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Hello, I'm Sheila Dylan and welcome to this BBC download of the Food Program.

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blue skies green hills and yellow butter what could be more perfect.

It's kind of like finding the lost gold of El Dorado in the middle of County Dam.

It's really exciting times, lots of new products coming along, microbrewers, cider makers, ice cream makers,

ripseed oils, but it's all starting to catch fire and really happen at ground level. There's a buzz in Northern Ireland right now about food,

one you can see in the numbers alone. In spite of the recession being deeper and longer lasting than on the mainland,

food, drink and farming are bucking the trend.

But beyond the numbers, we got a sense of a real story unfolding with an unprecedented count of

nominations this year in the Food and Farming Awards from Northern Ireland. They included

two that have made it onto our shortlist

...