Driving around Wexford, it’s hard to find a vista that’s not farming filled. Many of these views are fruit growing in abundance and dairy cows grazing leisurely in fields, awaiting evening milking. Of course, both fruit and milk can be used in a plethora of ways, but for this, our third installment of Carpool in the Country in association with Dunnes Stores Simply Better and Land Rover, it’s all about the Dunnes Stores Simply Better Irish Yogurts.
They uniquely combine the best of both worlds, creamy and smooth yogurt fused with the sharp sweetness of the fruit of the sunny southeast.
Des Jeffares, Anne O'Donoghue and Pauline Dunne.
Our journey takes us to two farms, firstly to Killowen to visit the Dunne family’s dairy herd. The milk used in the yogurt doesn’t travel far, straight from the field to their yogurt making facility on the farm. And to achieve that fruitiness, we head to Ballykelly to see Des Jeffares’s blackcurrants, which add the perfect tangy taste to the creamy formula.
What is most striking about both of these visits is how very similar they are to other family farms around the country.
In the kitchen at Killowen, freshly baked scones and a pot of tea greet us on the table, the old Aga in the corner a comforting sight. At Ballykelly, cordial is doled out in the old house and an explanation given of the pictures hanging on the wall, each telling its own tale.
When you think about these operations coming together to produce award-winning yogurt, their success is no real surprise. Irish farms, the vast majority of which are family-run, produce some of the best food in the world.
Wexford to the Middle East
Nestled at the foot of the Blackstairs Mountains just outside Courtnacuddy, Co Wexford is Killowen Farm. Yogurt is a relatively new enterprise here – well, new when you consider the farm’s longevity.
The history of Killowen Farm stretches back two centuries. Brother and sister team, Nicolas and Pauline Dunne are the eighth generation to farm here and Nicolas’s son Charlie is the ninth.
Killowen first started producing yogurt on a small scale in 2003. In the short time since, the yogurt has achieved considerable success. As well as winning Great Taste and Blás na hÉireann awards, among others, this yogurt is served on first-class Emirates flights.
In 2003, Nicolas was looking to do something different other than milking – or for something to add value to milking – as the price of milk was very low at the time. The plan they conceived was yogurt manufacturing, all of which would be done right there on the farm. They converted an old stable beside the parlour in the yard into a production room and a packing room, as well as creating a cold room.
Killowen supply some of the top hotels in Dubai and you can even enjoy its sweet flavour while taking in the views from the highest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa
That was the start of their yogurt operation, which was built up one customer at a time. For their first year in production, their yogurt didn’t venture outside Wexford, but it wasn’t long before it took to supermarkets and even further afield.
The product is extremely popular in the Middle East. Killowen supply some of the top hotels in Dubai and you can even enjoy its sweet flavour while taking in the views from the highest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa.
The Dunnes milk 200 Friesian cows with year-round calving. Approximately 70% of their milk goes into the yogurt, with the rest going to Glanbia for liquid milk or cheese.
Pauline Dunne with her brother Nicolas Dunne and his son Charlie.
Pauline is the sales manager of the family-owned yogurt manufacturer. Down the fields at Killowen surrounded by the cows, Pauline highlights the favourable growth in the sunny southeast, primarily due to a higher temperature and generally better weather, as a key factor in their success.
“It’s the grass, it’s the quality of the grass that’s just fantastic,” enthuses Pauline. “This part of the country, it’s the sunny southeast, our temperature is just perfect for dairy farming.”
No additives, no preservatives, it’s all happening here on the farm
But, what really sets the yogurt apart from the rest is using a single source of milk.
“All of the milk that goes into this yogurt is from a single source, from this ground here,” says Pauline. “No additives, no preservatives, it’s all happening here on the farm.”
The process of turning the grass to milk and the milk to yogurt, is both natural and simple. The cows are milked, the milk then comes from the parlour into the tanks. It’s pasteurised and homogenised and cultures are added. It’s left overnight, packaged the next day and chilled before it goes out to stores.
Berry bliss
Of course, what goes perfectly with thick, creamy yogurt? Sweet, succulent fruit!
Traceability and keeping food miles low are extremely important elements of these yogurts. The fruit used in the yogurt doesn’t have far to go at all. They use rhubarb from Keogh’s in Enniscorthy, Eamon Crane’s strawberries, Kearns strawberries and raspberries and Clarke’s strawberries, blackberries and raspberries.
As well as all those suppliers, Des Jeffares’s blackcurrants travel about half an hour from the farm outside Drinagh. Pauline explains what happens when Killowen Farm meets Ballykelly Farm.
