Bloom in the Park, run by Bord Bia, is an event that has the best of both worlds. You can’t visit the Phoenix Park during the June bank holiday weekend without perusing the beautiful show gardens but when the gardening green fingers need a break, it’s time to explore the stalls that satisfy your taste buds.

With more culinary delights than you can count or taste, here is a round up of the stalls we won’t be missing.

Bord Bia Food Village news

The Bord Bia Food Village is the one-stop shop to sample some great Irish flavours. Here you’ll find over 100 producers. Many will have samples out because when you taste the flavour, you’ll be hard pushed not to take some home. The village is divided into three areas but it is a must for cheese lovers as there will be 67 smaller-scale cheese producers showcasing their products. One stall we will definitely be stopping by will be Rudd’s as they are launching a Chorizo White Pudding. Using traditional flavours with Spanish chorizo chunks, it has been developed in-house by their team who spotted a gap in the breakfast meats market.

Achill Sea Salt

If you are a person that says, ‘Salt is salt, why should I pay extra?’, chances are you haven’t added Achill Sea Salt to your cooking. Previously featured on the page of Irish Country Living, it is a natural Irish Sea Salt, hand harvested from the wild Atlantic waters that surround Achill Island. The resulting taste of the crushed crystals is powerful and pure, while the Achill Island Smoked Sea Salt which is hot-smoked with beech and oak has a more rounded texture. Just a tiny taste will have you picking up one of their tubs. Last year at Bloom, they launched their glass tubs, moving away from their former plastic packaging and they are back with even more this year.

Rebel Chilli

Rebel Chilli

Forget hot sauce and American BBQ. When it comes to spicing up meals, there is one sauce that has shot ahead in popularity in recent years.

No surprise given the name that Rebel Chilli is born and reared in Cork but it is leaving the banks of the Lee for the weekend to hang out at Bloom. Specifically, Paul Moore and team are introducing their newest product - Barrel-Aged Hot Sauce - second edition, aged for 62 days in Irish whiskey barrels sourced from West Cork Distillers. Paul started the business in his mother’s kitchen and started selling to farmers markets. Now they are listed in SuperValu, Dunnes Stores and Tesco and just started a new 12-month listing with Aldi. They have also begun exporting to the UK and we doubt the new Barrel-Aged Hot Sauce is going to stay on shelves too long so grab one of the first bottles at Bloom.

Velvet Cloud

Aisling and Michael Flanagan of Velvet Cloud.

Velvet Cloud Sheep’s Milk Yogurt has just been launched in 10 of Tesco Ireland stores for the first time. This now brings the number of stores Irish consumers can find Velvet Cloud Sheep’s Yogurt in to just over 100. At Bloom 2018 they had the initial launch of Rockfield by Velvet Cloud Sheep’s Milk Cheese. The cheese went on to win silver at the World Cheese awards in November 2018 and it sold out just after Christmas. Rockfield Sheep’s Cheese is only just available again and Bloom is the place to grab it before it disappears.

Bloom Inn

For those that aren’t taking the car to Bloom or if you have a designated driver, the Bloom Inn is the place to be to grab a beer in the sun. This isn’t like other festivals though where plastic cups of flat beer are commonplace. The Bloom Inn is an opportunity to sample some of the best Irish craft beers and spirits.

Kinsale Mead.

With 25 stalls – the majority of which are Irish drinks – you’ll get a real taste of the country and you can learn more about the product by talking to the brewers themselves. Added to the beer menu this year are Ballykilcavan Brewing who are operating since 2018 as a brewery and have a variety of new craft beers on offer during the weekend. Mescan Brewery, founded by two vets and located on the slopes of Croagh Patrick producing Belgium inspired beers will be there as well as Wicklow Brewery, a newly established micro-brewery.

Ballykilgarvan Beers Bloom

Also added to the line-up is Clonakilty Distillers, who are based in west Cork and are committed to reviving ancient malting barley varieties. Lough Ree Distillery is a family-run business that combines traditional whiskey distilling methods with modern technology. Micil Distillery is Galway’s first distillery to open its doors in over 100 years, producing a unique peated poitín.

GIY

It’s all well and good to sample delicious food but if you want to find out more about the future of the food industry, head to the GIY stand. Each year, GIY hold a series of panel discussions called “Food Matters” focused on the pressing food issues of the day. The panels include some of the country’s most esteemed food writers, chefs and business people but they often allow some Q&A time so the audience can have their say. Some of the topics that will be covered include “Pollinator Peril” – which looks at the decline of insects globally and how this will affect us, both personally and as a society; “Cheap as Chips” – the real cost of cheap food and how that impacts Irish jobs, our environment and our health and “Weather Alert” – how storms, floods, droughts and rising temperatures could hurt agriculture in every continent in the future.