From blogging to bottling, lambing to leading change … TRISH DESEINE meets the women bringing FLAIR AND FRESHNESS to farms all over Ireland pastures new
1. Pastures New
Imen McDonnell, Dunmoylan Farm, Limerick
Imen McDonnell, food stylist, cookbook author and an award-winning lifestyle blogger, moved from America, where she worked in television and cinema production in New York and LA, to her husband Richard’s farm near Foynes, Co Limerick in 2007. Dunmoylan is a modern grass-fed dairy and free-range poultry farm with a focus on sustainability and renewable energy. The farm is split into two sections: the traditional farmyard, managed by Richard and Imen, houses the dairy and poultry activity and the other half, run by Richard’s brother David, handles wind power, anaerobic digestion, and the development of other renewable energy projects. McDonnell says she wouldn’t really call herself a farming woman. “I feed calves and rear some animals for food and grow a massive kitchen garden for us, but professionally, I write about and photograph food.” That’s an understatement if ever there was one. McDonnell’s massively successful blog “Modern Farmette” became an international trailblazer in food writing, styling and photography when she started it in 2010. McDonnell is also the author of the beautiful, whimsical The Farmette Cookbook, which recounts her life in rural Ireland. At the moment, she is developing “Lens and Larder”, a series of luxury food photography and styling workshops where she and fellow blogger and chef Cliodhna Prendergast invite the world’s best food and lifestyle photographers and stylists to Ireland to mentor lucky enthusiasts.
McDonnell, her husband and son Geoffrey travel back to the US regularly. When in New York, they stay at the Standard High Line or The Bowery but for the launch of The Farmette Cookbook, they stayed at the new Renwick Hotel, fashioned out of the restored studios of F Scott Fitzgerald and John Steinbeck. During a whirlwind transatlantic book tour, the family ate at an old favourite of McDonnell’s, Raoul’s on Prince Street. Her beauty routine of Peter Thomas Roth anti-ageing cleansing gel and Creme De La Mer moisturiser serves her well for Irish farm life and she stays fit by, “farming, training in the gym, two-three days a week, HIIT classes and weights. I do miss my core power yoga, Vinyasa yoga, weights and loud music from the States.”
2. The Bottler
Leona Kane, Broglasco Farm, Derry
Leona Kane grew up in the country and moved to her husband’s Broglasco Farm near Limavady in Derry, in 2005. Never did she think that she would end up creating and managing the runaway success that is Broighter Gold Rapeseed Oil. As her new kitchen was still being finished, and there was nothing in the cupboard for cooking, her husband brought in some of the cold pressed rapeseed oil that he had been using to make biodiesel and they fried their steaks in it. They found it tasted good, didn’t burn and was much lighter than olive oil. Richard joked that it was the Broighter Gold – Limavady’s most famous Iron Age treasure hoard, discovered in a field by ploughmen in 1896 – and the business was born. “Once I got it in a bottle, we won so many awards and accolades for branding, quality and marketing, things really took off.” Kane doesn’t miss her old day job in financial services. “If anything, I sometimes wonder how I spent every day doing the same thing. Now every day is so different, from helping to clean the pressing room, bottling, speaking with buyers, meetings, to actually going to meet HRHs Charles and Camilla for a royal visit.”
“But I can’t switch off! I think anyone who runs their own business will find it hard to switch off, you have to keep the ball rolling all the time. We are lucky enough when we do get time off, we really do enjoy ourselves. We go to a lot of awards parties and the races usually twice a year and love getting dressed up for them. We also attended the Queen’s Garden Party last year at Hillsborough and were invited recently to Ballywalter Estate to stay in Lord and Lady Dunleath’s fabulous house. In Belfast, restaurants Ox and James St South are our favourites. When I get the chance, I love Galgorm Manor in Co Antrim for a special spa weekend. It’s a little break that gives you the energy and relaxation you need.”
3. The City Slicker
Natasha Sherling, Fordstown, Meath
Jewellery designer Natasha Sherling met her farmer husband Tom Dillon through mutual friends at Trinity College. Born and raised in Dublin, she’d previously never had much reason to venture beyond the Pale. “It’s unusual in Ireland, but I have no connection to the country whatsoever,” she says. “But Tom’s farm has been in his family for hundreds of years.” Sherling vividly remembers her first time on the farm, which Tom runs with his parents: “Tom’s family goes to the opera festival every year at Loughcrew. I was meeting them for the first time and wanted to make a good impression so of course I wore heels. As soon as I got out of the car at the farm I knew it wasn’t a good idea.”
