SECAD Launches Free Sustainability Training Programme for Food Businesses across South and West Cork

SECAD Launches Free Sustainability Training Programme for Food Businesses across South and West Cork

Pictured at the launch of the new SECAD Programme which kicks off next month were (l to r) Suzanne Kearney, Assistant CEO at SECAD; James Hogan, (Trainer), The Clean Technology Centre (MTU) and 

Keelin Tobin, (Trainer), The Clean Technology Centre (MTU). 

 

Free Practical Training Programme for Small, Medium and Artisan food producers to understand and commit to more sustainable business practices.

 

Food Business owners across South and West Cork will be eager to sign up to SECAD Partnership CLG’s newly announced and free Sustainable Food Training Programme which kicks off next month. The programme (which has limited spaces) has been developed with Small, Medium and Artisan food (and beverage) producers in mind and aims to educate and empower these businesses in various areas where they may be experiencing challenges regarding sustainability.

 

Having identified challenges faced by food and beverage producers in relation to sustainability such as; sustainable sourcing and supply chain practices, packaging, energy, water and waste, consumer education, carbon emissions, renewable energy and climate change, the trainers of SECAD’s Sustainable Food Training Programme, will share expert knowledge and advice based on years of professional experience in these areas.

 

In line with the Global Sustainable Development Goal 12.3: “By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.” Ireland has committed, through the Food Waste Charter, to take responsibility and actions towards achieving this goal. Businesses, Industry leaders and individuals are encouraged to prioritize the prevention of Food Waste at every point within the supply chain. With that in mind, SECAD have developed this training programme which will give practical guidance to food business owners, so that they can further pursue environmentally conscious actions within their business operations.

 

The modules covered in the training programme will include:

1. Sustainability – The What and The How (To include green finance and green procurement)
2. Our Food and Our Environment
3. Resource Efficiency (Managing energy, water and waste)
4. Climate Change – Measure your Carbon Footprint
5. Communication – Engaging the Marketplace – Understanding Consumer Behaviour and Sustainable Consumption
6. Circular Economy Proposition Design
7. Managing Food Waste
8. Building a Sustainability Culture – Engaging Employees & Suppliers
9. Packaging, Storage, Transport & Distribution: Sustainable Supply Chain Design
10. Design Thinking, Innovation & Sustainability

 

Speaking about the launch of this new training programme, Assistant CEO of SECAD Suzanne Kearney said:

 

“Globally, more than one quarter of food produced is wasted, with food loss and waste contributing 8 to 10% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Now, more so than ever before, it is vital that we all do our level best in being as sustainable as possible, and we here at SECAD are committed to doing just that. We are delighted to see such a high level of interest in this training programme so far. It will be undeniably beneficial to food and beverage businesses to enable them to become more sustainable, resilient and to gain competitive advantage in the market. This will also have a positive knock-on effect in their communities and the food producing sector in the region. The content of the training programme will be delivered by leading experts in their respective areas, and we are thrilled to have such talented and experienced industry professionals onboard.”

 

Experienced trainers on the course will include professionals from SustHub; one of Ireland’s leading Corporate Sustainability and Circular Economy companies, The Clean Technology Centre (CTC) based at Munster Technological University; providing consultancy to organisations in all key areas of sustainability, and finally Change by Degrees; a sustainability consultancy with over 20 years international experience in climate and environment strategy, communications and employee and customer engagement.  

 

This programme will run from April 2021 to November 2021(with a break across July and August) and attendees will take part in the following:

 

• 10 x 3-hour training modules (delivered online)
• Site visits to businesses considered to be pursuing best practice in the area of sustainability and/or resource efficiency (subject to COVID 19 government restrictions)
• One to one training as relevant to their business needs
• Networking opportunities with food businesses

The closing date to sign up for this free course is Monday the 5^th of April 2021, with training starting on Wednesday the 14^th of (South Cork) and Friday the 16^th (West Cork). Places are limited and business owners are encouraged to log on to www.secad.ie/food to register for a place now. #SustainableFood

 

Companies that wish to participate in this training programme must satisfy the following criteria:

• Be based within SECAD’s operational area:
• https://leadersouthcork.com/index.php/find-local-development-company/
• https://leaderwestcork.com/index.php/find-local-development-group/
• Be registered as a food producer.
• Be trading for a period of no less than 6 months.
• Commit to a company representative attending each of the ten modules.

