We are truly blessed in Co Wexford to have so many food and drink producers working hard to create the very best product possible, and the sheer quantity of awards our members picked up this year at the annual Blas na hÉireann awards is testament to that hard work.
It can’t be stressed enough what a fantastic achievement it was for WILD About to pick up Supreme Champion at this years awards, and we couldn’t be more pleased to have a Supreme Champion in our midst.
Wild About is a multi-award-winning Irish artisan producer and local food hero. Working from their small sustainable permaculture farm in Co. Wexford, they grow and forage a range of produce to create deliciously low carbon, low sugar, sustainable handmade artisan dressings, syrups, chutneys, and snacks directly from seasonal harvests.
The Falconer family created Wild About products through a huge lifestyle change — they swapped living in London and careers in product design and documentary filmmaking for the good life in the Wexford countryside. Fiona was originally from Dublin and Malcolm grew up on a smallholding in South Wales, and now with their family they specialise in handcrafting seasonal products using native wild ingredients, Ireland’s own superfoods.
Home to Ireland’s first commercial nettle farm, along with a traditional vegetable garden and polytunnel, Wild About’s products are also based on foraged wild foods like sloes, haws, rosehips, crab apples, wild pears, quince, and an array of other exceptional seasonal ingredients. Their Blas na hÉireann 2021 Supreme Champion win is for their So Sloe Jelly, where wild sloe berries from the native Blackthorn are made into a gorgeous seasonal fruit jelly conserve with a hint of star anise, perfect with duck, game, and venison and delicious with soft cheese or even just on hot buttered toast.
We are absolutely dumbfounded to be awarded Supreme Champion at the Blas na hEireann Irish Food Awards,” says Fiona Falconer of Wild About. “We are a tiny family run company that believes passionately in the benefits of simple, sustainable plant-based foods. We grow ingredients for our products, ethically and sustainably on our biodiversity farm here in Co. Wexford. We work seasonally so the range changes with the harvests and we specialise in native wild ingredients. Malc makes everything by hand in small batches – pure artisan. But it’s just the two of us, we are tiny.”
Congratulations again to Fiona and Malcom, these awards are testament to their hard work and belief in their ingredients.