The couple, who were married in May at Richard Corrigan’s Virginia Park Lodge, live in Portobello in Dublin, with Tom commuting to the countryside every day. “The farm is only about an hour from Dublin, 45 minutes on a good day,” says Sherling. “If Tom has to be up at the crack of dawn, he might stay there the night before, but on a normal day it works. That’s why I’ve told him he can never be a dairy farmer – those 4am starts! At the moment they grow grain and raise sheep and cattle. In October they open a pumpkin patch to the public and I help with that.”
Being self-employed allows Sherling the freedom to spend plenty of time on the land. She relocated there full-time last summer when their house was being renovated. Used to living in the city, she found certain aspects challenging. “The shops close so early, there’s only a small window to pick up something for dinner,” she says. “But I love the slower pace of life and the sense of community, and that they sit down and talk to each other over breakfast.” Could she ever live on the land permanently? “I could, because the farm is so close to Dublin,” she says. “But I think I’d have to keep the house in Portobello too.”
4. A Country Pursuit
Becky Cole, Broughgammon Farm, Antrim
Set up in 2011 by Becky’s husband Charlie and his family, Broughgammon Farm is a forward-thinking family business with ethics and sustainability at its core. They rear “surplus” male kids and calves from the dairy industry for meat and are passionately committed to reducing their environmental impact. Now with an artisan on-site butchery, seasonal cookery, wild game classes and a farm shop selling their cabrito and rose veal, they also deliver their meat boxes all over Ireland and the UK.
Previously a fashion and lifestyle blogger, stylist and a manager for Dubarry in Dublin, Becky Gray moved full time to the farm about two years ago. She grew up in the countryside in Avoca, Co Wicklow, studied fashion at NCAD and launched a very popular fashion blog, (“Terriers & Tweeds”) before meeting future husband Charlie, falling in love and getting back to her country roots.
Now Cole’s days include tagging animals, butchering, working at markets and running all the marketing for the business. She is also hoping to start a “seasonal living” course later this summer, which will address eating what is in season and embracing natural beauty products. Balancing hard physical farm work with a beauty, fitness and fashion routine is important. “I have a few non-negotiables that keep me sane such as getting my hair done at Brown Sugar in Dublin and taking weekly ballet lessons for fitness and flexibility.”
But Cole’s glossy life away from the farm is nonetheless mostly linked to outdoors and nature: “When I do get a chance, I love going to Ascot and Burghley Horse Trials. I visit new exhibitions in London. I also have to have my regular Wicklow fix and I particularly love having a catch-up over good coffee in The Pigeon House Café in Delgany, The Happy Pear in Greystones or the Zozimus Bookshop in Gorey – all favourite haunts of mine. I’m really close to my mum, [artist Lucy Doyle], and often work with her on art-related projects – I use that as an excuse to get home too.”
5. The Cheese Whizz
Jeffa Gill, Sheep’s Head Peninsula, West Cork
Jeffa Gill is a cheesemaker and the creator of Durrus and Dunmanus cheeses. Her family were farmers in Worcestershire but as a young girl her interests were fashion, design and rock and roll. She studied at Birmingham Art College and worked in fashion in Dublin until she moved to West Cork, buying a “ruin” on 40 acres in the townland of Coomkeen on the Sheep’s Head Peninsula. However, it now has “a road, electricity, and a roof”. It’s a beautiful home in an impossibly idyllic spot. The dairy began with just a few wheels of cheese made in the kitchen. Today it is considered the best washed-rind Irish cheese and this year was listed as one of the nine best cheeses in the world by Condé Nast Traveler.
“The temperate, humid climate of the western part of Co Cork drives the flavour of moss and greenery into the cream and makes it lightly herbaceous,” the magazine gushed, and Gill’s determination to retain Durrus’s artisanal roots has certainly paid off in terms of the sheer excellence of her produce, largely made by hand. “Everything I made has gone back into the business. It started from nothing and now the cheese is sold in New York. I am hoping the next generation will develop the food tourism side of the business as we are in a beautiful place on the famous Sheep’s Head Way Walk.”