 

The Sustainable Food Training Programme South & West Cork is funded under The LEADER Food initiative which is jointly managed by the Department of Rural and Community Development and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Approvals for the awards of funding under this initiative are made by Cork County Council’s LEADER Local Action Groups which are a subgroup of the Local Community Development Committees. (LCDCs)

press release

Cheers on Beer, Spirits and Wine. With Galway Hooker, Wicklow Wolf, Greenes, Shelbourne Bar, Wines of the World, BeoirFest.

Cheers on Beer, Spirits and Wine. With Galway Hooker, Wicklow Wolf, Greenes, Shelbourne Bar, Wines of the World, BeoirFest. #210319

15 Year Anniversary Double IPA is here

As promised, we would be making this Double IPA available to our online customers, and newsletter sign ups as soon as we could. This beer will be canned next week (25th of March) and will be sent out the very same day. There are only 30, 12x440ml cases available. Of course we've got a discount code for you loyal few!    Use code DOUBLE15 , for 15% off.    Buy it here: https://shop.galwayhooker.ie/collections/home/products/pre-sale-15-year-anniversary-double-ipa-12x440ml   Bar that, we just wanted to say a heart felt thank you, to all of you that have supported our little brewery over the last 15 years. We appreciate it more than you know.

The Wicklow Wolf Locavore Project...

Before they became Wicklow Wolf, two friends, Quincey and Simon, Influenced by their time spent in California, a passion for home-brewing and a thirst for craft beer, they began the journey in setting up a brewery in Wicklow. Simon’s background is in horticulture and he wanted to plant hops on his farm in the Wicklow hills. A seed was planted and Wicklow Wolf was born thanks to the coming together of two friends wanting to start a brewery and the desire to plant a hop farm (the first commercial hop farm in Ireland in over 25 years). 

Time moved on and now to  To celebrate Wicklow, our terroir, the provenance of this great landscape and to push our commitment to brewing beer in a sustainable way. With this in mind, The Locavore Project was born. The Locavore Project epitomises the core philosophy that Wicklow Wolf was founded upon, provenance and pride. The Locavore Project allows us to celebrate the terroir of Wicklow, our home and champion it with small batch, local, experimental beers.  

Read more about the Wicklow Wolf project here and check out their beers while you are there!

Frank, the somm in Greene's has been in touch:

"Really looking forward to our 'Meet the Winemaker' online zoom tasting on Friday 19th March at 8pm

@Greenescork

We are teaming up with

@derrickneleman

&

@WinesDirect

This event will sell out very fast so get your orders in now! http://greenesrestaurant.com/menus #winetasting #supportlocal"

Shelbourne Bar Will Serve You...

Missing the genuine Irish Whiskey Bar experience?

You can now gather your friends for a personalised Online Whiskey Tasting. We supply the whiskey, the whiskey expert and we can even supply the glass!

Visit

https://www.theshelbournecork.ie/online-whiskey-tasting

Wines of the World - Join the Club!

Did you know that we can deliver specially selected wines to your door each month?

€70.00 every month for 1 year

The perfect subscription for you - The Wine Lover!

Our wine experts select 6 delicious wines from around the world and send to your door each month.

Includes:

• A mix of 6 different wines

• Free Delivery Nationwide

• Tasting Notes for each wine

  * Please note subscription plans will dispatch between the 19th-22nd of each month *

Subscribe

BeoirFest Continues this Saturday

This Saturday we have another great Brewers Roundtable organised. We're going to look at lagers and reds, which should make for a nice comparison. And a great chat as usual of course!

We'll have Dublin's Liberator, Four Provinces Poddle, and Craft Bears Imperial Red so feel free to pick one up in advance if you want. Of course you can also just turn up, enjoy the chat and get involved.

