August 10th, 2010
Sometimes raising the best duck in Ireland just isn’t enough. Either that or our Managing Director Stuart and Breeding Manager Denis have let some high altitude affect their faculties, but this autumn they are off to climb 17,500 feet to the Everest Base Camp.
It’s a big challenge, and they are doing it all for the very worthy charity ‘Fighting Blindness’. The charity aims to raise much-needed funds for pioneering research to help those afflicted with blindness and ultimately find a cure for this debilitating affliction.
Of course, getting to the Himalayas isn’t easy and the guys are on a major fundraising drive to raise the €12,000 for the charity. This is where you can help – without having to suffer freezing -10 degree temperatures! Stuart and Denis will be running events to help raise the money, but you can also donate – totally confidentially – here.
Any amount, no matter how small, 
would be a great help.
I will also keep you updated of their progress when they set off – should make for exciting reading!
Tags: everest, fighting blindness, Stuart Steele
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July 14th, 2010
More great news from the Silver hill foods camp – we have been awarded ‘3 Star Gold’ for our Ummera Smoked Silver Hill Duck at the Great Taste Awards! Over 6,000 entries were received for the awards, but only 91 were honoured with the ‘3 Star Gold’ distinction.
Our sumptuous duck is smoked by the wonderful people at Ummera in Co. Cork, and this award means that all of Ummera’s products have now received an award from the Guild of Fine Food! Well done to everyone involved – it’s great to be recognized by such a prestigious organization.
Have a look at our recipe section for some tasty ways to prepare your Silver Hill smoked duck dish.
Tags: awards, smoked duck, ummera
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June 3rd, 2010
We have had some very distinguished guests here at the Silver Hill farm this week, with a visit from Minister for Tourism, Culture and Sport, Mary Hanafin. Following a brief meeting with the Minister at the Restaurant Association of Ireland awards a few weeks ago, she decided to come and see our enterprise here for herself!
Mary Hanafin enjoyed a tour of the Silver Hill farm, and sampled some of our produce – of course! She also had a look at our new Silver Hill allotments that aim to increase sustainability in our Monaghan community.
The allotments are beginning to flourish now – Six local schools each have a plot on a quarter acre of our farm, growing everything from carrots to potatoes, peas and flowers. All of the produce is sold in the Silver Hill farm shop, with profits going back to each of the schools. This was something that we wanted to do for a long time, and it’s great to see it taking off the way it has.
We may be just a farm at heart, but Corporate Social Responsibility plays a part, even here. I’ll keep you updated on our progress and if you want to sample some of the wonderful organic fruit, vegetables and flowers, drop in to us at the shop!
Tags: allotments, corporate social reponsibility, Minister Mary Hanafin
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May 17th, 2010
I’ve had the best couple of weeks possible – cooking up all of the recipes that so many of you sent in for the Silver Hill Consumer Recipe competition. It’s a chef’s dream!
The quality of the dishes were outstanding, and there’s certainly no shortage of imagination when it comes to duck dishes. And thankfully, not one of them suggested duck ice cream!!!
I’m delighted to announce that our overall winner is Mimi Gaynor from Dublin, who dreamt up a delightful Silver Hill roast stuffed duck with honey curry sauce – I’ll be posting up the recipe on facebook so you can all try it out for yourselves. Mimi wins a range of top kitchen equipment plus a selection Silver Hill products worth a total of €750 – so I’m sure there’ll be lots more cooking done in her kitchen in the weeks to come!
We had planned on just one winner, but the standard was so high that we had to include two runner up prizes to Sarah Priestman and Kevin MacNamidhe who outdid themselves with their tasty Silver Hill recipes. Congratulations guys – you both get a Silver Hill hamper packed full of goodies!
Tags: awards, recipe competition
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May 14th, 2010
Great news! I have just found out that I have been shortlisted for Development Chef of the Year by the Craft Guild of Chefs! It’s a huge honour to be included as a finalist when other categories include chefs from the Ritz, La Chapelle, and the Pak Lane Hotel, amongst others. Wow!
The awards take place on 24th June at the Lancaster London Hotel… that’s one date in my diary for sure!
The Craft Guild of Chefs Awards have
been on the go for 17 years and are known as the chef’s ‘Oscars’, and the coveted accolades recognise and reward the leading talent working in kitchens all across the industry.
