Tom Watts launched his new business with a Cucumber Pickle at the Savour Kilkenny Foodcamp. And it went down a treat. I only had a small nibble (not too pickley myself) but know from others with more educated palettes that it was very well received.
Check out his site (and the fascinating back story to the idea and his plans for the future).
Keith
There are not too many good coffee roasters in Ireland and I have enjoyed coming across Badger and Dodo and the guy who started it (Brock Lewin) a couple of times in the last 3 months. Most recently at Savour Kilkenny where I queued in line for a Soya Latter – really, really good with beans roasted 2 days beforehand.
And a bag of their filter ground has been giving me my kicks every morning since :-). Check out their online store at their site.
Keith
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
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
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
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.
I spent a couple of hours with my family at the Amazing Grazing event today – part of a 9 day food festival held in the city of Waterford.
While time was spent eating and sampling I also chatted to a number of the food entrepreneurs who were there – some known to me and some new. I will feature them in a number of posts over the next week or so in the order I found them on the day!
The post started with a general shot of the crowd and day – they estimated that up to 40,000 people would turn up to visit over 100 food stands.
Paddy’s O’Granola
Patrick O’Connell does one product and does it well – a crunchy breakfast cereal which was kick started while he was still a student. The kids loved the taste of it. Read more on the Good Food Ireland site about him.
Knockdrinna Farmhouse Cheese
Helen Finnegan started this cheese business in 2004 and has grown it by a combination of internal product development and also taking over the production of another local cheese product in 2008. Read more on her site here.
keith
Myriam is a French expat living in Sydney and she runs tours around the city on a number of themes. The one which caught my eye was the Sydney Artisan Chocolate Tour.
Yes please 🙂
keith
biabeag (small food) 