A traditional Ulster Fry ‘Breakfast in a Box’ has been created by an enterprising family farm in Northern Ireland as it tackles the cashflow challenges from the current Covid-19 lockdown.

The farm, owned and run by Damian Tumelty and his partner Jackie Gibson, has developed the ‘Breakfast in Box’ for home delivery to or for collection by customers around parts of county Down. It’s the latest in a series of food boxes from the farm, which is based near Downpatrick, and is best known for its prized grass-fed Dexter beef as well as lamb, pork and poultry. The farm is known throughout Northern Ireland for its Wee Cows Big Beef branding.

The new breakfast box features products from the farm which has its own butchery and shop that also sells other artisan foods from Northern Ireland. The box includes the popular ingredients for the much loved Ulster Fry such as bacon, Dexter beef and pork sausages, vegetable roll and free range eggs.

The unique box also includes breakfast products from other local producers including apple juice from Long Meadow Cider in Portadown, county Armagh and tropical granola from Tasty Wee Numbers in Ballynahinch, county Down.

Explaining the thinking behind the launch of the breakfast box, Mr Tumelty says: “The box is aimed at people here who have had to self-isolate because of the virus and subsequent lockdown and have been unable to shop for themselves.

“Most people here love a traditional cooked breakfast. And so we’ve put together this box with all the essential ingredients required for a tasty breakfast they can cook easily at home. We have total control over all the contents and this means that customers can count on these for quality, provenance and traceability,” he adds.

The farm, he explains, had to develop the boxes for home delivery or collection at the Farm Shop because of the lockdown closure of the farmers’ and food marketswhich provided much of the farm’s cashflow. “We had also been developing good business with hotels and high-end restaurants here for our grass-fed Dexter steak and, of course, this disappeared with the lockdown,” Damian continues. “Some of that business is beginning to come back as restaurants are now offering home delivery and call and collect services.

“We decided to start the special boxes for breakfasts and main meals to provide some income to help us with the bills we still have to pay. Farm prices are also under pressure at the moment and this doesn’t help,” he adds.

As well as a range of premium quality Dexter beef products, Castlescreen has expanded to include other meats including pork, lamb and chicken, all readily available in the butchery now a central part of the recently opened farm shop. There’s also honey from hives on the farm. It has also developed specialist products including salami from its own meat.

Mr Tumelty is among a small group of Dexter breeders in Northern Ireland and has won a cluster of prestigious awards for the cattle and meats especially steak.

He currently rears a herd of around 100 Dexter beef and breeding cattle on the sprawling farm which has been in the Tumelty family for over 40 years.

Premium and innovative culinary ingredients and products preferred by chefs in the UK and Republic of Ireland are now available for home cooks from Northern Ireland specialist processors Craic Foods and En Place Foods.

The two companies, which are well-established and successful in foodservice throughout the UK and Ireland, have recently embraced e-commerce and this enables home cooks to enjoy their products in meal preparation.

The new Craic Foods online store offers home cooks – as well as professional chefs – access to novel ingredients such as freeze dried fruit, vegetable powder, black garlic and seaweedincluding flakes and kelp pesto, tapenade and salsa verde.

Craic Foods, which is based in Craigavon, county Armagh, and En Place Foods in Cookstown, county Tyrone are both run by experienced chef Paul Clarke and have won national awards for novel products for restaurants and hotels in particular.

Mr Clarke, commenting on the move into e-commerce, says: “I had always intended on an online presence for Craic Foods but recent events especially the closure of foodservice outlets pushed this up our agenda. Both companies had long had a predominantly foodservice focus.

“The lockdown because of the coronavirus hit us pretty hard, however, just like many of our customers in this sector we have had to find other ways of working. We needed, of course, to provide a revenue stream for Craic Foods and then also offer another sales channel for the other artisan brands we work with,” adds Mr Clarke.

While both businesses were only partly in operation, Mr Clarke said he is continuing to work with start-up companies to bring their ideas to market. “Alongside the product developing and manufacturing facility we offer, we can help them with some initial sales via the new Craic online store and showcase their products to a broader audience,” he continues.

In addition to developing, manufacturing its own brand products such as vinegars, sauces and jams, En Place produces a range of products from other artisan food firms especially in Northern Ireland. These include products from Irish Black Butter, Erne Larder Preserves and Islander Sea Foods.

The small company is an innovation-led business and has won UK Great Taste and Blas na hEireann awards for its original products.

British and Irish Lions, Ireland and Munster star forward CJ Stander has been ‘signed’ by Hellbent, the Northern Ireland producer of South African Boerewors coiled beef sausages, spicy burgers and meatballs, as the company’s first-ever Brand Ambassador.

