Ireland - Organic products made in artisan ways

In Ireland, hand-made food still plays an important role. Small artisan companies that appreciate high-value organic raw materials are still working with traditional methods of production. Ireland is famous for its organic salmon. Due to the special herbs growing on meadows, cheese is very tasty. Just Food has just recently won two awards. One of the first companies to work on an Irish cosmetics line is ready to be certified as soon as Irish organic cosmetics standards are available.

Mossfield Organic Farm, which has been run by the Haslam family for three generations, supplies the only organic Gouda-style cheese in Ireland. This cheese is produced using organic milk from their own farm situated near the Slieve Bloom Mountains. This limestone landscape is home to an abundance of natural herbs which give the products their unique taste. Cheese production began on the farm in 2004 and last year their state-of-the-art cheese plant was opened. The cheeses range from a younger, lighter product right through to rich mature cheeses and come in a variety of different flavours: natural - regular and extra mature, basil and garlic, Mediterranean - a blend of sundried tomato, oregano and garlic, cumin seed, and smoked. All of the cheese is hand-made and is suitable for vegetarians.

Mossfield supplies directly to its customers and its cheeses can be found in flagship SuperValu stores, plus in a range of independent gourmet delicatessens. This busy company also exports to the UK, Europe and the USA - fans include Bruce Springsteen and The White House. The company has received numerous awards: The FEX International Cheese Award in 2005, the World Cheese Award in 2006, the Bridgestone Food Guide Award, the Irish Food Writers Guild Award in 2007 and the Best Speciality from Ireland, Great Taste Awards (3* Gold) and the Listowel Food Award for Best Flavour Added Cheese in 2008. New products launched in 2009 and available on the Irish market are buttermilk and cream, currently supplied to the food manufacturing industry. Products in the pipeline are ice cream and sorbets.
 

Connemara Smokehouse works with pure ingredients: fish, salt, smoke, herbs, sugar, honey and Irish whiskey. Operating since 1979, the Connemara Smokehouse is the oldest in the region and works with a kiln that was first commissioned in 1946. Using traditional methods, the Roberts family has been perfecting this ancient craft from generation to generation, and their priority has always been very high quality products. The Connemara Smokehouse specialises in producing wild and organic salmon and is a place well worth a visit, to take a tour and purchase a great array of traditionally hand-prepared seafood products. The company was the first in Ireland to start producing organic smoked salmon and Gravadlax in 1997. (Graham Roberts, CEO of the smokehouse) 

The Smokehouse has a great array of products: smoked salmon, Gravadlax, honey roast smoked salmon, roast smoked salmon, smoked tuna, honey roast smoked tuna, smoked tuna mousse, kippers, plain smoked mackerel, peppered smoked mackerel, occasionally smoked cod, smoked eels, hot smoked trout, wild smoked trout, smoked tuna mousse and darnes of wild and organic salmon. All their salmon products are available in wild, organic and farmed. Connemara Smokehouse has received many awards and achievements – the Bridgestone Guide Award from John and Sally McKenna for 2001 to 2010 and the Authentic Logo for 2004 – 2010, to name just a few. In February 2008, they were awarded the Seafood Specialist plaque 2008 in the retail sector from the BIM Seafood Circle Association. This offers consumers a guide to where they can purchase top quality seafood for preparation at home, and the company again held this award for 2009 & 2010. In September 2009 they were award the “Best Use of Sustainable Local Fish” by Good Food Ireland. (Picture: Smoked salmon by Connemara Smokehouse)
 

The origin of the Just Food Company dates back to 2004 when Deirdre Hilliard and her husband Kevin opened a stall in the Midleton market in Cork. The company’s move into a more commercial venture came in 2005 when Deirdre approached SuperValu in Midleton with a selection of Just Food products. The supermarket agreed to give the company extensive shelf space and from there, with help from the Cork Enterprise Board, the company began to expand. Today, the company operates from a commercial kitchen in Rushbrooke Commercial Park in Cobh, Co Cork. It supplies 90 shops, 40 of which are SuperValu and Centra stores. The company employs 10 people.

The main products are organic prepared food products, soups, salads, hummus, pesto and muesli. Most of the ingredients are sourced locally. Turnover at the company is expected to reach about 750,000 € this year. Containing costs is a major focus for the company, according to Deirdre Hilliard. Because Just Food’s products are organic, the ingredients are the main cost for the company, and she points out that the company endeavours to contain costs in other areas such as packaging, which is kept simple. In order to keep travel costs down, the company has set up “drop-off points” at certain retailers who stock their products, where suppliers can leave orders for collection. Economies of scale also come into play in terms of distribution networks, with the Just Food Company sharing transport and distribution costs with other small producers in their area.
 