We'll have spot prizes as well. See you on Saturday at 3pm at Beoirfest.com!

Tickets now on sale for Cork Business of the Year Awards and President’s Dinner At Home

 CBA launches tickets for Cork Business of the Year Awards

and President’s Dinner At Home

Beetroot Starter - Metropple

~ Taoiseach to address Cork’s business community at virtual event ~
~Taste of the City at Home food experience will be a collaborative showcase of Cork hotels and producers ~

Taoiseach Micheál Martin will make an address to Cork’s business community at their upcoming President’s Dinner At Home and Cork Business of the Year Awards, which takes place virtually this year on April 17^th.

An exceptional evening of celebration, awards, great food, light entertainment and networking, and panel discussions with business and civic leaders, has been planned for the evening.

The dinner is always a stunning showcase of Cork produce, and this year will be no different.   Attendees will enjoy a Taste of the City at Home culinary experience, which is a collaboration between Cork’s top hotel chefs and well-known Nash19 owner and past CBA President, Claire Nash.  Claire, who has been a leading organiser in Cork’s famous Long Table Dinner over the past few years, says “the quality of the food will be on a par with the Long Table and will showcase our favourite local producers and the extraordinary talent of local chefs who are pushing the boundaries with their food.”

The Cork Business of the Year Awards will also be presented on the evening.  The finalists were announced last week and 7000 public votes have already been received.  Voting is open on CBAAwards.ie for the remainder of the month.

Commenting on the annual President’s Dinner and Awards, President of the Cork Business Association Eoin O Sullivan said, “The event will not only recognise businesses and individuals who have made an outstanding contribution over the past year, and those who have shown true resilience in one of the most difficult of trading years, but it will also be a stunning showcase of Cork produce and the amazing culinary talents of local chefs. They have put their creativity and their hearts into the dishes to make the menu truly unique.

Nettle Soup - Cork International

“This is a sharing dinner for two and is the perfect way to say thank-you to your team who have put down an extraordinary year, as behind every good employee is a great partner or friend.  We hope the night will give everyone a much-needed lift. We are also very grateful to An Taoiseach for taking time out of his incredibly busy schedule to make an address, and to our sponsors JCD, Centra, Peninsula and the Irish Examiner for their incredible support.”

The dine-at-home experience for two, which will be available for collection from The Imperial Hotel on the day of the event, includes six courses of daring and delicate dishes from six different chefs that will not only showcase their individual creativity but will also use the best local produce that can be found in and around Cork. 

The mouth-watering menu includes a carpaccio of Waterfall farm beetroot, Ballycotton seared scallops and crab remoulade, locally foraged nettle soup, West Cork Angus filet of beef wellington, locally grown rhubarb, along with Cork cheese and breads. (see the full menu below).

Not only that but there will be champagne and wine pairing, along with tasting notes for every course, and guests will finish the meal with an Irish coffee made with local Jameson Whiskey, Mahers fairtrade coffee and Glounn Cross cream.  Other surprises will also be included in the dine-at-home boxes for two.

The chefs involved in the food experience are from the Metropole, the Imperial, the Cork International, the Kingsley, Nash19, and Vienna Woods.

The Cork Business Association is encouraging everyone to dress up on the night and to share their experience on Twitter.  They will be linking into people’s homes via social media and there’ll be plenty of prizes for the best dressed, the best presented meal, and the best tweet!” 

 

Beef Wellington - Kingsley

The charity partner is Marymount University Hospital & Hospice, and the awards and event are sponsored by JCD, Centra, Peninsula, and The Irish Examiner is the media partner.

 

Tickets are priced at €95 per person (€190 for the dinner for 2) and are on a first come first served basis.  They will go on sale at 12pm noon on 18 March. To book or for more information see CBAAwards.ie, contact (021) 427 8295 or info@corkbusiness.ie . 

