FEEL-GOOD CHOCOLATE

Most adverts for supermarkets at the moment tell us that their tins of chocolates are cheaper than anyone elses. If you are feeling adventurous this year how about going for something that little bit different instead. How would you like to try a milk chocolate bar flavoured with lavender from Provence that smells like soap? The bar is called Tranquility and if that tempts you then what about a kick from curry, a jolt of cumin or a crunch from sesame. Traditional chocolate is making room this year for bars containing coriander, curry, cumin, lavender, lime, green tea, black sesame, soy butter, chilli and balsamic vinegar. Sounds yummie doesn’t it?

Consumer tastes have become more sophisticated, leading to an explosion of small companies that specialise in hand-crafted, high-quality chocolate. That has helped boost the industry beyond the mass-produced chocolate bars many people grew up with.

Consumers’ interest in dark chocolate has intensified after research showing it contains healthful ingredients like antioxidants. Research (funded by the chocolate manufacturers’ no doubt) has found that dark chocolate, like red wine, is rich in antioxidants, which they say benefits the heart by dilating blood vessels and improving blood flow. This health fact is not lost on chocolate marketers, who have introduced all manner of “good for you” confections. Cocoa beans do have antioxidant compounds called flavanols, and a growing pile of scientific research suggests they do do good things to blood vessels. Despite the enthusiasm, flavanols are missing from much of the chocolate on shop shelves today. Flavanols make chocolate and cocoa taste bitter, and confectioners have spent years trying to perfect ways to remove the pungent flavour. Most chocolate, in fact, isn’t flavanol-rich, which totally cancels out the health claims. The manufacturers don’t really say how harmful excess sugar can be to the same arteries in the body either.

ICE CREAM GETS A MAKEOVER
It was high-end chocolatiers who first experimented with spices like chilli and cardamom. Newtree, a Belgian company sells chocolate bars infused with fruit and plant essences that promise well-being. One shop offers a tasty salt, pretzel and lime pie-flavoured chocolate bar to visitors and is experimenting with black pepper.

Manufacturers are coming out with bars that contain ingredients said to be healthy, including dried blueberries, almonds, sunflower seeds, green tea and soy nut butter. The underlying product on sale here is still cocoa and sugar but with a new twist. Ice cream makers are going down the same road too ginger, green tea, adzuki bean, pink pepper, chilli and nutmeg are proving to be popular. On the other hand flavours such as sea slugs, whale meat, fireflies, snake, octopus, crab and shrimp have been popular with a few enthusiasts but for some reason seem to be falling out of favour with the public!

Environmental.

BUNCRANA PIER

SILT PROBLEM

Question :

Recently there was news that 1.6 million euro was being allocated to the ferry slipway and associated dredging at the pier in Buncrana. There was considerable work done last year at great expense, with a massive stone wall being constructed to house the dredged silt, which took away a proportion of the beach at Lisfannon. Does this mean that the work last year failed and if so does this mean that any impact assessment carried out was inaccurate and is someone accountable for the apparent error? Thanks HT by e-mail

I have passed this particular question over to Padraig MacLaughlan the mayor of Buncrana for an informed answer.

Answer
This response is my personal view. I am only aware of the chance of possible funding for a breakwater on the black rock side of the pier and associated dredging. Clearly, the analysis that just dredging the existing pier would solve the problem of silting was flawed. Local fishermen have argued that the Inch causeway, a man made structure, causes a counter tide to run back across the white strand. This is to a large extent, responsible for the silting. This advice was ignored by the consultants and the County Council. The stone wall was necessitated by the new Department of Marine environmental regulations pertaining to obtaining a dredging licence. It is no longer possible to dump dredged material out to sea. It must be suction dredged back to land. Hence the requirement for the stone wall to contain the dredged material. It is now argued by the consultants that a breakwater will solve the problem of silting at the pier and that this will facilitate the lifeboat. I remain to be convinced, looking at the track record of these particular consultants around the county. However, if it facilitates the safe passage of the lifeboat and to a lesser extent, the ferry, then I will adopt a wait and see approach to the issue.

