Features
Take your taste buds on safari!
Originally used in 1896 for selling butter, eggs, poultry and eventually fruit; St. Georges Market near Belfast City Hall, now houses a lively Friday market and the recently instituted City Food and Garden Market, which takes place every Saturday from 10am until 4pm. This is the place to sample the finest produce from the north of Ireland and experience a food culture, which, after a tentative start, now exudes confidence.
Atmospheric ambience
The listed redbrick building which houses the market is a fine example of Victorian Municipal architecture. Restored in the late nineties by Belfast City Council at a cost of approximately €6m the interior is bright and airy. The ground floor market area is well laid out and has plenty of seating. There is a stylish restaurant at first floor level serving good value lunches and, later, an ambitious dinner menu.
The food hall is packed with stalls selling a wide range of epicurean delights and customers are encouraged to try samples of the produce. The Saturday morning that I visited, the place was buzzing with locals shopping for the weekly provisions and visitors enjoying the atmosphere.
Biolea Organic olive oil is available from a very helpful and informative Noeleen Turkington who told me about the secret garden at Hillsborough Castle, where organic methods are used. There are organic fruit and vegetables from Culdrum Farm near Coleraine, not to mention oak smoked, dry cured bacon and leek flavoured sausages from their own saddleback pigs. The owner Brian Wallace farms 18 acres bio-dynamically and grows a range of vegetables for sale in the market and from the farm. Interestingly, he had an Hungarian potato, called Sarpo, noted for its blight resistance and Brian confirmed its reputation and also its frost resistance. He was able to dig the last of them in May of this year, blemish free. They make excellent tasty wedges and are great baked.
North south link
Nearby, the Mullans' Farm stall sells superb eggs, organic chicken, turkey and lamb. Ann Marie and her daughter work the stall on Saturdays and enjoy the banter with the many characters that markets everywhere seem to attract. Mullans Farm, based in Derry, is a member of the North West Organic Producers Group, a beneficial alliance of farmers and growers. Ann Marie is also a member of the Market Traders Committee and she explained the difficulties in getting recognition from the city fathers for the importance of the market to the regeneration of this part of Belfast city centre. Significantly, a number of traders from the English Market in Cork city recently travelled to Belfast where they met city officials and traders from the St. Georges Market with a view to setting up a twinning link between the two Markets as part of a project entitled "Lagan to the Lee" which is a link between the two city councils.
A joint ambition of the Belfast and Cork traders is the inclusion in a group of European markets at present being promoted by La Boqueria market in Barcelona.
Quality artisan products
Markets are an essential facet of urban life and represent an important counterbalance to the omnipresent supermarket. They are places where, to quote Eric Schlosser, author of Fast Food Nation, "people can be fed without being fattened or deceived" a quotation also used on the banner at Moyallon Foods, purveyors of rare-breed beef, lamb, pork and venison and one of the north's pioneering artisans.
There has always been great food in the North - we just don't hear enough about it! Some of the best is on sale here including locally made breads from Millers Traditional Bakery, smoked foods from Drumgooland in Co. Down ( including a particularly tasty salmon which is marinated in Guinness and smoked over a turf fire), organic vegetables from Millview Farm also Co. Down, and excellent fish and shellfish from Ardglass, Kilkeel and Portavogie.
As an indicator of the quality of the food on offer it would be hard to surpass the Offbeat Bottling Co. Established in 1994 , the company identified a gap in the market for gourmet preserves and in 1999 received an Irish Food Writers Guild Award for their jams. Last year, for the second time in three years, Offbeat won another "Best in Category" Award for their Orange and Coriander Marmalade which I can testify is superb .The company is rightly proud of the fact that they supply top London establishments like Harrods and Fortnum and Mason.
Spoiled for choice
I bought some Corleggy cheese, made in Belturbet Co. Cavan, from Trevor Irvine at the Cheese etc. stall and some pesto from The Olive Tree and then it was time for lunch. I couldn't decide whether to go for some of Wendy McGuires' delicious looking Caribbean cooking or a savoury crepe from Flour and ended up with a roast vegetable bruchetta from Darko Markovic' stall, Piece of Cake, which also had rostis, vegetable pies, corn bread and a whole range of sweet and savoury baking. This was washed down with a coffee from Javaman.
There are plenty of tables at which to sit and soak up the atmosphere including a rather over enthusiastic "entertainer". I'm told that on some Saturdays there is Flamenco dancing and cool jazz.
St. Georges Market is well worth a visit if you happen to be in Belfast for the weekend. It is easy to find, being close to the Waterfront Hall and Central Station and there is a courtesy bus from City Hall.
Many thanks to all those who were happy to talk to me about their stalls and the market in general, including Ann Marie, Noeleen and Brian, and a special mention for "market boy" who is set to become the youngest entrepreneur of the year!
