Could the Boyne Valley be the new West Cork?

Olivia Duff is “happier in a pair of wellies than in a suit”. Good thing too, because as chair of the Boyne Valley Food Group, hotel manager and turkey farmer – not to mention mother of three girls under five – she has spent more than her fair share of time in them steering the Boyne Valley Food Series, which runs until the end of September.

Olivia, whose family have run the Headfort Arms in Kells, Co Meath, for over 40 years, lives on Maperath Farm with her husband, Eoin Sharkey, where they are currently rearing 550 bronze free range turkeys and 100 geese for the Christmas market.

In 2012, she travelled to Prince Edward County in Canada as a Fáilte Ireland Food Ambassador, as part of a benchmarking trip to learn how local farmers, producers and restaurants had worked together to reinvent the region as a food tourism destination.

Inspired – and with support from Fáilte Ireland and Meath County Council – Olivia and like-minded individuals launched the Boyne Valley Food Group in 2013, which today boasts 51 members in Meath and Louth.

“When John McKenna (food writer) came up to launch the Boyne Valley Food Series, and we all stood on the Hill of Tara, he just said: ‘This is how west Cork started off. A few passionate people working together’,” says Olivia.

“And it’s by working together that you create a sense of destination.”

Members pay €100 each to be part of a co-operative marketing campaign, but the flagship is the Boyne Valley Food Series, which this year consisted of 38 events running from May until the end of September.

These have included a dawn chorus walk followed by a local producers’ breakfast at the Newgrange Gold farm on the banks of the Boyne, a farm walk followed by an Angus steak dinner with Donegan’s of Monasterboice, a Navan tapas trail and a foraging day at Girley Bog.

In essence, marrying local food with unique experiences that not only raise the profile of the local producers, but also help establish the region as a food tourism hub.

“Fáilte Ireland has said to us that it sees the Boyne Valley Food Series as best practice now for what it sees as a food tourism template,” says Olivia.

“It’s things like an electric bike tour or foraging on the bog that are really different experiences that people will sit up and take notice of. And if we have a constant offering of that under the umbrella of one brand, then we really are making tracks in establishing the area as a food tourism destination.”

Each farmer or producer takes responsibility for their own event, but the food group allows people to work together to share skills and ideas, as well as providing professional marketing support and promotion through the website, brochures, social media, etc.

Given the success of this year’s series – where 85% of the events sold out – the Boyne Valley Food Group will extend its series beyond the summer, by hosting its first Halloween event, while future plans include developing a food guide to the Boyne Valley as well as a tour app.

“It is a complete labour of love, but I feel so passionate about it,” says Olivia. “And unless you have that real belief and passion, you have nothing.”

For further information, visit www.boynevalleyfoodseries.ie

Meet the Members

Boyne Grove Fruit Farm

In 1962, Olan McNeece’s father left Co Armagh and bought a farm on the banks of the Boyne, just outside Drogheda.

Over 50 years on, Boyne Grove Fruit Farm has supplied some of the country’s main supermarkets and wholesalers with its hand-picked apples, but the family-run business has also introduced its own products: Stameen Farm apple juice and cider vinegar, and Dan Kelly’s Irish Cider. As well as serving the home market, the company exports to the US, Germany and Austria, and is currently in talks with an Italian distributor. As part of the Boyne Valley Food Group, Boyne Grove kicked off the summer series with a blossom walk through the orchards and cider tasting for charity in May, which Olan says was a great opportunity to promote what they do to the public.

However, there have been many other spin-offs. For example, fellow Boyne Valley members Newgrange Gold now use its cider vinegar for tastings at demos and trade shows, while the opportunity to network with other local producers is invaluable.

“No matter how much you think you know, you will always benefit from fresh eyes and ears,” says Olan, who believes such co-operation is vital in promoting the Boyne Valley as one of the country’s premier tourism hubs.

“From seafood to ice cream, craft beer to cider, there is a lot of really good produce in the Boyne Valley,” says Olan. “But one or two or three producers are not able to do it by themselves.”

www.dankellyscider.com

Rock Farm

Slane Castle might be best known for rock ’n’ roll, but since 2010, Alex and Carina Mount Charles have transformed 150 acres of the estate into Rock Farm: an organic agri and eco-tourism haven.

As well as rearing organic beef, Tamworth pigs and poultry on the tillage farm, Rock Farm has its very own glamping site and eco-lodge, where guests can also treat themselves to barbecue and breakfast packs featuring produce from the estate.

Activities from eco-build courses to electric bike tours are available, hen, stags and weddings are catered for and – in a most recent development – Brown Forman (the US company that owns Jack Daniel’s) recently announced it will invest in a €44m distillery on the wider 1,500 estate.

Unsurprisingly then, Rock Farm – which is also a founding member of the Slane Food Circle – has shown similar innovation as part of the Boyne Valley Food Series, hosting a gourmet electric bike tour (which included visits to other producers including Boyne Valley blue cheese and Cockagee cider), a grain-to-bottle whiskey walk through its barley fields, followed by a professional whiskey tasting and meal featuring Slane Food Circle produce, and on 20 September, a food, film and music festival.

“Producers need to think more creatively to reach more people, especially if you are in organic. It has to be experience-led,” says Carina Mount Charles, who believes that events like the Boyne Valley Food Series are vital for promoting your farm business.

“The more people I can bring to the farm, the better.”

www.therockfarm.ie

Diary dates