WELL DONE!


Well done to all the Good Food Ireland members who helped make the third annual Kerrygold Ballymaloe Literary Festival a huge success. The Big Shed was the place to browse the array of food producers, and of course, many of them were part of our network. We spotted Anthony Creswell of Ummera Smokehouse Timoleague, Birgitta Hedin-Curtin of Burren Smokehouse Lisdoonvarna, and Bill Casey of Casey’s Fish Products, Shanagarry, three of Ireland’s most prestigious artisan  fish smokers. Also there was the newly launched Mr Jeffares Blackcurrant Cordial, with Des Jeffares manning the stand for his first visit to Litfest as a producer. The stand looked pretty impressive, with it’s rustic timber and lots of trailing fresh ivy – echoing the healthy environment at Ballykelly Farm, where Des grows his blackcurrants. JP McMahon of Aniar was one of the speakers in the programme. ( JP has been a busy boy, rushing back from Litfest in East Cork,  to  welcome Prince Charles and Camilla,  the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall, to Galway City on their official visit to  Ireland this week.  Introducing the royal couple to the best of local Irish food no doubt, well done JP!). Planning is already underway for Litfest 2016 – we can’t wait to see the list of names appearing – how can you top the food stars of previous years, including Diana Henry, Yottam Ottelenghi in 2014, and Alice Waters in 2015, to name just three? But we are sure the Litfest gang will come up with the goods again next year! In the meantime, they can take time out to bask in their fantastic success this time round. Well done to all!