Deirdre is determined to stay firmly in control and never to lose that home-grown touch that can get lost in a giant industry. After spending many years abroad working in the financial sector, Deirdre returned to her native county Cork and decided to sharpen her culinary skills, taking part in the famous Ballymaloe 12-week cooking course, with a view to it becoming a long term investment for family life. Deirdre found a new love of cooking at Darina Allen’s prestigious college, and used her time in the kitchen to unwind and relieve the stress of her demanding career. Deirdre creates all kinds of organic soups including flavours like spicy lentil and winter minestrone, and a corn and squash soup for children, all low in salt and with a vibrant natural texture and lively flavour.

It was soon apparent that customers could not get enough of Just Food’s tasty soup in autumn and winter but tended to choose the lighter option in summer months, leading to soup sales plummeting. This was the catalyst for Deirdre to put plans into action to introduce a new range of products including chicken liver paté, guacamole, hummus and seed-rich toasted muesli. Deirdre’s passion was recognised when Just Food won five awards across four categories including both the gold and silver medal in the Soup Category at the National Irish Food Awards (Blas na hEireann Awards) 2008, and three gold and two bronze medals at the same awards in 2009. Also, it achieved the inaugural SuperValu Local Producer Award, announced on 21 April 2010, and Just Food has just won the Brand Bursary award from the Vard Partnership in May. So far, Just Food's products have been available in Irleland, but the company is currently in negotiations with a view to entering the French market.

Meat, especially beef, is a very important product for Ireland's organic food sector. Good Herdsmen is the largest dedicated organic meat processor in Ireland and the UK. 
 

Geraldine Woessner was born and grew up in Dublin, where she worked as a fashion designer, and has lived in Kerry since 2001. Moving to the countryside helped her to find a cure for her health problems, as well as to pursue meditation and Reiki. She did various courses and studied all three levels of Reiki up to master level. Shortly afterwards she got really interested in other forms of healing therapies and did a holistic therapies course at Walmer college in Dublin, where she studied massage, reflexology, aromatherapy and diet and nutrition. She now feels equipped with all the tools needed to help others help and heal themselves. She set up The Healing Room across from her  home in Gortnakilla and people often comment that just being in this peaceful place makes them feel more relaxed. As a qualified aromatherapist and someone who cares about the environment she wanted to use a natural base cream as a carrier for essential oils. She found it very difficult to find a natural product which was also affordable, so she decided to make her own and, after a lot of research and trials, was very pleased with the final products. She got so much positive feedback from people who tried them that she decided to go into business and created Flourish Organics.
 

For Geraldine, it is important to produce a range of products which are kind to people’s pocket to encourage them to go natural, and to be kind to animals. She uses only the best natural, most luxurious ingredients for her products.As one of her top priorities is the environment and the effect the ingredients she uses have on the world around us, she does not use petrochemicals or artificial fragrances. Furthermore, where possible, she gives people the option of glass containers. All the oils, waxes and butters she uses are organically grown, and whenever possible the ingredients are sourced locally – for example, beeswax comes from local beekeepers. Some of the ingredients like the flower petals are grown organically in her own garden. The business is run ethically, all the ingredients are ethically traded, and for Geraldine it is also important to treat the senses and bring a little pleasure and pampering into people’s lives with the natural luxurious quality of the products she makes at affordable prices. Geraldine emphasises that for her it is important to make and market her products in a honest way and to make them part of a holistic way of life. Cosmetics are part of one's beauty, they are supposed to protect the skin in the most natural way and help the body to stay in harmony.
 

Currently, the range consists of vitamin E face cream, vitamin E hand and body lotion, hemp and macademia nut face cream, cleanser, calendula lotion, peppermint foot lotion, lime and grapefruit body scrub, white chocolate and vanilla lip balm, strawberry mousse lip balm, lavender lip balm, lavender and linseed eye pillows. Organic ingredients are used, but products are not yet certified organic. This is simply due to the fact that there is still no organic certification available for cosmetics in Ireland. The Organic Trust is working on standards which are expected to be ready in 2012. Flourish Organic will then be certified. So far, Geraldine has concentrated on the Irish market, selling her products at farmers' markets, health food stores, as well as to other shops and  pharmacies. As soon as her products are certified organic they can also be sold to organic stores.