French Village Bakery, a leading Northern Ireland bakery, wholesaler of breads and cakes, caterer, and restaurant operator, has just launched Bake, a unique kit for making sourdough-style pizzas at home.

 

The new Fry Pan Pizza Box Kit is the outcome of months of research and new product development led by Ashley French, French Village managing director, a pizza enthusiast. The novel kit is aimed at a family of four and also includes illustrated instructions on how to make the delicious pizza at home. A pizza kit for two is also planned.

 

In addition, there’s a video link explaining how best to create an enjoyable and authentic Neapolitan-style pizza quickly and easily at home.

 

The original fry pan kit, which sells at £20 makes four freshly made pizzas and is available on a call and collect and delivery basis from the bakery in Belfast. The kit comprises four French Village sourdough balls, fermented for two days, the company’s own pizza sauce, flour, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses as well as pepperoni and olive oil.

 

Mr French explaining the new product, says: “While I’ve been working on the development of the new fry pan pizza for many months, the current lockdown and especially the growing trend towards cooking fresh meals and snacks at home has created a significant market opportunity for delicious pizza that could be made easily and enjoyed by everyone.

 

“Our pizza kit can be ready to enjoy in around 10 minutes. Furthermore, it’s an ideal family product which children, in particular, can enjoy helping to make and eat. We’ve tested the pizza extensively to ensure that it is both easy to make at home and offers outstanding taste. Feedback from everyone we asked to make and experience the pizza has been extremely encouraging,” adds Mr French.

 

The company operates from a state-of-the-art bakery and has become a major wholesaler of breads and cakes throughout Northern Ireland. In addition to the bakery and restaurants, the company has a successful catering operation for various events including weddings.

 

It responded quickly to the close of many wholesale customers such as cafes, canteens and restaurants by creating innovative provision and family food boxes for doorstep deliveries in Belfast. The lockdown meant the company had to close its two restaurants in Belfast until the end of the crisis and halted its catering business.

 

“We’ve created food boxes especially for families and individuals who are self-isolating due to the lockdown. They’re also ideal for those seeking a tasty and quality treat for main meals and snacks,” Mr French continues.

 

As well as featuring a range of freshly baked goods, such as soda bread, potato farls, wheaten bread, pancakes and brioche baps and cakes, French Village has teamed up with other local producers to include products such as buttermilk, milk from Drayne’s Farm, Lisburn and butter from Ballyrashane in Coleraine, tea from Suki Tea Makers, Bailie’s coffee, both based in Belfast, and free range eggs from Springmount Farm in Castleregh.

 

The new pizza kit has developed essentially as a weekend meal.

 

Contents of the boxes for delivery can be ordered and paid for through the company’s website to be collected on Friday and for delivery within many parts of Belfast on Saturday. In addition, the kits are available from a number of food retailers such as Carnbrooke Meats in Lisburn and Coleraine-based Lynas Foods.

The family-owned business opened in 1981 as a producer of artisan breads, cakes and buns. The company established an impressive and successful reputation for creating high quality bakery products. In 2014, it moved to a purpose-built bakery in east Belfast and then diversified into wholesale and catering. The pizza kits represent another important diversification strengthening its retail options.

Cloughbane Farm Foods, a leading Northern Ireland producer of fresh meats and award-winning ready meals, has gained online orders for its quality products from the US and Australia.

The company, based on a family farm near Pomeroy in Tyrone, has seen local and export business blossom during the current lockdown from the Covid-19 outbreak as a result of its farm to doorstep delivery service, free for orders over £45.

The new export orders are different in that they have been placed on its website (www.cloughbanefarm.com) by people in the US and Australia wishing to send Cloughbane’s quality products to family members in Northern Ireland, according to Cloughbane Farm managing director Lorna Robinson, who founded the company with husband Sam in 2002. Sam runs the family’s 180-acre livestock farm.

Mrs Robinson continues: “We are very excited to have had orders coming in from Australia and North America from family members wishing to send a parcel of our meat and ready meals to their loved ones here at this very difficult time.

“We are delighted that we are able to help out and support families who are missing one another and ensuring that everyone gets a taste of home!

