Did you know that before we were eating white spuds, the Irish were partial to the purple potato? Yes, long before Roosters and Kerr Pinks, Queens and Records were popular, purple potatoes were the spud du jour. Now the traditional potato is making a comeback on Ballymakenny Farm in Drogheda, where Maria Flynn is farming with her husband, David. Not only is this innovative product creating a new, sustainable family business, her journey was celebrated last week when Maria was named winner of the On-Farm Innovation award at the Women & Agriculture Awards. Run by Irish Country Living in association with FBD Insurance, the awards, which were held at the Cliff at Lyons, celebrate women who have diversified the farm, who saw an opportunity and put their ideas into action, creating a business that stands out from the crowd.

Born Out of Necessity

It’s not just the purple potatoes that make Maria a winner. She is a warm woman, passionate about the development of her business, proud of what she and David have achieved this far, fiercely determined that they will make the farm sustainable for their 10-year-old son, Daniel, and now delighted to be a voice for farming women. It was her story that touched a real chord with our judges Katherine O’Leary from Irish Country Living and Carolyn O’Hara from FBD Insurance.

“This business was born out of necessity,” said Maria, as she accepted her award at the Cliff at Lyons. “It was developed on a shoestring, but my husband, my son and I needed a viable business to survive, and a woman will do anything for her family.”

From London to Dublin, Maria spent 25 years working in finance. However, in 2006 when she met David Flynn, farm life became her life. The family farm is 130 acres with a further 420 acres being rented. Fourth-generation farmers, David farmed with his father and potato and cereals were the primary crops.

In 2007, David’s father retired, so David and Maria took over the farm with vigour and enthusiasm, looking forward to their bright future and building it for the next generation now that their son, Daniel, had arrived.

Uncertain Future

However, extremely challenging times lay ahead. Weather was a significant issue. Instead of every one in five years being negatively affected by weather, it was four in every five years.

Furthermore, consumer habits had changed. Potatoes were being replaced at the daily dinner table by pasta, rice and noodles. Basic economics meant supply outweighed demand and instead of potatoes making up to €600/t in 2009, the price had dropped as low as €70/t in 2013. The farm was losing money year on year.

“Honestly, we had hit rock bottom, there were many sleepless nights worrying about putting dinner on the table, never mind paying back bank loans. This is a story that has to be told, because it was not just my house, this worry takes place on farms right across the country,” says Maria.

“We had a few years where we didn’t have any answers. We both knew the current situation couldn’t go on, every year seemed to be getting worse and worse. Yet we are custodians of the land, we didn’t want things to fall apart on our watch. And David wanted to stay in potatoes, that was his passion, so we were forced to look at how else we could make things work.”

Drilling into Diversification

It was Maria’s idea to diversify into heritage potatoes, specifically the Violetta.

“I said to David, look, let’s give it a shot. So we planted eight drills thinking I would get three or four tonnes. I got triple that.”

On top of that, Maria came up with a clever marketing plan. From day one of planting she documented her journey on social media, gaining a following from top chefs across the country. JP McMahon from Aniar in Galway, Ed Cooney from the Merrion Hotel in Dublin and Eddie Attwell from the Great British Menu were looking for these innovative purple potatoes, some before they were even harvested.

“It was a huge change of direction for us. For years David, and his father before him, were selling into retail. However, I knew with a speciality product like this it was the service industry that would see the value. I started getting orders from chefs across the country and that’s when I teamed in with La Rousse foods. Now we’ve even got interest from chefs as far away as Asia.”

Balancing the Books

Most importantly, the balance books started to look a lot healthier due to the product’s limited availability and unique appearance.

“On the back of the success, we started to expand our offering. The thing is potatoes are seasonal. You might not think that as they are available all year round in the supermarket, but I only wanted my Violetta potatoes to be eaten when in season. Otherwise the taste would suffer. So I started developing a range of speciality products, so that we would have a potato or vegetable in season all year round, to give us a consistent income.”

This year Maria has planted six acres of heritage and speciality potatoes, including the Violetta purple potato and the Red Emmalie – which has pink flesh and is equally distinctive. She has also planted 60,000 tender stem broccoli plants, 1,000 sweet stem cauliflower plants and Yukon Gold potatoes, which will be a new endeavour for Ireland.

In fact, these heritage varieties are fast becoming the core business at Ballymakenny Farm. This year, for the first time in 40 years, David didn’t plant cereals and more and more space is now being given to the heritage variety.

“It has been such an honour to receive this Women & Agriculture award, it’s a huge confidence boost, an acknowledgment of the work I have already done and a motivating factor encouraging me to keep on going,” concluded Maria. CL

For more information, follow @BallymakennyF on twitter