Update: The area where the silt was dredged and put onto the beach has now grown. The whole area has now turned into more holes for the golf course. There are other articles in the blog that relate to the issue.

Environmental.

BUNCRANA RELIEF ROADS

Photo: A plan of the relief road near the Cockhill road

Before I get on my soapbox this week I wanted to clarify a point I was making last week about good and bad planning. Bottesford a badly planned town 20 miles outside of Nottingham has increased in size from 2000 to 5000 people in the last few years. Most of the new residents don’t shop in the village; they pop into large supermarkets on the way home from work in Nottingham and stock up with groceries then fill their cars up with petrol. Doing this puts nothing back into the village where they are eager to live. Four of the six shops, a restaurant and a pub have all closed down as trade dried up; the community centre is also faltering as members decline. Housing estates for the new residents were built in the very areas where locals used to go for walks. So now you have to go by car to get to walks. As I said last week the village is becoming a faceless suburb of greater Nottingham.

BUNCRANA RELIEF ROADS

This week I want to talk about a development plan for Buncrana. I’m probably the last to find out about the proposed relief roads that are planned for the town, (or Area Of Special Interest as the council call it.) Plans for the Buncrana relief roads have been drawn up for years now. I see that the inner relief road is going to be built within a pavements distance of our estate; this will meet the outer road just past the bottom of my garden. If the road were to be built today I would no doubt be one of the first to use it. A few years ago I was living in an area where Asda decided to put a mega-super-duper-market and car park, slap bang in the middle of a residential area. There were loads of complaints and demonstrations but the development went ahead anyway. After a week the supermarket was full of the very people (me included) who protested about the eyesore, happily filling up their trollies with cheap food and shrugging their shoulders saying “Well we tried”. The same fate will no doubt befall a new road network if anyone opposes it.

Just think though, I will be able to jump into my car, bypass Buncrana totally and get to wherever it is I’m going to at least three minutes faster than I can now. But what are these valuable three minutes costing me, well there’s noise pollution with lorries flying past the house 24 hours a day, lack of privacy, dirt and dust and air pollution. The planned inner relief road also cuts through a couple of quiet housing estates, even before it gets to me. These estates will literally be chopped in two. What a great place for the kids to play!

The plans for the roads are just a bit out of date. The outer relief road is too close to our ever-expanding town and development is passing the proposed route already, which would split the town in two. It’s a short-term fix. Geographically it looks difficult to find a perfect route for a relief road to go. But the Buncrana outer relief road on the map looks as though it is following the designated path because, well, it wouldn’t go anywhere else! That’s not a reason for planning a route where a road should go.

I know a lot of people are welcoming such a development as roads do play an important part in the infrastructure of the county, which will lead to more investments and get the kids to school faster etc. etc. Maybe any allocated money would be better used to (really) improve the roads we already have. Some more funding could be invested in an efficient public transport system. We do love our cars and it would take a very efficient service to prize us out of our machines though (I haven’t been on a bus for years)! This might do away with the need for car parks in the town. The Area Of Special Interest where the road was to go could become a massive park and there could be one of the main gates at the bottom of my garden so I can take my dog for long walks in the evening…

We like to think we set an example to our young. What sort of an example is it vandalising hundreds of acres of beautiful land and dividing whole communities by building ineffective road networks? But hey, with the new road I’ll have an extra three minutes to do things in the day, six if you count the return trip! What would I do with all that spare time?!…





Environmental.

LETS GET FIZZICAL

TOO MUCH IN THE TROLLEY

Talking of throwing things out we have been told that we are not very good at buying the right amount of food to feed our families. This new report tells us that we buy too many groceries every week. On average each family in Ireland throw out at least 400 kg of food a year. The reasons for this are many fold. Pandering to advertising is a common explanation. Then there is the fact that a lot of processed food is so cheap that you can afford to just throw it in the bin when you have had enough. Most products now have sell by dates on them, which causes people to chuck things out to be on the safe side. Even cracking open an egg is pretty safe now; they can’t hide in the rack for six months before you try to use the rancid remains in an omelette. These have sell by dated stamped on them too.


