You can have your life planned out,” muses the soon-to-be Mrs Kasha Connolly, as she daintily spoons some warm raspberry coulis on to a blue china plate.

“And then, suddenly, something changes in the matter of a day.”

Irish Country Living attempts to reply with something profound, but we’ve just taken a bite of Kasha’s freshly-baked chocolate cake topped with wild berries, with the aforementioned coulis – a burst of summer – and a dollop of fresh cream on the side.

So instead, we nod – and take another forkful. When in the Burren...

It’s a sun-drunk day when we meet Kasha and her fiancé, John Connolly, at their candy-pink shuttered farmhouse close to Bellharbour, Co Clare. They first met when Kasha came on one of John’s walking tours on his family farm after moving from Poland to Ireland in 2007.

They had tea and apple tart afterwards in the cottage and he asked if she would email on photos from the walk.

“I had to find an excuse to contact her,” he laughs, as a stray ray of sunlight sets Kasha’s pink sapphire engagement ring sparkling.

It’s not the only thing that blossomed in the Burren though. This cottage, where John and Kasha had, in theory, their “first date” and was once home to John’s grandparents, is now at the heart of three boutique businesses: Burren Wild Tours, Burren Wild Baker cafe and the most recent addition, Hazel Mountain chocolates.

The first – Burren Wild Tours – was established by John over 10 years ago.

Determined to make a life for himself on the family farm where his parents, Michael John and Berenice, keep a suckler herd, he completed a degree in heritage studies and established himself as one of the only guides in Ireland giving tours of his own land. He has a certificate of excellence from TripAdvisor thanks to customer reviews from people who have travelled from all over the world to catch a glimpse of the Burren’s rare flora and fauna, such as the elusive spring gentian, mountain avens and bee orchid. (The day we visit, a tour has just departed, with visitors from as far as Korea and Taiwan.)

Changing plans

The morning that Kasha came to the Burren with a friend, she could never have imagined she would find her future husband or life here.

Originally from southern Poland, she left her job as an English teacher (she has a Master’s in American Literature) to work in Dublin, with a plan to join her sister in London before travelling to Australia.

Which brings us back to her comment about how everything can change in a matter of a day.

“I remember when I saw John, I thought: ‘Oh he’s really good looking,’” she says, her laughter ringing with a west Clare cadence.

“But then we went up the hills and I realised he’s a great storyteller,” she continues, “and afterwards we came in to this cottage and had tea and apple tart that John’s mother had made, so me and my friend were just smitten with the landscape, the Burren, everything.”

Kasha had been working as an account manager with Vodafone, but gave up her job to move to Clare three years ago. While looking for work, she started baking treats for people on the walking tours: a task she was well equipped for as her grandfather was a well-known baker in her home town, while her late mother, Bozena, was a bakery manager.

“I rediscovered the whole heritage of baking,” she says, “and I began to realise that it was always in me.”

Fusing Polish and Irish baking traditions, Kasha soon developed a repertoire of recipes, including carrot cake loaded with pistachios and spices, rhubarb and buttermilk cake, blueberry picnic loaf, peach torte, and lemon drizzle sponge topped with raspberry and coconut meringue layers.

The cookbook

Before long, people who had tasted her cakes on the tours were emailing from all over the world for her recipes.

“So John said: ‘Would you not think of putting all your recipes together?’” explains Kasha. “I hadn’t even thought of it. But my mum passed away about a year and a half ago and I said: ‘Well why not?’ I felt if I didn’t do it, I’d always probably wonder, ‘what if?’”

The result – the Burren Wild Baker cookbook – is a beautiful collection of recipes that also showcases life in the Burren, including farming traditions such as winterage. Avoca hope to stock the book this summer, while online sales have seen it sent far and wide.

“My book is now in the UK, America, Canada, South Korea, Japan and Brazil,” smiles Kasha, almost incredulously of the success of Burren Wild Baker, which is fittingly dedicated to her mother.

In February, Kasha and John launched their third venture, Hazel Mountain Chocolates, where creativity is once again to the fore with decadent combinations like dark chocolate with strawberry and cardamom, roasted juniper berry and hazelnut, sour cherry, redcurrant, and matcha green tea with lime, white chocolate and Burren honey, sourced from their neighbour just two houses down.

“All the flavours are from real ingredients,” says Kasha. “So when it says honey, it’s real honey.”

Indeed, their latest venture is “bean to bar” chocolate and people are starting to take notice: they are now supplying chocolates for special guests at Doonbeg Lodge following its acquisition by Donald Trump, with a box flown back to Trump Towers for the man himself.

And maybe it’s down to the heady scent of cocoa, but there’s something special about this little hub in the heart of the Burren.

“We thought we’d create something that would be within our interests and passions and give us the opportunity to stay where John grew up, which I think is very important,” says Kasha.

“John’s grandparents would never think there would be hundreds of people going to their home, but it keeps the place alive.”

John nods.

“People visit countries all over the world, but there’s only so much scenery you can look at,” he says.

“I think the key is to simply make use of what you have and offer something that’s genuine. Here, people are having tea in grandma’s, they’re having chocolate that has a photograph of my grandparents and my dad and my aunties from 1957 on the wrapper – that goes a long way.”

As does another slice of Kasha’s divine chocolate cake. Pass the cream and raspberry coulis.

Recipes from the Burren Wild Baker cookbook, available to order for €22 including delivery at

www.burrenwildbaker.com