MOOCDU

⚫️ Back soon ⚫️

Hello all, apologies for the radio silence! We have had a challenging few months at MOOCDU HQ as our shipping container premises flooded twice over the winter period, halting all production since before Christmas.

We tried to dehumidify the area to make it safe and sanitary to use for production, but it just hasn’t been feasible. However, we are still pressing on with the completion of our permanent premises, and we are pleased to update that this should be ready in the coming months.

Our new all-singing-all-dancing HQ will allow us to scale up and add in a separate drying space, meaning we will be able to add a whole host of exiting and delicious new products.

We aim to relaunch with unique new flavours and meats, plus gorgeous new packaging. Watch this space..!

Thank you to all our customers and suppliers for your support so far - we look forward to bringing you your favourite MOOCDU products and more, very soon!

Bliadhna mhath ùr and Happy New Year everyone! 🥳💫🎉

Look forward to the January edition of the Kirkhill Monthly Market ✨

We have loved being part of this incredible wee local market this year. Thanks to the lovely Liz and team for organising it so well, and to all the stall holders and community for your support 🖤💫

Plenty of Christmas shopping options supporting local, small businesses here! See you on Friday at Kirkhill Monthly Market ✨

Last Kirkhill Monthly Market of 2023! Get along and get some Christmas shopping done 🎅🏻

Hi all. Please note that the last Market of 2023 is in a fortnight's time, Friday, 24 November from 10.30 am to 12.30 pm. We have had a very successful and steadily growing Market with a variety of vendors since March. Thank you to all who have supported this very worthwhile and community based monthly event. We introduced several local and new vendors last month and this month we are delighted to introduce Andrew of Loch Ness Honey Company who produces delicious honey. We also welcome back Cragganvallie Fold, Cafe Biagiotti and The Chocolate Place and look forward to seeing many of our regulars such as MOOCDU, Achnagairn Eat Your Greens, David, our plant expert, selling Festive baskets to brighten up the not so bright winter days, and Ann with her summer fruit jams and chutneys. Remember the Community Cafe is open for light lunch and cakes along with coffee or tea. You may not be aware that the Foyer also has shelves of books for your enjoyment. Please feel free to swap or borrow.

See you on Friday! 🖤

After a successful Gala week we getting ready for the next event in the village ... The Month Market! The banner is up announcing the Market for this Friday, 25 August and I'm delighted to add to our list of vendors ... not only have we Ann's jams and chutneys, David's plants, MOOCDU, Achpopuli Farm, The Chocolate Place, Cafe Biagiotti, but Cragganvallie Fold are attending and Achnagairn Eat Your Greens with lots of fresh seasonal vegetables. We look forward to seeing you on Friday and again Thank You for your ongoing support of local producers

⚫️ Strawberries and Salami ⚫️

A match made in heaven at Kirkhill Market today📍

We very quickly sold out of the marvellously juicy Black Isle Berries strawberries - we will definitely have to put in a bigger order next time - thanks to Daisy and the team, we love collaborating with you guys! 🍓

We also had another special guest in the form of our 6 year old daughter Zadie who was selling her artwork 💛 Clearly a wee entrepreneur in the making - she sold out of all her pictures!

Our next batch of snacking salamis are almost ready and will be winging their way out to various stockists soon - watch this space..

Looking forward to this month’s market… we have a few surprises in store including some juicy new produce, and our newest salesperson joining us (our 6 year old daughter who will be on Summer hols 😊)

Another fantastic (sell out! 🤯) morning at Kirkhill Market, alongside The Little Flower Pod, Cafe Biagiotti, Cragganvallie Fold, The Chocolate Place and lots more 🖤

The first of our markets at Kirkhill Community Centre today a great success. We hope to increase the number of stalls over time. Meanwhile we had lots of lovely local produce including this one from MOOCDU selling lovely local salamis made and sold by Calum, Jess and their newly appointed apprentice Darach. Next market will be on Friday 28th April at 10.30 - 12.30.

⚫️ Kirkhill Market ⚫️

We were at the very first Kirkhill Market today, and what a turnout! It was such a lovely community-focused event, and we had such great feedback on our new batch of snacking salamis. In fact we just about sold out, with the last of this batch heading out to Black Isle Berries 🙌

It must be Market season as the mighty Bob at Dog Falls Brewing Co has our MOOCDU x Dog Falls Brewing Co. collab beer sticks at the Inverness Farmer's Market tomorrow as well - for all your beer and meat stick needs 🍻

Happy weekend!