“Since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak we have seen our online sales soar with lots of customers availing of our special offers including a £45 meal parcel and our Sirloin Steak Special which enables customers to enjoy our delicious steaks at a discount,” she adds.

Cloughbane Farm Foods was established by Lorna and Sam Robinson and their sons in 2002. The progressive business is now among the most successful and progressive farm diversifications in Northern Ireland. It draws its meat from beef cattle raised on the farm’s180 acres of rich pasture in Tyrone.

 

“Our award winning range of fresh meat and ready meals can be ordered through our website and delivered direct to any home in Northern Ireland, it’s free delivery on any orders over £45. We also offer a completely contactless service with orders placed and paid for online and left on the doorstep to collect,” adds Mrs Robinson.

As well as beef, the farm raises lamb and free-range eggs. It also rears its own poultry.

Ain addition to fresh beef, lamb, and poultry, Cloughbane Farm produces an extensive portfolio of ready meals which have been listed by leading retailers throughout the UK and Ireland. It has also won string of national awards for its premium meals.

 

Boatyard Distillery in Northern Ireland has gained additional investment of £600,000 for the development of award winning double gin, vodka and forthcoming Irish malt whiskey especially in export markets

The craft distillery, based near Enniskillen in county Fermanagh, has currently been producing hand sanitiser in response to the coronavirus pandemic and has just won a listing from Tesco in Northern Ireland for the product. It’s the first local distillery to win business from Tesco Northern Ireland.

Boatyard Distillery, founded and owned by Joe McGirr, secured the investment through the Halo Business Angel Network (HBAN) from private investors and Co-Fund II.

The distillery and visitor centre was set up by Mr McGirr in 2016 on the back of his extensive experience in spirits production and marketing. It currently produces Boatyard Double Gin, Old Tom Gin and vodka. The company is a Food NI member.

“We are really pleased to secure this investment and excited about the unique experience our new investors will bring, particularly when it comes to growing our presence overseas,” says Mr McGirr.

“The gin market remains highly competitive but we offer something different, with some botanicals grown on the family farm.

“Right now, Covid-19 has interrupted some of our immediate plans but we have responded to the situation by being innovative and using our expertise to produce a product that is not only in high demand but which our health service and key workers desperately need. We are pleased to play our part in the fight against Covid-19 by donating supplies to help those people on the frontline doing great work for everyone in the Fermanagh region.”

The company has secured deals with supermarket chains M&S and Waitrose to stock their products across the UK and Ireland. The double gin uses a blend of botanicals including Fermanagh Sweet Gaei.

In response to the coronavirus crisis, the distillery diversified and started production of hand sanitiser, to World Health Organisation specifications.

Boatyard Distillery has given away more than 1,200 litres of sanitiser to front line services in Fermanagh including to NHS key workers and supermarket staff and is now selling the product to customers in other industries, both locally and internationally.

The sanitiser will be stocked in Tesco stores in Northern Ireland from this week.

Northern Ireland’s biggest dairy cooperative, Dale Farm has increased its efforts to support those in need during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The company, which has its headquarters in Belfast, has partnered with the local food redistribution charity FareShare, providing it with milk and butter on a weekly basis which is then distributed through community food banks and charities across Northern Ireland.

FareShare Northern Ireland is directly tackling food poverty by collecting food from industry and redistributing it to charities including food banks, that provide meals to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups.

 Caroline Martin, corporate marketing and communications manager at Dale Farm says: “FareShare and the local charities they work with carry out vital work in reaching out to and supporting the most vulnerable people in our community all year round and, given the challenges presented by the Covid-19 pandemic, that work is more important than ever.

“We are proud to be partnering with FareShare and we take our responsibility to support the community seriously.

“Getting nutritious dairy products to people, including those who are self-isolating or find it difficult to safely access a local store, is extremely important and we have been developing new ways to help do this during the pandemic.

“Through our My Milk Delivery service, for example, we have been working with our network of independent local milkmen and women to bring our range of milk, cheese, butter and yogurts safely and directly to doorsteps.”

Dale Farm is owned by farmers, who work hard to supply top quality dairy products every day.

In response to the Covid-19 lockdown, Dale Farm launched a doorstep delivery service for its wide range of products across Northern Ireland.

