Page 395 – Food NI

Sharon’s Trip to Comber Farmers Market

Posted on March 6, 2015April 24, 2015

I’m ashamed to say that this morning was my first visit to Comber Farmers Market.

I went with the intention of grabbing some delicious vegetables from Horners on my way into work.

Heading into Comber village, the place was hiving, lots of activity happening. Parking was great…I was able to park behind the bus station. However, there is plenty of parking in the Square and behind SuperValu.

I had forgotten to bring along some cash. However, this superb location had an ATM outside Tesco.

The food market is tucked into St Mary’s car park – just follow the ladies with their trendy shopping bags and various wheeled trolleys!

The market is well arranged with plenty of variety.

Mangetout Deli was there with the most delicious Portuguese tarts, but the wild mushroom and truffle oil tart caught my eye. Franck Breteche is one very talented chef!

Everything here is “Made With Love”, especially Margaret Cooper’s new Raspberry and White Chocolate Jam in addition to her Berry and 70% Dark Chocolate Jam which is launching soon!

I met the lovely people at Go Yeast who are “Micro bakers” from Donaghadee. They specialise in using organic flour and their passion is for sourdough. I wanted to try their Multigrain Sourdough, cracked malted rye, oats and sunflower seeds and spices including coriander, fennel & caraway.

To go with my bread I picked up some delicious Young Culmore made by Christo Swanepoel from City Cheese who makes his cheese from Organic raw milk in Milisle.

Alison from the Old Post Office Lisbane was there with an array of baked goods, difficult to resist those tempting fifteens!

Susan brought along her new Burren Balsamic Blackberry & Thyme Balsamic Vinegar which was deliciously fruity with a hint of thyme. This product would be an excellent marinade for game.

Charlie from Broughgammon had his usual selection of Cabrito goat. He explained that at the Comber market, he likes to try out some new sausage varieties. So today he had some chorizo sausage and a veal breakfast sausage. These were definitely worth trying!

A lot of locals come to the market to try the very popular sticky toffee pudding by Linda DeVecchis from Sticky Toffee Puddings. As I was super early, I was the first customer to try the new “Guinness and Bushmill’s Pudding.”

This is what I love about local markets, you get to meet the people that make the produce and more often than not they offer you a sample to try to tempt you. With ingredients like this I needed no persuasion. I bought a family sized portion, but fear not if you only wanted a single portion, she makes them in a cute single serving.

For all the fans of Keen Nut Butter, the smooshers brought along their new flavours including Almond Crunchy Maple and Smooth Cashew. So very decadent!

Time was fast approaching for me to leave so I raced to Neary Nogs. Here, I purchased some Lemon and Green Tea Chocolate to sweeten up the fact that I was going to be late into the office. (This was a huge hit – I would recommend some for your co workers!)

Conniseurs Bakery was there if you needed to stock up on your potato bread and soda bread. They also had some delicious looking pancakes. The Local were also there with their locally made chutneys.

Last but not least was the man I came to the market to see, Garth Horner with his fabulous range of local vegetables. Garth’s family have been farming the land in the Comber area for years and the expertise shows in the quality of the vegetables. There is something wonderful about buying the dirty carrots & parsnips, smelling the earth that connects us all to the land that produces our food.

I love the fact that there is no packaging and you can buy exactly what you need.

As I headed into the office to do my days work, my experience at Comber Farmers Market was a gentle reminder of the people behind our food and how important it is to support them. This is my preferred way to shop, it just takes a bit of forward planning.

Comber market has so much to offer and if you have a bit of extra time on your hands make sure to pop into Sugarcane Bistro for a cup of Suki Tea…all this chatting, sampling and shopping is thirsty work!

Comber Market is on the first Thursday of every month. For further information please visit their website www.combermarket.co.uk

Baker by Trade and Food Writer by Coincidence

Posted on March 5, 2015January 27, 2016

Baker by trade and food writer by coincidence, Northern Irish storyteller Viola Dono is thrilled to be shortlisted in the finals of the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards in June 2015.

‘I was born and bred in a family whose politics was food and whose business was bakeries. The success of my Aunt’s fairy cake bakery, a Cousin’s potato bread factory and Great Aunt’s wedding cake business inspired me to start my own bakery too.

I perfected my craft at the feet of two of Northern Ireland’s greatest old school professional bakers, who took me under their wing in their retirement. They taught me how to make the best Paris buns, snowballs, barm bracks and pasties you could dream of, just like the ones Belfast’s Van Morrison reminisces about in his song ‘A Sense of Wonder’.

But it was my Dungannon born Mum’s boiled fruit cake recipe which really did it for me, and it was for these that we soon became known as one of Northern Ireland’s leading export bakeries. Demand soared for our Ulster boiled fruit cakes, until both day and evening shifts each week soon were dominated by baking for boiled cake orders, and we enlisted 5 other local bakeries to bake many of our other product lines for us.

Whilst compiling a bakery recipe book from almost 30 years of baking, I stumbled on some old family books which I had previously passed over in the headlong rush of a busy baker’s life. These books listed recipes from local people such as Florence Nightingale’s good friend Lady Whitla, Miss Porter from The Royal Arms Hotel in Omagh, Maria Bretland, wife of St. George’s Market architect Josiah Bretland, and Mary Anne Ewart of Ulster’s great linen merchant family. The extraordinary thing was that along with my own old family letters, poetry and recipe books, the books were all dated between the years 1904 and 1914. Their story took a life of its own, and I wrote it down in a series of letters between two young girls, based on events of the time, but disguising and fictionalising some of my own family details at the request of some close family members. It is categorised in the genres of cookbook and factional novella and includes over 80 recipes from the era, updated into metric and American cup measurements.’