Des Jeffares in amongst his blackcurrant bushes at Ballykelly Farm, Drinagh, Co Wexford.
“We go down to collect the blackcurrants. Des will have them ready and we’ll bring them up to the farm. Then we’ll cook them, we’ll add a little bit of sugar and we’ll use them the next day in the Simply Better Irish Yogurts.
“Those two unique flavours coming together, the Wexford blackcurrants with the yogurt, they work perfectly. We know exactly where the fruit is from, I think that’s great reassurance for us as well.”
The result is a yogurt that is exceptionally creamy and smooth, highlighted with the sharp sweetness of blackcurrants, a flavour explosion in your mouth.
Killowen Farm and Ballykelly Farm have another shared link aside from their fusion in yogurt. It is the fact that they both have a long history in their respective enterprises. Des is a third-generation blackcurrant grower, as well as being Ireland’s only commercial blackcurrant grower.
“We started growing blackcurrants in 1955,” says Des. “In 2013 that all changed. Contracts disappeared, factories closed down, but I decided to try and keep going. So it literally meant starting from scratch again.
“We put in a lot of capital investment and built a freezer unit, so we could literally pick our own fruit, freeze it on-site and have it available all year around.
“We are trying to get people thinking more about the health side of food. I mean blackcurrants are a superfood; they have fantastic health benefits.”
Des’s passion for his work is evident as he speaks. Since losing his contract with a big drinks company he has gone into making his own cordial. Also, as we have noted above, he has gotten other business for his blackcurrants, such as with Killowen and supplying Wexford Home Preserves who make the Simply Better range of preserves.
As a child, Des remembers the harvest as a time when they handpicked all of the blackcurrants and people were drafted in to help from all sides. Now that technology has advanced, he has brought in a machine from England which essentially shakes the blackcurrants from the bushes and collects them as they fall.
The key to getting perfect blackcurrants is harvesting at the right time, which is only a small window. You need to wait long enough so as they are good and black, but not so long that they are overripe.
With such care and precision gone into growing the fruit and centuries of dairying knowledge poured into the milk, Dunnes Stores Simple Better Irish Yogurts are in the safest of hands in Wexford.
Read more
Advertorial: Carpool in the Country, Connemara Hill Lamb
Advertorial: Carpool in the Country, Glens of Antrim Potatoes
Driving around Wexford, it’s hard to find a vista that’s not farming filled. Many of these views are fruit growing in abundance and dairy cows grazing leisurely in fields, awaiting evening milking. Of course, both fruit and milk can be used in a plethora of ways, but for this, our third installment of Carpool in the Country in association with Dunnes Stores Simply Better and Land Rover, it’s all about the Dunnes Stores Simply Better Irish Yogurts.
They uniquely combine the best of both worlds, creamy and smooth yogurt fused with the sharp sweetness of the fruit of the sunny southeast.
Des Jeffares, Anne O'Donoghue and Pauline Dunne.
Our journey takes us to two farms, firstly to Killowen to visit the Dunne family’s dairy herd. The milk used in the yogurt doesn’t travel far, straight from the field to their yogurt making facility on the farm. And to achieve that fruitiness, we head to Ballykelly to see Des Jeffares’s blackcurrants, which add the perfect tangy taste to the creamy formula.
What is most striking about both of these visits is how very similar they are to other family farms around the country.
In the kitchen at Killowen, freshly baked scones and a pot of tea greet us on the table, the old Aga in the corner a comforting sight. At Ballykelly, cordial is doled out in the old house and an explanation given of the pictures hanging on the wall, each telling its own tale.
When you think about these operations coming together to produce award-winning yogurt, their success is no real surprise. Irish farms, the vast majority of which are family-run, produce some of the best food in the world.
Wexford to the Middle East
Nestled at the foot of the Blackstairs Mountains just outside Courtnacuddy, Co Wexford is Killowen Farm. Yogurt is a relatively new enterprise here – well, new when you consider the farm’s longevity.
The history of Killowen Farm stretches back two centuries. Brother and sister team, Nicolas and Pauline Dunne are the eighth generation to farm here and Nicolas’s son Charlie is the ninth.
Killowen first started producing yogurt on a small scale in 2003. In the short time since, the yogurt has achieved considerable success. As well as winning Great Taste and Blás na hÉireann awards, among others, this yogurt is served on first-class Emirates flights.
In 2003, Nicolas was looking to do something different other than milking – or for something to add value to milking – as the price of milk was very low at the time. The plan they conceived was yogurt manufacturing, all of which would be done right there on the farm. They converted an old stable beside the parlour in the yard into a production room and a packing room, as well as creating a cold room.
