Irish Black Butter has been named Artisan Food Product in Northern Ireland by the high-end LUX Life magazine in Britain.

The artisan producer, which is based at Portrush in country Antrim and is owned by local businessman Alastair Bell, has won widespread support for its unique Bramley apple-based savoury spread, an original product that’s now on sale throughout the UK, Republic of Ireland and, most recently, the US.

Mr Bell, commenting on the latest award for the unique spread, says: “This recognition came as a complete but very pleasant surprise. it’s a marvellous accolade for Irish Black Butter at a most challenging time for all small food producers and great profile in awards for companies from all over the world.

“LUXLife is a very interesting and quality conscious magazine that’s aimed at people who enjoy the finer things of life and especially “the best food products available”. It’s tremendously encouraging to be included within such a sharp focus and by a panel of expert judges in what was an exacting process,” he adds.

The LUXLife Food & Drink Awards was created to “commend those who go above and beyond for their customers and/or consumers to ensure that their appetites are catered for, especially in light of the recent COVID-19 outbreak which has seen many businesses in the food and drink industry face unprecedented challenges over the past few months”.

Commenting on the winners of this year’s awards programme, Coordinator Katherine Benton says: “It’s been a difficult year for the hospitality and food and drink industries. With that, I offer my sincere congratulations to all of those recognised. I hope you have a better, and thriving year ahead.”

The Food & Drink Awards commend businesses who prove themselves to be innovators in one of the world’s most competitive industries by bringing fresh, exciting ideas forward, and celebrate the outstanding achievements made by those looking to solidify their reputation as industry leaders.

All participants were judged purely on merit and only the most deserving are acknowledged.

Final judgement is based on various criteria such as: business performance, longevity, business growth (either sustained or rapid) and any significant innovations or feedback. The magazine spans “the highest net worth individuals from around the world” and major brands.

 The awards were set up to showcase “the best of the best, so readers can rest assured that you are at the very cutting edge of the latest luxury trends and high-end developments.”

Irish Black Butter was established in 2017 by Mr Bell to create a distinctive Northern Ireland savoury spread from Armagh Bramley apples, which have EU protected status, with treacle, spices and brandy. The spread was a three-star Great Taste Award winner in 2019. The spread has also won Blas na hEireann Irish National Food awards.

Lagan Ribs in Belfast has introduced a new dry rub for flavouring meat. The small company, which has developed a successful business producing handcrafted sauces at St George’s Market in Belfast, created the new rub through a focus on innovative food products during the coronavirus lockdown.

The rub, according to chef John O’Hare, who founded the company with business partner and longstanding friend John Graham, is the outcome of work over several months. “I’ve been experimenting with the rub for some considerable time. In addition to the traditional spices, the rub features a small amount of dulse harvested by hand from the local coastline for a different flavour,” he adds.

The company has been providing freshly cooked ribs on a food-to-go basis at the popular market.

“It’s been an immensely difficult year, one we all want to forget,” he says. “We had launched Lagan Rib in late 2018and had been looking forward to growing the business especially last year,” he continues. “We had just launched a range of our own sauces at St George’s and had set up a small kitchen just around the corner from the building.

“We love the market,” he continues, “there’s a great vibe especially when there’s a live band. The craic is mighty particularly with visitors from abroad eager to find out how we cook the ribs and our unique marinade. We also try to use as many ingredients as possible from other traders such as bread, vegetables and spices. The ribs are sourced from Armstrong Meats at Castlereagh,” he explains. “Our hope is that the market gets back quickly to those days when the coronavirus has gone.

“We’d make the sauces and marinate pork ribs overnight and then take them over the road to our stall every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Business was brisk especially from hundreds of tourists who came to enjoy our freshly marinated and pulled ribs in a bun and also to buy our range of sauces,” he adds. The popularity of their sauces – Irish Whiskey, Irish Cider, and Rum and Raisin – led to requests from shoppers where they could buy them outside the market,” he adds. The tourists, of course, largely disappeared in 2020. And there were fewer local shoppers when the market was open.

“We certainly saw scope to build a strong business on the back of the distinctive sauces and other food we had been looking at,” he continues. “The pandemic inhibited our work at the market and encouraged us to look at other ideas including retailing the sauces and our recent launch of a dry rub for meats. Innovation is the way ahead for us now.

The two friends have known each other for over 30 years and both worked separately in bars around Belfast. John Graham owned several local pubs while John O’Hare served his time as a chef and created tasty dishes in pubs, such as the famed Kitchen Bar, before his retirement in 2018.

The hugely successful RARE BREED – A Farming Year returns to our screens next Tuesday 12th January at 7.30pm, with seven families from across Northern Ireland giving us an inside view of the ups and downs of their year in 2020.

