Galgorm Collection donates £750,000 in experience vouchers for Northern Health & Social Care Trust.  

Wednesday 15th April 2020: Galgorm Collection will be donating a staggering £750,000 worth of experience vouchers to the Northern Health & Social Care Trust frontline staff in recognition for their hard work, bravery, and commitment to helping patients throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

Galgorm Collection is rewarding key workers with a range ofexperiences – from overnight stays, spa days and meals in their award-winning properties across Northern Ireland – to cement its commitment to the community and bring some much-needed respite to key workers.

Colin Johnston, Galgorm Collection Managing Director, said:

“The COVID-19 pandemic is unlike anything we have seen before and it is placing huge pressure on our health and social care system. We wanted to find a way to sincerely thank our brilliant HSC staff who are on the front line of the fight against this outbreak and coping with unbelievable situations in a remarkably professional and brave manner.

We recognise how difficult it must be for every HSC staff member working to manage this crisis, with many separated from their families and working long hours. That’s why Galgorm Collection has decided to donate 5,000 experiences to frontline workers, to show our appreciation and give our frontline heroes the chance to rest and recoup once this emergency is over.

The voucher donation represents a charitable contribution of over £750,000 by Galgorm Collection to our local communities and we look forward to welcoming each and every HSC worker through our doors once we can safely reopen. Until then, we will continue to clap for our carers each week and provide whatever support we can to our key workers. We are forever in their debt.”

Galgorm Collection is actively engaged in corporate social responsibility and works with numerous local community groups and organisations including the long standing relationship with Simon Community and more recently the Community Rescue Service raising in excess of £100,000.

Background on Galgorm Collection

Galgorm Spa & Golf Resort is the flagship property in the Galgorm Collection, encompassing the award-winning Galgorm Spa & Golf Resort, the 3AA Rosette River Room Restaurant, McKendry’s Bar & Grill Restaurant and Fratelli’s.The Resort recently undergone a £400,000 transformation of its accommodation. Galgorm’s flagship bar, McKendry’s Bar & Lounge (formerly known as Gillies Bar) received an £800,000 refurb, opening in January 2020 with a traditional Irish offering. The new-look lounge encompasses one of the largest collections of whiskey in the island of Ireland. 

Galgorm Spa is also expanding its offering with a £1 million investment in developing the Resort’s Serenity Gardens to include a new Palm House. Additional relaxation areas, saunas and hot tubs have also been installed to accommodate burgeoning numbers of spa visitors.

In Belfast, it also operates restaurants Fratelli’s on Great Victoria Street and Café Parisien, offering a French brasserie-style menu in the iconic Robinson & Cleaver building overlooking City Hall on Donegall Square and just last year purchased Templeton Hotel in Templepatrick which is currently undergoing renovation.  

For more information please visit www.galgorm.com

As part of its wide-ranging support for small retailers and producers during the COVID-19 crisis, the Guild of Fine Food has been gathering and sharing innovative ideas from across the UK and Ireland’s independent food and drink retail community. With many in Northern Ireland nimbly adapting their offerings, the Guild of Fine Food hopes these stories will inspire the sector and shine a spotlight on the small businesses that are stepping up to become part of the solution.

Among those providing a vital lifeline to people across the country, is Indie Füde in Comber, Co Down, which has introduced free local delivery for customers in self isolation, as well as a click and collect service, with the option for orders to be placed directly into shoppers’ car boots. Others include Rock A Doodle Do – Belfast Hot Sauce, recently donating 1,000 product sample bottles to Copeland Distillery in order to make hand sanitiser for carers and front line medical staff, and Suki Tea across the city, which has waived all shipping fees to the UK and Ireland, as well as hosting a Spills the Tea Instagram series about brewing, provenance and pairings, to engage with customers who are stuck at home.

While waving the flag for the agile independents going the extra mile to ensure that shoppers can get the provisions they need, the Guild of Fine Food has also created a dedicated COVID-19 online resource, offering tailored information, advice and tips for the fine food trade. Open to all, the webpage features a live map of food and drink businesses that have stock available or need supplies, connecting producers, distributors and retailers, as well as suppliers of equipment and services.

The food industry can also sign up to receive the Guild of Fine Food’s new support bulletin via email, which will feature content specifically relevant to independent food retailers, the producers who supply them and the consumers who support them.

