So 12 miles, it's not a concept, it's not an idea, it is an ethos, it is a way of thinking
but more importantly, it's a way of living.
So 12 miles, it's not a concept, it's a way of thinking.
Irish food producers, they've always been there, the countryside, it's always been there,
the green grass has always been there, so it needs to be celebrated.
Sage is a restaurant based in a 12 mile ethos, which means everything we use here in sage
has to be reared, grown and produced within a 12 mile area.
When someone visits sage, we want them to be a part of sage, we want you to feel how
we feel about 12 miles.
Praiseability is key, you have to know where your food comes from, here at sage we can
tell you where your foods come from, who's grown your food, who's produced your food,
who's looked after the livestock before it's went to slaughter, we have pure access to
knowing exactly where your food comes from.
I use sage as my outlet to celebrate the great produce we have in my local area.
We've been doing the 12 mile menu now for about three years, lucky to say thus far it's
been successful.
I think a lot of that has to come down to the produce that we use.
A 12 mile ethos is simple, at sage we source the vast majority of our produce from within
12 miles of the restaurant.
The lush farmland and the dedicated farmers enable us to source all our meat from within
12 miles, our poultry is reared by 12 mile farmers and is free range or organic, our
fish is trawled and lying cut in Irish waters.
When the seasons allow our vegetables, fruits and herbs are grown by 12 mile farmers.
We do like the porridge here at sage, using nature's louder.
All producers are united in their aim to bring us high quality produce.
There's much time and enjoyment spent continuously sourcing great produce from the hard working
producers of our area.
We do hope you enjoy the fruits of their labour.
Hi I'm Martin.
Hi I'm Nori.
And we are Woodside Farm.
So here on Woodside we're passionate about pigs and we're passionate about our free
range pigs.
We do two old breeds here.
We do saddlebacks and glass roll spots.
We do mostly saddleback pigs, two old breeds that are happy to live outside, they're born
outside, they're a hardy pig, slow growing.
They make the most wonderful pork, bacon and our new adventure of charcuterie.
So our pigs spend all their lives outside from the moment they're born, they're outside
in our fields here free to roam.
If they want to sleep outside they can, if they want to sleep in a shed they don't have
that choice, they're inside in a plastic hole with their compatriots.
So the pigs live outside all their lives and they're fed on a very natural diet.
They're fed on rolled wheat and rolled barley.
They're also fed on greens like kale, turnip, cabbages, but they get their minerals then
naturally from the soil.
And they have grass and vegetation, whatever they choose to eat.
Because they're free range they're able to pick and choose what they eat themselves.
And we believe that this has a fierce effect on the quality of the meat and the flavour
really comes through on the end product, which is vitally important to us.
I'm Brydie.
And I'm Charlie.
And we have us Terry's honey.
Yes we do.
With Brydie and I and the bees, it's a bit like any beekeeper and the bees really, but
there's a kind of symbiotic relationship in that one is living after the other.
You know, we're a health to the bees, the bees are a health to us.
And when we married Brydie brought the bees with her and I was able to make a few bee
hives and things so we just walked together as a team and that's the way we still walk
as a team.
But it's a triangle, a long triangle, Brydie, me and the bees.
No, I mean I and my bees.
A lot of people have quite the same space, so they can't have exactly the same point
of view.
And even when we're beekeeping, there would be times when we'd say, oh, should we do this
or should we do that?
But when you're beekeeping for 36 years together, you have a system of doubt where...
What should we do?
You know what to do.
You have to be the other person.
Traditionally, section honey was the norm, but now one honey is our main enterprise.
This means the honey is spun from the comb in an extractor and put into jars.
Some of the honey is sought as raw honey, where the honey is extracted straight from
the hive, coarsely strained and jarred the next day.
We also have a barcoded label on our honey that's supplied by the Federation of Irish
Beekeepers.
This label is only supplied to beekeepers and honey producers in Ireland that harvest
honey in Ireland only.
The good thing about beekeeping is that you're working with nature.
You're out in the outdoors.
You're contributing to the environment.
We make a very soft, fresh cheese, takes four days to make it from goat root to the finished
product.
And this is on day two, where we're taking the curd out at the time, taking it out by
a very old traditional French method called collard-wish.
Sounds very romantic, alalutia like that, but when you translate it by the label, it kind
of loses the romance a little.
But the curd is so fine and so delicate that if you try and rush it and hurry it, it breaks
up and you just don't get the same finished collard.
By taking it out like this, you get a smoothness on the collard that you'd only get by taking
it out this method.
If you were to have a firmer set, it would be a much drier crumbier cheese and that's
not what I'm aiming to make.
So you just keep topping up the malt, they keep draining away.
It's a very slow process, but it's good for the soul, though.
