Derry’s Sippy Fest which takes place this weekend is a fitting showcase for local craft brewers and distillers during Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink 2016, the event organisers have said.

Speaking as the second annual Sippy Fest gets underway in the city’s historic Guildhall on Friday, November 25th and Saturday, November 26th, from 2pm-midnight, Connor Doherty said the two-day celebration promises to be yet another LegenDerry event for Ireland’s second top Foodie Destination.

Derry City and Strabane District Council is funding craft beer production demos at the event, through the Tier 2 programme for NI Year of Food and Drink 2016. These demos fit with the Tourism NI theme for November, which is ‘Legacy and Learn to …’ The craft beer demos will feature around 15 local brewers paired with artisan food producers.

Hundreds of craft beer aficionados are expected to attend the Sippy of Culture event to discuss, taste and sample many of the best traditionally produced local craft beers available in the region.

Connor Doherty, said: “We’re delighted to be coming back to the Guildhall for the second Sippy Fest. The event has grown from small beginnings to being a focal point for brewers and artisan producers from the North West and across Northern Ireland as well as Co Donegal. It’s a fantastic opportunity for festival-goers to meet brewers to learn the craft that goes into their products and also acts as a showcase for local musical talent and as a promotional vehicle for local companies.

“The event will bring together 15 brewers from across the North of Ireland, with a large cohort of those based here in the North West who are playing a key role in driving the city’s food tourism offer. As well as promoting the great work that companies in the city are doing, Sippy Fest also introduces customers to other regional suppliers and is a fitting showcase for NI Year of Food and Drink.”

A large range of craft beers will be available to sample as well as locally produced cider, whiskey, gin and vodka produced by companies including the city’s award-winning Walled City Brewery, Northbound Brewery, and Quiet Man Whiskey as well as leading craft brewers across the region.

Connor Doherty continued: “We want people to learn from the brewers directly at the event, most of whom have studied their craft for many years. The legacy of the event is to help change people’s perceptions of beer as a mass produced product and to showcase the tastes and flavours that are available to customers across Northern Ireland, produced from the best locally sourced ingredients, with brewers on hand to guide their choices and palates.”

Mary Blake, Tourism Development Manager with Derry City and Strabane District Council, said it was delighted to support Sippy of Culture which also helped to deliver the first ever Big Cheese and Beer Expo organised by Council in April 2016 which attracted 15,000 visitors to Guildhall Square as part of NI Year of Food and Drink’s ‘Brewing and Distilling’ month.

She continued: “Sippy Fest is now in its second year in the Guildhall and is led by a team which has developed strong links with the craft beer industry and suppliers across the region to deliver what we anticipate will be another hugely successful and positive event for the city.”

Catering will be provided by the Guild Café, who have devised a menu incorporating and complementing the beers and spirits on offer at the event which is expected to attract hundreds of visitors to the city during the weekend.
Sippy Fest is sponsored by Airporter, Quiet Man Whiskey, Doherty’s Meats and Urban Tonic Beard Oil. For further information including ticket prices, visit www.sippyfest.co.uk or its Facebook page, and to learn more about Derry City and Strabane District Council’s activities during NI Year of Food and Drink 2016, see www.derrystrabane.com/food

The always popular Christmas Market opened its doors in the grounds of Belfast City Hall at the weekend, and I hope Farm Week readers will take the opportunity to support the food and drink companies selling local food, made by local people, in the Year of Food and Drink section. You can easily find it, just outside the gates on the pavement opposite Robinson & Cleavers. If you’ve not had a chance to visit the market, I’d urge you to take this opportunity to see just what’s available from our innovative local producers.

FoodNI were delighted when the organisers invited us to involve local companies in this celebration of Year of Food and Drink. As a result, there will be a much stronger and more varied Northern Ireland presence this year. I’ve certainly enjoyed visiting what is a very colourful and fun event over the years. I am very confident that the engagement of local companies will continue to grow in the future and I hope it will become a strong attraction for foodies and tourists alike.

Several of our member companies, including Suki Tea and Melting Pot fudge, have taken part in previous Christmas markets and have enjoyed good business in the weeks running up to Christmas. Experience shows that it’s a market, now among the most popular in the UK, during which companies really do sell a lot of product…and to visitors from many parts of Northern Ireland and even from further afield.

Even more encouraging is the fact that this area has been supported by a number of councils also keen to show their support for local food companies, namely Ards and North Down, Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon, Newry Mourne and Down and Fermanagh and Omagh. Ulster Artisans has a chalet dedicated to artisanal producers. The support of Ulster Bank and TourismNI was also vital to make this new initiative work.

