Jubilee Farm is welcoming you to be part of their community and join them at their first Supper Club on Saturday 27th April dedicated to local, sustainable pork. As NI’s first community owned farm, it promotes knowing where your food comes from, high-welfare, free-range and chemical free. A co- operative model based on community involvement, the heritage pigs raised at Jubilee Farm are sustainable and truly represent a short farm to fork journey.

Partnering with Hillmount House in Larne on the Causeway Coastal Route, a private Georgian residence, guests will receive the usual warm welcome as the are delighted in a culinary adventure in the modern barn for over 100 guests. Hillmount House launched their pop-up Supper Club dining
portfolio in Autumn 2023, supporting local chefs and restaurants to celebrate local NI food, with each night a sell-out success.

The trifold delivery of this exclusive event welcomes Chef Rob Curley of Slemish Market Supper Club, who has designed a menu to receive and enjoy pork in each course. An expert at pop-up dining experiences, for Chef Rob, the aim of the dishes on the menu is for each plate to tell a story. Every
ingredient is chosen to paint a picture in the diner’s mind and spark their imagination as well as their palate. Chef Rob Curley stated, “A Supper Club in its very nature invites you to trust the imagination
of the Chef whilst simultaneously enjoying high quality, fresh local food that is delicious. Our final course on the menu, a Hazelnut & Lard Cake with Rhubarb Compote, presented as ‘Bacon from Heaven’ may just be the lightest cake you will ever eat, we promise!”

These Little Piggies Went to Market pop-up dining Supper Club is taking place at Hillmount House, Larne on 27 th April at 7pm arrival. Tickets are £49pp with entertainment to follow dining. All bookings can be made by contacting enquiries@hillmounthouse.com

Portia Woods, Marketing Manager at Jubilee Farm commented, “It is of great pleasure we can work together in partnership with a local venue and local chef to deliver a story of high-welfare, sustainable food. Having grown up in a market town I relate fondly to the memory of farming heritage and sale of animals on market day. As well as being passionate about slow food I wanted to present a Supper Club that would ignite more conversation about food. I often wonder are many divorced from where real food comes from, our rural and farming heritage? That we just hear stories
of ‘market days’ or for some of us, from first-hand experience we are the lucky ones who can reminisce. On the evening of the Supper Club we will present a short story of ‘Market News’ and delight diners with a 6 course pork menu. The pork on the plate will be from the pasture-raised,
organic-fed pigs of Jubilee Farm where high-welfare care is a daily task of the farmer and volunteers.

There are many aspects of Jubilee Farm to relate to, from its conservation plan, regenerative farming principles, social care farming, community involvement, to how it operates day to day, providing citizens with access to traceable, ethical slow food.”

LOVE YOUR FOOD IS A BACK IN BELFAST on the 22^nd, 23^rd & 24^th March 2024 from 10am to 6pm each day.  The venue is TEC, Queens Road, Belfast.

The event covers everything foodie related and is a mix of exhibitors and attractions celebrating food and drink in Northern Ireland.

Attractions include live cooking demos in the Kitchen Theatre with resident chef, Jack O’Keeffe and six young NI finalists from the Springboard Futurechef competition. There will be opportunities to sample and hear from exhibitors at The Producers’ Table.  Enjoy a mix of hot and cold treats from local food vans and stands displaying and selling products from across Northern Ireland.

Admission is free – register for tickets here – www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/680045332897/?discount=NIGOODFOOD

Explore attractions and exhibitors here –  https://loveyourfood.show/

Limavady cured meat specialist Corndale Farm Free Range Charcuterie, a FoodNI member, is celebrating substantial new business that will enhance its market positions in Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.

New business for a range of charcuterie in Britain follows an approach from Cress Company, a major food distribution operation that’s based at Dunfermline in Fife and also supplies delis and grocery stores in other parts of Britain.

Alastair Crown, the founder and managing director of Corndale Farm, Northern Ireland’s first locally-owned producer of chorizo and salami, continues: “Cress approached us late last year. They were aware of our products as we had won a string of awards at the Scottish Retail Food and Drink Awards and also knew about our three-star Great Taste Award for our chorizo picante. 

“They were keen to have us listed in their new March catalogue. After negotiations and supplying information we are now listed. They are taking our full range including the new Ndola Ketchup. First orders have gone out this week,” adds Alastair.

Formed in 2004, Cress distributes ambient and chilled speciality, artisan foods across the UK using its own fleet of vehicles, supplying a range of independent retail customers including delis, cafés, farm shops, garden centres, butchers, fishmongers, bars and hotels.

In addition to supplying retailers throughout Scotland, Cress has additional depots in Leighton Buzzard, Malty, Telford and Bristol and now offers national distribution. It is a regular participant in major food exhibitions across the UK.

Corndale is also now listed with Artisan Food Club (AFC) in Britain, another major supplier of artisan foods.  “We have been providing charcuterie to the club for delis, farm shops and other food stores them since January,” Alastair says.

