Castlefarm Shop Newsletter
7-Jun-2007
Castlefarm Shop June Newsletter
Yippee! We opened the door of Castlefarm Shop, the first farm shop in Kildare on 1st June.
Our first customers were Granny Young and Aunt Beatrice and our neighbours the Lawlors and Ita Hickey (pictured below)! I suppose it is important to tell customers who we are and what we are trying to achieve, so here goes.
Castlefarm has been in the Young family for 4 generations. Peter and I have been running the farm for the past 8 years. We are dairy farmers, and also have some tillage and poultry (for egg production). We farm 170 acres in all. We have a healthy vegetable plot and are fattening some Angus heifers for beef to sell at Castlefarm Shop. Last October we made the decision to go organic. This means that since that date all our animals are fed organic, gm free ration and the only fertiliser we spread on the land is natural. It takes two years to become certified organic which means we will be fully organic on 1 October 2008.
In the Castlefarm garden we are harvesting radishes, spinach and rocket for sale in the shop. A neighbour of ours, Andrew works full time on the farm, mainly looking after our cows and tillage. Peters father John is always around to give a helping hand (he built our hen house) as is Peters mum, Sheila. We also have two agricultural students to help us run the shop and farm for the summer. Louise comes from France and Elis comes from Austria. It really takes the pressure off Peter (who works full time with The Farmers Journal) and I (who make my own range of Castlefarm relishes and vinaigrettes).
This month we have new arrivals on the farm, three new Castlefarm Chicks, two black and one yellow fluffy. The mother is a very small but fierce bantam hen. Many farmers say that bantams make the best mothers, they are so protective and anyone or anything that gets between them and the chicks will be in for a pecking. We are preparing for the arrival of another batch of 100-day-old chickens to keep up with demand for Castlefarm eggs.
At the moment we produce eggs, vegetables and Jenny’s Castlefarm range for Castlefarm Shop and have plans to produce much, much more. We source as much of our produce as possible locally or in Ireland. At the moment our food is local, Irish, some organic some not. It is honest to goodness food. Our suppliers are very important to our business and are hand picked by us. Our butcher Peter Byrne (pictured with daughter Laura below) lives in Castledermot, Kildare and our cake baker Olive Finlay lives just over the Wicklow border in Donard. The vegetables come from Jim Barr and Castleruddery farm and we will have more Kildare vegetable suppliers coming on stream very soon. Carlow Edam and Wicklow Blue are just two of the 30 farmhouse cheeses we stock.
We have a wine licence at Castlefarm and are awaiting our first delivery of Organic wines. Let us know by text, email if you would like to take part in our first wine tasting evening! We also plan to hold a monthly Castlefarm good food club in our shop so keep in touch for more details.
Our hours are Wednesday – Saturday 10am-6pm, Sunday is the day Jenny mans her stall at Athy Farmers’ Market and Monday and Tuesday are our days off! We are considering a later evening opening one day a week and will poll you soon in order to decide on which evening to pen late!
Jenny’s June recipe – This is one I have just given to Vanessa at the Sunday Business Post for her Cookbook column
Wicklow blue on walnut bread
Ingredients:
- A loaf of Soul Walnut bread.
- Wicklow BlueCranberry sauce
- Walnuts
Slice up a Soul walnut bread loaf and lightly toast. Then smother each slice with cranberry sauce – (there is probably stills some lurking in the back of the fridge since Christmas). Cover with slices of John Hempenstall’s Wicklow Blue cheese and some chopped walnuts and grill.
This is a snack that takes only a few minutes and any of the ingredients can be substituted - for instance you can substitute with baguette, brie, spicy chutney and pine nuts is a more savoury version.
We hope you have enjoyed Castlefarm Shop’s first Newsletter! To receive our newsletter and news of new products on line please email Jenny
For further information contact Castlefarm Shop, Narraghmore, Athy, Co Kildare, Telephone 059-8636948, jenny@castlefarmshop.ie www.castlefarmshop.ie