Author Archives: Keith

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February 23, 2014

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Events

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Meet the Brewers – 7th June 2014, 6pm

POSTPONED – 3rd June. Have had to pull the event due to low ticket sales – really sorry 😦

Keith

Timing
Date: Saturday 7th June 2014
Time: 6pm (sharp’ish) for 2 hours or thereabouts.

Venue: Highbank Orchard – http://www.highbankorchards.com. You will also be able to sample and buy from the wonderful range of Highbank Ciders – Proper, Medieval and Drivers.

Map showing entrance to Highbank – https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zFi7I69FJBfk.kkTe3qWzL_98

Link to buy tickets (only €8 to join us)

Who?

We will have Cuilan Loughnane from White Gypsy, Caroline Hennessy from 8 Degrees and Grainne Walsh, Metalman with us on the night.

Caroline Hennessy from 8 Degrees

Caroline has been to Kilkenny many times as she is a regular at Foodcamp which happens each year during Savour Kilkenny. She is the active external face of 8 Degrees and an advocate of food pairings and the subtle use of beer in cooking (as you can see below!).

 

Cuilan Loughnane from White Gypsy

I met Cuilan during a Taste Council event in Wicklow a couple of years ago and myself and Rod (from Highbank, our hosts) talked about how he wanted to grow hops locally and use them in his brewing. We will be exploring that some more on the 7th 🙂

Thanks to Guides.ie for the use of their shot of Cuilan above.

Grainne Walsh, Metalman

Again Grainne and Tim (her partner in Metalman) have been to Kilkenny regularly during Savour so you may already have bumped in to them. This Waterford based brewery have strong links to White Gypsy as Cuilan brewed their initial offerings while they were waiting for their brewery to be built. This co-operation and support between emerging competitors is one of the topics we will be exploring on the night.

Link to buy tickets (only €8 to join us)

Keith

Updated 18th May to add full speaker details.

Updated 4th April to add Metalman to the lineup.

Updated 30th March to add 8Degrees to the lineup.

Updated 2nd March to change it from Cider and Beer to Meet The Brewers. This is to acknowledge that the making process is completely different in both cases so the empathy across the panel and the sharing of knowledge and passions would not make as much sense as it should. We will have a dedicated cider makers event most likely in 2015

 

 

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February 23, 2014

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Events, Great brands and producers

Joe Fitzmaurice on starters, ovens and workshops #realbread

Been sitting on this & finally got around to a rough edit. Alec Taylor kindly shot some post event video at Meet The Bakers capturing Joe, Josephine and Declan chatting to the audience.

This piece is a couple of segments of Joe Fitzmaurice.

Enjoy 🙂

Next one up is Meet the Cheese Makers on 5th April.

Keith

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February 12, 2014

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Awards Winners, Events, Great brands and producers

Meet The Cheese Makers – Helen Finnegan

Helen is the local representative in this Meet The Cheese Makers event on 5th April and what a great one to have with her award winning goats cheese.

The extra special Ardkeen Stores in Waterford put up this video of Helen so thanks guys 🙂

 

More information and booking here.

Keith

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February 8, 2014

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Awards Winners, Events, Great brands and producers

Meet The Cheese Makers – Siobhan Ni Ghairbhith

Siobhan is one of the 3 cheese makers we will be chatting with on April 5th.

St Tola won the Supreme Champion award for Irish farmhouse cheeses at Bloom in June 2013 and in the video below shot on the day she shares the story of her cheese.

Keith

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February 2, 2014

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Awards Winners, Events, Great brands and producers

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Meet The Cheese Makers – April 5th @ 6pm

Next up is cheese. Obviously a strange one for me as I haven’t tasted cheese since 1990 but it is the food I miss the most 🙂

Timing
Date: Saturday 5th April 2014
Time: 6pm (sharp’ish) for 2 hours or thereabouts.

Venue: Highbank Orchard – http://www.highbankorchards.com. You will also be able to sample and buy from the wonderful range of Highbank Ciders – Proper, Medieval and Drivers.

Map showing entrance to Highbank – https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zFi7I69FJBfk.kkTe3qWzL_98

Link to buy tickets (only €5 to join us)

Who?

Meet The Cheese Makers Biabeag

From right to left:

Siobhan Ni Ghairbhith – St Tola: Irish Organic Goat Cheese, Co Clare
Siobhan’s approach to cheese is probably best captured in this piece from the McKennas “The cheeses can seem to taste entirely elemental, for Ms ni Ghairbhith uses organic methods, and doesn’t pasteurise her milk.”
Website http://www.st-tola.ie
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sainttola

Tom Burgess – Coolattin Cheddar: Mature Raw Milk Cheddar, Co Wicklow
Tom’s Mature Raw Milk Cheddar is a  a gourmet experience of aroma, texture & full flavour which develops slowly from sweet fruit to a full nutty note.

