This blogpost is a collaboration inspired by collaborators – put together by Paul O’Mahony it was written by a number of foodie bloggers/twitterers (of whom I was one) who were invilted to this event and is being published across each of our blogs.

UPDATE 28 Nov ’10 – have edited this down as you can see the full post here. Do take the time to read the full post from each of the contributors.

Keith

Tipperary Food Producers produced an exciting event that showcased their work in Clonmel Park Hotel on Wednesday 10 November 2010. A panel of social media users was specially invited to do their best – communicate with the wider world via Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogs – the new media…Afterwards the Twitter Panel collaborated to publish this blogpost.

We hope you love it & the great work of the Tipperary Food Producers Network.

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Pat Whelan, “Pat Whelan Butcher” says

A Taste of Good Food

For anyone interested in local food, the Clonmel Park Hotel was the place to be last Wednesday night for the Tipperary Food Producers Christmas Extravaganza. It turned out to be a fun evening with things to taste, things to eat and plenty of artisan products to buy.

The food demonstration went really well with Bord Bia’s Sile Kelly rustling up tasty and quick family meals that anyone could conjure over Christmas without having to spend hours in the kitchen. Bord Bia is very aware of the budgetary implications for everyone these days and so it was no surprise that all the dishes prepared were very economical.

Sarah Baker from Cloughjordan Cookery School was a huge hit when she prepared a fantastic black pudding and bacon salad that could be used as a starter or a main course. Obviously all the ingredients were local; Inch House black pudding and Crowe’s farm bacon.

For me one of the highlights of the evening was the presence of Jane Boyce, Master of Wine.

Thanks to Gary Gubbins of Red Nose Wine there was huge added value to the evening as Jane matched each dish prepared with an appropriate wine….

Whether you were at the event or not, Gary Gubbins of Red Nose Wines in Clonmel would be very helpful if you need advice.

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Finally the icing on the cake for me came with a delightful footnote from Bord Bia’s Sile Kelly. Just fresh from the highly regarded Listowel Food Fest, to my delight Sile announced that my book, “An Irish Butcher Shop“, had won second prize at the event for food writing. I was absolutely thrilled and even more delighted when I found out that I was only beaten by Darina Allen’s latest offering “Forgotten Food“. To be in the company of such esteemed cook book royalty makes for a very nice feeling indeed. All in all it was a great Tipperary food week. I welcome your feedback to pat@jwb.ie

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Yvonne Carty, Hey Pesto, says…

Twitter Power!

I may have been labelled a ’social media whore’ by certain people, but I will admit that while I wholeheartedly embrace Facebook I lingered in the ‘tweetlight’ for a long time. But no longer. I am now a fully paid member of the Twitter community – I have made new friends; sourced suppliers: attended ‘twinnerparties’: participated in cookalongs and even lost weight on a ‘twiet’!

And all this must not have gone unnoticed as recently I was invited to take part in Ireland’s first Food Twitter Panel by the powerhouse that is Pat Whelan.

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Oh and I also learned about Audioboo – to be further investigated

Tweeting away

We were matched in our efforts by the TY students on #foodconnect program who are spending time with the various producers learning where and how the food is produced.

And then all of a sudden it was over! 400 people came to the event and between the panel I imagine at least 4,000 attended it virtually.

My only complaint – I never got to see, never mind taste, the dessert canapés!

If you haven’t entered the Twitterverse – do!

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Keith Bohanna of BiaBeag.com says

I love artisan food producers and am very happy to share that passion with anyone who will listen over on www.biabeag.com. On my recent outing to the brilliant night organised by Tipperary Food Producers I decided to take a back seat and (for my first time) shoot some short video interviews with a couple of the producers and with Gary Gubbins, one of the active members of the group.

Thanks to each of them for being so facilitating.

…

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Caroline, Bibliocook: All About Food says …

Local food: Tipperary Food Producers

It was all about buying local at last night’s Tipperary Food Producers Cookery Extravaganza in Clonmel. Tipperary produce – local cheese, preserves, meat and fruit – was used for the elegant nibbles on offer at the start of the night, during the cookery demonstrations and for the rapidly hoovered up deserts which finished off the evening.

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Well done to the Tipperary Food Producers Network for putting such a great event together and thanks to Pat Whelan (check out his book here) at James Whelan Butchers for the invitation to participate.

Buy local? With food this good, the only question is why wouldn’t you

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Gary Gubbins, RedNoseWines says…

Oh what a night!

What a night was had on November 10th in the Clonmel Park Hotel. Nearly 500 food ( and wine ) lovers descended on Tipperary in a great show of support for local food and local business. Myself and Con Traas of the Apple Farm could not pour the wine and juices quickly enough as the crowds were three deep at the bar.

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The Tipperary Food Producers were genuinely humbled by the support from the public and we hope to build and improve on this going forward. Thanks to the Bloggers and Twitterati for their hard work.

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Susan Clooney writes…

Christmas Cookery Extravaganza

On the 10^th of November last the Tipperary Food Producers’ Network, in association with An Bord Bia, provided an evening of artisan food displays, tastings and cookery demonstrations at the Clonmel Park Hotel. I was lucky enough to receive an invitation to form a Twitter panel with several others on the evening, an offer I couldn’t resist having a genuine interest in local products, especially those of the edible variety.