It's nice.
It's a lovely job to do.
I let it get over the fact that when you come down in the morning after you've rented the
previous night and you find that magically overnight you've got cheese in the tent, usually,
to really find it's there, like cheese fairy cave overnight.
I like that.
I would love to think that not only my son, but my grandsons were involved in the business
in years to come, that we've started a trend, put down a route that's just going to grow.
The quality of the milk is critical and everything goes back to the goat, the lamb.
If you have to have your goats happy, an unhappy goat's not going to give you a very good milk.
So what the goat's fed is critical.
When we started out our herd group, we learned a lot along the way that what it takes to
keep a goat happy and we discovered that sugar beet, if there was a secret, a secret to having
good milk, I would seriously put it down to sugar beet.
Well fed goats, contented goats make good milk, make great cheese.
That's the only way to go.
It's the people we meet and the relationships that are formed that create a food community.
Hello, my name is James Stafford, I live in Roches Point.
We're a very rare highland beef cattle.
The meat is a lovely marbled meat and it's a very distinct flavour.
They're a rare outside all year round and they're a very old breed which in existence
of over 3,000 years, a breed related to the wild cattle of Europe.
The reason why I chose Highland cattle was because it was a breed that was in existence
for over 3,000 years, it is well proven itself and it was resistant to man's interference.
So it's a very hardy breed, it's weather wise, it's because it's outside all year round.
It is a very disease resistant breed because they have been self replenishing the cells
over a very long period and they produce some of the best beef in the world, one of the
most cholesterol beefs in the world because of their structure of hair and fur and very
low flat levels on the carpets itself.
When it's hung for between 4 and 5 weeks, it will produce quite a very tender steak.
Highland cattle can take up to minus 40 degrees, the worst we've seen here is minus 9 I think.
You'll often see the cattle standing up on the bank facing a storm and the wind blowing
into their face and they just kind of say, come on, is this the best you can give me.
There's only about 80 to 90 purebred cows in Ireland so they're quite a distinct rare
breed.
I mean, I'd be very passionate about having a broad diversity of breeds as much as a broad
diversity of plants and I mean, there's over 900 breeds of cattle in the world.
And most people could only name probably 12, I would imagine, if they could even could.
So this is where the likes of Highland cattle coming to Ireland is preserving a breed that
has sustained up to now, without men's interference and I think it's very, very important.
My name is Derek Kahn and I'm an organic farmer and I produce food.
I can't see myself doing anything else because I'm so happy with what I'm like, you know.
Organic food, we have like real food, it's proper nutrition and like it's like organic
food, we'll have 25% less water than anything you buy inside and shop any, you know, mass
protein physical and it's way more nutritious and it's delicious, good to go.
Actually with the polytons and everything, it means that we can have a season all through
the year and we can support ourselves.
We should always eat what's in season and more importantly, what's around you, you know.
So we sell most of our produce in the local farmer's markets and we supply various restaurants.
But you know, we have the perfect weather, we have lots of rain, lots of sunshine, well,
it's also a sunshine, but you know, I mean like.
I'm Derek.
Hi, I'm Helena.
We are Greenfield Farm.
I'm Dan Herron from Herron's Organic Farm.
I suppose the reason we went to Organic was in the 90s, we found farming difficult, just
how to make a margin with the costs involved in commercial type farming.
So we started looking around to see what else was out there and what different way it was
or maybe making living out of farming because for generations and we've always been farmers
and have done nothing else and didn't want to do anything else and we love our farming
and our farms so we want to be the stay at it.
So we looked at different, I suppose different things, we even looked at other types of farming
but essentially the cost was a problem and we said the organic farm looked to be the
ultimate in cost saving that you weren't buying any chemicals whatsoever for your farm and
very little inputs.
Well, I suppose our three main products are eggs, chicken and beef and I suppose the main
difference between organics and other type of farming is you're not putting any chemicals,
chemical fertilizers on your grass or chemical sprays for your grain crops.
So you basically have no botany inputs, you just use your own farm yard manure.
So your product I suppose, it's very natural, it's in a way like what people would have
had in this country 50 years ago, it's an old fashioned product.
Again, chicken will be expensive but it's still only the same price as we say you pay
for beef roasts around the 15 euros so it's a bigger chicken din as well and does more
meat on it and more cutting, obviously better flavor.
And your guarantee that there's no problems only just pure organic feed and grass is all
is in the chicken so it's a very straightforward product, a very healthy product.
As opposed to organic food it's nothing special, it's just what our grandparents call food
in their day.
