Now that the festive break is over it’s back to business here at the farm. This means new baby goats have arrived, our farm shop and cafe is back open every Friday from 11-3 and you can find us once again at markets every Saturday in Dublin and Belfast.

We also have a few new workshops and products to share with you!

First up we have two classes available to book this year so far. Our very popular Cheesemaking day with the incredibly knowledgable Silke from Corleggy Cheese (Book Here) and our very own Becky is running a Natural Skincare class here on the farm in February (Book Here.)

Some of you will have already tasted our newest addition to the range, our Rose Veal salamis! We’ve gone and created a new meat-box that contains just our charcuterie, so if you’ve been looking at trying it out then this box is for you! Check it out here!

Finally, we’re delighted to share our huge win in the Delicious Magazine Food Awards! We won the Artisan From the Field category and had some really amazing feedback on our goat bacon! We’ve shared the article over on our Instagram stories if you want to have a look.

Food NI member Jawbox Gin has won its first business in France for its award-winning classic Belfast dry gin that includes among its botanical ingredients heather harvested from the slopes of the city’s Black Mountain.

The company, founded and managed by former publican Gerry White, has signed a distribution deal with CBH Drinks Marketing and Brand Development in Paris which will see its unique gin and its recently launched gin liqueurs on sale in hotels and bars in the French capital and other parts of the nation.

Jawbox is distilled in Co Down and has established itself as a  leading Irish small batch producer of premium gins.

Mr White, who founded Jawbox in 2016, the first gin to be developed in Belfast in more than century, commenting on the latest deal for the spirit, says: “We are thrilled to have CBH as our distribution partner in France. It’s a major international market that we’ve been targeting for some time and follows our most recent and highly successful launch in Sweden.

“We’ve been building our distribution network in Europe steadily over the past year and have a number of important agreements already in place to help accelerate the export sales of Jawbox and our new rhubarb and ginger and pineapple and ginger flavoured gins,” he adds.

CBH is market leader in France and is regarded as one of the best independent operators for launching super premium spirit brands and guaranteeing their marketing and sales development throughout France. The distribution business was established in 1997 to supply top hotels, restaurants and cocktail bars throughout France and Monaco.

Jawbox is planning an extensive programme of product samplings in Paris and other centres to support CBH.

The company has been developing business in the Britain and the Republic of Ireland successfully and is also now focused on export sales. The original Jawbox classic gin is already on sale in markets as diverse as Portugal and Australia.

A major drive is planned for Europe especially in France and the Netherlands and in the US, where the company aims to launch early this year. New bottles are being developed in line with US requirements.

16-31 January
Members’ Fortnight*
Guild of Fine Food members only can enter Great Taste ahead of the general entry and at the special discounted rate. Members’ Fortnight will end automatically at midnight on 31 January.

1-15 February
General entry – open to all
Entry for Great Taste is capped – Enter early to avoid disappointment. Entry will close when entry cap is reached or on 15 February, whichever is first.
Normal rate of entry applies to all.

March to mid-June
Delivery Instructions calling for products
Download notifications sent via email

18 March-7 June
Judging in London & Dorset

Late June
3-star products re-called for judging
10 July
3-star Judging Day

Early August

Results and Feedback

For more information  visit gff.co.uk/gta

Lakeland Dairies, which has significant investments in Northern Ireland especially at Newtownards and, most recently, in Coleraine with the acquisition of Ballyrashane Creamery as part of LacPatrick, is designed and built to create economic advantage for milk producers and shareholders, according to chief executive Michael Hanley.

Mr Hanley, in a New Year message, says Lakeland Dairies is continuing to work competitively and successfully to underpin the future of dairying throughout Northern Ireland.

“The investments we have made over the past decade have enhanced our capability and our efficiency where we are adding value to milk across the 240 different dairy products that we are exporting to over 80 countries worldwide.

“While the markets and dairying conditions in general tend to be volatile on a cyclical basis, our production and processing platform is built on the core principle of achieving and maintaining long term sustainability in the best interests of dairy farmers. Trading conditions remained broadly positive during the year with a softening of the markets apparent in recent months due to increased global dairy production.

“The prospects for dairy markets in 2019 are dependent on a balance of milk supply and demand in global markets,” Mr Hanley adds.