LETS GET FIZZY

I have mentioned before about the corrosive effects of fizzy drinks. It can be used to get the tarnish off all sorts of metals and the New York police use it in crime scenes to clean up. Now there has been a report recently published claiming that excessive intake of these sugary tipples is having an undesirable effect on the waist size of the population. Again the masses are being dragged through the coals and having their wrists slapped for not realising that every time they crack open and drink a can of coke they are ingesting thirteen teaspoons full of sugar (heaped ones too I’ll bet). A test was carried out by a load of school kids and the findings were at best predictable. The paper found that the children who chose fizzy drinks were more likely to put on weight. The difference with this test was that some of the kids were actually educated by the teachers that its not good to have excessive amounts of sweet drinks and were informed about alternatives such as natural fruit juice and that funny clear stuff that comes out of the taps. The children that chose the latter faired a lot better on the weighing scales.

The drinks are not much good for your bones either.

It doesn’t end there either. Yet another separate report claims that if you drink too many fizzy drinks you may weaken your bones and increase the risk of bone disease. A Danish research team claim that the drinks deplete the calcium stores in the body. Drinks are made fizzy by adding carbon dioxide. This also increases the acidity. This acid can enter the bloodstream where the body tries to neutralize it with calcium, the alkaline mineral that helps to build bones. In just ten days the test showed that if a person has a high intake of cola drink and a low calcium diet then there is a significant loss of bone and a decrease in bone building. It doesn’t get much better when you look at the drinks with the artificial sweeteners in either. Too much of that and you will find yourself sat on the loo for the best part of the day. Carbonated water in bottles didn’t fare much better either it’s the same price as a can but you don’t get the sugar rush! Stick to getting water out of the tap. Inishowen has one of the best fresh water supplies in Ireland (So a water board executive told me recently). …… And fresh water must be good for you, as after all lions drink it!

Environmental.

TOP SHOE TIPS

Lets have a look into the wonderful, wacky world of top tips for shoes. I had a woman enthusiastically tell me that she doesn’t need many pairs of shoes. The reason for this is that she buys pots of tester emulsion paints from the DIY stores and paints her shoes to suit her mood. Now I don’t know too much about the idea of putting water based paint on leather but I hope that she stays out of puddles!

SHOES

If your shoes are too tight and they need stretching a bit then there is a very effective way to fix this. We have suggested filling the shoes with potato peelings but if this fails there is another method. Fill some watertight resealable bags with water and place them firmly into the shoes. Put the shoes into the freezer and leave them for a day or two. As the water freezes this will expand the leather increasing the shoe so they are more comfortable

CRAICON.COM

Photo: Greencastle ferry.

If you fancy catching up on the goings on in Moville and the surrounding areas then go to the Craicon.com site (Click on the title for a link) There are some interesting comments about the state of the local newspapers.

Environmental.

STICK INSECTS

Last year my son received four stick insects for Christmas. For those of you unfamiliar with these cute creatures, they used to be on display in most classrooms when I want to school, albeit in a tank. They served two purposes as far as I can see. Firstly they made children less afraid of creepy crawlies as the teachers made the kids hold them. Secondly, they gave people like me something to look at when the teacher’s words were going right over my head. Not many schools will take them in now as they might escape and wreak havoc with the cleaning staff. Anyway, the stick insects arrived at our house along with a custom built container made from perforated plastic to house them in.

