Garden juices using vegetables from the kitchen gardens, selections of fresh fruit and a host of beautifully cooked-to-order dishes have been announced as part of the brand-new Stables Café breakfast menu by The Pantry at CLIFF where the ingredients are local or hyperlocal – being directly from the kitchen gardens.
Visitors can now enjoy local eggs cooked to their liking with avocado and sourdough or scrambled with Burren Irish smoked salmon or simply enjoy some delicious duck eggs. A full Irish breakfast is also on offer with sausages, pudding and bacon from TJ Crow or fluffy pancakes served with streaky bacon and maple syrup and of course, Flahavan’s heritage porridge oats with Mount Congreve estate honey is also on offer. The breakfast menu is priced from €7.50 to €17.50 and is cooked-to-order.
The gardens, including the kitchen gardens, are currently undergoing a major restoration journey under the watchful eye of the Estate Manager and senior gardeners, Mark Corcoran, Martin Daniels and newly joined Ned Doherty along with the existing dedicated garden staff.
All the herbs and where the gardens allow, the majority of vegetables are derived from the kitchen gardens which have been in continual use for centuries. With students from the recently opened Mount Congreve School of Horticulture under award-winning horticulturalist Ger Mullen working hand in hand with the experienced and knowledgeable team of garden staff, the combined fruits of their labour are now coming to bear as they bring in the harvest.
Along with the huge opportunities for knowledge transfer and peer-to-peer learning, the first-year students on the QQI Level 5 Major Award in Horticulture programme have created wonderful freshly grown produce.
The four acres of walled kitchen gardens are now flourishing with herbs including bay leaves, sage, thyme, oregano, dill, and rosemary. Fruits and nuts include apples, pears, plums, figs, blackcurrants, red currants, gooseberries, raspberries, green gauges, hazelnuts, and walnuts.
Vegetables include; potatoes, cabbage, kale, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, sweetcorn, lettuce, Swiss chard, spring onions, radish, peas, sugar snaps, mangetout, French beans, runner beans, carrots, beetroot, leeks, onions, pumpkin, courgette, squash, and globe artichokes.
The team at Mount Congreve Gardens recently announced that they have welcomed CLIFF as the new culinary operator at the stunning Mount Congreve Gardens Stables Café. CLIFF will also provide culinary support for private events hosted in the beautiful, recently renovated Mount Congreve House. The fruits and vegetables of the gardens are now part of the brand-new menus on offer at this majestic garden and its beautiful visitor centre and cafe.
The Stables Café at Mount Congreve Gardens is open Thursday to Sunday in the autumn from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm with breakfast available from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. In addition, a brand-new Afternoon Tea menu is also now on offer and served in the beautiful Tack Room overlooking the gardens at €35 per person. Menu items for Afternoon Tea include fresh prawns on homemade brown bread, a section of delicious finger sandwiches and sweets including homemade fruit scones, almond cakes brownies and a selection of macarons.
The spectacular Mount Congreve House and Gardens opened last March following the completion of a €7 million redevelopment with a brand new visitor centre and The Stables Café having been purpose-built for the new experience.
Visitors can now arrive through the main front doors of the house into the foyer to enjoy an immersive audio-visual exhibition of the garden and family history. Mount Congreve has been lauded as a ‘great garden of the world’ and the title is certainly fitting to an incredible 70 acres of woodland gardens and 4 acres of walled gardens within a 140-acre estate located 10 minutes outside of Ireland’s oldest City of Waterford.
At Mount Congreve, the house, gardens and cafe are currently open 4 days a week from Thursday to Sunday. Full details can be found at www.mountcongreve.com