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Pat Whelan (of James Whelan Butchers in Clonmel), the Chairman of the Tipperary Food Producers’ Network, spoke about the Food Connect programme that links transition year students in eleven schools across North and South Tipperary with food producers in the community. Some of the students, many of whom tweeted from the hotel that evening, were followed by RTE’s ‘Ear to the Ground’ for the week, as they worked with various producers and gained a valuable insight into business operations. Ear to the Ground also filmed the Cookery Extravaganza and we can look forward to seeing coverage on our screens very soon.

When the cookery demonstrations were over people mingled in the foyer enjoying canapés and wine, all provided by the Tipperary Food Producers’ Network. The feedback to the event was similar from everyone. They’d enjoyed the evening, were armed with recipe ideas and booklets for Christmas, and were more aware of the excellent choice in good, fresh, wholesome produce available on their own doorstep. For more information on Tipperary Food Producers, what they do, and other events, just log onto: http://www.tipperaryfoodproducers.com/

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Derry O’Donnell, publisher of Life & Fitness says…

It’s not often that you have something to look forward to in November. Generally it’s batten down the hatches and hold tight for Christmas. However, this year was different. Last Wednesday, 10^th November, The Tipperary Food Producers held a Christmas Cooking Extravaganza in The Clonmel Park Hotel, Clonmel. The weeks leading up to it were filled with anticipation. I was receiving press releases about the event and Twitter was alive with talk amongst foodies and folk living in Tipperary.

About a week or so before the night I received an invite from Pat Whelan of James Whelan Butchers to participate in a Twitter Panel whose job it was to tweet about the event on the night. Wow, I thought to myself, generally twitter distracts me from my job. At this, tweeting IS my job.

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I was speaking to Mags Bergin of Mags Home Baking when it transpired that we have spoken on the phone several times over the years but had never met before. This was due to her husband Pat, who runs a successful picture framing business in Nenagh. A slice of her bread with some Cooleeney cheese is simply divine.

It was truly wonderful to be part of such a positive night. A dark November night that brought a capacity crowd of around 500 people to celebrate what Tipperary has to offer.

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Mag Kirwan (@goatsbridge) says…

I spent an absolutely fantastic evening g at the Food Extravaganza in Clonmel last week. As you can see from the panel (photo above) I was in very good company indeed.

The idea was very novel and I think it was a great way to communicate to the outside world the great work being done in Tipperary to promote the local artisan food movement.

From my point of view I think it was a good opportunity to meet some of the food producers I have learned to admire over the last few years and I also think it is very important to share ideas and hopefully work closely with them in the future.

Hats off to all involved but make no mistake we in Kilkenny will be back next year for the all-Ireland hurling final. They have started on their diet of trout already!!

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Michael Clarke, ClonmelInfo, says …

Christmas Cookery Extravaganza 2010

I have just attended the Christmas Food Extravaganza at the Clonmel Park Hotel and I must say it was a pleasure to be there.

As we entered the Hotel the crowd of people, I believe 500 in total were sampling various foods and drinks from the Tipperary Food Producers Stalls

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Overall the night was fantastic, it is great to see such variety of food and more to the point sourced right here in Tipperary. The quality of cooking was, let just say mouthwatering and leave it at that.

Congratulations to Pat Whelan and all at Tipperary Food Producers for organising the event, may it be the first of many.

And to my fellow tweeters well done on a good nights tweeting @ #tippfood

@Bibliocook @Derryo @brianpcleary @Queenofpots @keithbohanna @goatsbridge @omaniblog @anygivenfood @rogeroverall

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Roger Overall writes…

There I was, sitting at the back of a hall filled with 500 people, mostly housewives it seemed to me, watching cookery demonstrations at the “Food Extravaganza” organized by the Tipperary Food Producers Network. I was in one of the special seats, those reserved for the select few: the twitterati who had been invited to tweet live from the event.

What on Earth was I doing there?

Why would I travel over an hour on a wet Tuesday evening to tweet for several hours about a food event in Clonmel without any obvious compensation? Sure, it was an ego-massage to be invited, but did I seriously have nothing better to do with my evening than bother my twitter followers with a string of tweets about a food event?

Why indeed?

The short answer is: relationships.

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Additional benefits? It flushed out the foodies among my own followers on Twitter, providing us with yet another basis on which to deepen our relationships. And I met a whole new group of interesting tweeters to follow.

Besides, there was some very tasty food on offer.

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Paul O’Mahony (@omaniblog) MarketingWriteNow says…

It was a flattering surprise to get an invite from Pat Whelan. I hadn’t a clue who he was, his business, reputation, connections… anything. But the fact that a stranger took the trouble to invite me to an intriguing event in Clonmel whetted my appitite.

The thing that turned me on most of all was the link between food producers of Tipperary & the coming generation. Young people learning about food production, food presentation & the marketing of Tipperary thru new media was the clincher for me.

It pushed all my buttons.

I did all due diligence: found out lots about the butcher-on-line. It was great that I already knew Susan Cloonan (@queenofpots). But it was wonderful to find myself in the companyof so many new people who are so active on social media.

Yes – the heroes of the event were Tipperary Food Producers Network. The buzz they attracted was marvellous. But without the connection to the Transition Year students from St Joseph’s College (@st_joes_college) I wouldn’t have been half as excited.

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AudioBoo recorded after the event:

18 November – Reflections from Cork on the process of putting a collaboration together