The appointment of CJ Stander as Brand Ambassador was announced by Louis Ludik, the managing director of Belfast-based Hellbent which has just been listed by Aldi Ireland to supply 142 supermarkets across the Irish Republic. The Aldi business, the company’s first in the Republic, follows a listing in EUROSPAR stores in Northern Ireland.

“We were delighted when such a prominent and respected sportsman on the island of Ireland and the UK agreed to help us to promote our original products especially in the Republic of Ireland,” says Louis, an established and popular player for Ulster Rugby who brought his love of spicy and delicious beef products to Northern Ireland from his homeland in South Africa.

Hellbent uses prime beef from Northern Ireland farms in its coiled sausages, meatballs and burgers.

Louis formed Hellbent with Schalk van der Merwe, another South African rugby star, in 2018. Schalk also played for Ulster and is now the specialist coach and a player with Lurgan Rugby Club.

Louis continues: “CJ grew up on a sheep farm in South Africa and has vast experience of boerewors and the other meat products that we are now making in Northern Ireland and have been marketing extensively here for over the past year.In addition to the Aldi listing, an immensely exciting development for Hellbent, the Henderson Group is selling all our products in EUROSPAR across Northern Ireland.

“Both retail listings represent a massive endorsement from major food retailers in the quality of our products and their market potential. We are now keen to build on these endorsements and believe that our great friend CJ can help us to realise their tremendous potential especially in the Republic, a key target market for us outside Northern Ireland,” adds Louis.

CJ, commenting on the appointment, adds: “It’s a tremendous privilege and a great pleasure to be working with my friends Louis and Schalk in support of their superb quality and deliciously flavoured meats from our homeland in Ireland and, in time, further afield.

“They have created sausages, burgers and meatballs on a par with the very best available in South Africa in terms quality, taste and texture. It would be tremendous to be able to introduce the products in South Africa,” he adds. “In addition, I look forward to working with them on new product ideas from our homeland,” adds CJ.

CJ Stander (30) joined Munster Rugby in 2012 and has since won widespread acclaim for his outstanding performances for the province, Ireland, making his debut in 2016, and then for the British and Irish Lions the following year on a challenging tour of New Zealand. He played in all the test matches against New Zealand.

He was raised on his family’s sheep farm at George in the Western Cape and played rugby there before joining Munster. CJ was also named as Limerick’s inaugural International Ambassador in 2017 and is a hugely respected personality in the city, the province and indeed throughout Ireland.

The £25 million support package for beef and dairy farmers secured by Agriculture minister Edwin Poots is a timely boost for the two largest sectors of our vitally important farming industry. The Minister has vowed to do all he can to support the agriculture industry during these very difficult times. It is very encouraging to hear that DAERA now has responsibility for food security.

It is important that we continue to ensure that farming and food are in a healthy shape for the months and years ahead. There is no doubt that food and drink are forefront of people’s minds in a way we could never have imagined a year ago.

As Northern Ireland is such a large producer of beef and dairy produce, the volatile prices on the world market impact them hard and the sectors may yet face other discouraging problems arising from the new Brexit protocol. As events last week showed, Brexit is right back on the agenda. Furthermore, the new Agriculture Bill presents new and worrying threats to the industry.

While the UK Government has pledged – and continues to insist forthrightly – that there will not be any new hurdles to face for agri-food, we will just have to wait to see how the so-called Irish Sea ‘border’ pans out in practice. We can’t take anything for granted. Our Executive must continue to maintain influence on the Government to ensure that our vital agri-food industry is not be adversely impacted by whatever happens next year.

It’s crucial that access to the GB market, our single most important, remains totally unfettered and that there is movement from here to Britain without any further bureaucratic requirements.  Britain will continue to need our quality and traceable food and we must not be placed at a disadvantage against food products imported from third countries, as appears to be a threat in the Agriculture Bill.

Farming and food are more important to the local economy than in many other parts of Britain and it must be nurtured to adapt and grow in both short and long terms. Another unexpected outcome of the pandemic is that people are more focused on health and the benefits derived from a plant-based diet.

Having read the protocol, I am confident that companies here will evolve to best effect. We are a region of innovators. I’ve been thoroughly impressed during the coronavirus crisis by the response of many of our valued farm-based food and drink processors across Northern Ireland.

Recent examples which we’ve been happy to support and promote include the new ‘Ulster Fry in a Box’ from Castlescreen Farm near Downpatrick. Damian Tumelty andJackie Gibson, who run the 100-acre livestock farm created a range of meat boxes for collection or home delivery and have also included other artisan products such as Long Meadow cider.

