Thank you to everyone who was involved in the Causeway Coast Chef Steering Day, especially to:

• Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council
• Islander Kelp
• Broughgammon Farm
• Ocho Tapas Bistro
• Morelli’s Ice Cream
• Broighter Gold Rapeseed Oil
• Corndale Farm
• Lacada Brewery

We started off our day on Rathlin Island foraging kelp with the Islander Kelp team.  We were shown the different kelp products including noodle cut, tagliatelle cut, salad cut, minced and whole leaf kelp and got to sample each type of kelp.

We then moved on to Broughgammon Farm in Ballycastle were we sampled some delicious goat meat tacos. We met the animals and heard the background stories of them all.  Broughgammon Farm have their own artisan on-site butchery, they run seasonal cookery classes and have a little farm shop selling excellent of Northern Irish and Irish produce.

For dinner we headed to Ocho Tapas Bistro in Portrush and were hosted by Trudy and Sean Brolly. We had some delicious seafood paella and sampled Broighter Gold’s new rapeseed oil flavours, as well as Corndale Farms new chorizo products and Lacadas new beers.

For the last stop of the journey, we went to Morelli’s in Portrush where we sampled some of their amazing new flavours introduced for summer.

Food NI would like to say a huge thank you to Causeway Coast and Glens Borough Council for their support and sponsorship of the Causeway Coast Chef Steer group day. This support made the day possible and is appreciated by all who attended the Chef Steer Group Day

Thank you to everyone who attended. Keep an eye on the Taste of Ulster newsletter for details on the next steering day.

You can find photos of the Chef Steering Day at: https://www.nigoodfood.com/gallery/north-coast-chef-steering-day-2018/

 

Primary school pupils have been learning how to make and sell a novel potato bread, one of Northern Ireland’s traditional craft breads, as part of a ‘Growing for the Future’ initiative to encourage children to grow and enjoy a healthy diet of fresh vegetables and fruit.

Assisted by award-winning bakery and deli, Yellow Door in Portadown, county Armagh, a Food NI member company,‘The Potato Bread Enterprise Challenge’ was developed as a result of the successful ‘Growing for the Future’ resource, an innovative collaboration between Northern Ireland’s Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) and Tourism NI. It’s also a legacy of Northern Ireland’s Year of Food and Drink in 2016.

The successful desk top food entrepreneurs came from McKinney Primary School in Dundrod, county Antrim with a novel sweet potato, bacon and chive potato bread.

Yellow Door owner and respected chef Simon Dougan assisted the pupils in the development of the new artisan bread. As well as creating the new potato bread, the pupils costed, priced and had the chance to sell it in the Yellow Door deli.

The initiative aims to connect children with local and seasonal food – how it is grown and produced – and also to encourage them to consider careers in the fast growing food and hospitality sectors.

The challenge was hosted by Yellow Door and supported by the Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment (CCEA) and Tourism NI. CCEA advises government on what should be taught and assessed in Northern Ireland’s schools and colleges.

Melanie Mulligan, CCEA’s Curriculum and Assessment Primary Education Manager, says: “Through CCEA’s partnership with Tourism NI, we were delighted to be able to bring education and the food industry together.  The ‘Growing for the Future’ resource, available for all schools, allows pupils to engage with issues such as food provenance and sustainability, which are huge issues both locally and across the world.

“The challenge is an extension of this work which culminated in the enterprise challenge intended to stimulate innovation and entrepreneurship amongst our primary school pupils,” she adds.

Carolyn Boyd, Industry Development Manager, Tourism NI, continues: “The ‘Growing for the Future’ project was grown from the seeds of the innovative gardener Jilly Dougan who has written ‘Sow, Grow, Munch’ to encourage primary school children to better understand food generally and growing food in particular.

“There is an amazing world of future opportunities in the agri-food, hospitality and tourism sectors in Northern Ireland. If we are to continue to attract global visitors then we need to encourage dynamic young people like we see today into our industry; there’s no better time to encourage an understanding and appreciation for real food, develop a palette and get interested in sustainable sourcing and cooking from scratch than in primary school.”

Yellow Door’s Jilly Dougan says: “We can see that there are emerging food entrepreneurs in primary schools. We were excited by the quality of their submissions and the level of thought that went into these. This is how food innovation works!”

Top Northern Ireland chef Simon Dougan of Yellow Door Bakery and Deli, working with the primary school pupils on developing the novel artisan bread. Also pictured is CCEA’s Melanie Mulligan.

 

Flavour First, the leading Northern Ireland producer of farm fresh vegetable boxes, has launched a five-strong range of ready to cook meal kits.

The new meal kits draw on the company’s successful experience in developing popular vegetable boxes from fresh, seasonal ingredients grown on the family farm, which is based near Donaghadee in county Down.

Behind the innovative meal kits are husband and wife team William and Leanne Donnan. They founded Flavour First in 2007 to develop delivered fresh to the door veggie boxes.

The couple now grow a wide range of seasonal vegetables on the 16-acre farm. They also produce seasonal fruits, especially strawberries, and provide free-range eggs from their own hens.

“What the new ready to cook range does is to add further value to our successful veggie boxes delivered to customers in the greater Belfast area as well as to many parts of county Down,” says Leanne Donnan. “The new boxes contain the fresh ingredients required to prepare tasty, home-cooked vegetarian meals,” she adds.

The ready to cook meal kits use ingredients from the family’s farm and are: Rainbow Chilli with Rice, North Indian Vegetable Curry, Vegetable Paella, One Pot Italian Pasta, and Asian Style Cauliflower Rice.

The new meal kits retail at £9.20 each or two for £15 and are all hand assembled and packed fresh to order on the farm along with the veggie boxes. Each pack includes a recipe card on how best to cook the dish.

“The new range blends fresh vegetables with the sort of global flavours that people have experienced in restaurants here and on their holidays,” she continues They are also in tune with the developing trend towards plant-based and flexitarian dishes.”

While the meals, created with the help of experienced nutritionist and educator Kim Close, are suitable for vegetarians, meat can be added if desired.

“The meals are bursting with freshness, wholesomeness and outstanding taste,” adds Mrs Donnan.

In addition to the fresh ingredients, the couple has focused on sustainability by using packaging that is either biodegradable or can be easily recycled.

“Living and working on a family farm means sustainability is in our DNA. We are committed to eliminating waste and preserving the environment now and in the future,” Mrs Donnan continues.

Mr Donnan has vast experience in farm management and in growing and producing vegetables especially for major supermarkets in Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Romania.

They have developed an e-commerce platform for ordering veggie boxes and ready to cook meal kits. Opportunities to grow the business further are also being explored.

Picture:  Leanne and William Donnan of Flavour First with two of the ready to eat meal kits they have developed