Just Soup, Just Food

I met Deidre Hillard and her husband Kevin from the Just Food Company a couple of times recently, and the story of the growth of their business is as warming as their soup.

I met them at the SHOP trade and retail event in the RDS, and at the Dingle Peninsula Food and Wine Festival. At both events, Just Food scooped awards.

They received an incredible 5 Medals in 4 categories for their products at the inaugural National Irish Food Awards, Blas na hEireann, which were part of the Dingle event.

This included both the Gold and Silver Medals in the Soup Category, as well as awards in the sauces and dressings, healthier options and speciality meats categories.

A commended award was received by the company for their organic chicken liver Pate at SHOP, in the best frozen/chilled product.

Like so many other businesses, they found that their first farmers� market was the classic business incubation unit: Just Food was just available in Midelton farmers� market back in 2004 - today, 50 outlets stock their produce.

Now based in a dedicated unit in Cobh they employ six extra staff in the business. Despite expanding, they have tried to maintain a quality focus: �We believe that food cooked in small batches tastes better and is better. Smaller batches also cook quicker and closer to the time of consumption which has taste, nutritional and food safety benefits, and allows us to respond to natural differences in ingredients� according to Deirdre.

Their product range effortlessly spans the spectrum from healthy to gourmet � a difficult trick at the best of times.

In fact, it was their spicy lentil soup got the highest of their five Bl�s na hEireann awards, and that was in the soup rather than healthy foods category.

Believe me, it is no mean feat to convince a tablefull of food critics and chefs that lentils are tasty.

They are constantly listening to their customers: �Our restaurant customers and regular customers at Midleton farmers market provide us with very valuable direct feedback on the products we produce, allowing us to fine tune recipes and develop new products.�

Local organic has been important to them: �We have always tried to source our ingredients from local suppliers when possible. As Just Food has grown we have found this easier as we are buying larger quantities and are able to use our own product distribution network to collect ingredients from Irish suppliers�.

Just Food suppliers� list is like a who�s who of the quality organic food sector:
Dan and Ann Ahern supply the chicken livers for their pate. When Deirdre started selling at the Midleton Farmers market she shared a stall with Dan and Ann, and she has continued to use their organic chicken livers ever since. They also use the produce of Colum O�Regan in Kinsale.

Slightly further a field, their basil pesto is supplied bv Padraig Fahy and �na N� Bhroin of Beechlawn organic farm and Green Earth Organics, both from Galway.

Deidre was quick to point out how important the retailers are in all of this: �our retailers and distributors, who agree drop off points where we can collect our growers� ingredients, on our way home, having dropping off our own prepared produce.�

She was particularly complementary towards Tommy Grimes, manager of the Midelton Supervalu store adjacent to farmers� market. They were the first store to stock her produce: �the reputation of the Midleton Supervalu store and its manager has been of great assistance in helping us when we approached other retailers and restaurants� says Deidre.

�We�re expanding, and are looking for more local ingredients again� Deidre tells me.

On what was a blue sky day that Sunday in Dingle, I asked Kevin about the effect the economic downturn has been having on their business.

He thought for a while, and couldn�t really come up with anything. �We�ll we�re growing all the time, and I can�t say I�ve noticed any real change, even in recent times. People will always come back for good, simple, honest ingredients in food�

more: deirdreh@justfood.ie or 021 4812367

awards for irish organic companies

Two organic companies have recently won awards at major food events in Ireland. A smallish one and a bigger one. St. Tola's organic goat's cheese wins awards as regularly as buses come along. Along with winning a bronze at the British cheese awards this year, they also won best organic chilled/frozen product at the SHOP awards, a Bord Bia initiative. Considering that they produce a raw goat's cheese, and were up against industry stalwarts, this represents good going for the wee company from the west.

Interesting factoid: raw organic goats cheese is often cheaper than cheese strings! (cheese strings are actually about �25 a kilo!)

Meanwhile Glenisk have just won an award called "making a difference"; the strange name come from Bord Bia's research into what consumers are after, apparantely. I'll post a Glenisk article here soon.

I've written about St. Tola's before, for both Organic Matters and the Irish Examiner (fun game - find them amongst the clutter of labels on your left!). Below is an article I wrote in early 2006 for the Examiner on St. Tola's.

In a world where quality and taste are ever more important, farmhouse cheeses have a great image. They successfully create an impression of being small-scale, clean and green, made by committed gastroactivists who fight for local, authentic, environmentally-friendly produce.

In many cases this is indeed true. To take just one example; the makers of Gabriel and Desmond cheese, Sean Ferry and Bill Hogan of Scull, west Cork, have fought long and hard for the right to make raw milk cheese, in the face of stiff departmental opposition.

And many farmhouse cheeses have both a terroir, a location, and a persona, an individual maker. This is, in European terms, quite unusual.

Some of the bigger names in the game, however, now buy in milk. But with clever branding and, compared to certified organic, a looseness in technical requirements, the rustic image remains.

It may surprise readers to learn that there are only four fully certified organic farmhouse cheese producers in Ireland: Kate Carmony�s Beale, Ralph Haslan�s Mossfield, Harry Van der Zaden�s Derreenaclaurig and Siobhan Garvey�s St.Tolas.

Originally made by Meg and Derek Gordon 20 years ago, St.Tola�s derives its name from the French tradition of naming a cheese after a local saint.

The farm was in conversion to organic when Siobhan Garvey took it over in 2000. They achieved their full certification in 2001.

Along with Siobhan, there are a total of six staff, comprising fulltime, part time and seasonal.

Based in Inagh country Clare, the St.Tola's crew makes a range of certified organic goat milk cheeses. I spoke to Grainne Casey, who deals with marketing and sales, when I took a group of school kids out for a look last week.

�We farm 24 hectares, and have 220 goats here.160 are milkers and rest kids and pucks� according to Grainne. �The breeds we use are Saanen for volume of milk, and Toggenburg and British Alpine for the higher fat content�

I asked her how the year pans out regarding milking: �There is some staggering of the milking: most are milking from March to September or October, but some are also milking from October through to March. We get between 2-3 litres of milk per goat per day, and they are milked twice a day, 300 days a year per goat for milk�

It follows from this that the milkers kid in March, with a lesser number kidding in September and October for winter milk.

They sell their cheeses through wholesalers, who in turn sell it on to restaurants, delis and wholefood stores. They also sell direct to some delis and wholefood stores locally, while they also wholesale their produce to the UK, Europe and the US.

St.Tola is perhaps best known for their award-winning soft cheese log. This smooth and creamy cheese has a range of undertones: personally I taste a slight but distinctive citrus presence.

Kids (the human kind!) love it. What makes this all the better is that many parents use goat milk and cheese as a substitute for dairy produce, because they are worried about allergies.

Soft goat cheese is also great for baking. Many good eateries have baked St.Tola soft cheese as a starter on the menu. They also supply a Crottin, which is a smaller portion of the same cheese.

Along with these, they also have a Feta and a more seasonal Hard cheese; the latter sadly won�t be available for a few months.

Siobhan tells me how, even over the relatively short time she has been in operation, Irish consumer tastes have changed:

�When I started out doing tastings, I would offer people the milder cheese, the St.Tola log, and even then I�d only say it was a goat cheese afterwards. I�d just tell them it was a fresh, organic farmhouse cheese. People told me that they loved it, but if they�d known it was a goat cheese, they wouldn�t have tried it! But with travel and other things, people are now going for the more mature flavours�

For St.Tolas own site, click here (E) info@st-tola.ie (T) 065 6836633 (F) 065 6836757