Monday, December 13, 2010

BUYING IRISH

BUYING IRISH
NEED TO BE AWARE & AWAKE

Must admit I don't always have the green flag wrapped around me when I’m shopping, even for food. But If the Irish product has the quality and is price competitive, then I’ll
go for it.

It isn’t always that easy. This morning, I found myself in KTMAX and in front of their expanded foodie display. I saw lots of chocolates and sweets there, none of them Irish as far as I could see; most of them were from Belgium and most of them were nicely packaged. I was tempted and then my Irish angel woke up and said no.

So off I went to the nearby English Market to the Chocolate Shop Shop  and must admit I was surprised at the amount of imported chocolate on the display here also. In fairness, there was a good portion of Irish made there as well and, unlike the big stores, personal knowledge and advice, much appreciated.

Bought myself some packs by Danucci   (made in County Louth), some Orange Brittle (made by Skelligs who suffered serious fire damage last month), a box of Turkish Delight by Hadji Bey   (now operating in Kildare) and also a few handmade lollipops by Nicole Dunphy’s Pandora Bell ( from Limerick).

So that’ll sort a few of them out for Christmas. Sorted myself out a few minutes later when buying a chunk of spiced beef from Durcan's  and I didn’t have to ask them if it was Irish. Not a bad morning’s work.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Keep fighting the good fight, Billy!

We'll have to keep giving Johnny Foreigner our money when it comes to wine though ;)

Cork Billy said...

Wouldn't want to deprive anyone of their wine or indeed of any of their favourite foreign things. But we should think before we buy. Just wonder how much of my tenner spent in say KTMAX or SMYTHS TOYS stays in the local economny. Got this tweet recently from Martin Conroy of Woodside Farm and it says a lot: London's New Economics Foundation found £10 spent at local business is worth £25 locally, compared with just £14 when spent in supermarkets.

Brian Clayton said...

Hi Billy, I couldn't agree more. It's something I'm really making an effort with this year - buying local. I even had a blog post ready to go but you beat me to it :)

Cork Billy said...

Nice post Brian. We just have to think about it in advance. It was just by chance I thought of it this morning; I could easily have spent the money in KTMAX and most of it would have left the country

Anonymous said...

Hi all,

Yes you're right about supporting local but all chocolate should be treated as luxury too as is so very foreign - I'm crafting chocolate here in Clonakilty (Clonakilty Chocolate) and struggle with the fact that I am so reliant on importing all my supplies -

I think it's so important to consider the real origin of products like chocolate, that we buy less, buy high quality & ethically traded chocolate, to ensure that our industry here treats the primary producers with the respect they deserve!

Keep up the good work Billy, happy to have found your blog! Allison

Cork Billy said...

Hi Allison and thanks. Must call down to Clon soon, overdue a visit.