“Business is good with farm shops and delis across Britain especially in England. AFC’s Marcus Carter had been in contact with us. We subsequently met at the big Farm Shop and Deli Show in Birmingham last year and got the ball rolling to begin supplying the club with our extensive portfolio of cured meats.

“It’s great to now have increased our offering and market share significantly in Britain. We started slowly last year with the likes of Selfridges and a few other independent retailers there. Now it’s great to roll it out to the likes of Cress Co and AFC to manage our distribution and help us to increase sales, adds Alastair.

Corndale Farm has also been listed with The Traditional Cheese Company in Dublin this week. The cheese company supplies fine food stores, farm shops, delis and independent retailers, such as Donnybrook Fayre, across the Republic of Ireland.

“We supplied them with some product at Christmas under the Dunnes Simply Better brand that was being included in the popular chef Nevin Maguire’s hamper for the stores, Ireland’s biggest grocer. We supplied our Irish chorizo, and they were impressed with the product and wanted to add the Corndale branded products to their range.

“They are listing four of our products – chorizo, fennel salami, garlic and black pepper salami and nudja. As a result, the Republic of Ireland is now a very important and growing market for us. While we already do encouraging business there, I feel there is still plenty of room for growth.

“We enjoyed a clean sweep of gold, silver and bronze at the Blas na hEireann Awards in Dingle, Co Kerry last year.  It is important, therefore, for us to stay in front as Ireland’s premium charcuterie brand,” adds Alastair.

Based on a family farm outside Limavady, Alastair has shaped his multi-award-winning chorizo, fennel salamis and other cured meats using pork from his own free range herd of saddleback pigs.

Alastair formed the charcuterie business in 2012 from his passion for chorizo during his student days in Scotland, pioneering the free range chorizo a year later.

The chorizo proved so popular with chefs and leading delis in Northern Ireland that developing free range salamis and other meats made good business sense. Chefs appreciated being able to access the meats here.

The pork comes from the pedigree pigs which are free to graze the fertile farmland around his small holding outside the Co Derry market town. The meats are processed nearby in a modern and approved factory unit.

He began developing his own charcuterie because of a long-term interest in the spicy sausages and also because he believed there was an opportunity in the local marketplace for a producer of cured meats.

Support our local bakeries at Easter

March is a busy month with Mother’s Day, St Patricks Day and Easter all falling close together. The inevitable hot cross buns have started appearing in the supermarkets, a sure sign that Easter is just around the corner. Easter eggs have been on the shelves for some time and there is a little bit of Spring appearing in the hedgerows. I wonder how the Comber Early potato planting is going?

I do enjoy a traditional hot cross bun from one of our local bakeries, and we are really fortunate to have a number of fine bakeries, both large and small, in our substantial membership.

I am always keen to encourage support for local shops and in particular local bakeries because of their focus on quality, innovation and service. Many have won UK Great Taste and Blas na hEireann, Irish National Food awards for their commitment to excellence in everything they do and their outstanding taste.

We are extremely fortunate in Northern Ireland to have maintained an infrastructure of good bakeries that are locally-owned and quick to respond to the tastes of local customers, as is evident in the growth of speciality sour dough bread in recent years. I am still a big fan of Nutty Krust, wheaten, Veda and our traditional breads, particularly wheaten farls, none of those seem to last long in our house.

I hope they are all able to continue to do so in the years ahead. Times are challenging for them as they grapple with energy and other costs and also from the cost-of-living crisis among consumers. They deserve our support. They are helping to keep Northern Ireland’s great baking traditions and products alive and well.

As well as traditional wheaten loaves, potato, soda, pancakes and treacle breads we are also outstanding at producing sausage rolls, barmbracks, fruit and cherry scones all fresh from the griddle and oven. Where else would you find a ‘donkey’s lug’ coconut coated finger or a fruit square, a slice of tipsy cake or an infamous monster fifteen?  Even Derry has a bakery famous for cream horns, as was epitomised in the episode in Derry Girls where Granda Joe was spotted with a cream horn on the way to see a female friend. Our high streets in cities, towns and villages need the rich aroma wafting from a local bakery, and our bakery traditions are an important part of our culinary culture.

FoodNI has played its part in keeping traditions alive through our involvement of the Tiptree World Bread Awards and especially our support for the Irish Wheaten Bread and Potato Bread categories over the years.

It is interesting to see what the big supermarkets have done to turn the hot cross bun into a mass-produced seasonal commodity by pairing it with cheeses and now chutney and various types of chilli, a really hot bun. There’s chocolate chip, triple chocolate, banoffee, orange marmalade buns, apple and cinnamon, lemon and blueberry. There are gluten free hot cross buns too.

While I’ve never been one to stand in the way of new product development – and bakery is among the most innovative food sectors, I yearn for some traditional tastes such as the hot cross bun, lightly toasted with some local butter and maybe some local lemon curd. I love the gentle aroma of the cinnamon and mixed spice.

Hot cross buns, of course, have been synonymous with Easter since they first appeared in 12th century England. Hot cross buns, I understand pre-date Christianity, with their origins in paganism. Ancient Egyptians used small round breads topped with crosses to celebrate the gods. Later the Greeks used them to mark the change of the season Here we are, thousands of years later still enjoying them, the buns have certainly come a long way since those days but nothing beats sharing them with family or friends over a cup of tea. 

