Archive for the ‘Organic Smoked Salmon’ Category

December 8th and two new shops opening!

December 7, 2006

There are two new speciality food shops opening tomorrow in Ireland, and I am delighted that they are both carrying a range of our products!

The first is a newURRU shop in Mallow which will bring to that town some of the excellence that Bandonians have been raving about for the last couple of years. Willie, brother of Ruth in Bandon, will bring his experience as a Graphic Designer and the benefits of a six month course at Ballymaloe to bear on this exciting project.

The second is in Gorey, Co. Wexford where Christian and Heather Pauritsch open the doors at Partridge Lodge, 93 Main Street, Gorey.

And it’s 10% off Day tomorrow in Clonakity!

No more Smoked Wild Salmon

November 30, 2006

There have been years when I thought that we would run out of wild salmon before Christmas, but we never have until now.

It is with regret that we have had to close our order books for Smoked Wild Salmon as from yesterday, November 28th. Hopefully we have sufficient stock to meet our existing orders, but there will be disappointed customers  who have, every year over the last twenty or thirty years, enjoyed Ummera Smoked Wild Salmon at Christmas time.

We do have our very successful Smoked Organic Salmon to replace the wild salmon, so all is not lost.

It is our hope that, by leaving the wild salmon alone for a while, there will be significant increase in the numbers of salmon returning to spawn in the rivers and thus restoring the salmon stocks.

I have had suggested to me that maybe we could by wild salmon from elsewhere, Alaska for instance, or Norway, but we have always smoked Irish Salmon and we are very careful about the provenance of our products. Why ship salmon all the way from Alaska to smoke here? Air miles?

Of course this brings back the question: Is it Smoked Irish Salmon or Irish Smoked Salmon? So much of the salmon that purports to be Irish is more than likely to have been salmon farmed in Scotland, the Shetlands, Norway and probably even Chile.

We can vouch for the fact that our organic salmon comes from Clare Island in Clew Bay, Co. Mayo and our wild salmon came from fishermen in West Cork.

Proof of Organic Certification

November 26, 2006

The Irish  Food Minister, Brendan Smith, said during the week that “there is only one guarantee that you are buying organic food and that is an official certification from one the Irish organic farming bodies or an approved body in another EU member state. If the seller  can’t show you the certification, then you have no assurance whatsoever about what you are buying”.

The Minister continued to say that “we cannot tolerate traders who break the rules”.

Ummera has been an approved producer of Organic Smoked Salmon since April 2002 and we hope that consumers will pay attention to his advice. Here is our Certication for the current year issued by the Organic Trust:

London Tasting

November 17, 2006

Feels just like winter today in West Cork!

However, if you are in London tomorrow and anywhere near Battersea Rise, do drop into the re-launched No. 53 (formerly Mise enPlace) at 53 Battersea Rise, London sw11 and meet Simon Richardson of GS Foods who will be giving a tasting of some of our products, primarily our Gold Award winning Smoked Organic Salmon.

 

If you are in the area tomorrow Saturday, do say hello to Guy Wolley and Simon; I’ve told them that I will arrange the rent-a-crowd!

 

Our new online ordering pages are up and working, so if you can’t make Battersea, go online and browse through our web site.

National Organic Week

November 10, 2006

As part of our participation in the National Organic Week, we are having a sampling of our Smoked Organic Salmon at Scally’s SuperValu in Clonakilty on Saturday morning from 11.00am.

We will also, of course, be featuring it at the Bandon Farmers’ Market on Saturday as well.

Come and see us!

Drift Net Ban to hit salmon producers – Press Extract

November 6, 2006

Sunday Business Post 5th November 2006 – Extract from article by Adam McGuire

But some producers are supportive of the new legislation.

Anthony Creswell, owner of Ummera Smokehouse in Timoleague, Co Cork, said he welcomed the government’s decision, but said that if it had followed scientific recommendations before now, a ban on drift-net fishing might not have been necessary.

‘‘It’s probably the best thing the department has done in a long time. The government has spent too long taking political, rather than realistic, decisions,” said Creswell.

He said his company had put more emphasis on organic salmon long before now, due to the inevitable decline of salmon stocks. Over the past three years, the company has slowly shifted its production to organic. He said the ban would have little impact on business.

End Quote

By way of clarification, we have do have smoked wild salmon available, and we very much hope to be smoking Irish Wild Salmon in the years ahead – but only from sustainably caught stock.

Speciality & Fine Food Fair, Olympia London.

August 30, 2006

Weblogs tend to be tales of the past, however not here. This is the future……!

My earlier post ended in Bristol, but not for me; the Bristol show starts on Saturday and I will have to catch the train to London at lunchtime to set up our stand at The Speciality & Fine Food Fair in London. Then three days of talking and smiling, then home on Tuesday night.

If you have read this and are at Olympia, there will be a special draw for a side of smoked salmon for anyone who visits our Stand 545 and can say the word UMMERA backwards without prompting! Start practising!

Bristol Organic Food Festival

August 30, 2006

An early start on Friday morning as Ralph and I head off to catch the ferry at Rosslare en-route to Bristol and the Harbourside area. We plan to do a short tasting at Chandos Deli’s shop in Clifton before setting up our stall in the Lloyds Amphitheatre area.

If, by remote chance, anyone is reading this in the Avon area, come and see us at the festival. I gather that there is an entrance fee this year, but hopefully that won’t deter those who are interested in seeing a fantastic range of organic fare. For details go to http://www.organicfoodfairs.co.uk/

The Royal Hospital, Kilmainham last week and Butler’s Pantry this week!

May 22, 2006

Last week Bord Bia held a very successful Speciality Food Forum at The Royal Hospital with many  speciality food buyers from both here and the UK.

It was also the first time that one of the Great Taste Award judging sessions was held here in Ireland; there were over 800 entries from all over Ireland and we were delighted to get a Gold Award for our Smoked Silver Eel and a Silver Award for our Smoked Wild Salmon. Last year we were awarded a Gold for our Organic Smoked Salmon (the rules precluded us from entering it again this year).

Anyway, that was last week!

This coming week, the Butler’s Pantry Artisan Week takes place in their shops throughout Dublin, Mount Merrion Avenue, Donnybrook, Temple Hill, Sandymount, Clontaf and Rathgar. I will be tasting our Organic Smoked Salmon and our Smoked Chicken at the 2b Vernon Avenue, Clontarf shop on Friday May 26th from 4pm to 7pm, and on Saturday I will be at 53 Mount Merrion Avenue, Blackrock form 11am to 3pm.

If you can’t get to Blackrock on the Saturday, Ummera products will be available for tasting at all the shops on the Saturday as that is the Ummera Smokehouse Day of the Artisan Week!

In the interests of fairness to our other customers in Dublin, our smoked products are also available in the Avoca shops, Nolan’s of Clontarf, The Olive Deli in Skerries and as from the middle of next week in Mortons of Ranelagh.

Ummera Organic Smoked Salmon packaging

January 21, 2006

Ummera Organic Smoked Salmon