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the research showed what wonderful local food is being produced in our island, we have a lot to be proud of and maybe we should be highlighting this more to our own peoples as more and more people have a staycation.

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loved the variety of food on offer and showcased very well what's available in cork limerick and tipp

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Jessica, it was really lovely to see you showcase Derg Farm House Artisan Cheddar Cheese in your lovely starter. The richness and tangy flavour of the cheese will really compliment the creamy, nutty, sweet flavour of the cauliflower. I also loved that you incorporated Clonakilty Black Pudding in your Burger main course option and you recommended sourcing the burger buns  from Crafted Crust Speciality Bakery! Good work Jessica, it is now time to crack open a bottle of Attyflin Apple Juice!

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Good Job Adam! Your menu was was a fusion of flavours from the West of Ireland and Eastern Europe. You also intertwined ingredients with your personality and childhood memories. Those chestnuts no doubt were a delight to eat! I would imagine they would marry so well with your suggested cheesecake and dark chocolate. The Slow Cooked Braised Pork, with a Hungarian twist particularly emphasises this fusion...Which was one of the key trends we discussed last week!

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The first taste of this artisan fresh milk cheese is packed with the scents of mushrooms, busy with the heat of mustard, alive with the sweetness of unprocessed milk, and freighted with a long, fudge-filled finish that seems to go on forever, a true torrent of tastes. To achieve this level of expertise with fresh milk cheesemaking is no small matter, and explains why Paddy and Kay went home with a medal having impressed the judges at the 2015 Irish Cheese Awards. But it is an extraordinary achievement to be able to produce such a complex and a complete artisan cheese with only a few years cheesemaking under their belt. Maybe its the fact that their happy cows graze while gazing out over the waters of Lough Derg that make Derg Cheddar so special, but here is a totem amongst the new generation of Irish farmhouse cheesemakers.

John McKenna 2016

The exceptional quality and local nature of the milk provided the raw material for an excellent cheese with 'terroir' and this,
together with a high standard of production, ensured that it quickly attracted an appreciative following of people who loved the
rich tangy flavour and firm texture of the mature cheese.

Signifcantly, it also impressed the judges at the 2015 Irish Cheese Awards, where it took the title of Best New Cheese.

Georgina Campbell 2016

Thanks for the cheese. Catch ya's later.

Conor McGregor

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The first taste of this artisan fresh milk cheese is packed with the scents of mushrooms, busy with the heat of mustard, alive with the sweetness of unprocessed milk, and freighted with a long, fudge-filled finish that seems to go on forever, a true torrent of tastes.

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At Attyflin Estate we create authentic Natural Fruit Beverages. All of our tasty fruit thirst quenchers are made using apples that we grow on the Estate.

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great the way you linked or fused your home country with your 3 counties, made it really personal

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The image of "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." pretty much sums up the best and cosiest of winter activities, especially the sociability of the festive season.

Not to be confused with the unrelated and inedible horse chestnuts which grow prolifically in Ireland, the European sweet chestnut, Castanea sativa, is actually a cousin of the beech.

Despite their nut-like appearance and floury texture, chestnuts have a high water content and need to be treated as perishable fruits rather than hard nuts, ie kept cool in storage and used while quite fresh, before they lose too much moisture.

In Britain and Ireland chestnuts are associated particularly with the Christmas period and available for only a short time; once commonly roasted in the streets (and not so long ago - I can remember them for sale in Grafton Street...), roasting is still the best-known cooking method in these islands.

The skin is scored beforehand to prevent an explosion when the contents expand in heat; when cooked and cool enough to handle, the skin and inner husk is peeled away to reveal nutritious nutty flesh, which has a deliciously delicate, sweet flavour and is gluten- and cholesterol-free. More surprisingly, and unlike other nuts, chestnuts are quite high in vitamin C, especially when dried.

Chestnuts are an extremely versatile food and although in continental Europe, where they are widely available, they had fallen from favour to some extent in recent decades (possibly because of a past association with poverty), they are now making a comeback along with renewed interest in traditional cooking and natural foods.

They can be bought fresh, dried, ground, vacuum packed and canned (both whole and as a sweetened or natural purée); in Ireland, fresh chestnuts are available in autumn and canned ones (eg Clément Faugier or Epicure) all year; dried and ground product can also be found in some specialist food shops.

