Family fun at the Armagh Bramley Apple Festival

With cookery demonstrations on the Flogas kitchens, cocktail making by Viva bar’s mixologist, top quality street food and an artisan producers village, Cider Makers’ Row with delicious local ciders and apple juices, live music, children’s activities with the Navan Centre’s Educational Department, a fascinating insight into the relationship between honey bees and apple orchards with a real beehive on the Ulster Beekeepers’ Association stand, plus, of course, Northern Ireland’s three EU PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) status foods all together for the first time ever – there’s plenty to see, do and entertain at the Armagh Bramley Apple Festival next weekend.

Pictured at the launch of the Armagh Bramley Apple Festival, being held at the Shambles Market Yard, Armagh on Saturday 6th September from 10am until 6pm are (l-r) John Beggs, Northern Ireland Fruit Growers’ Association (NIFGA); Dean Coppard from Uluru Restaurant in Armagh, who will be on of the chefs cooking Armagh Bramley Apple dishes on the Flogas kitchens during the day; Hamilton Loney, NIFGA Chairman; Miss Armagh Bramley Apple, Kara Morgan; Kathy Rafferty, Lord Mayor of Armagh; James Wright from Viva Bar in Armagh, who will be making Armagh Bramley Apple cocktails and mocktails at the Festival; Dermot Morgan, NIFGA Secretary; and Rhonda McDowell from the Armagh Bramley Development Programme.

Being held at the Shambles Market Yard in Armagh City on Saturday 6th September from 10am until 6pm, the free-to-attend Armagh Bramley Apple Festival promises to be a great day out for young and old alike.

If you don’t know much (or anything at all) about what PGI means for a food product, you can learn all about it at the Festival, where Armagh Bramley Apple, Comber Early Potatoes and Lough Neagh Eels representatives will be on hand to give you the inside track on what makes these three iconic Northern Irish products unique and special – there’ll even be water tanks with live eels!

So make sure you put the date in your diary and come along – and bring your very best Armagh Bramley Apple Tart with you too, as you could be walking away with a fabulous hamper of Armagh Bramley goodies if your tart is deemed ‘best in show’ in a blind tasting. There’ll even be a bag of Neill’s Flour for every entrant.  All you need to do is deliver your tart to the Armagh Bramley Apple display stand before 4pm, provide your name and contact number and then go enjoy the Festival until judging of the Neill’s Flour Best Armagh Bramley Apple Tart takes place at 4.30pm – simples!

The Armagh Bramley Apple Festival is part of Armagh City & District Council’s Armagh Bramley Development Programme, which is funded through the Northern Ireland Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 (NIRDP) and administered through Southern Organisation for Action in Rural Areas (SOAR), the Festival is set to showcase Armagh Bramley Apples in their rightful place at the heart of the County’s historic tradition of culinary apple production and as an iconic Northern Irish food product that we should all take more pride in and celebrate for its unique characteristics.