I bought two jars of Follain jam to serve with homemade brown soda bread.

Follain makes jams and preserves in Ireland, the country teeming with rolling green hillsides, old castles, and legendary warm hospitality.  I will serve brown soda bread with Follain jam and Kerrygold butter a week from today, at The Ripped Bodice Bookstore in Los Angeles.  I will read scenes from my book, Deadly Alliance.  My book takes place in Lake Arrowhead, California and Malihide Village, Ireland.

Kemberlee Shortland, co-owner of Tirgearr Publishing in Ireland, took generous time to  give me some insider information, and here it is below:

The West Cork village where Follains is made is called Ballyvourney…bal-ee-vor-nee. It means ‘town/place of the beloved’. In Irish it’s spelled Baile Bhúirne. Baile/bally means place, town/village and is pronounced ball-ya. Bhúirne is also spelled Mhúirne is pronounced voor-neh which became voor-nee in English. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballyvourney If you look on this page, you’ll see Coolavokig listed…that’s where we lived…Coolavokig Lower. SO much history in the region. Emphasis on SO