Heather Honey wins Gold at Blás na hEireann

Still can't believe my heather honey wins gold at Blás na hEireann 2017. Back in March I entered two of my raw Irish honey into the Blás na hEireann Irish Food Awards. My heather honey off the Dublin Mountains and my Glenasmole Softset from the bees here on the farm. Here is how the heather honey is prepared Preparing Heather Honey.

It wasn't until I was about to give a talk on bees, beekeeping and honey from a smallholders perspective. After being invited to attend the smallholders gathering at Taste of Cavan. I was literally being given the mic when I got the email telling me that both my honeys had made it through to the final seven. It took several attempts reading that email to make sure what I was reading was true.Now I had to start preparing for making a trip down to Dingle at the end of September to the finals.

Below you can see the 7 finalists in the honey category for 2017 and two of them were mine.

Arriving in Dingle, I couldn’t wait to visit the producers tent to see my honey on display. What a fantastic feeling to see it there on the shelf. Just getting that far was an amazing achievement.I had met the two lads form The Cupcake Bloke and delighted to tag along with them. I didn’t know anyone else there so I was so lucky to meet up with them.

Finally when bronze and silver were called out we were sitting in the front row due to the venue being full. I was genuinely convinced that was it, nothing! Until I heard my name being called out, I couldn’t believe it. Gold!!! for my Dublin Mountains Heather Honey. As I was leaving I was told to stay put because the judges had also given me the award for 'Best Food Producer in Dublin'. Can you believe out of all the other amazing food producers from Dublin. The judges thought my heather honey was the best!

In the picture below I'm probably the happiest man in Ireland with my two awards and a jar of my heather #honey. 🐝💤💤💤🍯

That night I went for dinner with Graham and Daithi followed by a few drinks because we needed to celebrate as they also won silver for their Teelings Brack. A screen shot of the tweet that announced my win.

Back home on the farm showing my two peices of Dingle Crystal to the bees 🐝💤💤💤🍯 Thanks to all my #bees for all their hard work!

bees, honeyOlly Nolan7 October 2017Blás na hEireann, Irish honey, raw Irish honey, heather honey, heatherComment