Like many people who choose the hard life all year round in West Cork, Gill believes her greatest luxury is simply having her home there. “I love to travel with my partner to Italy in autumn and Portugal at the tail end of a long winter and I love going to New York for the buzz. But I never travel in the summer as it is our reward in West Cork for the long winter and besides, we are too busy. Sometimes in West Cork it’s hard to keep up, there’s always some art exhibition to see and the line between business and social life is often blurred. I like to sit outside Arundel’s in Ahakista sipping a glass of wine with maybe a bite to eat. Our treat is being where we are.”
6. The Oil Baroness
Kitty Colchester, Drumeen Farm, Kilkenny
Kitty Colchester’s parents, Ben and Charlotte, were pioneers of the Irish organic movement. She was born in Co Kilkenny, on one of Ireland’s oldest existing certified organic farms, and grew up immersed in the sustainable farming and organic ethos. “As children we worked and played on the farm. As a teenager, I was keen to travel and see the world and to try lots of different things. After almost 15 years of travelling and turning my hand to everything and anything, I found myself working in Ethiopia in the food camps and refugee camps where the importance of sustainable food production really struck me. It was there that I decided to come home to the farm.”
In 2006 Colchester’s parents bought a cold press specifically designed to yield a high quality culinary oil, but it was Colchester herself who developed the freshly cold pressed rapeseed oil as a gourmet product. “It turned into a full-blown business pretty quickly.” Soon they were winning awards and when the Queen came to visit Ireland, Second Nature oil was on the menu.
“When I started, Ireland was importing 100 per cent of its culinary oil, now we sell our oil to the Arabs. We also export to Europe and as far as Japan. We produce infused oils and organic flaxseed oil too.” Colchester loves her job so much she says she rarely feels like she needs a holiday. When she does get away it’s to Barcelona or Bath to see her brothers. She loves yoga and dance and likes to eat out in restaurants where her produce is used, such as Ballymaloe, Country Choice and Sage. This year she is hoping to get to Ballyfin Demesne and Mews Restaurant in Baltimore.
Colchester doesn’t feel operating a combine harvester should be an impedient to looking glamorous. “My father laughs when he sees me combining the rapeseed in long earrings and open-toed shoes! I enjoy a bit of farm glam. I might have my Dublin River Wellies on, but I won’t have forgotten my mascara!”
7. A Hunter Gatherer
Jane Shackleton, Lakeview Farm, Cavan
Almost 30 years ago, Jane Shackleton and her family moved to Lakeview Organic Farm on the shores of Mullagh Lake in Cavan. The farm has been in their family since the 1600s and she had always had an interest in the land, “probably encouraged by days as a child hacking around the fields on a pony. It gives you an awareness of the landscape and farmland which you wouldn’t get otherwise.” Shackleton now farms in partnership with her mother, Daphne. The farm is certified organic – her mother was one of the early farmers to convert to organics in Ireland. Since returning to the farm, Shackleton purchased a flock of sheep and “survived” her first lambing season this year. Now they are diversifying into tourism, with the old harness room being converted into a cottage for rent through Airbnb and the gate lodge with a private boathouse ready soon also.
“In the past year there has been a huge increase in farmers converting to organics which is encouraging. However, I don’t think that the organic sector is marketed abroad enough. It seems obvious to me that Irish and organic should go hand in hand.” With taking on the farm, Shackleton hasn’t had the chance to do much travel recently but her dream holiday would be Sri Lanka,where she lived just after finishing school. “My father works in Antarctica several times a year and I was lucky to visit for the millennium. It is like nowhere on earth, vast and beautiful. This year marks the centenary of an expedition led there by my relation Sir Ernest Shackleton.” Now she and her partner stay closer to home. “We try to go to Paris once a year in October for the Prix de L’Arc horse race. We love a restaurant in the Bastille area called Chez Paul. In Ireland, you can’t beat West Cork. School friends opened Mews Restaurant in Baltimore and the food is the best I have had.”
Shackleton hunts with the Meath Hunt on Finnegan, a pure bred Irish Draught horse. Other thrills come courtesy of a successfully delivered lamb, and the privilege of working outside. “These days a treat is a new pair of wellies or buying a new bull! But it is important to take time away from the farm. There is a quote that goes something along the lines of ‘leave the farm every day, the parish every week and the county every month’ which is really good advice.”
Trish Deseine @TrishDeseine
This article appeared in a previous issue, for more features like this, don’t miss our September issue, out Saturday September 3.
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The post Meet The 7 Women Changing The Face Of Irish Farming appeared first on The Gloss Magazine.