I suppose going back maybe one half century ago and before that people were used to going
to local markets and buying food but then I suppose all that scene went and it went
to bigger retailers but in the last 10, 15 years the farmers' markets have come back
again and now people can go to their local producer just maybe two months up the road
and buy local products from them which is great for people because that's what a real
traceability food is about that you know exactly where it comes from, putting someone's name
just a face on a piece of paper doesn't really prove traceability but if you can actually
go to local farmer and buy it and people like as well the interaction with the producers
to talk to them and get the information and ask them questions about the food and how
it was produced and I suppose that's what big plus in farmers' markets are and obviously
selling direct in your cutting out in middleman as well so you can afford to sell for a better
price than you've had to go through a wholesaler and people can buy better food at a better
price.
My butcher's my friend and he's yours too. He's there to help and assist me and you.
Use him as a larger of information for your meat. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Different
cuts, where it comes from, how do I cook it, the dos and don'ts. I love my butcher and
that's all I should do.
Welcome to Morphy's Butchers. My name is Frank Morphy. We have our own butcher shop and our
own avatar. I inherited it from my father and my son is working with me now presently
so we have three generations of our own family in it and prior to that there was another
Morphy ahead of us who had three other generations in the same job and prior to that, believe
it or believe it or not, there was another family there, not Morphy, where there was
another three generations. So in actual fact I'm the eighth generation in the shop and
my son is the ninth and we've managed to survive and the most important asset we have
is our own avatar and so far as we source our own meat, we believe it's very important
to get the right quality meat, we have hand-picked some farm suppliers who supply us tough quality
and some of these have been supplying my father before him.
The most important thing about having your own butcher shop and your own avatar and being
your own style butcher is that you are over everything you do. You are over the stock
from the time it comes to the farm to you and then you go and age it and in aging it
you can age it two weeks, three weeks, four weeks, five weeks, whatever, different cuts
take more to age because they require different cooking standards but in aging it does cost
you more because you are losing some of the weight, it just evaporates in the aging process
so it makes the meat a little bit more expensive but it certainly makes it a hundred times
more enjoyable to sit down to because when you do sit down to the meat you should be
getting the wow factor and that's what is important to me in butchering and doing my
own thing is that I want to give the customer the wow factor in enjoying the meat and so
far as they will come back.
What makes good meat? You have to start with the farmer. Farmer is the first link in it.
The farmer has to be a good feeder to his stock. A farmer just going away buying the
best beef rates and if he doesn't care for them, he doesn't have the best beef. The
best beef is produced by the best farmers and the best farmers are the best feeders.
That's where you start. You move on then, you bring it into the arbiter. The arbiter
it has to come in in time, it has to be rested, I point the slaughter, the animal has to be
relaxed and in having it relaxed, it helps in the chain to bring you tendermis.
I encourage you to look in your 12 mile, meet a producer, create a dish, be a part of the
journey, love what you're doing.
Do you tell a joke sir? Alright, okay, I can't do that, you can only say that now.
No, I'm changing the stuff, it's on the part. Yeah, you go take the stuff, just keep
spending.
Okay.
What am I saying? What's the first link?
Okay.
And my hair, it's my hair isn't it? No.
Okay, so you start sir.
And you will finish it.
You always do don't you?
Right, so you do, I'm knowing where what's I found, I'll just do my mouth.
Yeah.
Right.
Put this in the outtakes.
My little chain. Are you ready?
Yeah.
Because if you're from Crock, you're going to say that.
Sorry.
I can't think about it, I had to say that it was...
It's the first time you stumbled.
Yeah.
Take it away.
You want to say hello or just...
Yeah, whatever, I'll introduce yourself.
Yeah.
Get in there.
Are we all right sir? Yeah.
Okay, continue on from where we are.
Just keep talking.
Okay.
Okay, let's get this right though.
Okay, so...
Hello.
How are you?
So, how are you?
I'm Derek.
How are you?
I'm Helena.
And we're Greenfield Farm.
We're greenfield farm.
We're greenfield farm.
We're nearly there honey.
We're nearly there.
And I even dealt with that.
I was trying to finish now a bit of time.
I finished at seven o'clock half seven and it took me nine o'clock half.
More seasons out before I finish.
So it's just part of it.
Yeah.
You could use...
I love what I'm doing, but sometimes I like to see the day a little bit shorter.
You know?
But you can come in the night and then you kind of...
very often just don't relax.
And I find I have to stay on for a little bit of a little bit of a relax.
If I've got a bed so you end up in the bed too late and get up too early and...
Sorry.
I don't really wish to circle sometimes.
Let's put forward now.
The trees in that house are stuck.
I'll do that.
Right.
Did you get that to do?
I want to get it.
You don't want to get that, Bruce.
So don't be afraid to ask the question.
Where has it been produced?
Who has produced it?
You know, get excited about it.
Get passionate about it.
Think local.
Think 12 mile.
A tall story media production.
