Teresa Roche is a highly qualified nurse who spent 15 years working all over the world before returning home to Loughrea and the family dairy farm in 2016. Always interested in farming, she was looking for a way to increase the value of the milk produced on the farm and decided to go with making cheese.

Never one to hang around and with support from her parents, later in 2016 Teresa converted a sheep shed into a cheese house and by 2018 she had started production of Kylemore Farmhouse Cheese.

Teresa Roche,with the family's herd of pedigree British Holstein Friesian cows Abbey, Co Galway. \ David Ruffles

Teresa makes a Swiss mountain-style hard cheese that suits most palates. It is a natural cheese with a handmade rind that can be used the same way as parmesan and it is fully traceable and sustainable from farm to fork.

Prior to making her first batch of cheese Teresa spent time in Switzerland learning all she could about the cheese from master cheesemakers and completed a speciality cheese making course at the UK Artisan School of Food in Nottingham, as well as a Start Your Own Business course with LEO in Galway.

Teresa secured €20,000 from Loughrea Credit Union to do the shed conversion. “I’d heard about Cultivate’s food innovation and agri loans and I got a great welcome when I called in. The big banks wanted guarantees but the credit union backed me.”

High-profile customers

The milk used to produce Kylemore farmhouse cheese is sourced from the family’s closed herd of 105 pedigree British Holstein Friesian cows. The cheese is manufactured and matured on the farm and for the past two years Teresa has been supplying it to premium outlets, local shops and delicatessens.

Teresa Roche, Kylemore Cheese, Co Galway. \ David Ruffles

Fans of her cheese include Neven Maguire, Ashford Castle and Kai in Galway. She organises a unique experience for guests at Ashford Castle where they can spend the day on the farm and experience all that goes into making an award-winning cheese.

“I have developed the brand telling our story and marketing Kylemore cheese nationwide and internationally with exports now to the UK and Germany.”

identity

To help tell the Kylemore story, Teresa created a purpose-built educational visitor experience on site with a visual area to view the production room and give people the opportunity to view, taste and buy the cheese.

All part of developing an agri-tourism side of the business. She says the production of local artisan food gives an identity to the community.

“While a new food hub will open in Athenry next year, there is nowhere to test or manufacture new food products for small businesses like mine. This means driving to Moorepark two to three times a week, which is hard going.”

While COVID-19 remains an issue, Teresa says the artisan producers pulled together and she was able to sell their produce in her farm shop.

Looking to the future, Teresa wold like to convert an old farm building into a larger maturing room. She sees herself nursing a couple of days a month and also talking with farmer groups about preventing skin cancer and their general health.

083-845 5272 | kylemorefarmhousecheese.com