Smoking Eel…. well…. we are, not the eels!

We thought that we had smoked our last batch of eels last week, but on Tuesday morning we received 250 kgs of superb Silver Eels from Louch Gowna and Louch Outra. The size ranged from 400gms up to a Kg.

Reports are circulating that this will be the last year that Silver Eels will be commercially caught. Facts and figures are scarce, but the stocks are apparently some 80% less than they were 10 years ago. If this is the case, then fishing has to be stopped to give the stock a chance to recover. As with the wild salmon stocks, it is never quite so simple and many factors have contributed to the decline in eel stocks in Ireland and Europe. One report out today blames the amount of pollution such as petro carbons, oil & petrol leaks, in waterways is causing the breakdown of the slime on the eels’ body. Others blame the harvesting of the elvers as they swim back from the Sargasso Sea to feast in our lakes and rivers. The price that can be fetched for a bucket of elvers is astronomical!

 But despite all this doom and gloom, our eel fisherman tells me that stocks this autumn are excellent, and the number of very small eels is better than for many a year. So hopefully, not all is D & G!

The eels we smoked today look amazing and it looks as though we will have smoked eel available for a little longer.

Check out our ordering pages at ummera.com for Smoked Eel.

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

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.