The uses of chestnuts in both sweet and savoury dishes are very varied and include many dishes made with chestnut flour, as well as stuffings made with chopped nuts (traditional for goose and turkey), whole chestnuts used to enliven vegetables dishes (eg Brussels sprouts) and, of course, the wonderful Christmas treat of marrons glacé - which dates back to the 16th century and takes many months to produce, using a candying method which is still very labour intensive.

Another old favourite is mont blanc, an irresistible dessert popular in France where (although it can of course be made from fresh chestnuts) it often consists only of canned sweetened chestnut purée and chilled crème fraîche - yet it is impossibly delicious.

Chestnut and chocolate cake

A rich, moist chocolate dessert cake - this could be the perfect alternative to Christmas Pudding for those who dislike dried fruit.

Click for recipe

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The image of "Chestnuts roasting on an open fire..." pretty much sums up the best and cosiest of winter activities, especially the sociability of the festive season. Not to be confused with the unrelated and inedible horse chestnuts which grow prolifically in Ireland, the European sweet chestnut, Castanea sativa, is actually a cousin of the beech.

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Mauds create award winning flavours of ice cream with supreme ingredients. Famous for Poor Bear's Delight (honeycomb) ice cream. Best in Ireland 2015.

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"Our families are really and truly suffering in our presence and we cannot much longer withstand their cries for food. We have no food for them, our potatoes are rotten and we have no grain".

Cloonahee Petition, 22 August 1846

The Great Irish Famine of the 1840s is now regarded as the single greatest social disaster of 19th century Europe. Between 1845 and 1850, when blight devastated the potato crop, in excess of two million people (almost one-quarter of the entire population) either died or emigrated. The fascinating National Famine Museum at Strokestown tells the story of the Famine and highlights the parallels between a tragic chapter of Irish History and contemporary global hunger.

Strokestown was the seat of the Mahon (and later Pakenham Mahon) family from 1653 until 1981. Due to the events of 1847, Strokestown became infamous when Denis Mahon was the first landlord to be assassinated during the Famine period after forcing his tenants to emigrate on some of the worst of the coffin ships with repercussions as far as the Vatican, Rome and The British Parliament, London.

In the 1970s, houses such as Strokestown Park faced a precarious future and their value lay mostly in the adjoining land. In 1979 the house and estate were purchased by the Westward Garage Group and a chance discovery of boxes containing documents secured the fate of Strokestown Park. Jim Callery, the founder of the Westward Group, was exploring the house and uncovered letters and documents relating to the estate, most notably a letter from tenants in the townland of Cloonahee. Dated 1846, the letter was a plea to Denis Mahon to provide them with some form of relief as their potato crop had failed and their situation was desperate. Realising the significance of the material, Mr Callery had the foresight to recognise that Strokestown Park was a unique resource that spanned almost 350 years of Irish history.

Using the documents and objects from Strokestown as a basis for the interpretation, the National Famine Museum tells the story of the Irish Great Hunger, eviction, migration, the assisted emigration scheme enacted by Major Denis Mahon of Strokestown Park and the story of his murder in November 1847. The gun that fired the fatal shot is also on display

The National Famine Museum at Strokestown Park is twinned with Grosse Ile and the Irish Memorial National Historic Site, Grosse Ile, Quebec, Canada. Over 5,500 Irish people who emigrated during the famine of Ireland are buried in mass graves at Grosse Ile.

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Cloonahee Petition, 22 August 1846 The Great Irish Famine of the 1840s is now regarded as the single greatest social disaster of 19th century Europe. Between 1845 and 1850, when blight devastated the potato crop, in excess of two million people (almost one-quarter of the entire population) either died or emigrated.

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Wexford; the home of the best Irish strawberries.

You know when you taste something so good you have to close your eyes to savour the moment? Sunny Wexford Strawberries taste that good.

The authentic strawberry taste comes only from Wexford, we believe it is the sun (it shines more here than anywhere else in the country!).

We hope you take time to find out about our Sunny strawberries, recipes, nutrition and get to know us, the growers who take pride in providing you with the best strawberries in the Irish market.