Stick insects are hermaphrodite so they do not need a male or female to produce eggs. And produce eggs they did, each insect has the capacity to lay around 300 of them. I couldn’t bear to see any of them thrown out with the compost so over the six months they were laying I carefully collected them up and put them in a container. I didn’t really think of the consequences though I must admit. We are now the proud carers of at least one hundred of the sticky things and the numbers have been growing steadily for a few months now as at least three are born every day. We have had to make alternative arrangements for many of them. Big glass jars and goldfish tanks are all being used to keep them happy. We have had a bit of trouble with them escaping though. You cannot put your shoes on without one hanging off the shoelace. We have them on all of the houseplants, on the washing up scaling the walls and even in the car clutched to the windscreen. We tried to feed them to our pet gecko but he won’t touch them. The reason for this is that the stick insects diet apart from our houseplants is either brambles or privet. We feed ours privet and this shrub is very poisonous to most creatures so the gecko isn’t having any of it.

YOU TOO COULD HAVE THESE INSECTS AS PETS
Stick insects do make great pets though and are very easy to look after. If you don’t keep the eggs and replenish the stocks the remaining insects live up to one year under normal conditions. I hope that I haven’t put you off them because we are offering you the chance of acquiring some of these creatures for your own house or school. At a specialist growers the insects are sold at about five euro each. We are offering them to you at no cost whatsoever! (How am I doing with the sales pitch?) All you need to do is to look after them responsibly.

LOOKING AFTER YOUR STICK INSECT

Tank. A fish tank will do, the taller the better though as they like to climb.

A lid for the tank. Very important if you don’t want them all over the house. If there isn’t a lid then you can make one out of a pair of old tights.

A constant supply of brambles or privet. We are lucky around here as there is loads of it. (One supplier in England are charging €8 for a carrier bag of privet hedge cuttings) it’s a pity we can’t get away with that!

Water sprayer. The insects like a drop of water every day in the form of a spray.

Care. The other requirement of course is to care for the creatures and tend to them for a couple of minutes every day.

Environmental.

DOGGY DOO

We had a lot of reaction about dogs over the week. Especially about dogs fouling children’s play areas and loose dogs chasing cars. As promised in last weeks article I have tracked down the dog wardens who are based in Letterkenny. There are two wardens and they have the job of covering the whole of Donegal. They also represent the I.S.P.C.A. who do a great job in tackling the poor treatment that some unfortunate animals have to suffer.
The wardens were in Buncrana just a week ago after a call from worried residents who were witnessing vicious dogs on the shorefront. The wardens eventually managed to capture the animals and the dogs were taken to the shelter in Letterkenny.

VISITING TIME
The dog wardens will be visiting Inishowen over the next few weeks. They are attempting to not only track down careless owners who let their dogs out on the streets to become nuisances, but will also be tracking down the owners of dogs without licences.

Here is a rundown of the charges:

Failure to hold an up to date licence for the dog- 30 euro. (The cost of a licence is about 13 euro and they are obtained from the post office.)

If your dog has no collar with a nametag then you could be fined 30 euro.

Not keeping a dog under control, which includes being allowed to run free and fouling the pavement or children’s play areas- 60 euro.

These are on the spot fines, which the wardens are able to issue and you will have 21 days to pay them. Failure to do this could end you up in court.

The wardens will be travelling around and picking up dogs that are roaming the streets too. The dogs will be taken to the shelter where they will be held between 5 to 7 days. If you don’t contact them within that time, the dogs will be put down.

BE RESPONSIBLE

Lets give the wardens nothing to do when they come to Inishowen.

As responsible dog owners, lets all follow some simple rules:

Keep your dog within the confines of your own garden.
Take your dog for a walk every day.
If the dog makes a mess in a public place, pick it up by using a plastic bag. (The Eurostretch shop in Buncrana are selling poopa- scoopa’s for under 2 euro if you wanted to use on of those)
Keep your dog on a lead when near roads, livestock and children.
Get a dog licence.
Get a collar and name tag for the dog.


TELEPHONE NUMBER
Most of us that are dog owners do try to keep our pets from being a nuisance, as we are aware that unsupervised dogs can be very unsafe. We’ve all seen how dangerous a pack of dogs can be. If your dog is proven to be involved in a vicious attack on either animals or people or the cause of a traffic accident you could find yourself either fined a considerable amount of money of even imprisoned.