FoodNI are determined to grasp every opportunity to showcase the food and drink industry. Our engagement at the recent BBC Good Food Show at the splendid Waterfront Hall was another example of the strength of our commitment to provide a lead in marketing local companies. Indeed, I believe that Food NI has the experience and the expertise to play a pivotal role in carrying the standard for our superb food and drink to other markets.

Encouragingly many of our niche producers are enjoying increasingly success in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland. Some excellent recent examples of this development are our good friends at Abernethy Butter, who have just added The Ritz Hotel in London to their impressive list of high profile clients. Abernethy is a real trailblazer and probably the only smaller business from here to supply the famous hotel in London’s Piccadilly.

Mash Direct continues to build its rightful reputation in top awards in Britain, winning a UK Quality Award for one of its original side dishes and Best UK Manufacturer in the same week that Moy Park also won National Awards. Two local companies winning top awards in the UK is testament to our great industry.

Our participation at the Christmas market will be one of the final events in the Year of Food and Drink. There will be further initiatives in 2017 and beyond to carry forward the many achievements of the campaign particularly in Northern Ireland and abroad through the activities of TourismNI, Tourism Ireland and Invest Northern Ireland. There’s so much more that can be achieved in both the short and long term by further developing this important collaboration for such a vibrant, ambitious, innovative and enterprising industry.

Banagher Bold, a beer-washed cheese developed by Dart Mountain Cheese Company in Northern Ireland struck gold at the annual World Cheese Awards in San Sebastian in Spain’s Basque country.

The semi-hard cheese has been created by husband and wife team Kevin and Julie Hickey at their purpose-built creamery near Dungiven, a small rural town in county Derry. The handmade cheese uses milk from grass-fed herds in the rugged Sperrin Mountains and is washed in beer from Northbound, a craft brewery based nearby in Derry city.
Named after the parish in which the creamery is located, the cheese is washed in Northbound’s number 26 craft beer and uses the local Gaelic football team’s colours, the cheese is made from cow’s milk, washed in a local Derry craft beer, No. 26, and then aged for at least three months.

Kevin Hickey, commenting on the coveted award, says: “We are delighted and tremendously proud to have won a gold award at the World Cheese Awards, the world’s most important event in the cheese calendar for our unique Banagher Bold. Winning this award is a marvellous boost for our small business and should be hugely important as we expand our marketing operations for our range of cheeses and the new varieties we will be launching soon including Ballydonegan, a new smoked cheese.

“Banagher Bold and other cheeses are deeply rooted in the area in which we are based and from which we draw our milk. We wanted to create a beer washed cheese to provide a different flavour, and using a local craft brewery, Northbound, made sense. The brewery uses fresh water from a river near to use.”

The cheese, winner of a UK Great Taste Award earlier in the year, was the only winner from Northern Ireland in the World Cheese Awards held in San Sebastian by the UK Guild of Fine Foods and an integral part of the International Cheese Festival.

Now in its 29th year, the World Cheese Awards witnessed a record number of over 3,000 cheeses from across the world being judges representing Australia, the Basque Country, France, Mexico, South Africa, Spain, the USA and the UK.
John Farrand, managing director of the Guild of Fine Food, organisers of the World Cheese Awards, commented; “What an incredible way to cap off another record-breaking year for the World Cheese Awards. We were certainly in the presence of greatness, as nearly three decades’ worth of World Champion Cheeses took the stage in front of our audience of food professionals, cheese-makers, journalists, buyers and retailers.
The World Cheese Awards drew entries from 31 different countries this year, from Australia to Italy and Mexico to Mozambique.

The final judging panel, made up of top names from the world of cheese, featuring cheese makers, buyers, retailers and writers, including Suzy O’Regan from Woolworths Foods in South Africa, Cathy Strange from Whole Foods in the USA, Roland Barthélemy, President of Guilde des Fromagers in France, and Mary Quicke from Quicke’s in the UK, then debated the top 16 cheeses in front of a trade and consumer audience.
Dart Mountain Cheese Company was established in 2012 as part of Tamnagh Foods, a small business which also produces award-winning granolas.

To celebrate the November Year of Food & Drink theme of “Legacy & Learning to…” the multi-award winning Walled City Brewery are very proud to announce the launch of the first ever Homebrew Academy in Ireland!

In the past 5 years there has been an unprecedented shift in the national beer market away from large, multinational, macro beers to a vast array of locally crafted beers, offering the consumer better flavour, greater quality and provenance.

With that, the ancient craft of home-brewing is fizzing with popularity. Kitchens and garages all over the country have bubbling fermentations, with even President Obama brewing his very own White House Honey Ale!