Rare Breed is the ground-breaking year-in-the-life documentary series charting the reality of farming in Northern Ireland.  The series, in its nineth year, features several people including three families whose daughters are stepping up to look after the family business along with a new community farm in County Antrim. In Fermanagh, the series also meets a young couple running a dairy enterprise.

In the first episode we meet five of the families.  First off is the Preston family at their sheep farm near Gortin,Tyrone. They are busy preparing for their pedigree Beltex flock’s lambing season, with Zara and her dad, Kenny building maternity pens, ensuring all is clean and ready for the ewes. Kenny comments, “If it’s not clean, it’s not right,” pointing out that there is too much money involved in the process to run the risk of disease. Zara is studying floristry at college but wouldn’t ever miss lambing season.

We then meet Jonny Hanson who runs a unique farm just outside Glynn, near Larne. Jubilee is the first of its type in Northern Ireland, it’s funded and worked by a group of like-minded people with a passion for growing their own food.  Opened in 2019, the farm has a marketgarden, pigs, geese, and goats.  Jonny studied snow leopards in Nepal before taking on the farm and jokes about farming preparing you for parenthood. “You shovel it in one end, shovel it out at the other, trying not to lose your life or your sanity!”

James Alexander is a familiar face to Rare Breed fans. He farms cattle and sheep with his family near Randalstown, Antrim.  James produces in–calf cattle to sell on to other farmers and has developed his sheep flock since he last took part in the series. In the first episode, James is having 320 cattle artificially inseminated (AI). The process is complicated and time consuming, but he has plenty of helpers, including Jack Smyth from the last series of Rare Breed. James comments, “The big days are the best days.” James’children are also featured in the series as they are now old enough to help during the lambing season in the Spring.

We find ourselves back in Tyrone at Des Kelly’s cattle and sheep farm near Ballygawley. He got a nice New Year’s surprise in the form of six new lambs, as a result of an over amorous ram lamb being left in too long with some ewes!  Combining farming with a job in accountancy, Des has full time help on the farm from experienced herdsman, Rodrigo Ferreira who originally honed his animals handling skills in his native Brazil. In January, Des and Rodrigo are getting to grips with a new hi-tech feeding machine for the cattle.

Our last stop in the first episode is to Fermanagh, where young couple, Margaret and Andrew Little run a progressive dairy enterprise near Tempo. Andrew is a second generation farmer working alongside his Dad, Raymond. Former nurse Margaret is busy rearing calves in the farm’s ‘maternity’ unit, driving during silage season, and vaccinating among many other jobs. She also has several Simmental cattle and later in the series we see her and Andrew’s Mum, Katherine developing the vegetable garden for the family.  

Later in the series we meet young farmer Emily McGowan, from Balloo outside Newtownards, who studied agriculture at Harper Adams in Shropshire, England and returned home to launch a new farm shop venture. She’s following in her dad, Adrian’s footsteps –he’s one of Northern Ireland’s leading farmers and Emily is working closely with him to learn all she can to be a top farmer.  

We also meet Claire Shearer and Davy Kinkead. This young couple breed and sell Irish sports horses in Comber. It’s a hobby, business and passion for Care Assistant Clare. Davy gave up his motorbikes  to support Clare and says he doesn’t regret switching two wheels for four legs!

Tony Curry, Programmes Editor at UTV said, “Rare Breed – A Farming Year has become a firm favourite amongst UTV viewers who look forward to the return of the agricultural series each year in our New Year schedule. Once again, each of the 12 episodes take us through the year, and this year more than most, we see the realities of modern farming and get an armchair view into the lives of the people who carry on this vital tradition and industry. I’m sure the series will entertain, educate and delight in equal measure.”

The series is produced for UTV by Belfast’s Strident Media. Producer Cara Dinsmore said, said, “Rare Breed is a wonderful series to film. It is fascinating to see how different farmers work and how they handle the inevitable highs and lows that the weather and life throw at them”.  

Strident Media MD, Kelda Crawford-McCann said, “We really enjoy producing Rare Breed. It’s a pleasure to make, there are so many big characters running farms here. They are always full of enthusiasm for what they do and have genuine interest and passion for their work. We are delighted that every year UTV viewers support the series, watching in their tens of thousands”.

UTV’s Mark McFadden once again narrates the series. Sponsored by Moy Park, Rare Breed – A Farming Yearstarts on Tuesday 12th January at 7.30pm on UTV.

Cheese lovers Jonny McDowell and Laura Bradley have just invested in a new artisan food store with a difference in Belfast on the back of their highly successful deli, Indie Fude, in Comber.