The company has worked with its existing network of independent local milkmen across Northern Ireland to launch My Milk Delivery – a delivery service to bring Dale Farm dairy products directly from our farms to your home.

Peninsula Kelp Company, the Northern Ireland specialist in sustainable seaweed and other marine-based products, has supplied customers in the US, Canada, New Zealand, France, Great Britain and other parts of Europe.

Based at Newtownards overlooking Strangford Lough, Peninsula Kelp has developed an extensive portfolio of natural and organic products harvested from the waters around Northern Ireland.

Established by husband wife team Graham, a commercial diver, and Andrea Gannon, both passion about protecting the marine environment and sustainability, in 2019, Peninsula Kelp, a Food NI member, now has created and supplies an extensive range of unique and edible sea products including wild ocean greens, pure dried kelp, pure dried dulse, dulse crackers, kelp popcorn, infused culinary oils and even a novelseaweed coffee.

“Creating healthy seaweed products originally began as a hobby when I started   making seaweed soap,” says Mrs Gannon. “We had both grown up near the sea and are keen scuba divers around the coast of Ireland and further afield.

“I had been conscious of growing international interest in kelp, dulse and other ‘sea greens’ because of their health benefits from a range of minerals especially iodine. Research has shown that very many people worldwide are iodine deficient. Iodine plays a key role in promoting thyroid healthin particular.

“Seaweed products also aid gut health,” adds Mrs Gannon, who is the driving force in the development of products.

“My focus is on creating natural food products which people can add easily to their diets. This is why I’ve come up with familiar foods such as crackers, salt, seasonings, organic coffee, culinary oils and popcorn as a snack especially for children,” she continues.

The small company has a license from the Crown Estate to harvest by hand marine products from the sea around Co Down. “Our harvesting is carried out carefully ny hand so that the marine environment is not adversely impacted. Protecting the marine eco system is our utmost priority and so we rotate areas of the seabed to ensure continuing growth. No machinery is used in harvesting sea greens.

Kelp, dulse and other sea vegetables are then dried by hand by Mrs Gannon who then transforms them into natural, organicproducts which are sold to health shops and delis and also sold online from the company’s website(www.peninsulakelp.com).  The company, in addition, produces grass-fed butter and wild sea green butter.

“We’ve seen online sales grow significantly during the lockdown and have had inquiries from around the world for the products. Among current online sales is a customer in Arizona in the US. And we’ve also sent consignments to other parts of North America, parts of Europe including France, New Zealand and Great Britain,” she adds.

Hellbent, the Northern Ireland producer of traditional South African Boerewors sausages, will be supplying Aldi supermarkets in the Republic of the Ireland from the end of this month.

The company, which is based in Belfast and also produces South African recipe burgers and meatballs, has been included in the popular Grow with Aldi scheme.

The initiative offers smaller food businesses from the Republic and Northern Ireland an opportunity to appeal to customers and to win a long-term contract from the leading German discounter retailer.

Hellbent’s distinctive coiled beef sausages go on sale from 31stMay in many Aldi Ireland supermarkets in the Republic.  Aldi is not present in the Northern Ireland grocery market.

Louis Ludik, who founded Hellbent, now a Food NI member,in 2018 with fellow South African Schalk van Der Merwe, says: “This is massive for us, an unbelievable opportunity to win our first sales in the Republic of Ireland. We approached Aldi with our sausages and burgers and they decided to include the Boerewors in the Grow with Aldi programme. It’s very exciting and another marvellous boost for the business.

Originally from South Africa, Ludik is known across Northern Ireland, the Republic and parts of Europe in his role as a popular player with Ulster Rugby. Van Der Merwe, also from South Africa, played for Ulster.

The beef sausages use beef from Northern Ireland farmers with a distinctive blend of spices and have recently been listed by leading Northern Ireland food distribution business Henderson Group for its network of EUROSPAR supermarkets.

Around 30 EUROSPAR stores in Northern Ireland are now selling Hellbent’s original sausages, meatballs and burgers.

The Hellbent products are the outcome of months of product development and testing with the Ulster University Food and Consumer Tasting Suite.

Ludik adds: “The South African culture revolves around incredible home-grown food and there is so much of that in Northern Ireland. We created Hellbent to be an integral part of the local food offering here.”