Award for excellence for Long Meadow Cider
Catherine McKeever of Long Meadow Cider in Loughgall was “thrilled and
immensely encouraged” when CIE Tours named the Armagh cider producer in
its prestigious annual Awards for Excellence last year.
Lough Meadow Cider is a multi-award-winning family business that grows its
own apples for a range of premium ciders and has also invested substantially in
guided tours of its orchards and processing operation at Loughgall. CIE and
other international and local tour operators now include Long Meadow in their
annual programmes in Northern Ireland.
Catherine continues: “We regularly host visitors from across the world and
especially from the US and Canada to our orchards and our unique Bramley
Barn event space on the farm. Tours of our orchards are now a very important
part of our business. We are always examining ways to make visits to our
facility a really fascinating experience.
“Events have included tour briefings, lunches, corporate meetings, comedy
nights, music sessions and even weddings! The treats for tour visitors include
our own apple tart and guidance on how to bake traditional Northern Irish soda
bread baked on a griddle,” adds Catherine.
The CIE awards celebrate the diversity and richness of experiences offered by
Irish tourism at its annual Awards of Excellence. The awards were first
launched in 1990 and are presented based on post-stay feedback received
from nearly 20,000 customers surveyed throughout 2022.
Catherine runs the business with husband Pat, the experienced apple farmer,
son Peter and other members of the family. The small business, a FoodNI
member, has won a host of UK Great Taste Awards and Blas na hEireann
Awards for its premium ciders and juices.
Long Meadow supplies retailers across the island of Ireland and was most
recently included in Lidl’s Kickstart programme for smaller enterprises. The
Medium and Blossom Burst ciders will be on the shelves across 220 Lidl stores
from 19 th September 2024 while stocks last.
