If you missed our appearance on Nationwide on 4th July, you can catch it on the RTE player until 25th.  The programme centres around the very successful Food Fair at Manning’s Emporium in Ballylickey on the 18th and 19th June.

We will be setting up our stall on Sunday 29th May 2011 at Sheridans Cheesemongers’ Irish Food Festival, at their Co. Meath headquarters.  It’s the second Festival they’ve held – the first was last year, and was a huge success, with 40 Irish food producers showcasing their produce, and nearly 4,000 people attended to sample the best of our artisan food.  This year there’ll be even more producers from all over Ireland showing a huge range of artisan products, from cheeses to chocolates, from pâtés to pickles. Cookies of Character will be giving tastings of most of our range of hand-made cookies, and we’ll have some specially-made limited-edition stuff too. Our Gingerbread Men will be making their first appearance outside Co. Cork, and we’ll be selling our whole range at special Festival prices. As well as the Food Producers’ stands, there’ll be cookery demonstrations, food workshops, a barbeque, a ‘fun area’ for kids and all sorts of sideshows and games.  Sheridans’ HQ is in the restored Virginia Road railway station complex, midway between Carnaross and Virginia – part of the old Great Northern Railway branch line from Navan to Oldcastle, which was closed to passengers in 1958, and completely shut a few years later. The stone-built station buildings and goods shed, dating from the 1850s, stood abandoned for many years, gradually becoming more dilapidated and derelict, until they were rescued by Kevin Sheridan, restored and given a new lease of life as Sheridans Cheesemongers’ warehouse and specialist food shop – winning an award from An Taisce in the process. There’s more information about the 2011 Irish Food Festival on the Sheridans Cheesemongers website, as well as some pictures of last year’s event – there’s a ‘handy link’ to Sheridans on our “where to buy” page.  We’ll meet you at the station!