The winning candidates are announced at the prestigious awards ceremony, - itself has become an unmissable event in the industry calendar, with more than 600 of the country’s culinary professionals gathering under one roof to celebrate with their peers.
I’ll keep you all filled in on how we do!
Tags: awards
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February 8th, 2010
Chinese New Year begins next Sunday (February 14th), and we at Silver Hill are getting ready to welcome the Year of the Tiger!
Dublin City Council launched the festivities last Friday with a Sino-Irish fashion exhibition (details of this and other New Year festivities here), and we are delighted to be involved with some of the initiatives too. This week I’ll be working with the chefs at the Chinese New Year banquet in Dublin zoo to prepare the duck menu in the authentic Chinese method. And today I’m off to do a tasting for the menu with the committee. It’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it!!!
James and I are also heading over to the New Year festivities in Manchester on Sunday to host a duck tasting session in Albert Square Market. It may be Valentine’s day but we’ll be with out first love anyway – duck! 
Our Silver Hill shop in Emyvale has been going really well too. It’s a stone’s throw from the farm and you can pick up all the Silver Hill goodies at factory prices, so pop in and say hi sometime!
Tags: Chinese New Year, shop
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January 26th, 2010
Happy (belated) New Year to all!
I’m just back from a lovely holiday, where I spent the best part of three weeks in Australia, touring some of the nicest restaurants in Melbourne and Sydney (you’re never off duty when you work here!!).
I couldn’t help but be in search of other ducks to see how they compared to Silver Hill ducks! Obviously none of them came close to our unique taste and succulence but I did come across some interesting dishes nonetheless.
Speaking of dishes, on my return I received some very interesting and innovative ways our customers use our duck through the entrants we have so far received for our duck dish competition!! Keep them coming!!
On my way back from Australia I stopped in Beijing – the home of the Pekin/Beijing Duck – and ate in one of the worlds best known duck restaurants, ‘Quan Ju De’. Wow what an experience and I’ve a few tips up my sleeve from what I saw there!
Now that I’m back it’s all go here at Silver Hill Foods, between getting ready for the Chinese New Year next month and also looking ahead to 2010 and developing some new and exciting products as well as attending some tradeshows.
So here’s to 2010 and exciting times for Silver Hill Foods.
Tags: beijing
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January 11th, 2010
Calling all amateur chefs! Silver Hill Foods, Ireland’s premium duck producer is searching for the nation’s top duck recipe. It’s time to get those creative juices flowing and show us what you’re made of!
We have launched a nationwide competition in search of Ireland’s top duck recipe. Budding chefs around Ireland are invited to submit either a starter or main course recipe using any Silver Hill duck as the main ingredient. Be as creative as you like and give your tastebuds a treat!
The lucky winner will receive a range of top kitchen equipment worthy of any chef, along with a selection Silver Hill products…. worth a total of €750!
Interested? Post, email or fax recipes and your full contact details to Silver Hill Foods no later than the closing date of 28th March 2010. The winning recipe will be chosen by Stuart Steele, Managing Director of Silver Hill and me! I can’t wait to get tasting those creations, so get cooking!
Address: Silver Hill Foods, Emyvale, Co. Monaghan
Fax: 047-87655
Email: silverhill@eircom.net
The winner will be contacted directly in April.
Tags: recipe competition
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December 23rd, 2009
I love Christmas; snuggling up to the fire, a glass of wine in hand and great cheesy films on TV. What’s not to love? Of course, I usually spend my holidays in the kitchen – an occupational hazard!
I may be a teeny bit biased but there’s nothing I love more for my Christmas dinner than a lovely roast duck (check out a good recipe here
). It’s easy to prepare and good quality products can make it easy to feed the 5,000 with something that everyone will enjoy. Don’t even get me started on yummy duck fat roasters…!
Happy Christmas all…
See you next year!
Tags: christmas
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December 8th, 2009
Dished up by Gary on December 8th 2009
It’s been a long time in the planning, but today we opened the Silver Hill shop!
The buzz about the place was fantastic, and it’s great to see local people, media and even tourists coming in to sample our wares first hand. We decided not to limit ourselves to the Silver Hill Foods but will also have the Silver Hill Feathers products for sale.
I’ll post up pictures of the new store over the coming days.
Soon we’ll have the whole county eating (and sleeping) duck!
Tags: Monaghan, shop
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