The book has received international attention for Northern Ireland, being one of five Northern Ireland books in the Gourmand Cookbook Finalist Shortlist for 2014, and Viola is now through to the finals in the category of best food writer in the world in the Gourmand World Cookbook Award Finals in China on 9th June 2015.

‘Dreams & Recipes 1904 – 1914’ by Viola Dono is available to buy across the world on Amazon in paperback and also on Kindle.

‘I am deeply honoured to represent Northern Ireland in the category of best food writer in the finals of The Gourmand World Cookbook awards in June 2015. I am so proud of Northern Ireland’s rich heritage of baking, cooking and farming, and the wonderful products we create in our conscientious and hardworking food industry here. The recipes in my book tell us that good food is nothing new here; we weren’t just building the biggest ships in the world in the early 1900s! It’s time we all stopped being so modest and told the world more about our marvellous food.’

Find out more at www.recipeboffin.com

New Website for Comber Market

Posted on March 2, 2015

After months of preparation, Comber Farmer’s Market has a new website. www.combermarket.co.uk provides information about the traders who attend the market, the date when the market is on, advice for potential traders and contact details on how to get in touch with us.

Alderman Deborah Girvan who helps to run the market said, “The new website is another important milestone for Comber Farmers’ Market. As part of our funding application to the Big Lottery, we had included a budget for a website and had to have the money spent by the end of March. I am pleased to announce that we have finally got the website up and running and we are very pleased with the layout and design. It has been a lot of hard work and effort writing, proofing and gathering all the information and photographs. However, we now have a website that will let people know when the market is on and keep them up to date about what is happening at the market.

Award for Moy Park’s Focus on Innovative Products

Posted on February 27, 2015

Moy Park, the leading European poultry processor and Northern Ireland’s biggest company, has won recognition for its new products in the prestigious Meat and Poultry Awards.
Moy Park, Northern Ireland’s only £1 billion business took the Product Developer of the Year Award for its achievements in the creation of innovative poultry products. Moy Park, based at Craigavon in county Armagh, is now part of Marfrig of Brazil and exports poultry products worldwide. It employs over 6,000 people.
And there was an award too for Karro Food Group, Northern Ireland’s biggest pork processor, which has an operation at Cookstown in county Tyrone.
Andrew Irwin, plant manager of Karro’s Cookstown factory, was named Plant Manager of the Year in the awards, organised by Meat Trades Journal, the industry’s main trade journal.
Head judge Ed Bedington, editor of Meat Trades Journal, says: “The processing industry is a tough sector, and the companies within it face challenges on many fronts, from commercial pressures through to regulatory barriers.
“We’ve had some brilliant entries from a wide range of companies into this competition, and it’s always a great challenge for judges to select our finalists and, ultimately our winners.”

Northern Ireland Food Companies Shortlisted for Best in The World Cookbook Award

Posted on February 26, 2015

The great taste of home has been recognised in an amazing THREE categories at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. The categories are Best Digital Website in the World; Best Digital Food Institution in the World and Best Culinary Travel in the World. The nominations are for Food NI; a not for profit organisation which works to showcase Northern Ireland food and drink through a website, printed guides, Facebook, Twitter and events.

The Gourmand Awards celebrate global cookbook and wine book publishing and feature many world renowned food writers each year. This is the first year there has been a Northern Ireland section.

Each country will have category winners and then the Best Overall will be announced at a prizegiving ceremony in the Chinese wine region of Yantai in June.

Chairman of Food NI, John Best said “This is a great achievement for Northern Ireland’s food and drink to be now recognised globally and to be shortlisted in these awards is as good as it gets. We couldn’t do what we do without our members.

Our producers grow, rear and make the most fantastic ingredients for our chefs to cook with. And work tirelessly to spread the word that Our Food is So Good. They are constantly updating our website, Facebook and Twitter and of course, they talk to journalists and food writers every day. It’s wonderful to have that effort recognised”.

Abernethy Butter Only NI Company in Defra’s 50 Food Stars

Posted on February 25, 2015

Fifty of the UK’s most promising food and drink entrepreneurs are to be recognised as Food Stars for their contribution to the country’s growing economy.
The 50 Food Stars, carefully selected from hundreds of award-winning businesses, range from fiery Scotch bonnet pepper sauce makers in Scotland to chocolatiers using Indian spices in London.
Abernethy Butter, based in Dromara, Co. Down is the ONLY Northern Ireland company to make the list. Their range of hand-churned butters is on the shelves at Harrods and Fortnum and Masons. They are also used by Heston Blumenthal in his Fat Duck restaurant.
Leading figures in retail and food—including Justin King, former CEO of Sainsbury’s, and Dame Fiona Kendrick, CEO of Nestle UK and Ireland—will launch the Food Stars scheme on Thursday 26th February to help the winners grow their businesses and get more of their produce on supermarket shelves and dinner tables in the UK and across the world.
The first initiative of its kind, Food Stars is part of a wider government drive to inspire entrepreneurial activity across the UK as part of a long-term economic plan.
Following Thursday’s launch, where 50 of the Food Stars will attend master classes on topics from exporting through to social media, they will receive a package of continued support from the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) and Cranfield University over the next year. This includes a tailored information service and access to a range of events and development opportunities in agriculture and food, the environment, management and leadership.
Find out more about the Food Stars and join in the conversation on social media with #50FoodStars.