The gorgeous re-Vamp-ed Hopsack is as much a pleasure trove as a house of health: our saintly provisions have been flirting with the dark side, creating luscious liquids to reward Santa & Co. for stuffing themselves down the chimney! Whiskey and carrots are banned, though. We know where they end up. Instead, we’ve been playing […]
Author Archives: TheHopsack
For those of you who haven't graced Rathmines with your presence in the last week, you will have missed The Hopsack's little shop of all things healthy doing a changing rooms/grand designs/wonderwoman costume change moment. But we didn't just get to pop into a phonebox and spin around a few times to put on our […]
Well to anyone who hasn’t noticed a slight change in the appearance of The Hopsack over the last few days – glasses won’t do it, laser surgery is clearly on the cards. Â Over Saturday night and Sunday morning we stripped out the shop and moved lock, stock and home-brew barrel across the mall to […]
I know I know! We don’t want to count the days to Christmas either, but seriously – if you want a good pud, then you best get baking because our hardened Christmas baking fans have already got theirs out of the oven and curing in a muslin cloth. That bit of foresight makes all the […]
October is orange. Orange fruit, orange leaves, orange gourds: not the Glorious Twelfth but Hallowe'en, when jack-o'-lanterns glare and witches scream…! (I'm s-s-scared!) Pumpkins belong to the cucurbit family and are cousins to melons, marrows and cucumbers. They are high in fibre, antioxidants, vitamins C and E, magnesium, potassium, carotenoids and zinc. Their soft texture […]
On the feast of St Valentine, we pay tribute to Gou Qi Zi – or goji – berries. Droplet-shaped and ranging in tone from dusty orange to bright scarlet, goji berries possess a tongue-twistingly sweet-and-sour taste that hints at their Asian origin. Exotic and erotic Amid the goji berry’s ‘worthier’ qualities lie sparkling gems: shiny […]
Happy New Year! And it’ll be even happier if you skip down to The Hopsack on Thursday (24 January) for World Peanut Butter Day 🙂 We’re not foisting a detox on you this January. Nooooo. Not while the cold is snapping at our heels. We’re viscerally drawn to luxury: creamy, toasty peanut butter, freshly ground […]
Ireland. 21 December 2012. The Mayan calendar is expiring … and our Aussie vanguard is still with us. Great to have an equivalent of the king’s taster in these end times. Cheers, maties! With Christmas and New Year approaching, food is a lingering theme. Turkey, roasties, sprouts, more sprouts, cake… …then the antidote: soups, salads, […]
Interesting video from TEDtalks, presented by Pam Warhurst, on the power of small actions… Watch it here: How We Can Eat Our Landscapes
Today, Friday 14 December 2012, the EU health claims register comes into force. Henceforth, all health claims on foods and ingredients that have not been approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) become illegal. Dr Robert Verkerk, from The Alliance for Natural Health International, was on BBC Radio 4’s ‘You and Yours’ programme earlier […]