When Billy-Jo O’Connor was working for Gucci in the Middle East, did she ever imagine what she would be doing today?
“That I’d be living in Ballyduff doing veg boxes? Definitely not!” smiles Billy-Jo, who has been selling her “Leagh Farm” seasonal salads, veg and soft fruit to the public since 2019, all grown chemical-free on a quarter acre in Co Kerry.
Yet the mother-of-three clearly has no regrets regarding her career change.
“The idea was to have a business that could grow as the children grew,” says Billy-Jo, who was raised in nearby Ballybunion, where her parents had a hotel.
Tomatoes growing in the polytunnel at Leagh Farm in Ballyduff, Co Kerry. \ Maria Moynihan
“My first job at about 12 was ironing pillow cases in the laundry, so hospitality is something that I know; and something I knew I didn’t want to do,” she laughs, explaining that she studied complementary health therapies after school before going into retail.
While travelling with her now-husband Niall, who is an engineer, she got a job in Selfridges in London in ladies’ fashion accessories and was later approached to go to Dubai to work for Gucci as store manager in their flagship “Coach” outlet, before moving to Qatar as operational manager for Victoria’s Secrets.
But while there were plenty of work opportunities, Billy-Jo and Niall discovered that the fresh, local food they knew from home, was harder to come by.
“We didn’t eat potatoes for about eight years because they were just rubbish,” says Billy-Jo. “You’d go into the supermarket and see where the food had come from and think, ‘Oh my God, how long did that have to travel and get here and in this state?’”
Return to the farm
Family support, of course, was something they also missed; especially after the birth of their first daughter.
“We had Lilah in 2013 and you only get 45 days maternity leave [in Qatar] and that was the first thing; this isn’t really sustainable for us anymore,” says Billy-Jo, who decided to give up work at that point to stay at home with the baby.
Billy-Jo O’Connor runs Leagh Farm in Ballyduff, Co Kerry. \ Maria Moynihan
By then, she had begun to take an interest in the idea of growing her own food, inspired by Monty Don’s “Fork To Fork” show on YouTube, as well as videos from Irish growers like Moy Hill Farm in Co Clare. However, it was their return to Ireland in 2015 following the death of Niall’s father that the idea for Leagh Farm really began to sprout, after they set up home on his family’s former dairy farm.
Not that Billy-Jo did anything by halves; as well as welcoming the couple’s second daughter, Aoibhín, that year, she also signed up for the distance learning course in organic horticulture at The Organic College in Dromcollogher, Co Limerick.
(Though the arrival of Beth, 2½ , meant that she had to pause her diploma; she hopes to finish it this year.)
While Billy-Jo started out growing just for her family, she always envisioned selling to the public, which prompted her decision to invest €2,500 in a polytunnel while renovating the home place.
Leeks and onions growing at Leagh Farm in Ballyduff, Co Kerry. \ Maria Moynihan
“Some people choose to buy a nice sofa; we got a polytunnel!” she laughs, adding that she sourced her organic seed from Irish suppliers like Brown Envelope Seeds and Fruithill Farm in Cork, Seed Savers in Clare and Tamar Organics in the UK, having run polls on Instagram and Facebook to find out what customers wanted.
Selling direct
May 2019 saw the official launch of Leagh Farm “veg boxes”, at a cost of €12 per box, including home delivery to the Ballyduff-Tralee and Listowel-Ballybunion areas.
Customers get a list in advance of what will be grown on the farm during the year, which includes everything from early “Orla” potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, leeks and turnips to sweetcorn, peppers, tomatoes, chillies and salad leaves ranging from Cos lettuce to Asian greens like mizuna, mustard and pak choi.
New potatoes are popular at Leagh Farm in Ballyduff, Co Kerry. \ Maria Moynihan
The weekly veg box, however, is made up of whatever is available at that time; for instance, the day that Irish Country Living calls, Billy-Jo is planning to deliver onions, kale, Swiss chard and salad leaves, along with some beans, sugar snaps and peas.
At present, she has 23 regular customers each week that she delivers to from May to mid-October. Her other main point of sale is the Ballybunion community market that she co-founded last year with another local grower, Rena Blake. Taking place each Saturday in the walled garden of Kilcooly’s Country House, it re-started on 11 July after a delay caused by COVID-19.
This year, Billy-Jo invested in a second polytunnel to extend her growing season, and next year, she hopes to increase her growing space so that she can start supplying a few restaurants and diversify her veg box offering; for instance, to start offering “family-size” boxes.
As a one-woman operation, it’s full on. “A bug won’t wait, he’ll eat it all. A crop won’t wait, it will go over,” says Billy-Jo, who explains that she always has to be “switched on”.
Moreover, in terms of providing an income comparable to what she earned previously in retail, it’s still early days, and realistically, she knows this will take time.
After spending a career working in retail- including for the Gucci group- Billy-Jo O’Connor is making a new life at Leagh Farm in Co Kerry. \ Maria Moynihan
“While it doesn’t pay me a wage, it pays me in food,” says Billy-Jo, who believes that quality of life is the main advantage, especially with a young family.
“When we moved home, we could have moved to Dublin, we both could have walked in to retail jobs and engineering, it would have been no problem,” she says, “but we made a very conscious decision that it was our quality of life and balance and to be near family that was hugely important for us.”
And while it might be a long way from Gucci, you get the feeling there is nowhere else Billy-Jo Leahy would rather be.
For further information, follow Leagh Farm on Facebook and Instagram.
Read more
Meet the two women making a living from farming half an acre
Seed Savers: planting a seed for sustainability in Scarriff
When Billy-Jo O’Connor was working for Gucci in the Middle East, did she ever imagine what she would be doing today?