Glastry Farm in Kircubbin is now delivering its award-winning luxury ice cream and sorbet to doorsteps in Co Down and parts of Belfast. Streamvale Open Farm at Dundonald is collaborating with Mash Direct, Comber; Corries in Newtownards and with a local bakery and fishmonger to deliver a wide range of artisan products. Mash Direct is also operating its own delivery service. Dean Wright at Ballylisk Dairies in Tandragee is delivering milk and other artisan foods to doorsteps in Armagh. Dale Farm, in addition, is also delivering milk from its farmers. Mervyn Kennedy is delivering bacon all over Northern Ireland from his farm near Omagh.

This all adds up to a resilient and highly innovative food and drink community positioned for continuing growth beyond the virus.

Award-winning artisan producer Annie’s Delights in Northern Ireland has gained a major award for innovation during the Covid-19 lockdown.

The small bakery, which is based at Portglenone in county Antrim and has gained Blas na hEireann Irish Food awards for its handcrafted products, gained a gold level award from Innovate NI for ‘thinking outside the box’ to keep the business trading during the pandemic.

The company, founded and run by experienced businesswoman Ann Marie Collins in 2014, specialises in handmade jams, chutneys and baked goods mostly from locally grown and sourced ingredients. She grows some of her own ingredients such as beetroot and rhubarb. Annie’s Delights is a Food NI member company.

Ann Marie won two silvers at Blas na hEireann for her pear, apple and apricot chutney and her lemon curd.

The Innovate NI award recognises her response to the serious setback to her business by the closure of local farmers’ and food markets due to the virus outbreak in mid-March. “Around 90 percent of my sales revolved around trading at markets,” continues Ann Marie. “I was devastated because I didn’t then sell to stores. I had introduced new labelling in a drive to develop sales to these outlets when the virus reached Northern Ireland and my cashflow virtually dried up.

“I quickly decided to launch a delivery service to existing and potential customers from markets. I then decided to invest in my website (www.anniesdelights.com) for online sales. It’s now generating sales and is proving itself as an important and timely investment.

“So, although it may be small, a sole trader, in the way of innovation compared to bigger companies it has turned my business around and is now generating cashflow to keep my business going. I can see online sales becoming an important part of my business when the virus eventually disappears,” adds Ann Marie, who creates all the products herself.

Ann Marie was encouraged to enter Innovate NI competition by the Foodovation team at the North West Regional College in Derry. Foodovation helps smaller food companies like Annie Delight’s in a range of areas including new product development.

Innovate NI is an innovation and management consulting company headquartered in Derry. It supportssmall business development, entrepreneurship, as well as digital and social innovation projects.

It specialises in business mentoring and advice support, project management, business planning, event and conference development/management.

Innovate NI said it had “recognised this small business because Ann Marie has adapted, changed and innovated by developing an orders and home delivery service, as well as launching a new website with an e-commerce platform – well done to all involved.”

Sea Sugar, Northern Ireland’s award-winning creator of handcrafted confectionery, has invested in attractive new packaging that showcases the quality of the handmade sweets for a post-lockdown sales drive.

Based at Larne in county Antrim, the small manufacturer of high-end pulled, boiled confectionery has developed the colourful and recyclable packaging to increase business especially with delis and premium stores when the lockdown is lifted.

Linda McGibbon, who founded the business in 2012, says all the packs are different and use colours to reflect the variety of the range of confectionery in her portfolio. Previously they were all the same design. “They incorporate fresh new imagery of fruit to reflect the flavours and emphasise that all the sweets are natural colours and flavours and use high quality ingredients,” Linda says.

“The card used isn’t film coated and so the packs are recyclable with cardboard or paper waste which will tie in well when I switch to using biodegradable inner bags soon!

“The packs have been designed to allow them to stand up neatly and look great when arranged on a shelf or a counter.

“I switched to the attractive new packaging because I wanted to show that the product is more than just ‘a wee bag of sweets’ and to demonstrate that they’re award-winning, high-end products which could easily sit next to similar premium products in a deli or store.

“I wanted contemporary packaging to reflect the high quality of the contents. I believe that this has been achieved and will position us for the growth I hope for when the lockdown is over and all the shops and food markets are open again,” she adds.

She had been interested in running her own small business and spotted a market opportunity for pulled, boiled sweets. “I opted for pulled sweets because this process allows air to be incorporated and creates a lighter product with a much crunchier texture.” The use of only natural, high quality flavour extracts gives a much richer and true flavour to the sweets.”

“My pulled sweets are a natural product made from sugar, water, glucose, natural colours and natural flavourings,” adds Linda. “I’ve opted for less common flavour combinations because I wanted to create a gourmet product. I want consumers to take time to enjoy the strong flavours of the sweets. All are lovingly handmade. They’ve just been launched and are selling very well online,” she adds.

The pulled sweets are available in 100g packs. The sweets are also free from gluten, dairy, additives and fat. All the sweets are made in very small 4 – 6kg batches, thus ensuring consistent high quality.