Bobby Kerr’s lessons in life:

  • Life goes on without you.
  • People are fundamentally decent.
  • Life is short and for living.
  • Only three things in life matter health, family, and good friends…

“So get out there, get yourself checked, Love and be loved and enjoy life to the fullest because none of us know how long we have left on this wonderful planet.”

And besides…
Bobby - New Year Resolutions 2016

 

Photo header: (license)

Goatsbridge Rainbow Trout Farm Blog

Introducing Goatsbridge Premium Irish Trout

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Hi there,

I’m Mag from Goatsbridge Premium Irish Trout.

On this blog I’m going to share all the news we have as we develop our fantastic Irish trout products. It’s also a place for you to catch up on food related events that we are taking part in, hear about other artisan food producers and join us on the journey as we strive to make the world more aware of our heavenly tasting Irish trout products!

We are also going to share lots of trout related recipes so no excuses for not cooking!

Enjoy.

Rainbow Trout Lifecycle – It Starts With a Tiny Egg

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Rainbow Trout Lifecycle - It Starts With a Tiny Egg

The Lifecycle of Goatsbridge Rainbow Trout

 

Brood Stock

We buy our eggs from a specialised hatchery in the USA and the Isle of Man. We kept our own brood stock up to a number of years ago but found it much more convenient to buy them in 6-8 times a year as learnt that it’s better for our farm management. We could only strip eggs once a year and our brood stock took up lots of pond space and lost condition after the process . We buy our eggs from Trout Lodge who are very active in research and development of the best quality eggs possible in terms of disease resistance etc.

We don’t buy the cheapest but we do buy the best.

Rainbow Trout Lifecycle

The eggs arrive by plane into Heathrow airport and are transported by road to Dublin. Unfortunately we can no longer clear these eggs in Dublin which is a pain!

The eggs are striped from the hens(females) and mixed with the milt of the cocks (males) where they fertilise.

They hatch at 300º days i.e. 30 days at 10º Celsius.

They usually arrive at 240º days and will generally hatch 4-5 days later depending on the water temperature here.

The eggs photographed arrived on the 21st of December and they’re shown above just before they hatched 25th January. They’re called ‘eyed ova’ at this stage. Notice one egg has hatched.

Isn’t it fascinating?! Living nature.

Please send me any questions you have and feel free to make comments. I have none to date.!!!