Sharing the Culinary Soul of Ireland

TRACEY’S FARMHOUSE KITCHEN

A 17th-century thatched cottage on the shores of the Celtic Sea surrounded by the Mourne Mountains, there are few places more scenic to learn to make the breads of Northern Ireland than at Tracey’s Farmhouse Kitchen. After a quick thirty minute journey from Belfast, we pull up to a cream-colored cottage with potted flowers—and a frying skillet—adorning the exterior walls. Tracey Jeffery emerges to greet me with open arms and a hearty Irish welcome.

Tracey may offer a relaxed (no weighing or measuring!), convivial baking setting and “less exact” style of bread-baking, but don’t let that fool you. She takes her bread seriously. For her, it’s personal, not only because she’s hosting you in her home, but because she’s sharing one of the most beloved, centuries-old crafts of her people. Soda farls, potato farls, and wheaten bread are quintessential parts of her culture. “People across Northern Ireland make these griddle breads every day, and I’m very proud of these breads because they are totally ours,” Tracey says. “You can’t find them anywhere else in the world, not even in Dublin. Ireland is a small island, yet outside of Northern Ireland, you can’t even find the flour needed to make these breads.”

In Tracey’s Traditional Bread Making class, you’ll bake in the very kitchen that Tracey enjoys meals with her two sons and husband, who lovingly restored and converted the farmhouse into a family home that now doubles as a cookery school. As Tracey fires up the griddle, it quickly becomes apparent that this teacher is particularly sharp—she’s memorized and is effortlessly referring to everyone in the class by name within the