The multi award winning hotel has retained the title of Northern Ireland’s Leading Hotel for the seventh year in a row

Since opening its doors in 2017, Titanic Hotel Belfast, located on Belfast’s Maritime Mile, has been named Northern Ireland’s Leading Hotel every year by the World Travel Awards. The prestigious award for 2024 was announced to the world’s largest gathering of international tourism professionals at the World Travel Awards Europe Gala Ceremony in Berlin.

The World Travel Awards, renowned for recognising excellence across all sectors of the tourism and hospitality industry, has honoured Titanic Hotel Belfast for the seventh consecutive year, celebrating its unwavering commitment to providing exceptional service, unparalleled luxury, and a memorable guest experience in an incredibly unique building steeped in history and heritage.

Adrian McNally, General Manager of Titanic Hotel Belfast, said: “I am humbled by the news that Titanic Hotel Belfast has been named Northern Ireland’s Leading Hotel at the World Travel Awards for seven years in a row. As custodians of this magnificent building I firmly believe that it’s an honour for our staff to be entrusted with showcasing and promoting this one of a kind hotel in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter.

“Words like unrivalled and unique are so often used to describe tourism destinations but we can truly say with hand on heart that there is no other hotel that can compete with what we have on offer at Titanic Hotel Belfast in Northern Ireland and therefore this award is extremely fitting. With this seventh consecutive win, Titanic Hotel Belfast solidifies its position as an unrivalled leader in Northern Ireland’s hospitality landscape, setting a benchmark for excellence that inspires and motivates industry peers worldwide.

“It’s a much loved wedding destination, the accommodation choice of world leaders, the perfect place for families who wish to celebrate milestones in stunning surroundings and for business leaders seeking to close the deal in privacy. From the exquisite Drawing Offices to the award winning Wolff Grill restaurant, domestic and international guests are enthralled by their experience of Northern Ireland’s Leading hotel – the jewel on Maritime Mile.”

Titanic Hotel Belfast opened its doors in 2017 having been lovingly restored to its former glory. Boasting 119 nautical themed rooms and the Drawing Offices where RMS Titanic was designed, the hotel delivers unparalleled comfort and sophistication. It embodies the spirit of Belfast’s rich shipbuilding heritage nestled under the Harland & Wolff cranes, offering guests an unforgettable experience.

To make a reservation, please visit www.titanichotelbelfast.com and follow Titanic Hotel Belfast on social media.

Gilfresh Produce, the leading vegetable growers and producers based in Co. Armagh, are delighted to have secured listings for over 20 new lines in Iceland Foods Northern Ireland stores.

The exciting new launch will offer Iceland Foods Northern Ireland customers access to the highest quality, freshest vegetables which are all grown locally in the farming season.

Gilfresh Produce is a long-established family business, which was first established in 1965 by Thomas Gilpin, who started off growing vegetables in a 4-acre field at the Gilpin’s family home.

The business has grown from strength to strength ever since then and has firmly established itself as one of the leading vegetable growers and suppliers on the island of Ireland.

The lines, which Gilfresh Produce will supply to thirty-seven Iceland Foods Northern Ireland stores, include a range of whole head vegetables, such as carrots, spring onions, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, mushrooms, leeks and strawberries. Gilfresh will also supply a number of lines from the Gilfresh Produce Prepared Vegetable range including Oriental Stir-Fry, Broccoli
Florets, Shredded Cabbage, Cut Soup Veg, Broccoli, Cauliflower and Carrot Mix and Carrot Batons.

Iceland Foods Northern Ireland is proud to support local suppliers and farmers, with over 400 locally produced lines offered in-store and online. Sarah McDonald, Head of Buying for Iceland Foods Northern Ireland, commented: “We are thrilled to have Gilfresh Produce as our newest
business partner. They are a long established, successful company who have been present in Northern Ireland coming up to 60 years. They are trusted experts in their field and continue to thrive through ongoing innovation and development. We are excited for this collaboration which
will elevate the produce category in our stores with fresh, first-class quality vegetables delighting our customers! We are positive this is the beginning of a long and successful partnership, which will bring our total local supplier base to over 35.”

Both Iceland Foods Northern Ireland and Gilfresh Produce are hugely passionate about caring for the environment and reducing their carbon footprint. Gilfresh Produce have implemented a number of initiatives in recent years to reduce their impact on the environment, including the
installation of an anaerobic digester plant and a wind turbine on site to power their factory using renewable energy. It doesn’t get much greener than that!

Caroline Dalzell, Head of Sales, Marketing & NPD for Gilfresh Produce commented, “We are delighted to have secured these new listings with Iceland and are really looking forward to supplying their stores with a wide range of lines from our range of locally produced vegetables.
We are thrilled to be working with the team at Iceland and will take great pride in ensuring that we supply the freshest, quality products for their customers to enjoy.”

The new range will be available in all Iceland Foods Northern Ireland stores from Tuesday, 12th March 2024.