Totally Tipperary

Totally Tipperary, an innovative and exciting food event will be held within the historic grounds of Cloughjordan House on the 25^th June 2011.

Totally Tipperary is open to everyone. Food Producers, Food writers, Food bloggers and Food lovers are converging to taste the best of what Tipperary has to offer. As well as eating and drinking, there will also be an opportunity to learn about food and where it comes from. Growing, cooking and making food will all feature prominently at this very innovative food festival.

Tastings, talks, tours, cookery, production demonstrations and a host of delectable food stalls are to be savoured at Totally Tipperary. There will also be children’s and evening entertainment which will engage both the mind and body at Totally Tipperary. All manner of tents, yurts and marquees will fill the open garden spaces within this historic old house.

Kindly supported by Bosch, FBD, Bord Bia and the Sarah Baker Cookery School, Totally Tipperary will draw on the combined expertise of the following to provide a foodie event of epic proportions. The Tipperary Food Producers, a passionate and visionary group of some of Tipperary’s finest artisan food producers; GIY (who empower people to ‘Grow it Yourself’); Greenworks, who run reskilling courses in the green economy, including food, the Cloughjordan Festival itself and Cultivate, through their Convergence event.

RTE’s Ella McSweeney (Ear to the Ground; Homegrown) and Bobby Kerr (Dragon’s Den) will be on hand to facilitate debate and demonstrations, while the Seomra Blog Bia will add a globally interactive and innovative dimension.

Seomra Blog Bia will feature cookery demonstrations from both worldwide food bloggers and chefs as they engage the visitor on how to use the best of local, seasonal, sustainable and fresh foods. This will include Kristin of Dinner du Jour (one of the founders of the #inishfood phenomenon ); David of Kitchen 72; Joanna of Smörgåsblog and Yvonne of Hey Pesto.

With the very generous help of Bord Bia, a number of French Michelin Star chefs, including Maurice Alexis, chef from the Elysee Palace in Paris, will attend as part of a nationwide tour. This will add enormously to the international flavor of the event and provide visitors with a unique view of Tipperary produce being used as the main ingredients in the creation of stunning dishes by some of the world’s most eminent chefs.

The festival will
embrace all manner of modern media and will be broadcast live online through a variety of platforms: Photos, Videos, Audio sound bites will be posted, blogged and tweeted about live on the day to the world.

The Sarah Baker Cookery School will be running hourly cookery classes for children during the day in a dedicated marquee. This will allow parents to relax and enjoy the more sophisticated offerings in the main cookery tent.  The Tipperary Food Producers will include products from Hickeys Bakery, The Apple Farm, Cashel Blue cheese, Red Nose Wine, Inch House, Crowe’s Farm and a host of other passionate Tipperary businesses.

Totally Tipperary will have a very practical and hands on dimension.  Pat Whelan, of the highly respected James Whelan Butchers in Clonmel will run a dedicated meat tent; GIY  – Grow it Yourself  – will get down and dirty with how to grow some of your own food, whilst many of the demos will revolve around not just handy hints on cooking but on making some core foods yourself – including your own dairy products like butter and cheese.

The Cloughjordan Community Farm will show people some of the practical steps involved in setting up a farm where the producer and consumer work together as part of a community. They will also do tours of their farm and host Raw: A milk party, which will show people how to make the most of milk. The Cloughjordan Ecovillage will also be on hand to do tours and talks on this most innovative project, which just happens to be next door to the festivities.

The days events will develop into a night of celebration with an Asado  – an Argentinian-style BBQ brought to you with 100% Irish and 100% Tipperary produce. Music and Entertainment will be brought to you on the evening by The Boudoir Sessions (Electric Picnic, Body and Soul Festival) who will swing and sway, charm and disarm the crowd with sounds from the 1920s, 30s, 40s and 50s – boogie woogie, swing, calypso, mento, rockabilly and bluegrass.

They will be accompanied for the evening time soirée by Kaledescape, an arts co-operative that will provide a full sensory and interactive experience including Europe’s largest Kaleidoscopes, a giant flower garden and The Invisible Band.

Be sure to join us at Totally Tipperary on 25^th June in Cloughjordan House, Tipperary for a food festival that will allow you to indulge your senses in all that is Tipperary.