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GOAT MILK?
the TRUE FARM
EXPERIENCE
FIVE FARMERS IN WEST CORK HAVE COME TOGETHER TO LAUNCH A NEW AGRI-TOURISM BUSINESS. EAR TO THE GROUND FINDS OUT WHAT’S INVOLVED AND HOW BUSINESS IS GOING SO FAR FOR WEST CORK FARM TOURS.
Cows graze a few hundred metres from the coast on Tommy Moylers’ land. PHOTO: DONAL O’ LEARY W est Cork has long been a popular tourist destination, but the farmers there would always watch the tourists and buses going by without really engaging with them. Two years ago, five farmers in the area got together to look at how they could capture a slice of that market. They examined what they had in common, what they did well, and how they could develop an experience for people who come to their part of the country. The result was the launch of West Cork Farm Tours, a collaborative business offering visitors an authentic farm experience in this beautiful rural environment.
From left: Michael and Marguerite Crowley, John Joe O’Sullivan, Avril Allshire, Denis O’Donovan and his wife Collette, and Tommy Moyles.
Avril Allshire has been living and farming in West Cork since 1994, when she and her husband Willie arrived for their honeymoon and never left. They established what is probably the oldest Irish herd of free-range outdoor pigs in 1997 and began processing that meat on site in 2000, producing sausages and dry-cured bacon. In 2001, they purchased the Rosscarbery Recipes brand and began separately processing meat bought from a local factory. During the recession they added forestry and a timber-processing unit to their mix – this year they’ve planted about 2,500 trees, mostly native. The Allshires are also now building a 50-person facility for tourism.
“Five years ago we were granted planning permission so I confess that we had an eye on our potential as a tourism experience for a very long time. This facility is in the throes of being built but completion will depend on our finances,” says Avril, who also admits that she loves to talk and welcome visitors to the farm with whom she can share her story. “We can show people the pigs are really outside and we can show people our provenance and why it’s so important to us. We don’t spread any fertiliser or herbicides and we show people what you can achieve through entrepreneurial zeal, I suppose. I can tell the stories too about the learning curves and where things went wrong. But we show also that you can make a living working where you love.”
Meanwhile, Denis O’Donovan, his wife Collette and son Eoghan milk a 150 jersey-friesian cross grass-fed herd for high-quality milk products, such as Dubliner and Carbery cheese. “We’re living on the Wild Atlantic
PHOTOS: WEST CORK FARM TOURS
A group of Texan tourists on a tour of Tommy Moyles’ beef farm.
Way between Rosscarbery and Glandore and we always would see the tours passing and now we’ve found a way of engaging with them and actually making something out of it at the same time,” Denis explains. “I’ve always been of the idea that we undersell our product and we need to get the word out there of how good a product it is and this seemed like an obvious way to do it. And we’ve fantastic sea views from our place – you can see Glandore Harbour – so we’re giving the visitors both the views and the grass-based dairy farming experience.”
The three other farmers involved are Tommy Moyles, a beef farmer whose simmental cows graze just a few hundred metres from the Atlantic Ocean; John Joe and Theresa O’Sullivan, who run a dairy and calf-rearing enterprise near Rosscarbery; and Michael and Marguerite Crowley, dairy farmers near Skibbereen. Having five farmers involved relieves the pressure of running the tours. “One of us is available every Thursday for walk-ins and one day in every five weeks is doable,” explains Avril. “We take groups, too, which are pre-arranged, but importantly they’re not arranged at the last minute. And at the end of the day we can all fill in for each other.”
“We’re very flexible with the tour operators because they’re pre-planned. We know in advance what’s happening so we can rearrange our work as necessary,” agrees Denis.
Austrian tourists enjoy tea, coffee and scones during their farm tour.
SUPPORT AND TRUST
This is the first year that West Cork Farm Tours has been in operation and tours will run from April to October. To cater for our changing conditions, each farm provides rain jackets, wellington boots and hot drinks so tours can go ahead even in wet weather. It has been quick to launch and Avril and Denis are both grateful for the support they have received from Fáilte Ireland in helping them package and sell their product and educating them about the tourism business. They’ve also been given great support by the local hotels, and acknowledge Neil Grant of the Celtic Ross Hotel, Rob O’Keeffe from the Emmet Hotel and Michael O’Neill of Fernhill House Hotel for introducing them to the tourist market.
Avril says the business works because the five all trust each other and there are no egos involved. “We support each other – last week we had some visitors at another farm and I went over to serve a bit of Rosscarbery black and white pudding at that. It’s great to be able to help each other out. We’re all proud of our farms and where we live; there are five stories here, they’re based on the land but they’re all radically different too.”
“We’re finding also that the key to this is to be flexible and to give the visitors what they want – some want to see the dairy, some the beef and pig farm; some are more interested in the views and some are more interested in the West Cork foodie thing,” Denis notes. “Having the five farms means we can be that bit more flexible in what we’re offering.”
All five farmers are agreed in giving visitors an authentic farm experience and think this is key to the success of their operation. “People are looking for something different and they want to meet the natives when they come – tour operators have told me people find it very difficult to meet the natives on the ground when they come to Ireland,” Denis adds. “We’re just talking to people and telling our stories. We’ve no luxuries here for them on the farm but they don’t want that. It’s authentic – they meet the farmers and we talk to them, tell our stories and how we produce the food. Stuff we take for granted blows them away, like the fact that our cows are outside eating grass, that’s something they just don’t see in their country.”
A focus on authenticity also helps, according to Avril. “The thing we have in common is we’re straight-up and honest and it’s an authentic experience. There’s never going to be a pre-prepared script,” she says.
They’re both really enjoying this new side to their work, an opportunity to showcase their way of life and the rural farming lifestyle to a new and excited audience. Denis says he has loved meeting different people through the tours as well as the industry professionals he’s met along the way – not just tourists but people from Fáilte Ireland and the broader tourism industry who he never had an opportunity to meet before. After a tough spring for agriculture, he finds it enjoyable to have the chance to talk about something different apart from the weather and farming. “We get in tourists from everywhere too,” he explains. “We had a group of Texans in last week and we had South African farmers in recently too, and they were very interested in what we’re doing here so it’s great to be able to talk to them about farming here.”
So far so good for West Cork Farm Tours – the tours are busy and have even been picked up by Lonely Planet (which described it as a chance to “get a behind the scenes look of working farms and enjoy the hospitality of the families in their kitchen and visitor centres”), but the founders acknowledge that it’s still early days and there are hurdles that they’ll need to get over. Avril says that in this first year the return from the tours will likely be negligible, but she’s optimistic about where it could go in the future.
“Has it potential? I think so. But we have to get over the first year. In fact, I think we have to get over about two years before we see realistically what it’s producing,” she explains. “So yes, it’s part of the revenue stream – or it will be – but it’s also another way of telling our story and showing that there is real authentic food available and how good the produce is in West Cork. We’re not looking to make a fortune. We’re artisan producers and that’s not going to change.”
WEST CORK FARM TOURS
SEASON: APRIL TO OCTOBER OPENING DAYS: EACH THURSDAY, 11AM-1PM LOCATION: CLOSE TO CLONAKILTY AND ROSSCARBERY COST: €19.50 PER PERSON WEBSITE: WWW.WESTCORKFARMTOURS.COM
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