John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, commented: “We could all do with some positive news at the moment, and the independent food scene is coming up with the goods in more ways than one. It fills me with pride to see how our members and the wider retail market have adapted their businesses overnight, in order to serve their customers more effectively and safely during this period, and I think this says a lot about the people behind the patchwork of diverse independents across the country. These businesses have stepped up when we need them the most and they deserve our support in return. I’d encourage everyone to check out what their local delis, cheesemongers, butchers and bakers are doing and use the hashtag #supportlocal on social media to share their stories.”

 

Broglasco Farm, home of Northern Ireland’s award-winning Broighter Gold Rapeseed Oil, has recently diversified in growing and processing carrots.

The farm, which is owned by husband and wife team Richard and Leona Kane and is located near Limavady in County Londonderry, has bought a local carrot planting and processing machinery outfit, which was based in County Londonderry. The landscape of Magilligan and the Roe Valleyis widely recognised as one of the best for growing carrots in Northern Ireland.

Leona Kane, who runs the highly successful cold pressedBroighter Gold Rapeseed Oil, explains “If we were passing the farm, we would always have called in and bought some carrots and vegetables on our way past, and we just thought they are the best carrots around. They’ve always been very tasty and have a great colour, both of which are the result of the great soil in which they are grown.

“We reckoned with carrots having so many health benefits that it would fit in well with our rapeseed oil business, which is full of Omega 3, 6 and 9, and also another locally product. We subsequently acquired the plant and machinery as part of the investment and are committed to continue the development of the business as a producer of quality carrots,” she adds.

Broglasco Farm will be planting around 20 acres this year of carrots. Fergus Cooke who has 30 years of experience growing and harvesting carrots has joined our team here at the farm.  We will learn a lot from all his knowledge in the field!

Mrs Kane continues: “We have handpicked five varieties of carrots, two of which are popular bulking varieties, and three for shoppers based on taste, colour and other consumer preferences. Our aim is to develop products which will offer consumers something deliciously different and in line with market requirements.

“The main carrots were the standard Eskimo and Nairobi varieties and these will continue.  Three more varieties are being introduced.” adds Mrs Kane.

Broglasco intends to sell the carrots to vegetable distributors in Northern Ireland to process and market them. The farm, in addition, plans to wash, pack and bag carrots on-site for local sale.

“We have other ideas for the carrots and we will develop these as the business grows.  For instance, distributors of our rapeseed oils have expressed an interest in selling carrots, rather than having to depend on carrots from Spain and Israel.”

The first carrot harvest is expected in July – depending on the weather. The 700- acre arable farm already grows oilseed, wheat, and barley along with some spring crops.

Broighter Gold Rapeseed Oil was launched in 2011 using around 120 acres on the farm and has proved to be among the most successful culinary oils in the UK, winning a string of UK Great Taste, Blas na hEireann awards for quality and outstanding taste. The 11-strong range of cold pressed oilshave become the preferred choice of top chefs in the UK and Ireland.

The family run business also sells its Liquid Gold rapeseed oils in Great Britain, the Republic of Ireland, France and the United Arab Emirates.

Mrs Kane adds: “While it’s an immensely challenging time especially, our retail outlets that are still open is continuing to grow. Foodservice, of course, has largely stopped, some are now operating a take away service. However, social media and online orders are growing strongly.”

Boatyard distillery, an award winning Northern Irish distillery, has developed a gin infused dark chocolate.

The novel chocolate is made from 68 percent dark chocolate sourced from Tanzania by The Proper Chocolate Company, Ireland’s bean-to-bar producer, and features spent botanicals from the distillery, based near Enniskillen in county Fermanagh, a producer of award winning double gin as well as vodka.

Boatyard founder and managing director Joe McGirr, explaining the decision to develop a delicious dark chocolate, says: “We have a lot of spent gin botanicals otherwise known as waste.  This waste carries a huge amount of flavour – too good to discard.

“Then we found The Proper Chocolate Company, one of a select few bean-to-bar chocolate producers in this part of the world.  The perfect partnership sees us combine our own organic waste with the finest, ethically sourced Tanzanian cocoa and married into an 80g bar.  It can be enjoyed on its own, with neat gin or with a gin and tonic,” he adds.

