Looking at a faded photograph dated “1973” of what was then an abandoned farmhouse, would Jeffa Gill ever have imagined that her somewhat impetuous decision to move to West Cork would see her become one of the original trailblazers in Irish cheese-making? “I wouldn’t have had a clue,” she admits, as she cuts thick slices of crumbly fruit cake to pair with her award-winning Durrus Cheese: a tradition her grandmother passed down. “To be able to make a business from here was quite amazing.”

And in 2018, it is stronger than ever, with a glut of awards –- including Best Irish Cheese – and in it’s second generation, with Jeffa’s daughter, Sarah Hennessy, recently returning home to join her in the business.

WORCESTERSHIRE TO WEST CORK

Sitting around the kitchen table on the 33-hectare farm in Coomkeen, between Bantry and Durrus, Jeffa jokes about how she was raised in “deepest, darkest Worcestershire” in the UK, where her family ran a mixed farm – though admits that agriculture was not her original calling.

“I was one of those kids who wanted to leave home early,” she says, explaining how her love for art and fashion led her to Dublin in the 1960s, where she worked as a clothes designer as well as in the wardrobe department of Ardmore Studios.

A trip to West Cork, however, turned her head and, like so many before and after, she and her then-partner began their search for somewhere to settle down. “We stumbled on where I am now, quite by chance,” she says. “We found ourselves in Durrus (totally by accident), and found ourselves in a public house (totally by accident), and met somebody (totally by accident), who happened to know where there was something to sell.”

The fact that there was no running water or electricity was not going to deter Jeffa from following her dream either. “In fact, when my son was born in 1975, we lived in a caravan and he sort of slept in a little drawer,” she smiles of the early days in Durrus.

NO GRAND PLAN

To make a living while restoring the house and farm, the family put up polytunnels to grow tomatoes and vegetables, while also keeping eight dairy cows. “We took milk to the creamery, and I used to drive the milk down in whatever vehicle we had at the time,” says Jeffa, who explains that for her, it was a “natural progression” to start cheese-making after reading a book on it – though confesses there was no grand plan.

“I had a Rayburn in there,” she gestures, “and I put a pan on the stove and I just started to experiment with three gallons of our milk just to try to make a bit of cheese for the house. I don’t think I ever really thought that I’d become a commercial cheesemaker.”

With the encouragement of people like the late Veronica Steele of Milleen’s Cheese, however, and support from the enterprise board, Jeffa pursued her new passion: though not without meeting several challenges, including paying interest rates of 18% on business loans and fighting for extra quota after she decided to cease milking herself and buy instead from local farmers in order to expand production.

“When I think about it now, how on earth did we manage to do that?” says Jeffa, who credits the many neighbours who have worked with her during the years, including her “right hand woman”, Ann McGrath, and three part-time staff, as well as local farmers Corney and John Buckley, who supply both winter and summer milk for the Durrus and Durrus Óg semi-soft, rind-washed cheeses, and Noel Dukelow, whose raw summer milk is used in their Dunmanus mature hard cheese.

SECOND GENERATION

Of course, at the same time that Durrus Cheese was growing up, so to speak, so was Sarah. “I always say it was like another sibling in the family,” she laughs. “It was me and my brother and the cheese that mum had to look after.”

Like her mother, however, Sarah left the farm and West Cork to follow a different path, studying natural science in Trinity, followed by a post graduate in geographical information systems at Maynooth. All through college, however, she worked part-time with Sheridan’s Cheesemongers and – even after landing a job in the Department of Agriculture – kept doing the market in Temple Bar on Saturdays.

“I was sitting at a desk, mapping – which I loved – but it was a lot of sitting at a desk and I liked getting out and about,” she says. “It kept drawing me back.”

Indeed, after re-locating with her now-husband, Ronan, to Galway, she decided to quit her job in the department and work with Sheridan’s full-time, going on to manage their shop for 12 years. But the arrival of Cian and Rory planted the seed about moving home and, after completing a cheese-making course at the School of Artisan Food in the UK, her mind was made up.

“It just totally spoke to me and I said: ‘Oh God, I just have to go home and make cheese,’” she says of her return almost two years ago. “It’s just part of my veins really.”

THE MAGIC OF CHEESE-MAKING

And it seems that Sarah’s return has brought a new synergy to Durrus Cheese, with recent successes including winning Best Irish Cheese for the Durrus Óg at the British Cheese Awards last June.

As well as stocking local SuperValus and artisan shops nationwide, about 25% of sales are exports, with Neal’s Yard in London distributing their cheese from New York to Australia. With the uncertainty created by Brexit, however, Jeffa and Sarah have started exploring other new markets on the continent, with sales to France and Holland to date.

Other developments have included joining the Bord Bia Origin Green programme and the Super Valu Food Academy; but the traditional cheese-making methods are still intact, from cutting the curds with a Swiss harp to washing or wiping each cheese by hand every day.

“Mum always says even her mood affects the cheese,” says Sarah of the “magic” of the art. “She likes it to be calm!”

As for the future of Durrus Cheese in the long-term, both mother and daughter have started work on their succession plan with the help of a mentor from their local LEO, as well as their accountant and solicitor.

However, it’s clear that Jeffa still has the same passion she started Durrus Cheese with almost 40 years ago. “To me, work and not working, there isn’t a divide, there isn’t a cut-off period,” she says. “I always feel work is an expression of creativity.” CL

For further information, visit www.durruscheese.com.