Listening to Siobhan Garvey speak of her childhood, early career and interest in place and sustainability, you could only conclude that she has reached a perfect place in her life. A life farming the peaty soil of Inagh, Co Clare, caring for her flock of 300 goats and making the multi award-winning St Tola goat’s cheese.

Even though Siobhan loved the countryside, farming wasn’t always part of the plan.

She comes from a long line of school teachers back to her grandfather, Jack, who was school principal of Maurice’s Mills primary school in the parish of Inagh.

But Jack wasn’t only a teacher: over the years he assembled 70 acres of this west Clare landscape to create a family farm, the same 70 acres that today is home to Siobhan’s goat herd and the St Tola cheese brand that is known and loved right across the country and further afield.

Looking at the farm with fresh eyes

Siobhan grew up in Maurices Mills, the second eldest of six children and staying in the parish wasn’t an option. “Even though I love Clare, I didn’t think I’d be able to stay here.

“I qualified as a primary school teacher and taught in Galway for a few years but I wasn’t happy.”

So she looked at the home farm with fresh eyes. It had been leased for years but there was always the hope that one of the family would do something with the place. “I knew conventional dairying or beef production wouldn’t work on our heavy peaty soil. It would have to be something different.”

Siobhan went on to do a business and marketing postgrad in UL and followed up with an internship in Shannon Development promoting regional food products. “I worked with venison and cheese producers and it introduced me to this whole new area and opened my eyes to small food businesses.”

Then the perfect opportunity to practise what she preached arose when well- known goat’s cheese producers Meg and Derek Gordon decided to retire. As a child, Siobhan was a frequent visitor to their farm. Two of her sisters suffered from asthma and her mother believed goat’s cheese helped lessen the impact of the condition.

“Meg and Derek Gordon made cheese from mid-March to mid-October. They had 70 milking goats and produced about four tonnes of cheese a year. Their uniquely flavoured St Tola cheese – named after the local saint, as they do in France – had a great reputation with top chefs. The only trouble was, there wasn’t enough of it to be got. When Meg and Derek decided to sell, it was the opportunity I’d been waiting for.”

An ideal fit

That was 1998 and Siobhan has never looked back. “It was an ideal fit for me. We had the land here at home and the Gordons had an established brand, which was well regarded in the marketplace.”

Today, the herd of goats has grown from 70 to 300, 200 of which are milking goats. Production has grown from four to 32t per year and is year-round. The range of products in the brand has grown from two to eight. Now Siobhan employs seven people along with herself and is developing the food tourism side of the business.

“It’s no longer about volume; it’s all about quality and achieving more for what we are producing. We are no longer just a fresh curd cheese producer. We are maturing cheese for longer. That requires ongoing upskilling and education. We are selling to high-end restaurants and hotels and need great new products to fit their offering.”

Gold all the way

One of these products is the Ash Log. The fresh cheese is rolled in black soot which is basically burnt vegetable ash. As it matures, it produces a rind and this helps the cheese to retain its moisture. The acidity of the cheese and alkalinity of the ash makes for an interesting taste and texture combination.

The Ash Log certainly wowed the critics, winning gold medals at the Irish Cheese Awards, Blas na hÉireann, the International Food Writers Guild, Euro-Toques and World Cheese Awards to name but a few.

“It’s hugely satisfying for the team to know what they are producing is recognised and appreciated. It motivates us to keep improving, keep our standards high as only gold is good enough.”

Growing the business wouldn’t have happened without serious State support from LEADER and Clare Local Development Company, Clare County Enterprise Board and Clare LEO. Bord Bia helped with marketing while Limerick IT gave a voucher for research and Kieran Jordan and his colleagues in Moorepark were also a big help.

Siobhan also has positive words for Origin Green, saying it is especially useful for the small-scale farmer and food producer.

“We always had a good relationship with the Department of Agriculture inspectors. I worked to a rule whereby I have to know as much if not more than them about our processes.”

Now heading for 20 years in business ,Siobhan says the sustainability of the farm and business is important for her. “It all goes back to why I left a well-paid and pensionable job to do something with the land. In my 20s, I recognised the value of land, not its monetary value, but the importance of minding it. With the farm there won’t be a day when I or my family will go hungry.”

Value-added business

The Wild Atlantic Way has been good for business. More visitors to the coastal areas of the county means more customers in hotels and restaurants. It also means more visitors who want real experiences from their holidays, something Siobhan has expanded into as an Économusée.

The idea behind Économusée is that artisan producers tell the story of what they produce and this fits in with the growing interest in food provenance.

“Six years ago, Bord Bia organised a trip to Prince Edward Island in Canada to look at the potential of food trails and the Burren Food Trail was born from this. So too was the Burren Eco Tourism Network, which is about educating people about sustainable tourism .

“Our visitors get to touch and feed the goats. They can milk a goat and watch as the cheese is being made. They get a real experience. It’s not about being open seven days a week, 12 hours a day. It could be one morning or afternoon a week and you put a proper value on what you are doing.

Tour

“Each tour costs a minimum of €100 regardless of the number on it, be it one or 10. The tour takes an hour and a half and preparation time is extra. It’s a very good offering, tailored to suit those on the tour. People are prepared to pay it because they put a value on it. As farmers, we very often under-value what we do.

Farming – the hardest part of the business

Siobhan believes that farming is the toughest side of the business. Everything is at the mercy of nature and last winter the weather turned early and they didn’t get the last of the hay and haylage saved.

“Ground conditions were so bad we couldn’t get the machinery into the fields.”

Good-quality fodder had to be purchased and the goats were let into the fields to clean them off. One of the staff has the job of cutting fresh grass daily during the season for the ewes that are housed indoors.

“People think goats are really hardy but that’s not so with dairy goats. Their skin is like ours. It feels the cold, the wind and rain and will even get sunburnt if too hot.

“It would make economical sense to buy in the goat’s milk but that’s not what we are about. For us it is always about the farm, protecting it and sustaining it for the next generation.’’

Goat breeds

Three breeds of goats make up the herd. The Saanen are white and are very good milkers. The British Alpine is speckled brown, produce a lower volume of milk but it has a high fat content. The sturdy brown Toggenburg goat originates in Switzerland and its milk is also high in fat.