 

The President’s Taste of the City at Home Dinner includes:

Carpaccio of Waterfall Farm Beetroot, Roasted Almonds, Metropole Hotel

Ballycotton Seared Scallop & Crab remoulade, Smoked Salmon, Blas Caviar, Sea Asparagus, Imperial Hotel

Soup of Foraged Nettle and wild garlic, Bacon salt, Cork International Hotel

West Cork Angus, Filet of Beef Wellington, Fermented Barley, Celeriac & Black Garlic Puree, Morel Jus, The Kingsley

Cheeses, Mature Gubbeen & Ash Ardsallagh Goats, Fig Confit, Nash19

Rhubarb & Rosewater Posset, Gingerella & Pistachio Crumb, Cherry Flake, Apple Blossom Syrup, Cork’s Vienna Woods

Breads, Brown Soda & Sourdough, Alternative Bread Company

***

Champagne and Wine Pairing

Irish Coffee, with Jameson, Mahers Fairtrade, Smothered with Glounn Cross Cream

Splendid Festival Food From Market Lane. (and they'll be doing it again at Easter!)

 Splendid Festival Food From Market Lane

(and they'll be doing it again at Easter!)

Ballinwillin Venison Pit with Wisdom Ale & Flaky Pastry!
Side dishes were Creamy garlic potato gratin with Coolea Cheese and Thyme.
Fondant carrots, Braised Hispi Cabbage.

Spiced Veggie Moussaka (baked aubergines,
tomatoes, lentils and cinnamon, topped with
Toons Bridge Feta and Pinenuts.)

Tempting Moussaka, just out of the oven.

Chocolate cheesecake with
hazelnut Praline

Orange & Vanilla bread and butter pudding
with custard.

Just got in the Market Easter Menu. Very tempting!

A Quart of Ale± #40. On the craft journey with variations on a lager theme.

A Quart of Ale± #40

On the craft journey with variations on a lager theme.  

O’Hara’s Lager 4.5%, 500ml bottle via Radical Drinks

This Helles, a traditional lager style on the continent, has a lovely clear mid-amber colour with a myriad of little bubbles rising towards the shrinking white head. Aromas are pleasant if not intense. And on the palate you have a very pleasing smooth lager that heads confidently, full of flavour but with a balancing low hop bitterness (thanks to having been hopped several times), towards a clean and satisfactory finale.

They say: The hop profile is tailored to suit the craft beer drinker and the bitterness is clean and intense. The malty body pays tribute to traditional European lagers and an extra-long conditioning time allows the maximum array of lager flavours to develop. The combination of noble hops, speciality malts and a classic lager yeast strain allow the esters and hop aromas to combine and balance perfectly.

Brewed to the Helles style (combining the brewing methods of a pale ale to the lager style) developed by German and Czech brewers, this is a lager with true character. It is conditioned for over 4 weeks to allow the floral esters from the lager yeast to fully infuse into the brew and develop a well attenuated body. These offset the malt and hop aromas to produce a truly unique craft lager brewed with flavour. Can’t argue with that assessment. Class in a glass as far as I’m concerned. Helles by the way is not mentioned on the label.

Advice is to serve at 6-8°C with roast lemon chicken, Spanish paella and grilled seabass or snapper and more using the O’Hara’s Irish Craft Beer conical glass.

Weihenstephaner Original Helles, 5.1%, 500ml bottle via Bradleys

This German beer, from the oldest still existing brewery in the world, comes in a bright amber colour, with no shortage of bubbles streaming towards the slowly reducing white head. Spicy hops and malty sweetness can be found among the delicate aromas. The character shines through in the palate, strong and clean and refreshing. Terrific balance with a friendly light bitterness coming through also. Weihenstephan Original Helles is unique and exceptional and a regular award-winner.

 

The IBU figure, not given on all beers, is a modest 21. Serve at 6-8 degrees. Again, like many of the continental beers, the brewery comes up with a food pairing. Here they recommended Rump steak with marinade and give you the recipe as well. Check it out here.

Almost a thousand years ago Weihenstephan was the monastery brewery of the Benedictine monks. Then, the Royal Bavarian State Brewery stepped in and it is now operating as a state directed enterprise under the control of the Bavarian Government.

This bottom-fermented beer of Southern Germany is called Helles, which means both light and bright. Weihanstephaner also have a non-alcoholic version; check it out here.