Both long-term supporters of local food and drink producers, they have opened a unique cheese and charcuterie deli on Belfast’s Ormeau Road, one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares in pre-Covid-19 days.

Indie Fude 2, as the new shop is known, features a special cheese room and extensive air conditioning for maturing hundreds of cheeses from across the island of Ireland and from further afield. The Indie Fude identity was chosen to stress the independent and specialist nature of the business.

It’s also great news for Northern Ireland’s growing cadre of artisan cheese and charcuterie producers

Indie Fude in Comber has long featured most of our artisan producers including Dart Mountain in Dungiven, Mike’s Fancy Cheese in Newtownards, Kearney Blue in Castlereagh and Velocheese in Belfast. Charcuterie producers in the shop are Corndale Farm in Limavady, Ispini in Aughnacloy, Ke Nako in Ballyclare and Downpatrick’s Castlescreen Farm.

Indie Fude’s investment is another excellent example of the growth in specialist food stores here especiallyover the pandemic. Delis, farm shops, family butchers, greengrocers and smaller grocery stores have flourished as shoppers have turned to neighbourhood retailers with trusted local suppliers.

“Our business in Comber has grown strongly especially over the past year due to the increasing awareness among shoppers of the benefits from supporting local food and drink producers in terms of quality and taste,” Laura explains. “They recognise too that buying local helps preserve existing jobs and even creates new employment opportunities. We’ve added new jobs in Comber and also at the Ormeau Road store,” she adds.

A Food NI member, Indie Fude, which has been an integral part of the Comber business community for almost six years, was set up by Jonny, a chartered accountant and cheese specialist from Belfast, and Laura, who has extensive experience in hospitality, to specialise in local artisan produce.

As well as the shop in Comber, Indie Fude now has a significant on-line presence, a catering operation that covers corporate events, hosts regular supper clubs and other artisan food promotions especiallycheese presentations. In addition, the deli operates an extensive home delivery service which has grown substantially during the pandemic. An artisan food hamper business is also thriving.

The successful entrepreneurs have also supportedlocal markets around Northern Ireland, including those in Comber, Coleraine, Londonderry, and The Inns on Belfast’s Saintfield Road.

Laura continues: “We saw an opportunity to build a successful business around the exciting growth of artisan food producers here and decided to see if we could provide a springboard for them to grow.”

 As a result of this commitment to local artisans, many start up food enterprises have won their first sales through Indie Fude and gone on to prosper in wider marketplaces.

They decided to invest in a new deli in Belfast when suitable premises became available. “We had been thinking about an expansion for some time to focus especially on cheese, a key element of our Comber business,” Laura explains. “While we were encouraged by a growing interest in different cheeses among shoppers here we had still to be sure about the premises and surrounding area.There’s never an ideal time to invest, and trading conditions are currently very volatile,” she adds.

They were directed towards an empty shop on the Ormeau Road by a business friend and decided to explore the area. “We quickly came to the conclusion that it was too good for us to miss. There’s a greatcommunity there for retailers and plenty of shoppers from the surrounding area. Furthermore, the road has many excellent restaurants,” she says.

Work on revamping and stocking the new shop was completed in early December and it opened last week. Response so far has been ‘immensely encouraging”, Laura says.

In addition to the cheeses, charcuterie and other artisan foods, takeaway coffee and snacks are available. “We’ll also be offering unique sausage rolls with pork from Stonebridge Farm in Crossgar, a popular supplier to the Comber shop,” adds Laura.

The three-storey premises will also support thedevelopment of other related activities such as supper clubs with top chefs showing how to cook local food.

“Overall, it’s another opportunity for us to work with the brilliant artisan businesses here and to help in marketing their excellent produce,” continues Laura.It’s a very exciting sector with lots of inspirational people who are as passionate as we are aboutartisan produce. We’ve so many brillian products in both shops.”

As we start another year and face renewed calls for healthier diets, it’s pretty clear that our shopping habits have gone through some pretty radical changes in 2020, thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are now buying more ingredients from local suppliers for cooking meals at home from scratch.

And it’s been immensely encouraging for Food NI to see the growth in specialist food stores and the new opportunities now being offered to local suppliers. This trend has ensured the survival of many artisans and farm-based suppliers. We hope that this trend will continue to gather pace in the year ahead.

Interestingly, new reserach that more than three quarters of consumers changed how they planned, purchased and prepared their food during the first national lockdown, with more than half claiming to have eaten more fruit and vegetables. Also encouraging here is the growth in numbers of delis and smaller shops adding seasonal fruit and especially locally sourced vegetables to their offerings.

