Jonny encourages shoppers to enjoy locally cured meats

The small shop – the first in Northern Ireland specialising in cured meats or charcuterie – is Jonny’s bid to reach out to food lovers here with the farm’s products, such as salami, chorizo and saucisson, which he has created especially from the pigs he rears. His cured meats have won national and international acclaim for quality and outstanding flavours.

Jonny, who runs over 300 sows on the farm, always hoped to open a shop as a way to increase knowledge of charcuterie among shoppers here and to encourage more to sample his range of meticulously cured meats. He was drawn to the shop in Moira because of the village’s reputation as a good food hub and also because he lives in there with his wife, a nurse. He commutes daily to the farm outside Aughnacloy.

The Ispini shop, which is within a small and colourful courtyard close to the main street, and has quickly become a magnet for foodies from all over Northern Ireland, opened its doors in the week before Christmas.

Jonny, who runs the charcuterie production business with sister Janice, carried out much of the refurbishing work on the premises, a former café, in the picturesque village.

“Opening a shop has always been in our minds since launching our first charcuterie products in 2015,” he says. “What it does is to give us the opportunity to talk directly to shoppers about our products and, above all, enable them to taste them. The education process should also benefit other shops selling our charcuterie throughout Northern Ireland,” he says.

“We’ve been showing and sampling our entire range to encourage shoppers to buy and enjoy at home either as main courses or as snacks.

“Our decision to set up the shop has also been influenced by the growing trend towards cooking from scratch at home during the coronavirus pandemic,” he continues. “It’s a trend that looks likely to continue. Many people readily try cured meats on holidays to France, Spain and Italy and also order them in restaurants. But they don’t know always know where to buy them here. Our shop now provides a local charcuterie focus for them to purchase for enjoyment at home,” he adds.

The shop also shows customers how to put together a comprehensive charcuterie board and enables them to buy accompanying products such as local artisan cheese and sourdough breads from other local suppliers.

Other local artisan products being showcased in the shop include Young Buck, an award-winning blue cheese from Mike Thomson of Mike’s Fancy Cheese in

Newtownards, Yellow Door sourdough from Portadown, as well as crackers and chutneys.

Ispini – Irish for sausage – has won a host of major awards for its range of cured meats at influential events such as the UK Great Taste Awards, Blas na hEireann Irish National Food Awards and the industry’s prestigious British Charcuterie Awards.

“The new shop is being very well received by local shoppers and many others from outside the village. We’ll be developing activities around the shop during the year,” he continues.

The farm-based business joins an illustrious cluster of innovative food producers in Moira. These include Hannan Meats, McCartney’s Butchers, both the only Northern Ireland winners of Great Taste’s Supreme Champion title, as well as The Still House, a gastro pub, distillery producing award-winning vodka and fruit infused spirits and a spirit academy and Moon Gelato.

A Food NI member company, Ispini, which means sausage in Irish, has developed a range of cured meat products from recipes that Jonny has created. These include salami, chorizo, lomo and bresaola, all produced from premium pork and beef sourced from Jonny’s own pigs and other local farmers.

He has used his expertise in curing chorizo and salami to create novel products including pork chorizo and chilli beer sticks cured in Mac Ivor’s Cider from Portadown as an ideal snack. Salami using beer from Pokertree Brewing, a craft brewery also in county Tyrone, has also proved popular.

Jonny studied charcuterie at the School of Artisan Food at Welbeck in Nottinghamshire with Chris Moorby, an acknowledged expert on curing techniques.

“Working with Chris was tremendously important. I learned a huge amount about fermenting sausages, how best to create new recipes, and other important issues such as food safety and hygiene,” he says.

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