Catherine McKeever of Long Meadow Cider in Loughgall was “thrilled and
immensely encouraged” when CIE Tours named the Armagh cider producer in
its prestigious annual Awards for Excellence last year.

Lough Meadow Cider is a multi-award-winning family business that grows its
own apples for a range of premium ciders and has also invested substantially in
guided tours of its orchards and processing operation at Loughgall. CIE and
other international and local tour operators now include Long Meadow in their
annual programmes in Northern Ireland.

Catherine continues: “We regularly host visitors from across the world and
especially from the US and Canada to our orchards and our unique Bramley
Barn event space on the farm. Tours of our orchards are now a very important
part of our business. We are always examining ways to make visits to our
facility a really fascinating experience.

“Events have included tour briefings, lunches, corporate meetings, comedy
nights, music sessions and even weddings! The treats for tour visitors include
our own apple tart and guidance on how to bake traditional Northern Irish soda
bread baked on a griddle,” adds Catherine.

The CIE awards celebrate the diversity and richness of experiences offered by
Irish tourism at its annual Awards of Excellence. The awards were first
launched in 1990 and are presented based on post-stay feedback received
from nearly 20,000 customers surveyed throughout 2022.  

Catherine runs the business with husband Pat, the experienced apple farmer,
son Peter and other members of the family. The small business, a FoodNI
member, has won a host of UK Great Taste Awards and Blas na hEireann
Awards for its premium ciders and juices.

Long Meadow supplies retailers across the island of Ireland and was most
recently included in Lidl’s Kickstart programme for smaller enterprises. The
Medium and Blossom Burst ciders will be on the shelves across 220 Lidl stores
from 19 th September 2024 while stocks last.

An artisan enterprise in Armagh has been named a ‘Global Honey Star’ in an
international festival in London.

Marshall Beekeeping, a small business owned and run by Christine Marshall,
30, in Markethill, won a gold medal and the Honey Star designation in the
International Honey Awards, a prestigious competition which drew entrants from
across the globe.

Christine, who started the business in 2019 on the family dairy farm, was
understandably delighted to have won international acclaim for her honey at the
event. “It’s marvellous recognition and endorsement of the quality and taste of
my honey,” she says.

“What the competition does is to inform honey-growers, honey producers,
beekeepers, processors, and retailers, who distribute their standardized
products legally, to preserve and ameliorate the quality of their branded
products by promoting the highest quality of honey products,” she adds.
A panel of expert judges sampled hundreds of different honeys from producers
in the Alps and countries such as Turkey, Cambodia, Greece, Britain and New
Zealand.

Christine bought her first two hives in June of 2019 and has continued to grow
hive numbers with the goal of growing sustainably over the coming years. Her
aim is to become Northern Ireland’s largest honey provider, making local honey
and beeswax products available to all. She also has hives at Tandragee and
Newtownhamilton in her developing network of over 50.

She also produces flavoured and hot honeys, the latter featuring chilli.
In 2022, she started selling beeswax candles, honey-infused chocolates, honey
tablet and fudge to a network of local shops, food markets and other producers
such as Dolci Delizie chocolates in Banbridge and Granny Shaw’s Fudge in
Ballymena.

She is keen to collaborate with other artisan producers. Christine’s honey, for
instance, is used in Symphonia Gin liqueur in Pomeroy.

It’s no secret that food here is second to none, with some of the best local
produce, including honey, a nutrient-packed superfood with far-reaching
benefits, particularly for those battling seasonal allergies.

Gourmet entrepreneur Kieran Sloan, owner of the renowned Sawers deli, has taken inspiration from the famed Belfast Black Taxis to create a tasty stacked sandwich for local and interational diners.

Aided by son Mark, who runs the deli’s popular kitchen and lunch menu, Kieran has collaborated with Alastair Bell of  the multi-award-winning Irish Black Butter sweet/savoury sauce from Portrush, a FoodNI member, in the unique Belfast Black Taxi, a stacked flatbread that’s proving an immensely popular new taste for the city.