There will be further scope to expand these items here in the months ahead. While there is now a trade agreement between the UK and EU in place, it is still not clear how this will impact supplies of fresh fruit and vegetables from Europe to Northern Ireland due to the new Irish Sea border.

There should be even greater opportunities for our farmers and retailers to increase supply of fresh vegetables in particular to the specialist shops. Several shops here are responding to the new opportunity by creating bespoke veg and fruit boxes for home cooks in particular and a number are also including menu ideas.

In addition, they should consider making it easier for people to try something new by. recommending ‘simple swaps’ to existing recipes to help normalise healthy, sustainable choices. Simple ingredient swap suggestions can help people liven up family favourites and add new meals to their cooking repertoire.

There are very real benefits for the community and economy from building closer relationships between farmers, retailers and consumers here. While we’ll never be self-sufficient in vegetables, there’s scope to increase output in the future by growing the local marketplace to a much greater extent to encourage our farmers.

Another interesting statistic showing the growing consumption of vegetables in the UK came from the innovative Peas Please initiative of which Food NI is a longstanding supporter. According to Peas Please, UK food businesses served 162 million vegetable portions over the past three years. This impressive statistic is a measure of the success of the promotional drive to promote consumption of vegetables especially among children and young people.

Peas Please is a multi-stakeholder project that works with businesses, civil society and policy makers across the UK to make it easier for people to access vegetables, by getting organisations to pledge to grow, serve or sell more veg. Covid-19 has apparently caused widespread disruption to food businesses increasing their veg consumption targets. Some 72 million additional portions were either sold or served last year…and against the very difficult background of Covid-19 restrictions.  Again, we await the outcome of the Brexit trade agreement in the months ahead for any adverse impact on supplies from the likes of Spain’s Murcia region. Some 68 percent of fruit and veg in UK supermarkets is currently imported.

While trends are moving in the right direction, there’s still much more to raise consumption levels. Retail grocery sales, according to supermarket surveys, show that the proportion of veg in a consumer’s shopping basket remains low at seven percent – despite overall grocery sales increasing by 13.7 percent in the 12 weeks leading up to mid-June.  There’s a lot to do to reach the Government’s Eat Well target of 20 percent of shopping baskets should be veg.

Clearly further work is required on reshaping our food systems. This must involve greater encouragement of more localised shopping and further targeted campaigns by the Executive to promote local vegetable production for a healthier community.

 

Finnebrogue Artisan has won a national deal with Asda to supply three of the retailer’s Extra Special products this Christmas.

The Downpatrick based business will produce a first to market Extra Special Vegan Turkey Joint and two new Pig in Blankets products – Extra Special Pigs in Blankets and Extra Special Double Chilli Pigs in Blankets, to stores across the UK.

The much-loved traditional festive favourite Pigs in Blankets are a new product from Finnebrogue Artisan for Asda and will be stocked in 579 stores for the holiday season, with the Vegan Turkey Joint available in 180 stores.

The deal builds upon Asda and Finnebrogue Artisan’s existing relationship, which has seen the family business supply Extra Special Sausages since 2014, and a range of plant-based products since the summer of 2020.

John Cowen, Finnebrogue’s Account Manager for Asda said:

“We’re always delighted to grow our relationship with Asda and the arrival of three new products for this year’s Extra Special Christmas range is no exception.

“With the growing switch towards meat substitute meals, the Vegan Turkey Joint expands the Asda meat free range in 2020, offering festive foodies the opportunity to enjoy a Christmas lunch that doesn’t compromise on taste or flavour.

“The Asda Extra Special Double Chilli Pigs in Blankets will see the classic pigs in blankets, set on fire this Christmas. Extra Special Dry Cured Streaky bacon is wrapped around cocktail sausages, containing both halved jalapeños and the world’s hottest Carolina Reaper chillies, to get any Christmas party off to a hot start.

“Our customers can rely on our products for great tasting festive centre pieces and sides, whether it’s a meat or meat free option. We hope Asda customers love the new products and flavours available for their Christmas table this year.”

Emma Swan, Asda’s Buying Manager for NI added,

“At Asda, we work alongside our suppliers to create innovative, affordable and delicious products for all our shoppers and this year’s Extra Special Christmas products from Finnebrogue are a wonderful example of this work.

“We’re so proud to offer our customers avegan turkey joint, as well as a selection of pigs in blankets. Whether you fancy something traditional or a little more quirky for your dinner table, we have our customers covered this Christmas!”

The Extra Special Vegan Turkey Joint with caramelised onion stuffing, the Extra Special Pigs in Blankets and the Extra Special Double Chilli Pigs in Blankets are available in select Asda stores across the UK now.