GLENISK PARTNERS WITH LEADING COOKERY SCHOOL, COOKS ACADEMY - COOKERY COURSES & RECIPE BOOKS TO BE WON

Calling all foodies and aspiring chefs: Glenisk, the award-winning, family owned organic dairy, has teamed up with one of Ireland’s leading cookery schools, Cooks Academy to help Irish people to rediscover their love of cooking. 

Glenisk Organic Crème Fraîche features an exciting new on-pack offer, with the chance to win one of several week-long cookery courses from Cooks Academy and recipe books. The courses, suitable for beginners, provide a wonderful introduction to cooking, helping to inspire a love of food. Home cooking is growing in popularity; recent research from Bord Bia shows that 63% of us now cook from scratch several times a week, and that 9% of us have booked a cookery course in the past year.*

Recipe Demonstrations

The partnership has also seen Cooks Academy create a series of mouth-watering recipes for Glenisk, complete with step-by-step video demonstrations, from the top tutors at the Academy. The recipes and videos are available to view at http://www.glenisk.com/recipes/cooks-academy-recipes. 

For further information, see promotional packs of Glenisk’s Organic Crème Fraîche, 250g (€1.59, available nationwide) or visit www.glenisk.com.

Polly Introduces Tullamore Dairies

Hi there and welcome back to Vinca's In Tha Kitchen. It's been a long time since I've made my presence felt here and frankly I feel guilty about it! Sad to say that I could offer excuse upon excuse, each as relevent as the other, but honestly folks I think it was a mixture between bloggers block and a lack of heart...

First of all, let me just say that I haven't been totally idle since my last posting. Oh no, I've been getting plenty of exercise surfing away and catching up with my own reading which is something that often doesn't happen when I'm busy blogging and making cards. It's important to catch up and to keep up, so while I've been feeling sorry for myself with all the exciting developments in my life I've been chilling out on the net in between times. So, I've got quite a bit to catch up on...

First of all my love affair with Glenisk. Well, I'm sure that regular readers have often heard me refer to the Cleary family from Killeigh and their ethically conscious dairy company, and just every now and again their sister company Tullamore Dairies. I feel it necessary for me to offer an apology of sorts, in so far as I seem to have almost neglected Tullamore Dairies - the original incarnation, in preference of their younger flashier sister company.

For those of you who don't live locally Tullamore Dairies is still very much up and running. They provide some of the nicest, creamiest and cheapest milk in the locality, just as they have been doing ever since they first set up as an independant dairy. Rather bizarrely, I made an interesting discovery about this company just last week - they supply skimmed milk...

Up until last week I had somewhat reluctantly been purchasing what I refer to as 'pink milk' from their competitor & major stakeholder in the dairy business here in Ireland. To the best of my knowledge this huge conglomerate was the only supplier of the slightly thinner version of everybody's favourite healthy drink. As a consequence I have been buying their product in bulk and freezing it until needed, as it is often difficult to purchase skimmed milk in Ireland at all!

To be honest I've yet to buy my local Tullamore Dairies product as I've still got a healthy quantity of the frozen stuff to use up, but believe you me I'll be looking for the distinctive green and white waxed carton in the shops next time I go shopping...

Fancy A Free Yoghurt?

Anyone reading this for the first time might not be aware of my 'love affair' with local champions of all things organic and sustainable. To explain a little bit more about this whey (sic) not check out this offer:

Fancy Free Yogurt? 

We've got 250 free packs to give away to our Facebook Fans. For a chance to win, become a fan and email your address to win@glenisk.com by April 15 putting 'Facebook' in the subject line.

Yes, that's right they're at it again, the Cleary family from Killeigh, Co Offaly are distributing their new Moosletter with all the latest news from the Dairy you can trust. Click on through to their main website to find out more about this ground breaking family and see what has inspired me to follow their fortunes so closely. I'll give you a clue - it's not just because they're local!

So now that you know a little bit more about Glenisk, the people behind it and their ethics do please keep an eye out for their products in a supermarket near you, and support the local economy...

Polly Congratulates Glenisk On Latest...

Early this afternoon I logged into my Facebook account to catch up with the world, his brother and sister and basically to have a good look around. Amongst the regular updates about Farmeville and the like (all of which I studiously ignore!) I came across the latest update from Glenisk.

