Chef Conor Fee from the Enniskillen Hotel, finding the hot weather hard to take in the kitchen
THE heatwave may well be over, but rather than mourn the loss of the Fermanagh sun, those who have had no choice but to work through the stifling heat are enjoying a welcome break.
Conor Fee, senior chef de partie at the Enniskillen Hotel described the last two weeks of work in the kitchen as “genuinely horrible.”
“The heat has just been unbelievable and you can’t even open up doors or windows for health reasons and even if you did you’re just letting hot air in anyway. It’s a vicious cycle really.”
It is not just Conor suffering though, as he explained the rest of the kitchen staff are also struggling, coming up with their own ways to combat the heat.
“They’re finding it desperate, we’re making headbands and bandanas out of blue roll, it’s mental trying to keep the heat at bay. I’ve been hanging out in the fridge when there’s no orders coming in, I’ve been going through three litres of water a day and we’ve been keeping the fridge stocked up with tins of coke.”
Conor noted that the evenings have been the worst time to be working, with the more people in eating adding to the temperature in the kitchen.
“The more you’re cooking, the more heat you’re generating. The evenings are the worst as the longer you’re in the heat the more it gets to you.”
Speaking on Monday Conor was just glad to see a return to normality in terms of the weather.
“Thank goodness the sun’s not out today, it makes a massive difference, but in saying that it still is hot enough.
“You can’t have it both ways though, on your days off you wish it would be better weather and when you’re working you hope it wouldn’t be too warm, but what can you do.”
Another who has to endure the soaring temperatures over the past fortnight has been dairy farmer Albert Little from Cultiagh, between Tamlaght and Lisbellaw. Rather than complain though, he is just thankful the sun showed its face.
“It’s been fairly hot all right and you raise the temperatures when you go into the parlour. It makes things a little more difficult for sure working with cattle in there, but it’s great weather at the same time.”
Albert has noticed things have in fact been more difficult for the cattle than for him personally.
“It is tough on the cows for sure, they would suffer from heat stress and you would hear them panting. I actually lost a cow, I don’t know whether it was a heart attack or heat stress, but it was a blow.”
While he embraced the county’s warmest spell in eight years Albert admitted: “A little rain doesn’t do much harm as long as it knows when to stop”. He is grateful for the sunshine and believes
Fermanagh farmers have never had it so good.
“It has been fairly hot, but you can put up with it. The ground conditions are ideal and the grass is growing not too bad. There has been extra time for the first cut and even time for an early second, while hay has also been harvested, Fermanagh has done terrible well.
“This time last year we were facing floods so we should count ourselves lucky.”
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