Aisling Hanley has just launched a product named Keenwah, while running her bakery business ... and expecting her sixth child.

“I thrive on living a busy life. When things begin to get peaceful I feel like it’s time to shake everything up again. My life is hectic and chaotic but I love it,” she says.

Aisling believes her organic powdered quinoa product “is the perfect first weaning food for babies” and something that is missing from the Irish baby food market as an alternative to baby rice or cereal.

Conscious of the fact that children need a high amount of nutrition in their first 1,000 days of life, she thought she would try quinoa. The crop is gluten-free and high in nutrition, containing iron, protein, potassium, zinc, folic acid and thyamine. It is also easier to cook with and smoother for a baby to eat, with a mild nutty taste.

“I’ve used quinoa myself because of its properties and have ended up with a big sticky mess so I thought about trying something new and came up with the idea of a powdered form, which would make it much easier to use” she says.

Getting started

Having an idea is one thing, but putting it into action is a big step. Living in Headford, Co Galway, the soon-to-be mother-of-six took a visit to her local enterprise office where she received free mentoring.

She availed of branding grants, which enabled her to package her products in the way she envisioned and she received an innovation voucher that allowed her to go to St Angela’s in Sligo and use their food lab to test her products. She also found an organic facility in Cork to outsource production to, given the stringent requirements for producing baby and organic foods.

Most importantly, she established contacts and a support network through her local enterprise office that allowed her to take the initial steps towards launching her business.

“I think there is a problem for women in business because they have a lack of access to business contacts. You know, men have after-work drinks or game of golf where they can mingle – women don’t have this,” Aisling says.

“This was probably the toughest for me. I think for a female entrepreneur it is very isolating.”

For Aisling, she compensated for this by going to networking events.

“I never believed in them until I started to go. You find people who will help you at these. It really is all about making connections and supporting people,” she says.

The challenges that Aisling faced didn’t deter the optimistic mother from carrying on, however.

Her children were the reason she didn’t give up when problems arose along the way: “I just wanted to be a positive role model for my four daughters. I wanted to show them even if you did come up against a brick wall, not to give up. There are lots of plots and twists that you go through but don’t let them put you off your goal.”

She admits it helped that she had already an idea of what it was like to set up a business as she began baking goods from her own kitchen in 2008.

“The bakery business grew very organically and started from selling food at farmers’ markets. As it got bigger, I moved into commercial premises and I then began to supply shops in Galway and Mayo,” she says.

“It was entirely different with the bakery, because it involved me getting up at the crack of dawn as well as trying to care for the children. It was here that I learned you don’t have to do everything on your own,” she confides.

“If you can at all, take someone on board with you – it will take that pressure or worry from your shoulders,” is the advice Aisling gives to people in a similar situation to her.

Proud with her finished Keenwah product, Aisling says she adds it to her kids’ soup when they come in from a day after school or to their yogurt to give a nutritional boost.

Keenwah is currently in 15 SuperValu stores under the Food Academy programme, which supports small producers, as well as Joyce’s supermarkets, retailing at €5.90. Find “Keenwah Quinoa” on Facebook for further information.