Owner James Huey stated, “We’re incredibly excited about the launch of the Homebrew Academy at the Walled City Brewery and we’re amazed at the phenomenal rise in interest from people eager to brew their own beer! On graduating from the Homebrew Academy, each student will have the knowledge to brew amazing craft beers in their own homes and share it with friends and family. Or just keep it to themselves!”

Opening in January 2017, the Homebrew Academy will be an intensive one day boot-camp run by Masterbrewer James Huey at Ebrington Square, with each participant receiving a Graduation Certificate and a gallon of their very own brew!

Tickets and gift vouchers are available online now at www.walledcitybrewery.com/homebrew or in the Walled City Brewery during normal opening hours

Four of the country’s top chefs get creative to find our new dish

Tourism NI has tasked four of Northern Ireland’s top chefs to create three brand new locally-inspired dishes, one of which will be named as Northern Ireland’s New Signature Dish.

Northern Ireland’s New Signature Dish search is part of the Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink 2016 celebrations and the four creative minds taking part, referred to as the ‘cooking collective’, are Niall McKenna from James Street South in Belfast; Ian Orr from Browns Restaurant and Ardtara House in Derry~Londonderry; Kelan McMichael from Bull and Ram in Ballynahinch and Chris McGowan from Wine and Brine in Armagh.

They have the incredibly difficult task of coming up with three delicious finalist dishes, using only produce from Northern Ireland, explained Susie Brown, Director of Corporate Development at Tourism NI.

“We are very excited about the prospect of a new signature dish for Northern Ireland. Our firm favourites like stew and champ are so familiar to us all but we want to create a lasting food legacy as part of the Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink 2016 to live on long after the year-long celebration is over and that is what the Signature Dish is all about.

“Once we have our three finalist dishes, we will ask the public to vote online for which dish they think should be named Northern Ireland’s New Signature Dish,” commented Susie.

Very soon, everyone will be able to see a picture of the final three dishes, details of all the ingredients and information on how to vote for their favourite dish. Everyone who votes will automatically be entered into a prize draw to win some great prizes.

Susie continued: “We all have an opinion on food and have strong feelings when it comes to what we like and what we don’t like so our chefs are really brave in taking on this tasty challenge. Finding one dish that really shines above the other two may prove difficult but our ‘cooking collective’ are leaving the final decision to the public.”

The chefs are only allowed to use Northern Ireland produce and the dishes must all be new but other than that there are no rules.

The ‘cooking collective’ chefs, Niall, Chris, Ian and Kelan, said: “Our produce is the envy of the world with numerous awards and international recognition for hundreds of our food and drink producers. So choosing what ingredients to include is not an easy task for us but we’re up for the challenge.”

The Northern Ireland Year of Food and Drink 2016 has been a resounding success, bringing together many key industry partners working in collaboration to maximize the opportunity of showcasing key producers, chefs and restaurateurs. The process of finding Northern Ireland’s New Signature Dish is another chance to celebrate our food and drink and the people who make it, grow it and cook it.

Susie said: “At this point we have no idea what the three finalist dishes will be but we’d love to know what people across Northern Ireland think. I encourage everyone to get their creative juices flowing and send us in some suggestions via www.facebook.com/discovernorthernireland and www.twitter.com/DiscoverNI.

“The winning dish, as voted for by the public, will be announced at a special unveiling event in December – further details to come later this month. All of the ‘cooking collective’ chefs will be at the event and there will even be a cookery demo before the grand unveiling”, concluded Susie.

What will be Northern Ireland’s New Signature Dish? Let Tourism Northern Ireland know what you think by uploading your dish ideas online using #SignatureDishNI and #EnjoyNI16.

Naturally North Coast and Glens artisan markets will provide the perfect opportunity for Santa to finish off his Christmas shopping this year.

Three seasonal markets in Ballycastle, Ballymoney and Limavady will have a wide range of hand-crafted goods from local artists and designers, and the finest foodstuff from talented growers and food producers.

Market organiser Shauna McFall is thrilled to be touring the popular artisan event over the festive period. “Naturally North Coast and Glens is a fantastic food and craft event which provides the perfect platform for local producers to showcase their talents and products. The markets will be filled with festive cheer – with seasonal gifts, food and music. Coming along is a great opportunity to support local industry and get the very best gifts and food for Christmas. We look forward to welcoming visitors to the events.”

The Christmas tour of Naturally North Coast and Glens begins in the Marine Hotel, Ballycastle, on Sunday 27 November from 11am – 5pm. The next market takes place in Castlecroft Square, Ballymoney, on Friday 2 December from 11am – 3pm. The tour then concludes in Drumceatt Square, Limavady, on Friday 16 December from 11am – 4pm.

For more information you can find Naturally North Coast and Glens on Facebook or Twitter, or check out the website www.naturallynorthcoastandglens.co.uk.