Rocking around the farm this Christmas

What’s the toughest thing when it comes to rearing turkeys?

According to Carina Conyngham, it’s their dare-devil tendencies… that sometimes can end in self-destruction.

“They’re like socks; they just disappear.” Carina exclaims; though this year’s flock appear to be in rude health for the festive season when Irish Country Living pays a visit to Rock Farm Slane, on the banks of the Boyne.

While Slane Castle might be best known for its rock concerts, there is a long history of farming on the estate, with Carina, her husband Alex, and their three children the latest generation to take the reins.

“If someone told me 11 years ago that I was going to be doing this, I wouldn’t have believed you,” admits Carina, who is originally from the UK and worked in finance before making the switch to study for a master’s in environmental technology.

“I kind of expected I was going to get a job in some kind of government agency. I didn’t know I was going to marry an Irish farmer or I would have done a MSc in ag science or something useful.”

The aforementioned agriculturist was Alex Conyngham – son of Lord Henry Mountcharles – whose family have farmed at Slane Castle since the 1700s, but at that stage was also working in the energy sector.

“We’re really old friends, but we sort of fell in love again in 2006 and moved here in 2007,” explains Carina, who initially worked as an energy consultant and BER assessor when she first relocated to Ireland.

Shortly after the move, however, she signed up for the John Seymour school of self-sufficiency course and set about converting her cottage garden into a two-acre small holding with raised beds for veg, an orchard, rare-breed chickens and a Tamworth sow and boar.

Still, it must have been quite a jump in 2011 to take over 450 acres of the Slane Castle Estate under the Young Farmers Scheme, including a 90-acre farm known as “The Rock” by the Boyne, which had been in pasture and barley for many years but not inhabited in memory.

Was that not a bit daunting? asks Irish Country Living.

“It was exciting,” counters Carina, explaining that while Alex turned his attention to setting up Slane Irish Whiskey distillery using barley from the estate in partnership with Brown Forman (makers of Jack Daniels), she set about turning “The Rock” into a certified organic mixed farm and eco-tourism destination.

“I wanted to do something different,” says Carina, who explains how Rock Farm offers award-winning luxury “glamping” in yurts and shepherds’ huts with on-site activities including e-biking and kayaking, as well as catering for weddings, family gatherings and corporate events with a recently refurbished hay barn and “Lime House”, which is a straw bale house (a byproduct of barley) that sleeps up to 22 people and was built with the support of LEADER.

As well as generating income, however, the eco-tourism facility has allowed the Conyghams to effectively create their own market for their farm produce – from their own Dexter beef served at weddings to breakfast and BBQ packs using their pork and eggs.

“So the majority of the food that’s produced on the farm is consumed on the farm. That’s the model that we’re really looking for,” says Carina, who explains that they also supply the restaurant at Slane Castle and are members of Slane Food Circle and Boyne Valley Flavours, employing six staff year round and 15-20 at high season.

Talking turkey

With the main tourist season running from April to November, however, it became clear that there was a need to further diversify on the farm for off-season.

Enter stage left, the turkeys.

“A nice winter crop as it were,” smiles Carina, who opted for Hockenhull bronze turkeys due to their hardy nature. They are purchased as “day-olds” from Galloway Turkeys in Co Antrim in summer and reared on organic feed sourced from Devenish in the forest garden on the farm, where they are also free to forage.

Having successfully reared 90 turkeys in 2016, Carina decided to increase her flock to 120 last year and was delighted to secure a contract to supply Avoca stores, as well as her local market.

“Then we had our catastrophic event,” continues Carina, explaining that six weeks in, there was a fault with the water system.

“There was a very small flood,” she gestures, “but they all dived on top of each other... and there was just one survivor.”

Apart from the personal devastation, however, Carina explains how “stressful” it was to think that she would not be able to deliver what she had promised.

“Your first kind of professional contract and you’re going to have to let the person down,” she cringes at the memory. But, fortunately, Galloway Turkeys was able to supply her with a selection of two-week-old and four-week-old turkeys, even though Carina was not able to sell them as certified organic at that stage, despite rearing them that way once they reached the farm.

Undeterred, this year she increased her flock again to 250 birds, which will be processed at Hogan’s near Kells, with final collections from the farm on 22 December.

“They’re really important because they bring income in over Christmas,” says Carina, who also supplies Christmas hams and breakfast packs for the festive season.

Rett syndrome

While Rock Farm has grown, so has Carina and Alex’s family, with daughter Laragh (nine) and sons Rory (eight) and Casper (six).

This journey, while joyful, has not been without its challenges either, after Laragh was diagnosed with Rett Syndrome – a rare neurodevelopment disorder that affects girls almost exclusively, resulting in learning and physical disability.

“There were certain things that indicated that she wasn’t advancing as quickly as her peers, but nothing untoward,” explains Carina.

“She walked quite late at 18 months and she had an asymmetric gait – which means it’s a funny walk – and that’s when we were first alerted to the fact.”

However, Laragh was actually six-and-a-half years of age by the time she was eventually diagnosed with Rett Syndrome in the UK, after the generic DNA testing available in Ireland had actually ruled out Rett by failing to identify the fact that she had a mild variant of the condition.

“It was quite a long, arduous journey to get her diagnosis to be honest with you,” says Carina, who explains that while Laragh attends a special school and has difficulties with issues such as hand function (ie she can’t feed herself or hold a pencil) she is still a very active little girl who adores being out on the farm.

“She rides, she swims, she walks and she loves being outdoors,” says Carina, who is now involved with about 70 other families in Rett Syndrome Ireland in raising awareness of the condition, and believes that there are many more cases that remain undiagnosed in Ireland.

Christmas will be family time – this year in the UK with Carina’s clan – before a busy 2019, with plans to expand the Dexter herd and grow the glamping in advance of the Metallica gig at Slane Castle in June.

“Hopefully we’ll have a bit of time to watch it; sneak across the river,” smiles Carina.

For now, however, the focus is on getting those turkeys to the Christmas table – though such is the demand that Carina admits that she might be short just one come the big day.

“We’ll be lucky to get our own turkey,” she laughs.

For further information, visit www.rockfarmslane.ie

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