Our beer sticks are back in stock with Dog Falls Brewing Co - in their online shop and at the Inverness Farmer's Market at the weekend 🍻

Resinate is back, along with the perfect foil/accompaniment. Sharp pine and pithy bitterness vs the savoury salty meat funk of our MOOCDU x collab classic salami. Bi-polar opposites do indeed attract.
Up in the webshop and all that jazz, deliveries on Friday direct & to trade as per…
Oh aye, and we’ll be at the Inverness Farmer's Market Saturday too.💥

⚫️ Celebration ⚫️

Our youngest turned 1️⃣ yesterday so we had some family and friends round for some nibbles and drinks. I love the light in this picture… it was a very changeable weather afternoon so nice to capture a sunny spell!

In other news - after selling out, we currently have lots more snacking salamis maturing. We made a few tweaks to a couple of the recipes based on feedback, so we’re looking forward to the new and improved batch 🙌

Check out the fantastic producers below… we are in great company at Balnault farm 🌟

Our farm shop is back open today 🐷🎉10-3pm
We are fully stocked with some amazing Local produce and gifts including our own meat from the farm😜
Richies Chilli Sauces
Cove Honey Bees Ltd
Cocoa Mountain
SilverStory
Kincardine Castle Kitchen
Roaring Stag Coffee Roasters
MOOCDU
(Just a small selection)⬆️

We look forward to seeing you😁

Fully stocked at Balnault farm 🖤

We have a new product from MOOCDU in the shop this weekend, snacking salami in 3 amazing flavours….
⭐️soy sauce & sake
⭐️mango & four chilli
⭐️port & black garlic
Which one will you try???
🤫 we’ve tried them all and I’m not sure which one our favourite is……

⚫️ Delivery for Aberdeenshire ⚫️

We have packaged up a lovely wee bundle of our 3 flavours of snacking salamis along with our sliced Classic Salami, heading out to the fabulous Balnault farm in Ballater, in time for their Farm Shop reopening at the weekend… if you are in the area, check out the shop and support lots of excellent local suppliers 🙌

Huge thanks to Helen and Neil at Balnault for stocking our new products 🌟

⚫️ New Products ⚫️

We dropped in to see Daisy and the team at Black Isle Berries today to deliver an order of our new Classic Salami (hot off the press!) as well as a selection of our Snacking Salamis (Port and black garlic, Mango and four chilli and Soy Sauce and sake). Thanks again Daisy for your support! 💫

We’ve been developing this recipe for a while, and this is the first release of our new Classic Salami. So get yourself along there to be one of the first to try it. We’ve really let the free range pork do the talking in this one - flavoured subtly with a white wine infusion of garlic, black pepper plus a small amount of juniper, so the meat really shines through. We’ve also aged it for three months, so the flavour is rich and mature. A real special treat for any salami lover!

A trio of treats 😋

So we may be out of the game now for events and festivals but with such a big and loyal following on here I figured we should utilise that to get the names out there about some amazing food/drink/makers/music (existing or new) cause after all that’s always what North Hop has been about, and also highlight any other exciting festivals/events taking place…

So to kick things off here’s 3 very different but awesome charcuterie companies that featured on our Christmas Eve sharing board…we’ve got East Coast Cured who I have been a massive fan of for years, and you can visit their shop in Leith, Edinburgh, find them at markets or get their awesome produce sent out by post. Then we’ve got Bogrow Farm (the original home of our Springador pup Storm) who create not only fab charcuterie but bacon, etc too, all from their own pigs, and again they can be found in local farm shops and at markets. And last but not least is new kids on the block (this was just a sample pack) MOOCDU with their super tasty snacking salamis and other salamis too, these ones were mango and five chilli…I believe they are just about to launch a website but again can also be found in local farm shops and at markets! 💥

So there you go, plenty of options to go get your charcuterie on…

Grab a beer stick and a delicious barrel-aged beer on Dog Falls Brewing Co website now

➡️ https://dogfallsbrewing.com/products/moocdu-x-dog-falls-snacking-salami

Last call…for alcohol 🍺
You lot have smashed it this Christmas; we’re all out of nearly everything!
There’s plenty of Quercus 22 and just a couple cans of Colloidoscope left in the cold store for delivery tomorrow. 😯🫤
We’ve also got our top notch collab beer sticks in there too for the ultimate Die Hard combo 💥
Order before 12pm tomorrow and we’ll see you in the avo!

