Darren Nugent caught the brewing bug while he was working in Liverpool and starting tasting Real Ale. So, he learned a LOT more about it before leaving his job in marketing and setting about creating a microbrewery in home village of Carrickmore in County Tyrone.
He called it Pokertree after a tree in the village he used to hear stories about as a child. It was said the Devil used to sit under the Pokertree some nights playing cards.
He’s just launched his Treacle Oat Stout to join the his Golden and Red Ales.
They’re all handcrafted in small batches. Every brew is open fermented and bottle conditioned in the traditional way. That means there’s live yeast working its magic in every single bottle. That makes for superlative depth of flavour and an amazingly long shelf-life. Naturally, they’ll also go really well with food.
Darren’s mission in life is to banish beer blandness for ever. He’s well on the way!
When it comes to red meat they’re top of their game, supplying top quality beef, lamb, rose veal and dry aged products to everyone from top retailers like Lidl and Marks and Spencer, to gourmet butchers and the catering trade both locally and Europe-wide. They helped to pioneer the NI Farm Quality Assurance Scheme and went on to develop the own Linden Livestock Programme with select herd scheme providing traceability of meat from farm to fork.
The New Product Development team are wizards in the kitchen, creating products that exceed expectations such as the hand wrapped, mouthwatering M&S Pork Saltimbocca and more recently launching a 20-strong range of gourmet burgers for both retail and foodservice under its established Turf & Clover brand.
Linden is leading the way with innovative products and winning their fair share of accolades, notably winning two prestigious NIFDA Awards and a ‘Highly Commended’ for their delicious and locally produced products including LIDL N.I dry-aged steak range. The County Tyrone based manufacturer have been presented winners of the ‘Wellbeing and Leadership Award’ at the recent M&S Plan A 2025 launch in front of leading retailers, suppliers and manufacturers from the UK food industry for excellence in corporate citizenship and well-being of their staff.
New partnerships have seen Linden’s dry aged division Kettyle Irish Foods and Guinness® celebrate their new venture with the launch of the new Guinness® dry aged burger.
Baronscourt Estate situated in the foothills of the famous Sperrin mountain in County Tyrone is the home of the Duke of Abercorn’s family since 1612. It’s also the home of Ireland’s finest wild venison.
The herd of Japanese Sika deer were initially introduced into a deerpark in 1751, but since 1920 they have existed wild on the estate. They munch on myrtle bog, ryegrass and tasty saplings which are naturally free of any additives or growth promoters.
Apart from being a very lean and succulent meat, low in cholesterol and chock full of protein, Baronscourt Wild Venison is very sustainable. An annual deer count assesses the population and its general health. They then do a selective cull to balance the population against the likely demand for the meat. The estate also produces oven ready pheasants and ducks during the shooting season, all of which are home reared.
The Kennedy family have been farming Glenhordial since the 1940s. The farm is in an area of natural beauty in the hills above Omagh on the edge of the Sperrins. Mervyn Kennedy has been involved from a young age rearing and fattening pigs. He was always interested in curing bacon as the end product of his toil with the pigs.
He attended various courses and after much experimentation he produced a tasty, traditional cure. No water is added and the bacon tastes as it should; savoury, yummy and moreish. It really is bacon at its best
