How about this for a weekend away with a difference? You and some friends travel to West Cork on Friday evening where you are greeted by local food producers including Jeffa Gill, maker of Durrus Cheese, and Frank Krawczyk, a charcutier from Schull who makes prize-winning sausages. You chat about all things food and, more importantly, get to try some.
On Saturday, after an overnight stay in Skibbereen’s West Cork hotel, you visit Woodcock Smokery near Castletownshend where Sally Barnes, left, the owner, teaches you how to fillet, prepare and smoke your own fish before you sample some for lunch.
In the afternoon, you pop along to Gubbeen Farmhouse where Giana Ferguson, above, leads a tour of her family’s dairy, home of the famous Gubbeen cheese. One quick snack later and it’s back to the hotel for a dinner prepared using locally sourced fish — some Bantry Bay mussels and Castletownbere crab perhaps — or seasonal game with the finest of herbs and organic vegetables. On Sunday, a light lunch is laid on at Baltimore’s celebrated Glebe Gardens and cafe. Owners Jean and Peter Perry explain how they grow their own ingredients and source others from neighbouring producers. You try some goat’s cheese and herb fritters with homegrown salad or maybe a smoked-haddock quiche.
Your weekend ends that evening at Le Voyage at The Wine Vaults in Skibbereen, where a “unique choice of classic European dishes” is on offer, again made using local produce.
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Food tourism is a developing business in Ireland, and West Cork is leading the way. A trip, including an itinerary such as that above, can be organised for small parties by West Cork Food, an organisation created to connect foodies with artisan producers. The initiative has been developed as a way of sharing the “treasure house” of food production experience in the region with those who “truly appreciate good food, how it’s produced and how it’s cooked”.
West Cork is where Ireland’s artisan food revival started more than 30 years ago and it now boasts what is probably the highest concentration of highly skilled producers in the country. The term “artisan” refers simply to people who have a particular way of working — what the Bridgestone Guides contributor John McKenna has called “pure West Cork ... working outside the mainstream in a way that is cultural as well as commercial”.
Sally Barnes is one of the driving forces behind the initiative, which is at a development stage. Like many West Corkonians, she is a blow-in. Originally from Scotland, she ended up in the southwest in the early 1980s when she married a fisherman. Barnes developed her world-class fish-smoking skills to preserve what her husband had caught. “We started West Cork Food to share some of the knowledge and skills so many of my fellow producers here have gained over their lifetimes,” she says.
Stephen Sage, the group’s co-founder, hopes its trips will appeal to food lovers both in Ireland and abroad. “There is a real opportunity for this idea to become a node for culinary tourism in the area,” he says.
So far about 16 producers are involved, and a website, westcorkfood.com, was launched last September. A mid-week tour is planned to take place during the Taste of West Cork food festival in September and details of an autumn harvest weekend break will also be announced.
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Future plans include organised group break weekends open to members of the public, and tailored food-themed holidays, mixed with other activities such as outdoor sports or music or corresponding with seasonal events.
There is a hope that corporate clients could request trips as team-building or reward breaks for employees. Barnes thinks such trips would appeal to many sectors, including “chefs, retailers of top-quality products, schools and colleges, amateur cooks and foodies, and corporate clients seeking something different”.
Helen McDaid, food and hospitality innovation manager with Failte Ireland, the tourism body, says the food group appeals to “a niche market”, but has potential.
McDaid says that, five years ago, people would have dismissed the notion of tourism driven by local Irish food. Now, there is a growing awareness domestically, though “international visitors have yet to register the sophistication of the food on the ground”.
Margaret Jeffares, the founder and managing director of Good Food Ireland, an industry group that promotes Irish culinary tourism, says other steps are being taken to raise awareness of what the country has to offer.
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The group has spent the past few years building an all-island membership network that includes food producers, retailers, restaurants, accommodation providers and cookery schools.
Food tours, similar to those run by West Cork Food, are a natural next step. It piloted a number of tours in 2011 and plans more this year.
“We are also developing our second-generation website, which will be all about holiday experiences, with different itineraries, mainly targeted at individuals on a go-as-you-please basis,” says Jeffares.
Though some members of West Cork Food are also Good Food Ireland members, the West Cork group is a separate entity and is still getting to grips with its own particular brand of food tour. Some of the challenges are regulatory.
“Some inspectors do not approve of the public gaining access to food-production units,” says Barnes.
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The organisation is a small business without external funding, so financial concerns are also a factor. What the movement has though is spirit, knowledge and an eagerness to pass it on.
Avril Allshire, left, of Caherbeg Free Range Pork in Rosscarbery, points out what might be the most obvious reason to enjoy a West Cork Food break. “Some of the food in West Cork will never be exported, so a visit to the area to enjoy it is a necessity,” she says.
“That’s the wonderful part of it. To experience some things, you have to go to the source.”
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THE PRODUCERS
Sally Barnes, Woodcock Smokery
Sally Barnes and Joleine, her daughter, specialise in slow-smoking fish, including salmon, mackerel and herring. All the fish is wild-caught from sustainable sources and filleting, salting, pin-boning and slicing are all done by hand. “All we add,” says Sally, “is salt, smoke, skill, care, and lots of time.”
Ferguson family, Gubbeen Farmhouse Products
Anybody adopting an “eat only Gubbeen” policy would dine well. In addition to Giana and Tom Ferguson’s cheese, you would enjoy farm eggs, plus salamis, hams, bacon and sausages from the smokehouse run by Fingal, their son, as well as organic vegetables and herbs grown by Clovisse, their daughter.
Willie and Avril Allshire, Caherbeg Free Range Pork
Willie and Avril’s products include dry-cure rashers, ham, collar bacon and sausages from their herd of Saddleback-cross pigs. They also make Cumberland-style sausages and an award-winning black pudding under the Rosscarbery Recipes label.
Madeline McKeever, Brown Envelope Seeds
Madeline McKeever, left, with the help of Mike Sweeney and Ruth Bullough, produces about 10,000 packets of organically certified vegetable seeds annually. The range spans about 180 varieties, from cabbage to quinoa, and more than 30 types of tomato. Varieties are chosen for their suitability to the Irish climate.
Alan and Valerie Kingston, Glenilen Farm
In 1997, Valerie Kingston began using milk from the Kingstons’ dairy farm at Glenilen to make cheesecakes to sell at the local market. Now the Kingstons produce dairy-based products, from yoghurts to clotted cream to handmade country butter.
westcorkfood.com/food-producers