Well here it is: our salami stick collab with the mighty Dog Falls Brewing Co. Bob is at the Inverness Farmer’s Market today - get on down to give him some chat and match some tasty salami and beer 🍻

The full smorgasbord of delights on the go today at the last of the year, including Quercus 22 and our collab beer sticks from

Get down to Inverness Farmer’s Market on Saturday to pick up one of our new snacking salamis - perfectly paired with a delicious, cold Dog Falls Brewing Co beer… cheers to that! 🍻

Collab time! We’ve been working with the fantastic salami gurus from just over the hill to come up with the perfect pairing for our beer, and they’ve totally nailed it!
MOOCDU x Dog Falls Brewing Co Beer Sticks are here!
Launching tomorrow at the , and online, we’re kinda excited about this one and can’t wait for you to try them out!

Hope to see you at this festive food, drink and makers market! It’s a great chance to support local makers and grab some unique presents, before the big day 🦌🎅🏻 🎁

In the midst of us highlighting our awesome vendors for our Festive Makers Market next weekend we figure we’d let you all in on the fab line up for our Festive Fling Food Fest on the 16th to 18th December at An Talla… 🎄🛍🍸🍔🍻🎶

This weekend will be THE perfect way to get you in the full Christmas spirit (and allow you to pick up all those last minute gifts and stocking fillers) with lots of awesome street food, bars, makers and live music all within the stunning surroundings of An Talla festively lit up! 🥰

STREET FOOD: The Redshank | Ollie’s Pops | Seasonal Flavour | Angus Grill + Larder

BARS: Dog Falls Brewing Co | Drink Me Events | Rock Rose Gin & Holy Grass Vodka | Highland Boundary

MAKERS: Peat | Makes By Megs | Ice & Fire Distillery , Scotland | Zepice | The Moray Honey Company | MOOCDU | Soap & Mhor | Perfect Scents Highland | DIP Club UK | Rose Cottage Country Kitchen | Port In My Storm Designs | Seidear | Highland Tide Designs | mjs_cakes_and_bakes | The Highland Florist | These Fragile Ideas

MUSIC: Ellen | Blair Mcleod | Dylan James Tierney | Craig Robertson Music | Carmen Eliza | Calum Jones

Open each day 12pm to 8pm, free entry, children and dog friendly 🐶

⚫️ Christmas Market ⚫️

We are very excited to be on the lineup for the An Talla x Northhop Festive Fling Food Fest the weekend before Christmas 🎄

We’ll be there on the 16/17/18 December from 12pm-8pm alongside some incredible street food and drinks vendors.

We’ll have lots of tasty flavours of our snacking salamis on offer, PLUS we’ll be showcasing our new Classic Salami which we have created to be a delicious addition to any Christmas Day spread.

We will even have Christmas-wrapped salami packs so you have one less thing to wrap - the perfect stocking filler or gift to bring along to your hosts, or share with your guests, on Christmas Day ✨

We hope to see you there!

⚫️ Sampling Session ⚫️

Making salami isn’t all hard work… We had a great afternoon at MOOCDU HQ sampling some of our snacking salamis paired with some delicious, unique local craft beers with Bob from Dog Falls Brewing Co- It’s a tough gig but someone’s got to do it…! 🍻

Bob is on the hunt for the perfect snacking salami to be enjoyed alongside his beers. And MOOCDU is up for the challenge. There might just be an exciting collaboration on the cards, and just in time for Christmas.

Watch this space…

⚫️ New Stockist ⚫️

We are delighted to announce our first stockist outside of Highlands & Islands - Balnault farm shop in Ballater, Aberdeenshire 🥳

Balnault is run by 3rd generation farmer Neil and his wife Helen Fraser, and the farm has been in their family for over 70 years.

Balnault’s animals are all home grown and mature slowly to ensure the very best quality in rare breed and native meat - so they are a great fit with our own ethos.

Neil and Helen have been busy getting prepared for the launch of their farm shop, and we are very excited to have sent the very last packs of our Fennel and Garlic salami over, in time for the grand farm shop opening this weekend.

Get yourself over to Balnault if you can, and check them and their fabulous local produce out 🤩

The Fennel and Garlic salami might all be gone for now but don’t despair - we have a new Classic salami maturing nicely which will be ready to slice into soon. Watch this space!

⚫️ North Hop ⚫️

We have our first ever market stall today - what a fantastic atmosphere with live music, great chat and some amazing local food and drink businesses.

We have our snacking salamis on offer, and they seem to be going down a treat along with a pint or a g&t 🍻🍸