If you have any complaints about dogs here is the telephone number for the Dog Shelter in Letterkenny ….074 9125159Leave a message and they will get back to you about the problem.

Environmental.

INCINERATOR FOR DONEGAL

Yet again there is news about the lack of recycling facilities in Donegal. The subject of incinerators has reared it’s ugly head again too, so if you are opposed to this form of waste treatment, start showing your disapproval by reducing your waste. If there is a reduction in waste then maybe we can avoid a giant cooker on our doorstep. The machine from America that converts anything with carbon in it into oil would be a sounder investment for the area. At least we would have a saleable product at the end of it. The process is much cleaner than an incinerator as well. Talking of reducing waste I came across a great recycling tool this week that fits onto the hydraulics of a JCB. It’s called a BF 90.3 and it’s a mobile crushing machine that reduces gravel and rock into hardcore that can be used for the foundations in building. With the increasing cost of dumping such rubbish a machine such as this will soon pay for itself. Hopefully we will see them in the local hire shops soon. I’m getting a brochure in the post this week so I will let you know more at a later date.

Environmental.

A REST FROM THE COMPUTER

Hello
I use the computer a lot and find that I suffer from headaches; can you suggest one of your Clean and Green remedies please? Thanks G.N.

Reply
This is a common problem with people who look at screens for any length of time. If you see colour around black and white images it’s time for you to have a rest. Remember to blink often as staring like you do at the screen can make you forget. Every ten minutes, look away from the screen at something at least 6 metres away. Every hour, do eye exercises by repeatedly changing your focus. If you don’t have a window then keep your head still and move your eyes to each corner of the room. Reading from books can have the same effect, so if you read a lot carry on with the exercises.

Environmental.

GECKO AND THE OIL CRISIS

One of my lads decided to spend some of his money on a new pet this week. We are now the proud owners of a six-inch long reptile called a Leopard Gecko. The pet is happily living in a heated tank in the bedroom but does get taken out quite often to show visitors to the house. The Gecko was even taken to school in an old mayonnaise jar to show my lads classmates. Reptiles, like all pets need feeding regularly and the Gecko’s favourite food is live crickets. I managed to buy a pack of about twenty of the noisy creatures from a pet shop in Letterkenny. They were reasonably priced at four euro for the critters, but the Gecko is getting through them at a fair rate and eventually it will eat about three a day. I have thought of a brilliant solution to the cost implication, we are going to breed them ourselves! Crickets eat anything and if you get enough of them they will make a great natural recycling centre for the kitchen waste. All that is needed is a secure box and some moss peat and we are away. They breed very quickly and apparently are very difficult to keep contained so we might have a few escapees, there has already been one that managed to jump out of the box and into the kitchen. We don’t want anymore getting away. Being woken up by a cricket climbing up your bedclothes and tickling your ear or climbing into your nostril sounds bad, but we have had worse. There was a time Ronnie saved about thirty snails in a biscuit tin in the front room. After the lid was left off one night they all escaped around the house and turned up months later in the strangest of places!





The oil crisis is hitting everyone’s pocket at the moment. Like it or not our lives are woven around the use of this natural resource. We have been aware for years now that this resource has a very short life span (about thirty years to go before it will be too expensive to extract it from the earth) Because of this we have been finding alternatives such as wind power, wave power, solar power and bio mass systems. As time goes on the message is slowly getting through to governments to act on these new initiatives. This is well and good but there is still the problem of our grocery bill going up because of upward spiralling transport costs to get the goods from around the world onto our supermarket shelves. Petrol and diesel is at an all time high and transport companies are protesting against high fuel taxes. Because of this, there is no better time to think about growing your own produce and buying food from local suppliers. There is something very satisfying when you know the history of the food on your table and knowing that it is full of goodness from your own area. Get planting your seeds now, even if it’s a few radishes or lettuce in a pot.

Environmental.