Regular readers are no doubt aware that Glenisk is in fact one of my neighbours. In rural Ireland, if someone lives within a couple of miles as the crow flies, they are your neighbour and I am thrilled to have the pleasure of having watched the Cleary family from Newtown, Killeigh expand their business over the past three decades. Time after time I'm proud to say that this family business has been nominated for and received top awards and this week is no exception...

Glenisk is the overall winner of the SFA National Business Award 2010. Winning the Food & Drinks category, Glenisk also beat off competition from 35 other finalists to take the top prize. The award was presented to finance director, Gerard Cleary by An Taoiseach, Brian Cowen, TD, on Thursday, 4 March.

While we're on the subject of the latest from Glenisk, why not have a look at their new TV advert. Apparently, this was filmed in the middle of a particularly chilly December which meant that it wasn't practical to film au naturel, ie out on the farm. If you want to see how they did it head over here for more details...

So, congratulations to Vincent, Ger and all the lads over in Newtown! Keep up the good work and carry on bringing national and international awards back to our parish, making organics and sustainability hip, and the nation healthier...!

Polly Pierce

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Pollys Love Of Irish Food...

Although this post is definitely food related I decided to place it here on this blog to highlight the successes of local businesses and also to draw your attention to National Organic Week 2009. Just this morning as I wrote my posts for Vinca's-In-Tha-Kitchen I heard the tell-tale ping'ing noise which alerts me that something new has dropped into my in-box.

Surprisingly enough it was my copy of this months Glenisk Moosletter. Really this couldn't be more appropriate if it tried. The Cleary's of Newtown, Killeigh have been dedicated to things organic and green for a long time now! They have recently joined the Love Irish Food Campaign which is encouraging consumers to add just one more Irish brand to their shopping each week to help stimulate growth in the Irish economy and safeguard jobs.

What makes its arrival even better is the fact that once again these local people have won another prestigious award for one of their products

"Awards for Glenisk in 2009"
Glenisk Greek Style Yogurt takes Gold at the National Organic Awards

2009 National Organic Awards PresentationGlenisk has won
Best Retail Product at the 2009 National Organic Awards. The awards were presented at an event in Bord Bia, Dublin on 14 September, to mark the beginning of Ireland's National Organic Week.

The winning product was our Greek Style Natural Yogurt, launched at the end of 2008 - this product, which is also available in blueberry flavour, is Glenisk's creamiest most indulgent yogurt yet.

MD Vincent Cleary accepted the award from Trevor Sargent, T.D., Minister for Food & Horticulture at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Food.

I'm pretty sure we will all agree that this is a great achievement for anybody's business, but what makes it extra special for me is the fact that these guys are locals.

In addition to this Glenisk is also celebrating the fact that it now available in Northern Ireland.

"Bringing organic dairy foods to Northern Ireland is an important step in our mission to create an Organic Ireland."

All that remains for me to say is congratulations and keep up the good work...

Polly See's Cleary Now...!

Dear God; will these guy's never stop? Hot on the heels of my last post; in which I championed some famous Offalian's on a local, national and international level I just received the latest copy of the Glenisk Newsletter.

Not content with being famously innovative; this family business has gone from strength to strength over the last thirty or so years. While still incarcerated at the Sacred Heart Convent in Tullamore I have fond memories of opening the quarter pint tetra-cartons of milk donated to the school on a daily basis during the early years of the Tullamore Dairies story.

As Christmas approaches so do the memories of the Cleary's driver dropping off a carton or two of cream from Santa Clause. The Cleary's have been a part of the community from start to finish, their dreams have grown to reality in the time that has realised enormous changes in this country alone. From being up there in the third world league tables, the Bengal Tiger famously immigrated and took Irish nationality...

Sadly it seems that the bubble has since burst; but not for Glenisk - the organic side of a business that started up a generation or so ago in Newtown, Killeigh. Not only does this company have a strong work ethic; upholding the belief that we should interfere as little as possible with our planet and all that it produces is equally important. Locally the Cleary's use Airtricity; generated from the one naturally occuring resource that Ireland is seldom short of - Wind! Maybe next they will be harnessing another type of wind produced by Green Cows!?

A little further afield this local hero is supporting yet another important project this Christmas; from a humble pot of cream to a herd of goats, maybe even a hive of bees. Glenisk has teamed up in promoting and sponsoring Bothar to produce a beautifully photographed Calendar for the New Year in 2009.

Vincent Cleary is pictured (right) with Patrick McCarrick of Bóthar and Sandy, one of Glenisk's goats at the launch of this year's calendar.