In October the shareholders of both Lakeland Dairies and LacPatrick Dairies voted resoundingly in favour of the merger of both societies – subject to regulatory approvals both in both the UK and in Ireland, which are normal and ongoing processes.

Mr Hanley continues: “The combined organisation will be an international dairy food business of scale which will work to secure the future of our co-operative dairy farmer members for generations to come. It will deliver commercial benefits while processing increased volumes of milk and it will provide even greater capability to address global customer needs for high quality dairy foodservice, food ingredients and consumer products. We already have existing, well established commercial and operational strengths across this island, in the UK, Europe and worldwide. The merger will also serve to strengthen our UK market access in the context of Brexit.

“Lakeland Dairies is well invested with modern facilities and technologies to process all milk sent to us by our milk producers. We are continuing to target strategic opportunities across key market segments including infant formulas, specialised ingredients, food manufacturing and health related nutritionals. We are fortunate to have excellent customers in every corner of the globe and all of these have long term demand for our dairy products. On several occasions each year, customers visit our sites and we also bring them to supplying farms where they are impressed by the high quality and commitment of our milk producers.  That includes over 140 customers from the Middle-East and Asia who visited our facilities in Northern Ireland in recent months.  We are confident of continuing success in these growing markets.”

In September, Princess Anne opened a new £5 million high-tech product packing facility for Lakeland Dairies in Newtownards. This further underpins our export potential and market access for valued-added dairy products using milk produced in Northern Ireland.  Newtownards is now Lakeland’s main export logistics hub.

The new facility enhances the capabilities of this major dairy processing site which plays a key role in Lakeland’s Foodservice Division. It is part of an overall £27 million investment made in Newtownards over the past 10 years. It also follows the opening in 2015 of a major new Global Logistics Centre in Newtownards which is among the most technically advanced global export facilities in Europe.

“A survey that we published during the year identified that 95 percent of Lakeland milk suppliers in Northern Ireland will stay in production for the future. In addition to farmers who have significantly grown their output, roughly half of Lakeland milk suppliers said they will further expand their milk production by over three percent in each year to 2022.  This is a very positive signal. We are intent on supporting the ambitions of our milk producers through our own innovation and efficiency and in the services provided by our agribusiness and member relations teams,” he adds.

 Our New Year’s Resolution – to move away from black plastic by St. Patrick’s Day 2019.

Mash Direct crack down on our use of plastic as we embark on our New Year’s resolutions for 2019 with a fresh green start.

Many people at this time of year will be looking to their greens for a fresh and healthy start to 2019.  On the farm here at Mash Direct, we have plenty of vegetables all year round and so we are committing to going green in another way that will go long beyond January – we will be removing all of our black packaging by St. Patrick’s Day.  This will remove over 240 tonnes of black packaging from the food system every year.

In addition to this, we will be extending our commitment to keeping all of our range palm oil free.

In 2018, we achieved our goal of eradicating palm oil from our products in light of the issues surrounding deforestation.  We reformulated the recipe of our Chilli Baby Bakes to remove palm oil and continue to enforce this rule across our new product development.  In 2019 we are aiming to remove all black plastic from our packaging by April, years ahead of the targets set by many major supermarkets.

Being the farm and the kitchen we are in a unique position as we have direct control over our entire range from farm to fork creating one of the most vertically integrated supply chains in the ready meal sector.

Our pledge is that we will move our vegetable side dishes to environmentally friendly trays which can be fully recycled as opposed to the previously used black trays. These cannot be sorted by the optical sorting systems used in plastics recycling and as a result, black plastic packaging commonly ends up as residue and is disposed of in landfill. By moving to fully recyclable trays we are improving Mash Direct’s environmental footprint as well as contributing to the long-term health and prosperity of the Food and Drink Sector.

At Mash Direct we have responded to the consumer requests for Vegan products which offer both environmental and health benefits. We have been carefully crafting the recipes in the kitchen to bring two new Vegan vegetable side dishes to market by July 2019 including Vegan Mashed Potato and Vegan Carrot & Swede.

Chief Operating Officer at Mash Direct, Jack Hamilton said, “With a new year, what a better time to start thinking about the healthier option for the planet.”