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The attractive recipe booklet from A Taste of Ballyhoura Country, which is distributed with this week’s issue of The Avondhu.

Everyone wants to keep jobs local, but also to try new things - and a great way to do this is by supporting local food producers. This week inside The Avondhu, we carry a recipe book from A Taste of Ballyhoura Country, which contains twenty mouth-watering recipes that all use locally sourced ingredients.

Since the recipe book was first launched, it has been very well received and Tim Madden of A Taste of Ballyhoura Country said that the recipes are straight forward and 'do-able', but also different and really tasty.

REGIONAL PRODUCE

Tim explained that there is a strong connection between food production and tourism and with the number of cyclists that Ballyhoura Failte bring into the region every year, instead of just coming to cycle and leaving, they should be encouraged to stay locally and try out the local produce. That is precisely what this brand aims to do - it hopes to encourage both visitors and local people to taste the produce from the region.

He said that by trying these products, people are trying something new, but also helping to keep jobs local and make local economies self-sustainable.

Tim added that by incorporating different trail names into the titles, they had a little bit of fun with the recipe names, to help enhance that link between tourism and the food industry. For example, there are recipes for 'The Ballyhoura Country Bake', 'Hill Walker's Casserole', 'Leave No Trace Lemon Posset' and 'Mitchelstown Muffins', to name but a few.

Giving a little bit of background, Tim said that in May of last year, the brand A Taste of Ballyhoura Country was launched and since then, the seven food producers involved in the programme have all been thriving and growing. The idea for the brand came about between 2007 and 2008, through the Ballyhoura Development food strategy, as a way to promote food produced locally.

Locally, the companies that are part of the brand include Clotilde's Compotes, Eight Degrees Brewing, Hodgins Food, Horgan's Delicatessen Supplies, Old Irish Creamery and the remaining ones, which are based outside the Avondhu area, are Ballyhoura Apple Farm in Churchtown and Pandora Bell in Ballysimon.

Tim said that in 2014, they hope that some of the food producers will start working together on research and development to make products together.

OPPORTUNITY

They are also hoping to go international with some of the products and while some companies are already thriving on a strong export trade, others haven't explored this option yet. This would be a great way to reach out to the Irish diaspora in the UK, giving them a taste of home while living abroad.

The recipe book, distributed through this week's issue of The Avondhu, is also available to download from www.atasteofballyhouracountry.com. So if families have loved ones abroad who are pining for the tastes from home, why not email them the link and send them a little care package of ingredients, so that the recipes can be sampled in kitchens from all across the globe. 

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