Award for excellence for Long Meadow Cider

Catherine McKeever of Long Meadow Cider in Loughgall receives her award for excellence from Conor Hall, CiE Head of Product, Contracting and Sustainability

Long 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 NI.

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.

Long Meadow Cider has won business with Lidl throughout Ireland

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 in 220 Lidl stores from September 19, 2024.