La Scala Coffee House is based in one of Northern Ireland’s newest historical visitor attractions – The Hill of The O’Neill and Ranfurly Arts and Visitor Centre. It’s already uber-popular with locals and was named in the Top 5 Cafes In Northern Ireland in 2015 (LCN Awards).
Created by the award-winning Tullylagan Country House Hotel, this ground-floor café has it all.
2015 saw a complete revamp in its food offering and La Scala is now a showcase of some of the best produce and food suppliers in Northern Ireland. All its breakfasts, salads and sandwiches are carefully hand crafted in house, while its scrummy scones, all butter shortbread and decadent homemade soups are all supplied daily by Tullylagan itself. With pies and quiches from Jolly Pies in Belfast, traybakes and sausage rolls by Simply Scrumptious in Ballymoney and stunning granola from Just Live A Little In Portaferry, every detail of La Scala’s food is personally sourced and prepared with provenance and passion (right down to an amazing little Kids Healthly Menu!)
Drinks include super fruit smoothies, a fabulous range of frappes and the coolest blended drinks about, and its ‘proper tea’, the loose leaf Belfast Brew by Suki Tea (plus another 7 caffeine free flavoured teas) and probably the best coffee selection in Dungannon. The highly trained barista team also make sure every coffee is simply ‘made right’ showing off the true Art of Good Coffee and its always served with a warm welcome and a big smile. (Plus Coming in 2016 is their Eco-Tastic Cafe In The Park located in Dungannon Park)
Opening Hours: Monday to Saturday 9am to 5pm
To help consumers identify fresh, locally grown Northway produce on shop shelves. Northway has developed the Northway grown fresh and local produce range. The Northway Grown logo has been created to represent a mark of superior quality local produce, to profile its local provenance and to assure both customers and consumers and that their Northway Grown produce has been grown, harvested and packed in a sustainable, traceable and ethical way. The range that currently consists of Strawberries and Mushrooms is already set to be rolled out onto a number of additional produce lines in the future.
The producer organisation Northway represents five local strawberry growers alongside its twenty-nine mushroom growers. Collectively they produce over 32,000 tonnes of local produce annually. Established to support the work and effort of local family farms by improving quality and efficiencies, shortening the supply chain and getting their produce direct to market quicker, Northway encourage a collaborative approach amongst members to help them achieve their collective and individual objectives for growth and to assist them in the continued production of world class local produce, as efficiently as possible.
Nurturing the Next Generation…Education is vitally important to the future success of Northway for local producers and for this reason, Northway has established the Fungi growing club. The programme is open to all primary schools in Northern Ireland, it adheres to Northern Ireland Curriculum and is innovative initiative aimed at facilitating and developing links between local business. It is Northway’s commitment to nurture the next generation of local business entrepreneurs by providing them with a better understanding of local business and hands on experience of developing their own mini enterprise through this fun, educational programme. To find out more, contact Elaine Shaw of Northway.
The Orr family really do know their potatoes. They have a third-generation family-run farm at Raffrey outside Ballygowan in County Down.
They plant around 200 acres every year. They rent land because put simply the soil gets tired if you grow potatoes on it year after year. Changing the land regularly ensures a better, disease-free crop.
They grow around 14 varieties including Comber early Home Guards and Accords. Starting the season with the famous Comber Earlies PGI using varieties such as Home Guard and Accord. Mid season favourites include Queens, Melody and Squire. Popular main crop varieties like Maris Piper and Navan and many old niche varieties such as Kerr’s Pinks, Arran Victory (Blues) and Dunbar Standards. William Orr and Son received a Gold Star in in the 2014 Great Taste Awards for their Arran Victory – ‘Balls of Flour’.
Admit it! How many times have you looked at a turnip and thought “Sod it. I can’t be bothered peeling and chopping that beast.” Mash Direct offer a healthy meal solution for time conscious consumers with no washing, peeling, steaming or mashing … no pots and pans to clean just the taste and texture of homemade food.
Mash Direct produce an innovative range of potato and vegetable accompaniments including traditional family favourites such as their award-winning mashed potato and contemporary recipes such as their new vegetable burgers.
Fifth generation farmer Martin, and his wife and business partner Tracy Hamilton had been successfully growing and selling vegetables for over twenty years before they diversified their wholesale farming business by adding value to their raw vegetables. They founded Mash Direct the award winning family food production enterprise in 2004.
Mash Direct select older heritage varieties for taste rather than appearance. The vegetables are steam cooked to retain nutrients and flavour, gently prepared and packaged on the farm. Mash Direct products are 100% gluten free, do not contain any artificial colourings or preservatives and are suitable for microwave and oven heating.
Roasted, mashed, in a stew. Carrots and parsnips provide that sweet earthy hit we all love. Brothers Mark and James McKee have been digging in these cute little roots for more than 30 years.
They know their Javelin F1s from their Autumn Kings.
The mild damp weather here is ideal for growing the best vegetables, so why waste time and money buying them from anywhere else? They can get them to you fresh from the field ready packed or loose.
We all know the best way to eat is seasonally, so that’s why you can only buy these beauties from July till April.
Dig In – Northern Irish carrots and parsnips, guaranteed.
Visit their website www.digin-ni.com to see where your carrots and parsnips are being grown and harvested!
We’re so proud of our Comber early potatoes. These little beauties have been granted European PGI status which puts them in the same league as Champagne and Parma Ham. Deservedly so! Robin and Ivan McKee of the Comber Potato Company were instrumental in getting this award.
They eat, sleep and breathe spuds. Every May and June they’re hard at work harvesting the early potatoes. The local microclimate means they’re protected from frost. Chefs are itching to get their hands on them. They usually harvest 300 tonnes.
The rest of the year they’re planting, digging and packing baby potatoes and Maris Pipers. 1500 tonnes, no less. After all that, their favourite food is still potatoes!
