I have included 4 images from this al fresco shoot, the summer salad, the authors serving and eating, an abstract shot of the meal (my meal) reflected in a glass of wine and some of the mushrooms we collected. When shooting a book as opposed to a magazine or other shorter articles it is useful to have a narrative running through parts of the books to tie aspects together and give it a greater sense of cohesion.

Morning dew on autumn apples.

Foraging for chanterelle mushrooms in a forrest near the Doorleys' home. After filling our baskets we went back the house and Tom cooked up a big pot of wild mushroom pasta. 

'The old order changeth, yielding place to new.' Tennyson  An ecclesiastic candle tin is recycled as a flour bin. Most of the images in this book used natural light modified with reflectors, diffusers, glass and mirrors.

Fence post as a sundial marking evening on the garden.

Icing sugar snow falling on Christmas mince pies.

Pumpkin for roasting. Cooking pumpkin this way can give it an almost camarelised sweetness.

This image was shortlisted for the cover. In the end it was decided that drink on the front may take the emphasis off food. Sloe gin is the easiest thing in the world to make. 1/3 sloe, 1/3 gin, 1/3 white sugar. Sloes (small wild damsons) grow on river banks and lake shores all over Ireland. They ripen during October/November. Pick them, wash them and prick them with a toothpick. Put them in a large bottle with a screw top lid (a 2L soft-drink bottle is good). Add the sugar and gin. Put the lid on. Shake until the sugar is dissolved. Put it in a dark cupboard and shake once a day. Just before Christmas strain it and you have one of the world's greatest liqueurs. Be careful the taste is very innocent and more-ish but it packs the punch of neat gin.

The authors at their home in east Cork with the above mentioned wild mushroom pasta.