Wicklow Naturally Day at Daisy Cottage
Wicklow Naturally, Wicklow’s Food and Drink Network held the Wicklow Naturally Day event at Daisy Cottage Farm on 16th October, 2024
The Wicklow Naturally Day was organised with the support of Wicklow Council and Department of Agriculture. The day included cooking demostrations, food tastings, farm visit and Wicklow Naturally products showcasing. This event served as well at launch for the annual Wicklow October Feast Festival that is taking place from the 12th to the 31st of October 2024. With close to 30 events organised over the month, October Feast showcases the various foods and flavours that are produced in Wicklow. The festival includes local food markets, winery, distillery and brewery tours, cooking demos, food tastings, foraging walks, mushroom hunts, nature walks and much more.
Daisy Cottage Farm, which is located in the scenic countryside near Kiltegan in West Wicklow. Daisy Cottage Farm is perhaps best known for its home baking business, as owner Lorraine Aspill brings her Daisy Cottage range of baked goods, jams and preserves to markets and festivals around the country and her colourful stand is a cornerstone of many Wicklow festivals too. Her range also includes bread and baking mixes, produced on her farm and gives online and in person cookery demos. This year Lorraine, along with her West Wicklow Neighbour, Tom Burgess of Coolattin Cheddar, took part in a Sustainable Food Tourism course. This course encouraged particpants to develop food tourism experiences on their farms. Armed with this knowledge and with the experience of hosting previous Wicklow Naturally Farm to Fork Trails, supported by DAFM funding in 2022, they are keen to develop opportunities for guests to visit their farms and to develop new sales opportunities for their produce.
Lorraine hosted the launch which began with a warm welcome into her farmhouse kitchen for a cookery demonstration. Lorraine made soda breads and scones, held a hands on butter making class and explained the recipes for her jams and chutneys which she makes using foraged ingredients from the surrounding countryside and cultivated produce from her polytunnel.
She was then joined by fellow Wicklow Naturally member Tom Burgess of Coolattin Cheddar. Tom told invited guests about his farm, dairy and the cheddar making process which has earned his cheese the outstanding achievement of being voted ‘Best Cheddar in the World’ at the World Cheese Awards in 2023.
Together they told guests about upcoming opportunities for farm visits and how they encourage collaboration with other Wicklow Naturally members to offer a true taste of Wicklow to visitors. While the soda breads and scones were baking in the oven, Lorraine brought guests on a tour of her farm, to meet the menagerie of animals who were basking in the autumn sunshine. Guests were then treated to the home baking which was served alongside tastings of Coolattin Cheddar, and a selection of other members produce including tea from Bradys Tea, coffee from McCabes Coffee, Apple Juice from Kilmullen Farm, relishes from Janets Country Fayre.
Guests included leaders from active retirement groups, women’s sheds, tour operators, chefs, food and drinks journalists , travel writers and food and drink network leaders. The guests have already made enquiries about group bookings for the future. Wicklow Naturally Event Coordinator, Santina Kennedy told invited guests about all of the other events happening throughout the county for October Feast and encouraged guests to find out more details on the Wicklow Naturally website events page.
See full list of events for October Feast at: https://wicklownaturally.ie/events/october-feast-2024-wicklows-festival-of-food-event-calendar/
This event was partly funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food, and the Marine.
