6 minute read
NeighbourFood
NeighbourFood
OUTSTANDING ORGANISATION AWARD
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BY ROZ CROWLEY
NeighbourFood provides a route to market for small producers, which is particularly commendable during a year of enormous difficulty. It is an online marketplace where a range of local producers can sell what they grow, rear and create. It is a farmers’ market, but instead of customers lining up at stalls in all kinds of weather, they order online from the comfort of their homes. Customers click to order and pay in advance, then on the designated day chosen by each host in locations countrywide, collect their order of vegetables, meat, fish, sauces, cakes, bread, condiments and ready-made meals. Starting in Cork in 2018, there are now 40 locations in Ireland and 20 in the UK, each with its own local suppliers, managed by local hosts who respond to online orders directed to them, collating each one ready for collection. Suppliers know in advance what is required of them, so there is no waste. Minimal packaging is used – another win for the environment. Producers pay a fee, which goes to the host and to NeighbourFood for this service.
Jack Crotty, known to many as The Rocket Man from the name of his deli in Cork and his stall at the Mahon Point market, came up with the concept. He presented the idea of an online service to NeighbourFood’s co-founder, Martin Poucher, a software developer. Martin was crucial to operations from the start. The system now has a staggering 100,000 lines of coding assisting hosts by dealing with credit card payments, the details of orders for all collection points filtering through one central system, coping with the vicissitudes of online selling, advertising in local communities, social media, Google Maps and ever-changing credit card and online purchase systems, all in a sometimes less-than-perfect internet network. Jack saw an opportunity to bring together growers and producers in a way that would otherwise be impractical for them to sell as individuals. He hoped to prove it was possible to get most of the food we need within our own community. Starting some time before Covid-19 took over our lives, the service of NeighbourFood became not just a lifestyle choice, but an essential service and resource for growers and producers whose livelihoods were threatened as a result of the shrinking of the hospitality industry. There was an influx of suppliers to NeighbourFood, which in turn provided further choice for customers who wanted to support local enterprises. Some producers also import products for which there is no local alternative, from canned tomatoes, chickpeas and olives to wine. In Cork, Jack is supported by his mother, Simone, who, with a history of pioneering food enterprises, runs what was the first Irish depot. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. At their core is a sense of respecting customers, producers and growers, bringing them together in what is hoped will become a body strong enough to lobby at policy level. This award goes not just to co-founders Jack Crotty and Martin Poucher, but to NeighbourFood nationwide, from its suppliers and collection point hosts to its appreciative customers. neighbourfood.ie
Bollito
Recipe by Jack Crotty
Jack Crotty spends a lot of time in Italy and his recipe, typical of Bologna, has an honest frugality that embodies some of NeighbourFood’s ethos and fits with his appreciation of local traditions. Once you spend a little time roasting the beef bones and making a good broth, you get three meals out of it and great stock for the freezer. In Italy they tend to use meat that has little fat, even in the cheaper cuts, as animals are bred to be lean. So while they use a chunk of topside, which will have some marbling, it will have no lumps of fat. In Ireland we can use cheap cuts such as beef shin, which is also delicious. The broth is used first for the bollito (a boiled meat dish), then the next dish will be a bowl of the broth with tortellini or ravioli and the last one will be a mug of warming broth to drink or use as a base for soup. Serves 6
2kg beef bones, ideally with marrow / 2 large onions, unpeeled and halved / 2 large carrots, unpeeled and halved / 10 garlic cloves, unpeeled / Olive oil, for roasting / 4 litres water / 2 celery sticks / 6 bay leaves / 1 tsp black peppercorns / 1 tsp juniper berries / 1 tsp allspice berries (optional) / A handful of fresh thyme, rosemary and/or parsley stalks / 1kg joint of topside beef or beef shin /
Optional extras: Sausages (beef or pork) / Diced pork or chicken
To serve: Mustard / Horseradish / Mayonnaise / Asian sauces
Ask your butcher for bones for stock. He or she may also give you scraps of meat when you explain what it’s for. In Ireland if you use shin of beef or flank it will be on the bone, so get the butcher to remove the meat but make sure to also come home with the bones. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place the beef bones in a large roasting tray with the onions, carrots and whole garlic cloves pressed with the back of a knife to release their flavour. Drizzle with a little olive oil, then roast in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, until the bones have browned. Remove the bones to a large stock pot, discarding any fat, and cover with the water. Add the celery, bay leaves, peppercorns, juniper berries, allspice berries (if using) and the fresh herbs you’re using. Cover the pot and bring almost to the boil, then remove the lid, reduce the heat to the very lowest setting and cook gently for 4 to 5 hours, until reduced by about one-third. Don’t allow the stock to boil at any stage. Skim off any obvious fat – this is easier if you let it cool first. Add the joint of meat, left whole, and cook for 2 to 3 hours, until the meat is tender. For the last 40 minutes of cooking, add the sausages, diced pork or chicken (if using) – there is no need to brown them first. Remove the beef from the stock, cut it into slices and arrange on a serving plate. Remove the sausages, pork or chicken (if using) to the serving plate too. Serve with a pot of mustard, horseradish, mayonnaise, Asian sauces or whatever is to hand. For a second meal, skim off any fat, strain the stock and return it to the pot to reheat. Add tortellini, ravioli, plain pasta (such as the recipe for Ballymore Organics fresh pasta on page 27) or noodles and cook through, then ladle a little of the broth into a bowl, add the pasta and serve. Enjoy the remaining stock as a warming drink. It will have thickened slightly from the starch in the pasta and cooled to a beautiful jelly. Or you can use it as a base for soups, tasting as you go and topping up with water if it becomes too intense. The broth also freezes well.
