25 days to go.....

It's time for the annual wake up call to you to remind you - as if you didn't know - that Christmas is nearly here.

We will be smoking day and night over the next three weeks to ensure that you have the freshest and best of smoked produce; we probably should have been smoking all last month then freezing it down and shipping to you from frozen stocks; that might make the next three weeks more relaxed and enjoyable for us, but maybe that's one of the reasons you keep coming back to us year after year, because it is so fresh.

You can help us to make this possible by placing your orders as soon as you can!

We mentioned in our last newsletter about "Cyber Monday" which we thought was the first Monday in December; seems that the media think it's the last Monday in November! In which case we missed it!

If you need any help at all, please email or phone.

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Floods

Ten days ago, on Thursday November 19th, Ireland and particularly West Cork was hit by a strong weather system that dumped a very large amount of rain on already sodden ground after one of the wettest Novembers. Our local towns of Bandon and Clonakilty were very badly affected by flooding and much damage was done; Cork City was also caught in the torrents of water that came down the River Lee. Click here to see some images of Bandon and the damage done.

The smokehouse was high enough not to be affected  but the new pontoon/jetty that was installed in Timoleague only two months ago was washed away.

The damage to fish stocks and the spawning beds in our rivers is not known yet, but there is much concern that serious damage will have been done and this will only delay further the restoration of wild salmon stocks.

Perhaps had the bogs of Ireland not been reclaimed quite so fast then maybe the damage wouldn't have been quite so severe. 

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Smoked Duck

Last July we smoked our first trial batch of duck breasts from Silver Hill Ducklings. We didn't smoke another batch until just before the Good Wine Show in Cork. We took some up to the Show to sample and to see what people's reaction might be.

It was amazing! Everybody loved it!

So we ordered a quantity of Duck Breasts right away and we smoked them on the day of the flood. A cheeky tweet went out: "Its a great day for ducks in West Cork and we are smoking our 1st commercial batch of Smoked Duck! Maybe a good omen?"

Slowly they are finding their way into some outlets but it will take time, and for all of you at the Good Wine Show who wanted to know when and where the Smoked Duck will be available, check out our website Smoked Duck page.

And one final comment seen on Twitter a couple of days ago: "OMG. @ummera smoked duck breast. As Bill Hicks said 'I found my brand' ;-)"

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Our favourite Organic Porridge wins....

Congratulations to Flahavans  for winning the Exporter of the Year Award 2009 last night; their organic porridge gets me going these dark and damp mornings!

Ummera Smokehouse was one of the Nominees for the Seafood Exporter of the Year Award along with...........

Read more

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A prompt or a reminder........

If you are reading this newsletter as a referral or online and would like to have future editions automatically set to you, please sign up here; it's simple and it's free! Click here to forward our news to a friend

Follow @ummera on Twitter and get the latest news first!

Become a Fan on our Ummera Facebook page - we need you!

Come and wave to us on Google Wave: anthonycreswell at googlewave.com 

So many ways to keep in touch!

Oh, and don't forget it's Christmas soon!

Order your Smoked Salmon and other Smoked foods from ummera.com now!

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Interesting Links

Here's a couple of food related links:

GourmetKazoo - Gourmet products offered directly by Europe's community of Food and Wine producers

Baskets Galore - a Hamper company featuring Ummera Smoked Salmon!

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