Granny Shaw’s hopes to taste success with new yellowman at the Ould Lammas Fair

The event is known for featuring local fresh produce, unusual handmade crafts and fine art on stalls around the town which also includes a horse fair.

Glen, who runs Granny Shaw’s Traditional Confectionery enterprise with wife Rhonda in Ballymena, is devoted to authentic Victorian chocolates and toffees and has developed the honeycomb candy as part of an expansion into pulled sweets that’s involved significant investment in equipment.

Yellowman, a brightly coloured and chewy confectionery that’s made with brown sugar, butter and golden syrup cooked at a low-temperature and then stretched, has been loved and enjoyed for generations.

The confectionery is unique to County Antrim and is synonymous, in particular, with the Ould Lammas Fair. The candy has been supplied by a number of micro-producers from the area and is also now available in other seaside towns such as Portrush.

“We’ve been looking at a range of traditional boiled and stretched confectionery, including Yellowman, for some considerable time,” explains Glen. “It made good business sense to introduce our version of this most distinctive candy at this year’s Ould Lammas.”

The Ould Lammas is a popular harvest festival that’s long been known for its honeycomb confectionary and dulse dried seaweed. Both are readily available from a host of stalls and shops especially during the three days of the popular community festival that’s run by Causeway Coast and Glens Council.

Among the most innovative of artisan sweet and chocolate producers here, Glen says producing a new version of yellowman “is in line with the focus of our small business which is on authentic Victorian sweets and toffees”.

“Yellowman has probably been around since Victorian times. It’s now among the most distinctive flavours here and has been used widely in other foods especially award-winning ice cream,” he says.

Glen is responsible for developing the recipes for the small company’s wide range of handmade confectionery.

A Food NI member company, Granny Shaw’s, which is based in Broughshane, will be among more than 30 local food and drink artisan producers pitching for sales from the many thousands of people from many parts of Ireland expected to visit Ballycastle for the historic fair.

A number of artisan producers took part in a successful food market on the Ballycastle seafront last Saturday.

Other artisan producers expected to take part in the Ould Lammas include Omagh’s Kennedy Bacon, Tom and Ollie Mediterranean mezze foods and cheese from Belfast, La Tia Juana Venezuelan street food from Londonderry and Lamb Van from Ballymoney, a producer of unique lamb sausage rolls and a recent UK Great Taste Award winner.

“We’re looking forward to showing all our chocolates, toffees, fudge, sauces and, of course, yellowman at the Ould Lammas,” continues Glen. “There’s a strong presentation of artisan producers at what is one of the most colourful festivals on the island of Ireland. Food has long been a key feature of the fair which is, of course, a harvest festival that celebrates farming and local produce. Upwards of 100,000 visitors are expected at the show. It’s going to be really busy occasion, one of the best events this year for artisan producers like Granny Shaw’s. We’d also expect to see visitors from many parts of the island, from Great Britain and other parts of the world during the three days of the show.”

The enterprising husband and wife team set up Granny Shaw’s in 2012 to make traditional fudge by hand from Irish butter using an old family recipe from Rhonda’s grandmother. They sell the produce at food markets such as Coleraine and Ballycastle and delis especially in Co Antrim.

They’ve created an award-winning manufacturer of a range of original and flavoured handmade fudges, sauces and authentic Victorian confectionery. They established first genuine fudge factory in Northern Ireland, which was located at Glenarm estate, and developed the widest variety of fudge flavours.