The staple diet was potatoes, and herring when it could be got. The "lumper", the favourite pre-famine variety of potato, although very large and easy to grow, was exterminated by the Potato Blight, and is no longer grown. Herring was a delicacy.
Two favourite recipes in our family, passed down now through many generations, were:
Herring Soup
Ingredients:
1 bowl of potatoes
1 herring
Preparation and serving:
Boil the potatoes in a pot. When nearly ready, show it a herring. Hang the herring back up from the rafters. Serve the soup from the pot and eat.
Herring and point
Ingredients:
1 bowl of potatoes
1 herring, hanging from the rafters
Preparation and serving:
Boil the potatoes in a pot. When your potato is ready, spear it with a fork and point it at the herring. Then eat the potato.
Michael O'Farrell