Outside the village of Kilfenora, in north Clare, on the west coast of Ireland, we run a small eco friendly, sustainable farm. Situated in the Burren, a unique part of County Clare it is part of the Burren and Cliffs of Moher Geopark UNESCO Global Geopark.
On the farm, which is in sight of a well preserved iron age ring fort, we rear free range, rare breed pigs, beef cattle and grow vegetables and love eating healthy clean food.
The farm is a traditional small holding that has kept cattle and sheep in the past. In 2007 we replaced the sheep with rare breed, free range pigs. We keep mainly Saddleback pigs due to their character and quality of meat.
Our ethos is to keep everything as natural as possible: no chemical fertilisers, pesticides, no tail docking, no teeth filing or crates for sows and most importantly no addition of medication to the feed. Our pigs have sheds with plenty of straw to shelter in when the weather is bad, but the doors are open so they can go outside whenever they like and we are amazed at times to see how hardy and playful they are.
Pigs love grass and they spend time eating loads of it – they get most of the minerals and nutrients from our rich soil, the herbs and the grasses. So in essence: what’s good for the animals and the land will naturally be good for us.
‘Pork to fork’ or ‘farm to plate’ has become popular expressions and we believe in the concept for the simple reason that we know exactly what the pigs have been fed and how they have been treated and that’s what we want to share with our customers directly. For instance, when pigs are outside it allows them to develop a good hide which leads to a much better crackling when roasting. And when an animal is getting exercised it produces more red blood cells which are directly responsible for retaining moisture in the meat.
In other words: our award winning meats are of best quality pork and as many customers often say: ‘it is delicious and tastes just like it used to in the old days!’
In 2016 we started accommodating people who would like to get a chance to wake up on a farm and be served a fresh breakfast made with our own produce at our farm table. We opened our ‘Burren Glamping‘.
In 2017 we were awarded ‘The Natural Food Award’ by Georgina Campbell. Also in 2017 we were the National Winner of the Irish Breakfast Award in the category ‘Welcome Standard’ by Georigina Campbell and Failte Ireland.
In 2022 we became a Geofood producer within the Burren and Cliffs of Moher UNESCO Global Geopark.