Website http://www.irishcheese.ie/members/coolattincheddar.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CoolattinCheddar

Helen Finnegan – Knockdrinna Cheese: Mature Raw Milk Cheddar, Co Kilkenny
Helen is a local hero and most recently her Knockdrinna Gold semi-hard goats cheese at the 2013 British Cheese Awards where it was named ‘Best Modern British’.

Website http://www.knockdrinna.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/knockdrinna

[Thanks to Aoife, TheDailySpud for permission to use her shot of Helen]

What happens on the night?
We will get to hear from each of our guests who will share their stories and passion for cheese with you, the audience, driving the questions and discussions. While we talk we will get to taste some samples of their award winning cheeses while their makers explain the subtle tastes of each one.

The makers will also have cheeses available to buy downstairs while you are enjoying the Highbank juices and ciders.

Curious about what the evening might be like? We had Meet The Bakers on 25th January

 

 

Its €5 to join us. Click here to book.

If you want to be sent an email when events are scheduled click here http://eepurl.com/JXUBj

Keith

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January 26, 2014

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Events, Great brands and producers

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Meet the Baker – fun and informative. Thank you.

Last night was fun. And really informative for us all. Declan, Joe and Josephine did a wonderful job of sharing the passions that drive them and educating the audience on the importance of real bread. And the taste – with samples constantly being cut and distributed :-).

Thanks to Alec Taylor for shooting this fixed camera video of the event so that a wider group can enjoy this event.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fIA91eA238c

Thanks to Ken McGuire for shooting some photos and allowing us to use them.

readbreal-15

readbreal-3

readbreal-28

 

Some thanks

To Sarah and Eleanor in The Littler Green Grocer, Ken McGuire and finally Padraic and Irene from The Gourmet Store who encouraged and advised me on this first event setup. Josephine’s breads are stocked in The Little Green Grocer and The Gourmet Store and Declan’s breads in The Gourmet Store on Fridays and Saturdays. 

 

Mick Burke who provided the stage which allowed everyone to see what was going on. To my brother David and friend Larry who helped on the night.

To the 60 of you who booked tickets and turned up last night – you made it great for the 3 bakers with your interest and questions 🙂

Finally thank you to Julie & Rod – my good friends and organic producers who made their wonderful premises available to us and did so much to make this event so wonderful.

Keith

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January 5, 2014

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Ethical Food, Funding, Startups

Snippets – US online speciality food and an Irish Organic sector challenge

These have been kicking around my inbox for a month or so now.

Mouth.com

They don’t aggregate products and pass fulfilment back to producers. And they have a lovely definition of their core focus:
“Included in the “indie food” category are artisan, small batch, handmade, organic, gluten-free and other packaged specialty foods that are “made by people not corporations, and typically involve a recipe,”

Screenshot 2014-01-05 12.32.38

I am liking that a lot. Funding in place, great design and strong core. Picked up via a piece in the Wall Street Journal.

Hope they succeed 🙂

An Open Letter to the Organic Movement in Ireland

Ollie Moore is someone I like a lot. A journalist and musician he juggles a lot of pies. And hats. At his core is organics and the importance of a healthy sector in Ireland. His post is about stagnancy and what can be done to overcome that.

Much more debate needed around this tbh.

Keith

 

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January 4, 2014

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25th January – Bread and Cheese?

Ailish from Knockdrinna Cheese Co very nicely contacted me to point out that they are running one of their cheese making courses on Saturday 25th January, the day of the first BiaBeag Meet The Makers events.

So for foodies this has the makings of a lovely day out.

Head to Stoneyford for 11am and enjoy being shown how to make cheese by Helen Finnegan (award winning cheese maker) , a cheese tasting lunch, teas & coffees.

helen 2

That finishes at 3pm and then you can hit town for a browse around some of our great independent food stores like:

Gourmet Store (Arbutus and Spelt Bakers)

Shortis Wongs (Spelt Bakers, Knockdrinna)

The Little Green Grocer (Spelt Bakers, Knockdrinna)

The Good Earth Health Store (Spelt Bakers)

and maybe grab a bite to eat in Zuni, Cafe Sol, Grapevine or Mugshot before coming out to the RealBread event at 6pm 🙂

Keith

 

 

 

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December 30, 2013

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Ethical Food, Events

A couple of #realbread videos – feel that passion

This one is from Declan Ryan of Arbutus Bakery. Taste, time and hard work overnight. You can meet Declan together with Joe and Josephine on 25th Jan on the grounds of Irelands biggest organic apple farm.

And this one is great – I came across it on youtube earlier today. Jack is well known in Killorglin apparently and carries the passion for real bread making going back a long which. Enjoy it!

Keith

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December 1, 2013

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Ethical Food, Events, Great brands and producers

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Meet the Bakers

This is up on a permanent page here.

Realbread Poster V3

First in a new series which I am experimenting with to see if there is interest. Starting with a series of foods which I personally enjoy – so thats bread, coffee, beer and chocolate.

keith