Spotlight on food producers

ONCE AGAIN recently the spotlight was turned on independent, grass-roots food producers as the winners of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild Food Awards 2011 were unveiled.

The awards highlight the vital work of small, independent Irish food producers, at a time when supporting home-grown industry is of the utmost importance.

Those awarded for standards of excellence and for their exceptional contribution to Ireland’s reputation as a top food producing country were: Janet Drew of Country Fayre in Co Wicklow for her delicious Beetroot Blush; Brian and Lindy O’Hara of Coopershill House in Co Sligo for Irish Venison; Pat O’Neill from Co Wexford for Dry Cured Rashers, Bacon and Ham and a special Environmental Award went to oatmeal King John Flahavan of Flahavan’s in Co Waterford.

Derek O’Brien, was honoured with the Guild’s seldom-awarded Lifetime Achievement Award for infusing his students with a passion for bread-making and for his determination to pass skills on to the next generation to ensure the survival of traditional craft baking in Ireland.

IFWG chairperson Orla Broderick said, “If retailers fail to make room on the shelves for our indigenous producers and if we, as consumers, fail to support them, we will in a short space of time witness the demise of dozens of small and medium-sized producers, who will simply be squeezed out of business.”

Flahavan’s, who won the Environmental Award, is one of Ireland’s longest privately-owned family-run businesses and has been operating in Kilmacthomas, Co Waterford, for over 200 years. It is the only remaining oat mill in Ireland.

The company has invested heavily in environmental initiatives. Water power from the mill stream and state-of-the-art energy efficient dryers and boilers (fuelled by chaff, a by-product of oats) generate energy for the production process and heating for the mill and offices. There was a €500,000 investment in a 4,000 ton storage unit for organic oats and it sources oats from local growers, persuading them to increase their acreage of organic oats.

Janet Drew is also an inspiration — from art historian in the National Gallery of Ireland to artisan producer, Janet Drew has created a fine range of chutneys, relishes and sauces. The Guild found something truly special with her Beetroot Blush relish. The recipe for the sweet sour relish made from the humble Irish-grown beetroot and Irish apples originally came from a manuscript cook. Janet, who works from her base in Rathcoole, Co Wicklow, is responsible for the product production, in-house design and label printing, storage and distribution of all Janet’s Country Fayre products.

Fans of Coopershill Country House Hotel will know Lindy and Brian O’Hara who have been rearing fallow deer on the 500 acre estate in the beautiful unspoilt countryside of Co Sligo since 1995. The land has been in grassland for 50 years, encouraging a variety of natural herbage which contributes to the unparalleled quality, complex flavour and tenderness of Coopershill House Irish Venison.

The search for good Irish bacon continues — The Guild felt that Pat O’Niell’s bacon ‘is a world away from commercially wet-cured bacon’. Pat supplies to many leading chefs in the south-east, including Eugene O’Callaghan of Kelly’s of Rosslare, who was recently awarded the Georgina Campbell Hotel Breakfast of the Year.

The awards were held at Derry Clarke’s Michelin star restaurant l’Ecrivain. Derry and his team cooked a delicious lunch using the products of the prize winners. Derek O’Brien brought his freshly baked soda bread and kindly shared his recipe with us.