Author Archives: Keith

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September 28, 2010

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Great brands and producers

Iris, Pasta Coop in Italy (where else?!)


This business is featured in a blog post from Suma Foods – a wholesale wholefoods brand in the UK run as a workers co-op. From that post:

Situated in the beautiful ‘Oglio Sud’ National Park of northern Italy, Iris run their business on principles of respect for both people and the natural environment; the produce they grow is completely organic, their farm uses only green energy and Iris’ 40 members are employed under cooperative principles

They were founded in 1984 and also make own brand pasta for others such as Graig Farm. I cannot see a website to link you to for them.

Found it: http://www.irisbio.com/

keith

 

 

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September 26, 2010

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Events

Foodcamp – part of Savour Kilkenny Friday October 22nd

Foodcamp Italy

One of the pleasures of being involved in a particular sector or niche is learning from your peers. Participating in occasions where others are openly sharing their experiences, contacts and skills without thought of payback is really uplifting.

An event format called barcamp was spawned out of the technology sector in the US to deliver this in a structure that facilited it without stifling it. The key mechanism is the opening of all the speaking slots (with multiple streams happening simultaneously) to attendees who want to talk about/share something.

After over 20 very successful ***camp events  (covering everything from technology to general business topics – bizcamps) it is great to see one dedicated to the food sector happening.

You can check out the site here and if you have any questions just leave a comment – as one of the people involved I will happily answer them for you.

Also have a look at the ones which have happened or are happening elsewhere:

VinoCamp Paris – July 10th 2010

VinoCamp and CheeseCamps in Vancouver

FoodCamp Italy, Sept 13th 2008

Update:

Blogfest Italy Foodcamp. Sept 2010 (link to blog post on same)

FoodCamp 4, Amsterdam, March 2010

Foodcamp Dijon!, 7 November 2010. This one appears to be a very practical recipe/making camp

keith

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September 23, 2010

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Events, Great brands and producers

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Waterford Harvest Festival – Ireland (4)

Flahavans Oats


This is one of the bigger businesses to be featured here – and also one of the oldest. The 6th generation of the Flahavan family run this business and they produce a range of products derived from Irish Oats.

Sowan’s Organic


From this 1st generation business come a range of organic bread, gluten free bread and then cake mixes. I have tried the bread mixes and made a tasty loaf!

keith

Earlier posts in this series:

http://biabeag.posterous.com/waterford-harvest-festival-ireland-3

 http://biabeag.posterous.com/waterford-harvest-festival-ireland-2 

http://biabeag.posterous.com/waterford-harvest-festival-ireland

 

 

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September 22, 2010

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Great brands and producers

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New York Natural Kale Chips


Extact: The Rorschach allure of the dark, leafy shapes have you admiring the crisp kale chips before you nibble.  Amy Hamberry and Joe Orr make them by dehydrating kale in their Brooklyn plant, where some magic makes than taste fried. They come in three flavors: spicy miso, vegan cheese and..Bombay curry…

New York Naturals Kale Chips are sold at Columbus Natural Foods, Garden of Eden stores, Foragers in Dumbo, Brooklyn….

The full articles here, they look really tasty.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/22/dining/22kale.html?_r=1

Keith
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September 20, 2010

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video interviews

Food Curated – an amazing food video blog

http://www.youtube.com/v/50gC2YNFcCo?fs=1&hl=en_US

Liza de Guia does a wonderful series of mini food documentaries featuring the kind of producers who I love to see and hear.

Check out her youtube channel here and the main blog here. And also Liza on twitter if that is your thing.

keith

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September 20, 2010

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Great brands and producers, Packaging

Nudo Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Italy


The guys who are behind this have had one of my favourite websites for a couple of years in terms of the simple yet powerful language they use on it – started as an Adopt An Olive Tree business model!

Their design approach on the site and products is gorgeous – a great example of how to communicate the passion and core values of an artisan food brand.

I have never tasted the olive oils from the farm but would sure love to. You can purchase them from their site or if you are in the US from the Cube Marketplace as well.

keith

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September 20, 2010

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Events, Great brands and producers

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Waterford Harvest Festival – Ireland (3)

Goatsbridge Trout Farm


Mags Kirwan and her husband Ger run Goatsbridge Premium Irish Trout in Kilkenny, Ireland and they are currently building out an extension to their facility which Mags is keeping a photo diary of via her twitter account – http://twitter.com/goatsbridge

They are dedicated to good food and passionate advocates of anything and everything which supports that. That focus helped to win Mags the title of Female Entrepreneur of the Year last Friday in Waterford.

Cramers Grove Ice Cream


A number of the businesses featured in this series were started by farmers who needed to diversify and have done so by developing strong packaged food brands.

Nigel and Carol Harper produce ice cream and sorbets in batches from their family dairy darm and they have flavours such as Pina Colada, Rum & Raisin and Tiramis!

keith

Earlier posts in this series:

 http://biabeag.posterous.com/waterford-harvest-festival-ireland-2 

http://biabeag.posterous.com/waterford-harvest-festival-ireland

 

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September 17, 2010

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Packaging

The Flour Pot Bakery, design work by Sara Nicely

This bakery in Florida had its new packaging and menus redone by Sara Nicely. From her site:

“The bakery’s interior space is inviting and warm with natural lighting and eclectic funky displays advertising baked goods.
This identity system was designed to convey the unique and handmade qualities of the bakery.”

Check out the full post here.

keith

Thanks to @jkeyes for this one.

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September 17, 2010

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video interviews

Four Barrel Coffee, San Francisco

http://player.vimeo.com/video/8060683

Thanks to @jkeyes for the tip-off. This video homage is to Four Barrel Coffee, coffee roasters in San Fran.

As with many small scale coffee roasters they work directly with the growers of their beans to ensure they build up long term relationships instead of purchasing beans from the marketplace where commodity dealers rule,

keith

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September 14, 2010

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Events, Great brands and producers

Waterford Harvest Festival – Ireland (2)

Oldtown Hill Bakehouse


Chocolate is nice but bread is fundamental and a country without a network of local bakers is missing something. Because Ireland has stopped training craft bakers Oldtown is staffed with bakers from countries such as Poland.

Oldtown (Joy Moore, above with her daughter and her husband James) was started in 1999 and has developed a large range of breads which are sold within 75 miles of the bakery. A very recent addition is Dolly’s donuts (yummy):


Check out this brief TV clip of them. They do not have a website so cannot point you at one 😦

http://www.youtube.com/v/VZbTwapiTHs&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1

O’Donnells Crisps

This is a more recent product – 2010 in fact.

2 flavours -Mount Callan Cheese & Red Onion and Irish Cider Vinegar & Sea Salt (tangy and tasty). Cheese from Co Clare and Cider Vinegar using apples from Co Tipperary (where O’Donnells are based). This is how food should be produced.

Their website is here: http://www.odonnellscrisps.com/

UPDATE – there is now a listing for O’Donnell Crisps on the Irish Food Base: http://irishfoodbase.com/odonnell-crisps/

keith

My previous post from the Harvest Festival is here. The main website for the festival is here.