Killowen supply some of the top hotels in Dubai and you can even enjoy its sweet flavour while taking in the views from the highest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa
That was the start of their yogurt operation, which was built up one customer at a time. For their first year in production, their yogurt didn’t venture outside Wexford, but it wasn’t long before it took to supermarkets and even further afield.
The product is extremely popular in the Middle East. Killowen supply some of the top hotels in Dubai and you can even enjoy its sweet flavour while taking in the views from the highest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa.
The Dunnes milk 200 Friesian cows with year-round calving. Approximately 70% of their milk goes into the yogurt, with the rest going to Glanbia for liquid milk or cheese.
Pauline Dunne with her brother Nicolas Dunne and his son Charlie.
Pauline is the sales manager of the family-owned yogurt manufacturer. Down the fields at Killowen surrounded by the cows, Pauline highlights the favourable growth in the sunny southeast, primarily due to a higher temperature and generally better weather, as a key factor in their success.
“It’s the grass, it’s the quality of the grass that’s just fantastic,” enthuses Pauline. “This part of the country, it’s the sunny southeast, our temperature is just perfect for dairy farming.”
No additives, no preservatives, it’s all happening here on the farm
But, what really sets the yogurt apart from the rest is using a single source of milk.
“All of the milk that goes into this yogurt is from a single source, from this ground here,” says Pauline. “No additives, no preservatives, it’s all happening here on the farm.”
The process of turning the grass to milk and the milk to yogurt, is both natural and simple. The cows are milked, the milk then comes from the parlour into the tanks. It’s pasteurised and homogenised and cultures are added. It’s left overnight, packaged the next day and chilled before it goes out to stores.
Berry bliss
Of course, what goes perfectly with thick, creamy yogurt? Sweet, succulent fruit!
Traceability and keeping food miles low are extremely important elements of these yogurts. The fruit used in the yogurt doesn’t have far to go at all. They use rhubarb from Keogh’s in Enniscorthy, Eamon Crane’s strawberries, Kearns strawberries and raspberries and Clarke’s strawberries, blackberries and raspberries.
As well as all those suppliers, Des Jeffares’s blackcurrants travel about half an hour from the farm outside Drinagh. Pauline explains what happens when Killowen Farm meets Ballykelly Farm.
Des Jeffares in amongst his blackcurrant bushes at Ballykelly Farm, Drinagh, Co Wexford.
“We go down to collect the blackcurrants. Des will have them ready and we’ll bring them up to the farm. Then we’ll cook them, we’ll add a little bit of sugar and we’ll use them the next day in the Simply Better Irish Yogurts.
“Those two unique flavours coming together, the Wexford blackcurrants with the yogurt, they work perfectly. We know exactly where the fruit is from, I think that’s great reassurance for us as well.”
The result is a yogurt that is exceptionally creamy and smooth, highlighted with the sharp sweetness of blackcurrants, a flavour explosion in your mouth.
Killowen Farm and Ballykelly Farm have another shared link aside from their fusion in yogurt. It is the fact that they both have a long history in their respective enterprises. Des is a third-generation blackcurrant grower, as well as being Ireland’s only commercial blackcurrant grower.
“We started growing blackcurrants in 1955,” says Des. “In 2013 that all changed. Contracts disappeared, factories closed down, but I decided to try and keep going. So it literally meant starting from scratch again.
“We put in a lot of capital investment and built a freezer unit, so we could literally pick our own fruit, freeze it on-site and have it available all year around.
“We are trying to get people thinking more about the health side of food. I mean blackcurrants are a superfood; they have fantastic health benefits.”
Des’s passion for his work is evident as he speaks. Since losing his contract with a big drinks company he has gone into making his own cordial. Also, as we have noted above, he has gotten other business for his blackcurrants, such as with Killowen and supplying Wexford Home Preserves who make the Simply Better range of preserves.
As a child, Des remembers the harvest as a time when they handpicked all of the blackcurrants and people were drafted in to help from all sides. Now that technology has advanced, he has brought in a machine from England which essentially shakes the blackcurrants from the bushes and collects them as they fall.
The key to getting perfect blackcurrants is harvesting at the right time, which is only a small window. You need to wait long enough so as they are good and black, but not so long that they are overripe.
With such care and precision gone into growing the fruit and centuries of dairying knowledge poured into the milk, Dunnes Stores Simple Better Irish Yogurts are in the safest of hands in Wexford.
Read more
Advertorial: Carpool in the Country, Connemara Hill Lamb
Advertorial: Carpool in the Country, Glens of Antrim Potatoes
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