@Ummera

Twitter is a great thing. It has helped me forge new friendships.

Anthony Creswell (@ummera), who owns the Ummera smokery, is one of my new Twitter friends (twends?). That’s not to say we haven’t met face-to-face. Quite the opposite. For a while there we were turning up at the same events and venues throughout Cork city so regularly, Anthony must have thought I was stalking him.

One of the reasons I started following Anthony on Twitter, and eventually looked for a personal introduction to him through my BNI network, was the quality of his salmon, which is quite breathtaking. Anne and I first tasted it after buying some on our way to a holiday cottage in West Cork last June. I can barely stand to eat anything of lesser quality since.

With me, if I like something enough I often want to photograph it in some way. Anthony was more than happy for me to visit the smokery, but an overloaded pre-Christmas diary meant the project was shelved until now.

This morning I was finally able to to negotiate the potholes … craters … look, as an aside, did somebody carpet bomb the Innishannon-Bandon road, or what?

Sorry … where was I?

Ummera, yes.

You cannot imagine a more gracious host than Anthony. He gave me a tour of the smokery, took time to chat about his life and the business over coffee, let me loose with my cameras, and then treated me to a fabulous lunch at his house.

Into the bargain, he’s agreed to let me turn Ummera into a longer-term personal project. I shall return.

Here are some faves from today, along with commentary:

Outside the smokery is a copse, which houses a series of ponds that make up a filtration system for the waste water produced on site. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Frog spawn in one of seven pools that make up the smokery's natural filtration system. (c) RogerOverall 2010

Another of the filtration pools. (c) Roger Overall 2010

The three photographs shown above help place the smokery in its environment and establish a link with nature, which is important given Ummera’s strict organic principles.

Another detail shot that is equally important to the story is this one:

The sharp end of the business. (c) Roger Overall 2010

Finally, a picture that shows the two most important components of the story: the product and the people who make it:

The salmon is so delicate it's translucent in the right light. Tastes damn good as well. In case you're wondering, this is pretty much how the file came out of the camera. (c) Roger Overall 2010