Mash Direct started like so many other good things: over a glass of fine Irish whiskey. At a dinner party in 2003, Martin Hamilton told his host and friend Tony Reid about his dreams of setting up a production facility on his own farm to produce champ. After much discussion, determination and hard work, one year later that dream had become a reality. A small factory had been built and Mash Direct Ltd had been formed. Mash Direct now leads the market producing an innovative range of delicious quick-serve mashed potato, vegetable and cabbage products. There are no artificial additives, preservatives or colourings in their products – just the taste and texture of homemade food, like the food you’d make yourself in your own kitchen, but with a big added bonus: convenience.

Martin and his wife and business partner, Tracy, had been successfully growing and selling vegetables for over 25 years. Martin himself is a fifth-generation farmer and now Mash Direct is a family business, employing Martin, Tracy and their two sons. Using heirloom vegetable varieties grown for taste, not appearance, they developed a small plant on the farm to recreate a traditional cooking style. All Mash Direct vegetables are steam cooked and packaged right on the farm. Most of the veg are from the Hamiltons’ own farm, but what they can’t produce themselves, they buy locally from neighbouring farms. Vegetables that were picked in the fields at 5 a.m. can be cooked, packaged and loaded onto the lorry by 11 a.m. The Mash Direct products are often fresher than the fresh veg in the produce section.

To learn more about Mash Direct, check out these blog posts from The Daily Spud, Cakes and Bakes NI and The World of Kitsch.

We have a hamper full of Mash Direct products to give away! To enter, just leave a comment on this blog post (one comment only, please – multiple entries will be disqualified). The hamper can only be delivered within the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. The winner will be randomly chosen and notified by email. The competition will close at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, 19 March 2013. Good luck!

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