Germany, by the way, is the “world’s fifth largest producer of beer” and “is also its second largest grower of hops”.

Rascals “Jailbreak” Helles Lager, 4.2%, 330 can via Bradleys

Colour of this Dublin produced lager is a light amber, no shortage of carbonation. No head worth talking about, at least from this can. Aromas are mostly floral. A pretty good Helles follows, decent body (soft and full), good balance between hops and malts as the lager smooths its way to an excellent finish. Now where would you get a pizza to go with it?

They say: In Inchicore, Dublin, we’ve a world class pizza restaurant with the freshest beer pouring straight from tank to tap. You can check out our event spaces and find out about brewery tours and the Rascals taproom experience at www.rascalsbrewing.com  

 

Geek Bits:

Malt: Bohemian Pilsner, Vienna, Melanoidin

Hops: Hallartau Mittlefruh

Yeast: Munich Helles

ABV: 4.2%

Wide Street “Mill Pils” Farmhouse Pilsner 5.5%, 440ml via beercloud.ie

Colour of this Wicklow Pilsner is a pale yellow, quite close to lemon, and cloudy, with lots of bubbles shooting up to the steady, if not substantial, head. No shortage of hops here so you notice them straightaway on the nose and soon on the palate, where you come across plenty of earthy character and a hint of spice and a good dry finish. Something that bit different and well looking out for, a lager with attitude.

The label reveals it’s unfiltered, unpasteurised and can-conditioned, containing yeast sediment. Fermented with the famous German strain 34/70 at 12 degrees then dry hopped 12g/l with Hallertau Mittelfrüh and Saaz blend to add an Italian twist and create a hoppy Pilsner.

Wide Street Brewing Company specialises in mixed fermentation methods and 100% Brettanomyces beers. The vision is to brew innovative beers with alternative fermentation methods. Their house yeast is a custom blend of Brettanomyces, saccharomyces and lactobacillus strains from Bootleg Biology, a yeast laboratory based in Nashville, USA. This gives the beer a distinctive dry mouthfeel and enhanced fruity flavours.

They say: It’s a Pilsner with a twist! This Farmhouse Pilsner is double dry-hopped with hopped with Hallertauer-Mittelfrueh brewed revealing traditional spicy and earthy notes. The inspiration behind this beer is an Italian Pilsner style. This is brewed with Chateau pilsner malt and a small addition of Cara pils. 

Not quite the “traditional” lager as we’d know it around here and might be just to dry and too hoppy for some traditionalists. On the other hand though, it would be very interesting to compare it in a head to head tasting with Fort of the Fianna by Eight Degrees, another Italian style lager. Actually, very recently and at the last minute, I did manage to do just that and must say, that the Wide Street may be a shade more hoppier and a touch drier, there is very little qualitative difference, both getting the thumbs up, not just from me, but from around the table!

Taste of the Week. Ballylisk "The Triple Rose"

Taste of the Week

Ballylisk "The Triple Rose"

I came across this Ballylisk Triple Rose cheese, more or less by accident. It was part of a Christmas Feast pack that I bought Click & Collect from The Glass Curtain, an exciting top notch restaurant less than 5km away from me. There was also a big chunk of aged Ballinrostig Gouda. Quite a double.

This single herd, bloomy rind cheese is outstanding. Triple Rose is a triple cream brie (hence the name) which means that additional cream is added to the milk. Our Taste of the Week is full of flavour, highlighted by a tangy citrus-y note that make those taste buds sit up and take notice. There is also a Smoked version of the Triple Rose but I haven't tried that yet.

It won 2 stars at the Great Taste Awards in 2019 and Silver at the Blas na hEireann Irish Foods Awards in 2018. It's also got the thumbs up from two very good judges indeed, Brian owner/chef of the Glass Curtain and Johnny of Indie Fude (great food-store) in Comber and Belfast.

Ballylisk say: Ballylisk cheese is part of a food chain which begins and ends in Ballylisk. The grass is eaten by the cows. Their milk makes the cheese. There is much more we are going to do with that milk and its by–products.

Ballylisk of Armagh