Each calender will cost just €10 (including postage to anywhere in the world) and it features images of successful projects in Nepal and Tanzania. Funds raised from the sale of this calendar will form part of the ongoing support to poor families in these two countries. Also featured are images of dairy goats from Ireland.

The Cleary family of Glenisk made the decision to sponsor the calendar because, as Vincent Cleary puts it: "We greatly admire Bóthar's work in helping to alleviate hunger among the world's poorest populations."

Just in case you are one of those poor people like me, who remember the the days when Christmas actually meant something, was smaller and more enjoyable why not have a look at gifting for charity. Faced with the difficult decision of what to buy for whom visit Bothar and download a copy of this years Christmas catalogue, let's help someone else for a change. Face it guy's; "...unlike most of the presents we exchange at this time of year, these are gifts that reflect the true spirit of Christmas."

"The Difference Is Cleary"

Did I forget to suggest that you pay the Cleary's another visit and check out their Awards and Accolades Page and see what these guy's are really up to..

Offalian's Triumph

This morning I checked into Microsoft Outlook to see what delights had landed in my inbox and was not disappointed to spot the Offaly CEB December Ezine. My attendance of events organised by this group is unfortunately infrequent; due to previous commitments clashing. I keep an eye on things though; just in case...

In the wake of a whole swathe of award ceremonies it was a natural progression to publish some of the Offaly success stories; many of which had to do with food. Some; admittedly, in a somewhat round about way, but nevertheless come under that category!

Strangely enough this accolade must be awarded to Agetek who are based in Tullamore. Their stange name belies the fact that this company won the 2008 OCEB Enterprise Of The Year Award; but how is this connected with the subject at hand, ie Food? Well, simply put these guys manufacture doors for kitchen units and I'm sure we're all agreed that they are an integral part of the food preparation area...

On a much larger scale the Silver Award for cheese making was presented to Ralph Haslam of Mossfield Organic Cheese for his cow’s milk cheese with garlic and basil at the 2008 WORLD Cheese Awards which were held in Ireland for the first time this year; featuring over 2,400 entries from around the globe.

This award winning farm is situated at the foot of the Slieve Bloom Mountains some six miles from Birr, County Offaly. Having undergone organic conversion in 1999, Mossfield began production of award winning organic cheeses in 2005 and are hoping to expand into the field of yoghurt and ice-cream production in the future.

On a National Scale; the overall winner of any success story has to be Glenisk the overall Winner of National Organic Award 2008 for their Glenisk Irish Organic Butter. Glenisk Irish Organic Butter was judged the best of more than 100 entries in the 2008 National Organic Awards, organized by Bord Bia in conjunction with the Department of Agriculture.

The Cleary family business has been based in Killeigh, Co Offaly producing a range of organic yoghurt and milks for over twenty-five years. Sourcing quality organic milks from fifty farms across the island of Ireland; harvesting 90% of all organic milk produced, this company has gone from a dream to Award winning reality.

Another notable winner; the 2008 OCEB Enterprise Of The Year - Artisan Award was presented to Ballyshiel Artisan Foods who lovingly create a deliciously tempting range of speciality confectionery and chocolates; hand made using authentic family recipes. Their range includes Toffee Dulce de Leche (used in making Banoffee pie), exquisite Chocolate Sauce, Karina Handmade Chocolate's which include old time favourite; Macaroon Bars.

Ballyshiel Artisan Foods promise is that all their quality products are gluten, preservative, artificial flavouring, hydrogenated oil and fat free making them suitable for coeliac's and vegetarian's.

Also included in the list of Offaly CEB finalist's was Yvonne Carty of Hey Pesto! Who specialises in making entertaining a stress free adventure of the culinary variety. Catering for corporate and domestic customer's Yvonne has her craft down to a fine art and having sampled some of her wares I can heartily agree!

I'm sure we can all agree that the above list makes interesting reading for us Offalian's! It's nice to hear of anyone in the region succeeding in business but to be honest it's even better when this applies to food. At a time when there's less money available to splash out on expensive treats it's good to know that we have some award winning products right here on our door step. What's even nicer is that the quality of these products is assured...

I hope you enjoy checking out the links as there are some terrific products and companies to be found. Be thankful that Polly didn't launch into one of her famous rants about the dangers of eating 'normal' foodstuffs...

Polly Pierce

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