Back to Bloom in the Park Festival 2017
This year, Bloom in the Park saw 120,000 visitors pass through the gates of the Phoenix park for an action packed 5 day festival. Revellers enjoyed the incredibly designed gardens, live music, cookery demonstrations from top chefs including Neven Maguire, arts and crafts and an array of Irish food producers to keep them fed for they day. For many, the main attraction was the Bord Bia Food Markets which housed over 100 Irish food producers. Nestled amongst them was Achill Island Sea Salt where we exhibited for our second time!
Although we had been to Bloom in 2015 we had forgotten how big the crowds were! Luckily we managed to reel in recruits over the 5 days to help out on the stand and keep a constant flow of samples going!
We sampled Achill Island Sea Salt on Irish Cherry tomatoes, which were kindly given to us by Grá Tomatoes. Over the 5 days we went through 6 crates of tomatoes!
We also had a new addition to our stand this year, something we have never shown before at a food festival. We set up a salt making demonstration using an induction hob and allowed the salt to crystallise in the pan. Many people are unaware of how sea salt is made so is was a great way to show our process.
Maebh gave an interview with Ear to the Ground’s Helen Carroll on Bord Bia’s Main Stage just before Chef JP McMahon from Aniar Galway gave a contemporary Irish cooking demo. Check out the full interview below!
We were lucky enough to be between Black Castle Drinks and The Bretzel Bakery who’s craft sodas and fresh breads kept us going for the 5 days. On the last day a bit of salt bartering seen us come home from our favourite food festival with a selection of treats from some of the top Irish food producers, a great way to end another year at Bloom!