Other ingredients in the novel chocolate, which sells for £6 a bar, are organic cocoa beans, organic un-refined cane sugar and cocoa butter

The organic cocoa beans are from Kokoa Kamili in Tanzania’s Kilombery Valley.

Boatyard double gin features a unique botanical, Sweet Gale, which is foraged from the McGirr family bog and the wheat used for its vodka can be traced from the bottle back to the very field it came from.

Mr McGirr has a successful background in spirits and whiskey knowledge used to build his dream of the first legal distillery in Fermanagh in over 130 years.

The Proper Chocolate Company, founded by Patrick and Kelli Marjolet in May 2016, makes bean-to-bar chocolate in micro-batches in Dublin.

 

Taste Causeway has released its own online video channel “Cook around the Causeway” through the Taste Causeway digital platform www.tastecauseway.com/videos

The first series of videos, featuring local celebrity Chef Paula Mc Intyre, showcases a host of local recipes featuring local food and drink, all sourced from the Causeway Coast and Glens.  Recipes are available to download from the platform, as well as information on where to buy the ingredients through the Taste Causeway e-shop at www.tastecauseway.com/shops

For further information contact

Sharon Scott

Mob: 07827 321492

Email info@tastecauseway.com

What a challenging time it’s been for the food, grocery and hospitality sectors over the past month. And it looks inevitable that further challenges face us over the weeks and monthsahead.

There are worrying signs too that farming is now facing severe difficulties from a combination of factors including falling beef and milk prices, a situation exacerbated by some supermarkets importing minced beef from Poland. Urgent funding from Government is essential to ensure the survival of many farms here. I know that Agriculture Minister Edwin Poots is aware of the looming threat and is keen to do whatever he can to help.

We’ve seen the food industry here rising to ‘Feed the Nation’ and the bigger processors in particular offering hundreds of job opportunities at a time when unemployment is rising sharply and the local economy under greater threat than at any time since the 2008 recession. It’s our fervent hope that the companies will be able to retain as many of those additional jobs as practicable.

Our member companies, including processors and smaller retailers and delis, are certainly doing their utmost to assist people here, especially the elderly and vulnerable. I commend their responsiveness and enterprise. Bigger processors are focusing on specific products demanded by the community such as mince and chicken breast fillets.

Artisan and smaller enterprises and retailers have responded quickly to the needs of people staying at home by introducing delivery services that can be accessed by phone and over the internet. And it may well be that these companies will decide to continue to provide the personalised services they’ve launched after the virus has gone.

In Food NI, we have been active in doing whatever we can to help the industry by pressing retailers to source as much as possible from local suppliers and, especially, to create opportunities for artisan and smaller producers to help plug gaps on their shelves.

In another important support initiative, we set up an extensive list of our companies now offering customers, especially the elderly and vulnerable, doorstep delivery services paid for by card, thereby avoiding any breach of social distancing requirements. And many of our members are now offering deliveries of a broad range of products. I’ve also been immensely encouraged by smaller companies offering to include products from other businesses in the food they are delivering.

They have been quick to address the critical threat of a collapse in cash flow arising in particular from the closure offarmers’ markets. Our hope is that these will return but only when it’s safe for them to do so.

We have included information about support measures including grants and loans from the UK Government and the Northern Ireland Executive to combat Covid-19 on our website.

We’ve been active in the drive to help safeguard smaller businesses and the self-employed firms which have fallen in the cracks between the various schemes and urged banks to provide support.

Another important issue we are addressing is the problem companies are now experienced in terms of access to support from decisions on industrial de-rating in the past.

There’s an extensive Covid-19 section on our website that’s packed with essential information for companies and smaller retailers about the virus and support readily available to enable them survive the outbreak.

Our companies, furthermore, have continued to pursue opportunities for their produce in Britain and the Republic of Ireland. We’ve promoted a number of recent successes….and hope to showcase further successes in the months.

What is also apparent is that our industry is changing and likely to continue to do so. Companies are doing business differently, especially in how they interface with customers.

And the retail environment is also being reshaped by shoppers who now appear to be appreciating the commitment of smaller stores, store groups and delis to their local communities. Processors previously focused on foodservice are seeking to rebalance their business by exploring retail.

It’s hard to predict, at this stage, how these and other changes currently underway will pan out beyond the virus. Food NI will proactively support and promote the industry in whatever lies ahead.