“That I’d be living in Ballyduff doing veg boxes? Definitely not!” smiles Billy-Jo, who has been selling her “Leagh Farm” seasonal salads, veg and soft fruit to the public since 2019, all grown chemical-free on a quarter acre in Co Kerry.
Yet the mother-of-three clearly has no regrets regarding her career change.
“The idea was to have a business that could grow as the children grew,” says Billy-Jo, who was raised in nearby Ballybunion, where her parents had a hotel.
Tomatoes growing in the polytunnel at Leagh Farm in Ballyduff, Co Kerry. \ Maria Moynihan
“My first job at about 12 was ironing pillow cases in the laundry, so hospitality is something that I know; and something I knew I didn’t want to do,” she laughs, explaining that she studied complementary health therapies after school before going into retail.
While travelling with her now-husband Niall, who is an engineer, she got a job in Selfridges in London in ladies’ fashion accessories and was later approached to go to Dubai to work for Gucci as store manager in their flagship “Coach” outlet, before moving to Qatar as operational manager for Victoria’s Secrets.
But while there were plenty of work opportunities, Billy-Jo and Niall discovered that the fresh, local food they knew from home, was harder to come by.
“We didn’t eat potatoes for about eight years because they were just rubbish,” says Billy-Jo. “You’d go into the supermarket and see where the food had come from and think, ‘Oh my God, how long did that have to travel and get here and in this state?’”
Return to the farm
Family support, of course, was something they also missed; especially after the birth of their first daughter.
“We had Lilah in 2013 and you only get 45 days maternity leave [in Qatar] and that was the first thing; this isn’t really sustainable for us anymore,” says Billy-Jo, who decided to give up work at that point to stay at home with the baby.
Billy-Jo O’Connor runs Leagh Farm in Ballyduff, Co Kerry. \ Maria Moynihan
By then, she had begun to take an interest in the idea of growing her own food, inspired by Monty Don’s “Fork To Fork” show on YouTube, as well as videos from Irish growers like Moy Hill Farm in Co Clare. However, it was their return to Ireland in 2015 following the death of Niall’s father that the idea for Leagh Farm really began to sprout, after they set up home on his family’s former dairy farm.
Not that Billy-Jo did anything by halves; as well as welcoming the couple’s second daughter, Aoibhín, that year, she also signed up for the distance learning course in organic horticulture at The Organic College in Dromcollogher, Co Limerick.
(Though the arrival of Beth, 2½ , meant that she had to pause her diploma; she hopes to finish it this year.)
While Billy-Jo started out growing just for her family, she always envisioned selling to the public, which prompted her decision to invest €2,500 in a polytunnel while renovating the home place.
Leeks and onions growing at Leagh Farm in Ballyduff, Co Kerry. \ Maria Moynihan
“Some people choose to buy a nice sofa; we got a polytunnel!” she laughs, adding that she sourced her organic seed from Irish suppliers like Brown Envelope Seeds and Fruithill Farm in Cork, Seed Savers in Clare and Tamar Organics in the UK, having run polls on Instagram and Facebook to find out what customers wanted.
Selling direct
May 2019 saw the official launch of Leagh Farm “veg boxes”, at a cost of €12 per box, including home delivery to the Ballyduff-Tralee and Listowel-Ballybunion areas.
Customers get a list in advance of what will be grown on the farm during the year, which includes everything from early “Orla” potatoes, cauliflower, broccoli, leeks and turnips to sweetcorn, peppers, tomatoes, chillies and salad leaves ranging from Cos lettuce to Asian greens like mizuna, mustard and pak choi.
New potatoes are popular at Leagh Farm in Ballyduff, Co Kerry. \ Maria Moynihan
The weekly veg box, however, is made up of whatever is available at that time; for instance, the day that Irish Country Living calls, Billy-Jo is planning to deliver onions, kale, Swiss chard and salad leaves, along with some beans, sugar snaps and peas.
At present, she has 23 regular customers each week that she delivers to from May to mid-October. Her other main point of sale is the Ballybunion community market that she co-founded last year with another local grower, Rena Blake. Taking place each Saturday in the walled garden of Kilcooly’s Country House, it re-started on 11 July after a delay caused by COVID-19.
This year, Billy-Jo invested in a second polytunnel to extend her growing season, and next year, she hopes to increase her growing space so that she can start supplying a few restaurants and diversify her veg box offering; for instance, to start offering “family-size” boxes.
As a one-woman operation, it’s full on. “A bug won’t wait, he’ll eat it all. A crop won’t wait, it will go over,” says Billy-Jo, who explains that she always has to be “switched on”.
Moreover, in terms of providing an income comparable to what she earned previously in retail, it’s still early days, and realistically, she knows this will take time.
After spending a career working in retail- including for the Gucci group- Billy-Jo O’Connor is making a new life at Leagh Farm in Co Kerry. \ Maria Moynihan
“While it doesn’t pay me a wage, it pays me in food,” says Billy-Jo, who believes that quality of life is the main advantage, especially with a young family.
“When we moved home, we could have moved to Dublin, we both could have walked in to retail jobs and engineering, it would have been no problem,” she says, “but we made a very conscious decision that it was our quality of life and balance and to be near family that was hugely important for us.”
And while it might be a long way from Gucci, you get the feeling there is nowhere else Billy-Jo Leahy would rather be.
For further information, follow Leagh Farm on Facebook and Instagram.
Read more
Meet the two women making a living from farming half an acre
Seed Savers: planting a seed for sustainability in Scarriff
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