The families behind your festive feast
Denise’s Delicious Gluten-Free Bakery will be supplying a range of gluten-free festive treats to Italy, France, and Germany this month. Little wonder that it’s all hands on deck at the Cork bakery. Denise, husband Derek, parents Mary and Michael, and sister Louise are all helping out.
“Estée Lauder used to discuss lipstick at mealtimes, we talk about food,” she tells Feelgood.
The focus in the O’Callaghan family switched to food when Michael was diagnosed with coeliac disease. Denise, a former investment banker, started baking without gluten and in 2008 opened the country’s first gluten-free artisan bakery in 2008.
Now she gives advice to lots of coeliacs and, in the New Year, the bakery will be developing a range of products for diabetics.
While people tend to splurge at Christmas, they are still focused on back-of-pack nutritional details, she says.
Alan and Valerie Kingston, the West Cork-based couple behind Glenilen natural dairy products, have found the same thing: “There is no doubt that, even at Christmas, people are more concerned about what they eat. Though, there has to be a little licence to indulge.”
Alan, a traditional West Cork dairy farmer, works land around the old farmhouse that his family have occupied for generations. Valerie has a degree in food science and technology from University College Cork. In 1997, using the farm’s milk, she started to make homemade cheesecakes for the local market. The local Tesco supplier was interested and now Glenilen supplies Tesco nationwide.
They’ll be keeping it family, and local, this Christmas. The roast turkey was reared locally and all the veg will come from Alan’s brother who runs a vegetable farm down the road. Valerie will also make pecan caramel shortbread – “which has a deadly amount of butter” – but they’ll be working it all off on the several great walking paths around Drimoleague.
It’s all hands on deck, too, at McCormack Farms, Co Meath, where father and son Edward and Stephen McCormack are working flat out leading the team of 83 to meet the huge festive demand for the baby-leaf salads and herbs it supplies to supermarkets.
“All herbs see significant increases in the three weeks around Christmas,” says Stephen McCormack, adding that he has noticed a huge increase in home cooking.
Roasting herbs, such as thyme, rosemary, and sage, are in particular demand. McCormack Farms also produces a Christmas herb mix of parsley, thyme, and sage, which is a big hit with consumers.
When all the work is done, the family will sit down to a traditional Christmas dinner on December 25 — “Turkey with a sage and onion stuffing, ham, and of course a nice fresh side salad.”
Siobhan and Paul Lawless run family business the Foods of Athenry, in Galway.
They started out as dairy farmers and opened a bakery in 2000. When a fire completely destroyed their business four years ago, they built it up again from scratch and started to produce a gluten- and additive-free baking range (available in Tesco). Seasonal treats include Christmas puddings and luxury mincemeat.
The couple says everyone is going to eat more at Christmas, so they shouldn’t beat themselves up too much. “We bake from scratch with the best possible ingredients with no artificial colours, flavour or preservatives.
So calories and sugar aside, our festive treats are clean label so healthier than most,” they tell Feelgood.
Christmas is certainly a time for eating but it’s also a time for reflection and the Lawless family, who know what it’s like to face seemingly impossible situations, have a festive message to other family businesses and food producers in difficulty:
- Focus on the positive and don’t let negativity drag you down. Sometimes the only positive is the lesson learned, but it is still a positive.
- Talk to people. At the time of the fire, we went to our retailers and they were incredibly supportive and told us there would be a space for us when we were back.
- Remember you are stronger than you think. You can and you will.
Did you know seaweed contains up to 50 times as many nutrients as ‘land’vegetables? It is packed full of vitamins and minerals, and contains antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that help boost the immune system.
It also makes food taste better, according to Dungarvan-based firm Sea of Vitality, which has just scooped its third McKenna Guides award.
Aiming to make seaweed a part of everyone’s diet, the company has three products: a wholemeal additive-free bread mix, ground kelp, and milled dillisk. There has already been an upsurge in demand from food suppliers and restaurants who are keen to develop recipes using seaweed. Watch this space.
Naturally healthy foods, such as oatmeal, spring water, and nut snacks, were the big winners in the health and wellness market in 2015.
Euromonitor International’s latest stats showed that consumers chose natural food that can’t be toyed with, ahead of organic or fortified products.
The global market for naturally healthy food was $276bn (€254bn) this year, beating fortified products by almost $20bn.
Energy-boosting foods and gluten-free products were also huge this year — both had gains of 8%.
Let the experts at Ballymaloe, Darina Allen and her brother Rory O’Connell, share their expertise with you in the run-up to the festive season.
After the success of last year’s programme A Simply Delicious Christmas, the duo are back on RTÉ 1 on Tuesday, December 22, at 8pm and Wednesday, December 23, at 7.30pm, to cook up a yuletide storm.
In the first programme, they’ll prepare a cocktail, a kale, fennel, radish and parmesan salad, turkey-liver pate, onion marmalade, and a chocolate yule log. Follow that — if you still have room — with Wednesday’s line-up of prawn bisque, roast duck, and a traditional sherry trifle.
It might not quite be the silver bullet to overindulgence at Christmas, but the latest model of the Nutribullet (RX) uses smart technology to break down the toughest foods at cellular level.
The manufacturers boast that it bursts open seeds, cracks through stems and skins to get to the normally unused nutrition in your fruit and veg.
It can also make piping hot soup or sauces in seven minutes — all you have to do is add your favourite veg, liquid, (water or broth) and spices to the pitcher.
It’s available from HighStreetTv.ie for €229.99.