The new flatbread sandwich is the latest in a series of quirky taste experiences created by Mark and his team of three at the famous deli,  a treasure store of local food and soft drinks which has become a magnet for locals and tourists.

Other taste delights include Belfast Buster, Belfast Melter and Belfast Alligator. The Alligator is made from Armagh BBQ beef, mature Irish cheddar, rocket salad, red onions, spicy chipotle sauce on a cheese and onion ciabatta bread.

“We like to come up with different tastes with colourful names from mostly locally sourced foods,” says Mark. “Our new Belfast Black Taxi, for example, is a flatbread from Yellor Door in Portadown that’s a double decker stack with pulled Armagh roast beef, local bacon, relish, jalapeno peppers, mature Irish cheddar on a bed of rocket and Irish Black Butter sauce, of course.It’s a mind blowing taste experience,” he adds. It’s certainly the most colourful and interesting of local lunch menus.

The deli,  a popular lunch venue,  offers a spectacular range of flatbreads, ciabattas, and hot wraps which many enjoy on the terrace outside the iconic deli, a winner of a host of food awards for innovation, or takeaway to savour at work or at home.

The kitchen and exotic menu is an outcome of Kieran’s extensive investment in the shop and customer services.

He decided to expand in response to a growth in demand for new food from changes in eating habits.

Several Food NI producer members have made it through a tough Dragon’s Den style pitching process to be listed in Lidl’s Kickstart programme.

They include Woodlab Distillery, Tyrone with their Symphonia Apple Gin; Green Fingers Family with their Energy Balls and Lecale Harvest’s Slow Cooked Confit/Sundried Tomato Tapenade from Down.

Bertie’s Bakery’s Protein Rolls will be on the shelves as will Blackfire Hot Sauces from Antrim and Cloughbane Farm Foods ready meals from Tyrone.

From Armagh, Long Meadow’s Irish Craft Cider and Armagh Cider Company’s Spiced Apple Punch have both made the cut.

The products will be on the shelves across 220 stores from 19^th September 2024 while stocks last.

The LCN Awards have once again crowned the brightest and the best in Northern Ireland hospitality,

On June 7 Belfast’s Crowne Plaza was the place to be for the biggest and best awards dinner to date, with those who have worked hardest and show the most innovation with their offering recognised for their endeavour.

A special congratulations to Sean Owens, the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at the event.

Food lovers here and abroad are set for a major boost from a significant investment
being undertaken by Peter Hannan, the award-winning meat entrepreneur, near
Moira in Co Down.

The owner of multi-award-winning Hannan Meats in the village, one of the UK and
Ireland’s most successful processors of premium meats, Peter is developing a
visionary artisan food hub for smaller producers that could mean a host of new foods
and greater availability of existing products here and abroad.

Peter has acquired the former Tannery bar/restaurant, a 10,000 square foot site with
surrounding land, outside the picturesque village and plans to convert it into state-of
the-art facilities for smaller food producers.

Already lined up for the development are Abernethy Butter and Ispini Charcuterie,
two award-winning artisan enterprises.

“We’ve exciting plans for the site that will assist the growth of our artisan sector that’s
been making a significant contribution locally and in Britain and the Republic,” says
Peter. “It’s a sector with immense potential in both short and long-terms,” he adds.
Peter acquired Abernethy Butter a couple of months ago on the retirement of
founders Will and Allison Abernethy and vowed to ramp up production of the unique
butter to meet the growing demand from restaurants, fine food retailers and bakeries
in Britain and broad.

His aims to make the luxury butter, launched in 2005 in Dromara, Co Down, by the
Abernethys, more widely available. He stepped in buy the business to ensure the
survival of the widely acclaimed butter that’s used by top chefs, food stylists
including Nigella Lawson and iconic London retailers Fortnum and Mason and
Harrod’s.

He’s also been working closely with Ispini owner Jonathan Cuddy to increase sales
of the award-winning cured meats. This has included a distribution agreement with
Craigavon’s Craic Foods, a small company Peter owns with chef Paul Clarke
producing relishes, chutneys and other products for chefs in particular. Some of the
products developed by Craic Foods may also be switched on completion of the new
food hub.