�I sold more cheese this January than last January�. Not typical recessionista talk, but then Ralph Haslam cheeses are not typical either.Ralph�s organic Mossfield cheese really is the cream of the crop. It has won numerous awards, including some of the highest ranking of awards possible.
At last year�s Great Taste awards in London, Ralph�s mature cheese was the highest placed Irish product, and made it to the last 18 out of almost 4000 products.
It also became something of a celebrity cheese, after a well reported mass order by Bruce Springsteen�s chef the last time the Boss was in town.
Along with the cheeses themselves, the farm has also been gathering up the garlands: Mossfield won the top price at the JFC Innovation awards last year.
The Mossfield range includes a young cheese, garlic and basil, tomato and herb and cumin seed, along with the iconic mature.
Things are going well enough for Ralph to open a new, purpose build 8000 square feet unit on the farm in fact.
This E1.5 million unit, complete with viewing area, was part grant aided by the Organic Unit of the Department of Agriculture Fisheries and Food DAFF.
This unit, indeed the whole farm, will soon be powered by an anerobic digestor, which converts methane gas from slurry, farm yard manure and whey into power. Sustainable Energy Ireland has helped with the process, as has LEADER.
This brand new building will allow for an expansion of the current run of 2-300 kg per week.
�It could take up to 350kg per day, but we�ll keep production lower than that � we want to retain the hand made artisan approach. I�ll probably keep it down to under 600 kg per week� he tells me.
Ironically, this up scaling of production will also result in a lower carbon footprint from the product.
Before this new unit, the cheese had been made in Portumna (East Galway) and stored in Ferbane (West Offaly), all resulting in a round trip of 100 miles before it left for the shops. Now it can all be done on site, from making to maturing, on the 340 acre limestone farm in Offaly.
�The best thing about it really is that you can control everything yourself on the farm. You are not relying on anybody or anything else� according to a visibly pleased Ralph.
Ralph intends to branch out into other types of cheese, possibly a smoked or another herb line. He will also soon start with frozen yoghurts, buttermilk and ice creams. Again, all the milk will come from his herd of 140 Rotbunt-Freisen crosses, 80 of which are milking cows.
Although he supplied Glenisk at present, it is likely that all of the milk produced on the farm will go into their own products quite soon.
As often is the case, many family members are involved in the business, from the farm to production and the retail ends of the spectrum.
Son Andrew and wife Lorraine work on the farm and the cheese production respectively, while son Jonathan runs Birr�s well-known and very busy Organic Store.
Jonathan is fresh from BioFach, the annual organic food industry trade show in Germany, where he kept a close eye on the emerging trends and developments in the organic sector.
There is also a cheese maker employed, with more employees coming on line as the business expands.
Incredibly, not only is business going well for the smiling Offaly man, who sells to premium outlets across Ireland and in the UK, he is also exporting a small but growing amount as far away as California.
The association of Mossfield with the Ryder Cup and the Boss may have helped. So too must the quality.
Farming since 1970 and organic since 1999, Ralph has seen a lot of changes in Irish agriculture. Considering his own vintage, his move towards ever more control of his own destiny is all the more noteworthy.
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