Aldi

The National Brown Bread Making Championship, sponsored by Aldi and in association with the Irish Countrywoman’s Association, is making a comeback to the Ploughing for the first time since 1991. The Aldi marquee will be the spot to be, playing host to the semi-final and final.

The competition gained massive interest this year, with 421 bakers entering to be in with a chance to win. The top two bakers from each province were selected on 14 August and we can’t wait to see who will be crowned the best brown bread baker in Ireland.

The overall prize pot is €7,000, with €2,000 in Aldi vouchers going to the overall winner. All 27 county winners also receive a €100 voucher. The semifinals on Tuesday will take place in front of a live audience with the final taking place on Thursday. The competitors will solely use Aldi ingredients. Pop along to see all the bread-making and judging action in the Aldi marquee.

Lidl

Lidl is back at Ratheniska and this year its stand is bigger and better than ever before. Visitors are invited to meet Lidl’s Irish suppliers and see the scrumptious dishes that can be whipped up using quality Irish Lidl products. Each supplier will also be giving out free samples for visitors to taste. The best of Irish produce will be on display, including vegetables from some of Lidl’s growers.

Lidl’s charity partner Barrettstown will also be on the stand and you can be entertained with fantastic cookery demos by Paul Flynn, chef and owner of The Tannery Restaurant, Dungarvan, Co Waterford. Interested in working with the supermarket chain? Well, Lidl’s recruitment team will be there to talk about its graduate programmes as well as recruitment opportunities in its 170 stores and four distribution centres nationwide.

If you prefer shopping in the store, you can enter a competition where you get the chance to win your shopping for a year, up to the value of €5,000. There are also smaller daily prizes of €500.

Tesco

Tesco this year has an initiative that highlights its commitment to food waste. In fact, earlier this year it became the first retailer to commit to donating all its surplus food to local charities.

Given the amount of food that’s wasted, it’s great to see people benefitting. This has been achieved through a partnership with Foodcloud, an organisation set up by social entrepreneurs Iseult Ward and Aoibheann O’Brien. It helps connect businesses with surplus food to community groups and charities through the use of an innovative app. You can learn more about it at Tesco’s stand at the Ploughing but this is just one of their activities throughout the three days.

Chef Eugene McSweeney will get your taste buds going with this cookery demos and the focus is delicious nutritious family dinners using fresh, local ingredients.

We all know we can’t have enough dinner options and we look forward to see what Eugene will bring to the table.

SuperValu

Visitors to the SuperValu stand will be able to sample the finest in top-quality fresh Irish food from graduates of the Food Academy, a training programme run by SuperValu, Bord Bia and the County Enterprise Boards. And Supervalu’s friends from the GAA will also be popping in to stir things up in the kitchen. They’ll have tough competition with one of Ireland’s favourite chefs though. Kevin Dundon from Dunbrody Country House Hotel will also be cooking up a storm. You can see him in the main stage at the SuperValu stand.