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Sunny Wexford Strawberries - the Authentic Irish Strawberry

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You know when you taste something so good you have to close your eyes to savour the moment? Sunny Wexford Strawberries taste that good. The authentic strawberry taste comes only from Wexford, we believe it is the sun (it shines more here than anywhere else in the country!).

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We are amateur and small-scale beekeepers and are affiliated to the UBKA (Ulster Beekeepers Association).

We promote good beekeeping practice and provide a forum for beekeepers to meet and exchange information.

​

We support our members by providing a Beginners beekeeping course, an Intermediate beekeeping course, outdoor beekeeping demonstrations and use of equipment belonging to the association. We also help in obtaining essential supplies.

Courses on beekeeping Very Important Message

FIBKA have POSTPONED all examinations to limit the spread of Covid-19 virus. The Preliminary Course exams will be re-arranged. Your application and fees will be held over and you will incur no extra cost.

If you are interested in learning about honey bees or becoming a beekeeper, just contact the Secretary.

ABOUT FERMANAGH BEEKEEPERS ASSOCIATION

We have a diverse, cross-border, dedicated membership.

The Association has its monthly meeting on the last Thursday of the month usually in The Enniskillen Hotel, Enniskillen BT74 6AJ, at 8.00 pm.

We can cater for groups of children or adults for Educational visits to our apiary.

In summertime we have practical sessions, BBQ and visits to and from other apiaries. An annual programme of events is published for members. A honey show is usually held in August.

We aim to improve and advance beekeeping through a number of primary goals:-

Improve the environment;

Educate beekeepers and newcomers to the art of beekeeping in a manner that is safe for both beekeepers and bees;

Create awareness of honey bees among non-beekeepers through meetings;

Promote Health and Safety awareness in handling bees and producing bee products;

Underline the importance of using bees already proven to be suited to local conditions;

Discourage the import of bees from outside the island of Ireland in order to prevent exotic/invasive bee diseases and pests;

Demonstrations and displays and communication in the local press;

Offer a neutral forum for beekeepers to encourage friendship, trust and mutual support;

Local research into bee disease diagnosis through education and the co-ordination of treatment;

Promote good quality, locally produced bee products desirable as food and health products.

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Honey | Fermanagh Beekeepers | Home | Fermanagh Beekeepers Association

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We are amateur and small-scale beekeepers and are affiliated to the UBKA (Ulster Beekeepers Association). We promote good beekeeping practice and provide a forum for beekeepers to meet and exchange information. ​ We support our members by providing a Beginners beekeeping course, an Intermediate beekeeping course, outdoor beekeeping demonstrations and use of equipment belonging to the association.

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Sorting Eels at Lough Neagh Fishermen's Co-op

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Delgany Co. Wicklow is the home to our first bakery and cafe with Wicklow Town now the home to our second. Beautiful Heir Island in West Cork is where our bread making story began. We also offer wholesale bread supply to Dublin 6 days a week.

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Abernethy Butter - Handmade Irish butter like no other

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Abernethy Butter is made by hand using traditional methods. The cream is bought from a local farmer, who lets his cows graze on the green fields in the Lagan Valley.

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Good Job Antony! You have mentioned some wonderful Northern Irish producers. You highlighted the importance of Irish soda breads and potato farls. You highlighted Abernaty butter. According to Food Critic Jay Rayner, he called it the "butter of your dreams". Could you imagine making a beautiful Abernaty Fudge Sauce for your Maud's Ice-Cream...Yum!

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Thank you Fionn for presenting your menu from Wexford, Waterford and Wicklow! I love that you found Patrick Ryan's Firehouse Bakery! I also love that you used Wexford Strawberries in your Rhubarb and Strawberry Crumble with Vanilla and Mint Ice-Cream!

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Well Done Seamus on showcasing a wonderful three course menu! You incorporated beautiful produce synonymous with Fermanagh, Tyrone and Armagh! Your Smoked Ardboe Eel, with Fennel, Apple and Creme Fraiche, sounds delightful! Ohh and that two Apple Dessert from the orchard county, with Coney Island Whiskey Sauce...just sublime!

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loved the way you showcased the producers from your 3 counties

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lovely use of local food