We’ve reached the end of the interview.
I’ve asked every question I can think of about abalone- a highly prized shellfish that can command a price tag of $100 a piece in high-end restaurants in Asia – but is cultivated right here in Connemara by mother-and-daughter team, Cindy and Sinead O’Brien. Now… I just have to eat one.
I’m not sure I do much of a job concealing my reticence either, as I slice the abalone as thinly as possible and lift a little piece to my lips, only to discover it tastes… like beef? And that it’s delicious.
The relief is obviously written right across my face, Sinead and Cindy smiling knowingly as I savour each remaining morsel. Since opening their farm to the public, they have been on a mission to educate Irish consumers about abalone, as well as seaweed and other natural products, but also to show the potential that Irish aquaculture could have with the right support.
But before we get to that: how did an abalone farm come to Connemara?
California to Connemara
The story actually starts in California, where Cindy was born, raised and studied marine biology, before moving to Florida to work at the University of Miami’s experimental fish hatchery.
It was here she met her future husband, Enda, who had moved from Ireland to do his PhD in meteorology. And while they started their married life in Miami, after the arrival of their three daughters, they decided it was time to relocate to bring up their family.
“Enda didn’t want to live in California because he said it was too much like Disneyland and I didn’t want to live in Miami forever, so we said we’d compromise… Ireland!” smiles Cindy of how they ended up in Galway in the mid-90s.
Family reasons aside, for Cindy the move was an opportunity to start her own aquaculture project. In Miami, she had heard about abalone, but had never seen it cultivated – or even tasted it – before she began looking at the possibility of starting her own farm.
As it turned out, two species of abalone – Japanese and European – had been introduced to Ireland in the 1980s with the eventual aim of supplying the lucrative Chinese market. With support from Údarás na Gaeltachta, Cindy set up a pilot project in Lettermore to experiment with different methods of farming, and discovered that the Japanese species, Ezo, was best suited to the west coast and seemed to thrive on a seaweed diet.
Once she was confident in her techniques and having secured her aquaculture license, she found a suitable site for her farm close to Rossaveal, where seawater could be pumped into her four land-based settlement tanks (which Cindy refers to as “her fields”) direct from Cashla Bay.
However, while the initial breed stock were hatched in 2008, it was 2011 before the first abalone were available for sale, as it takes four years for one to grow to between 7-8 cm, which is what most chefs required at the time.
“That’s four years of waiting and feeding,” says Cindy of the patience required to be an abalone farmer; though they have since found a market for 5-6cm abalone, while the ideal size for them – and the high-end buyer – would be 10-11cm if they could afford to hold on to the abalone for five to five-and-a-half years.
Farm tours
One person who admits she was not so patient with the project – at least initially – was Sinead, who as a teenager, protested at having to harvest seaweed with her sisters to feed the abalone.
“We really felt like we were in The Field!” she laughs.
Determined to get away as fast as she could, Sinead studied law in Dublin, followed by a Masters in Amsterdam and later worked in the Oireachtas. However, it was actually being away from home that “completely changed her perspective” on how special her mother’s farm was, especially having been exposed to the Dutch approach to food and in particular, food tourism.
“The exposure to the Dutch entrepreneurial spirit really inspired me to say, ‘OK, I think there’s more that we can do here’,” she explains.
While Cindy has sold abalone direct to Michelin-star restaurants like The Fat Duck in London, the majority have gone mainly to EU-based Chinese buyers, though this has had its own challenges; for instance, the battle to get a decent price (they sell their abalone for €100/kg, though in the early days, some buyers were trying to get away with only offering €40/kg) coupled with the logistics of delivering a fresh product. 
Hence the decision to open up the aquaculture farm for tours, which also include a seaweed foraging experience and food tasting, where bites range from chocolate and espresso seaweed cookies to the abalone itself.
“One thing I love is when we get Chinese or Korean or Singaporean people on our farm and they’re just so excited to see an abalone,” smiles Sinead. “We had one guy who said, ‘I can’t believe we’re eating abalone, this is for emperors!’”
As well as the tours – which are part of BIM’s Taste The Atlantic trail – Sinead has also concentrated on expanding the farm’s product range, starting with seaweed beauty products under her “Mungo Murphy’s Seaweed Co” brand.
“It’s easier to have a bath in seaweed than to start eating it,” explains Sinead of her approach, but she has since started to sell fresh seaweed to restaurants through La Rousse Foods, as well as using dried seaweed to develop seasonings for cooking, which are now available through Musgraves. Meanwhile, they have also added sea cucumbers and sea urchins to their offering.
Potential of Irish aquaculture
These initiatives have generated valuable cashflow as the O’Briens consider the next step for their farm.
At present, they sell between 300-400kg of abalone a year, but they have been approached by buyers looking for as much as 100kg a week to feed demand in Hong Kong and mainland China.
“And we’re like, ‘We’re a small farm in Ireland. We can’t supply you with 100kg at the moment!’” says Sinead.
However, they do see an opportunity to start to meet this demand if they could secure additional investment to develop further aquaculture sites, or if other farmers came on board in Ireland.
“Start-up costs are expensive, but if there were Government initiatives to get people to do this kind of farming, I think it would really help get the industry off the ground,” says Sinead, who adds that as climate change impacts abalone stocks in other parts of the world with problems like algae bloom and ocean acidification, it makes sense to develop more land-based systems like their farm.
Indeed, part of their mother-daughter mission is to challenge the misconceptions surrounding aquaculture and show how sustainable it can be.
“People see aquaculture as something dirty and it’s not,” stresses Cindy. “You can do it the right way and you can do something that’s as good – or better – than getting it from the sea.”
Whatever the future holds, however, working as a mother-daughter team gives them a unique combination of experience, enthusiasm and energy.
“Because I’m not trained in marine biology, I have a bit more childlike perspective on the whole thing, which I think is good, because I can think a bit more outside the box,” reflects Sinead.
“True,” agrees Cindy. “And I think, ‘OK can it be done?’”
“I ask the stupid questions,” laughs Sinead. “Mom figures out is it possible!”
For further information, visit www.abalone.ie and www.mungomurphyseaweed.com