Kylemore Farmhouse Cheese – Source: NRN
Teresa Roche returned, after 15 years, to her home farm in Kylemore Abbey, Loughrea, Co. Galway. On her return she had the idea to develop her own farmhouse cheese to add value to the current dairy enterprise which had been underway since the 1960’s. Teresa embarked on a number of different cheese and business courses to equip her with the skillset to bring this idea to fruition. LEADER funding supported Teresa to purchase a number of key pieces of equipment for her on farm cheese manufacturing unit to help her process the milk from their Pedigree Holstein British Friesians into a luxury Swiss Style Hard Cheese, aimed at more premium markets.
To read the full NRN case study, please see here.
Results
Food Safety Requirements
A number of the pieces of equipment that LEADER funded help Teresa to monitor the quality of her cheese more efficiently throughout the production process. This means that the cheese is made in line with food certification standards and safety requirements.
Expanded Markets
A vaccum packer supported by LEADER now means that Teresa can wrap her cheese in a more hygienic way that prevents cross contamination. This has helped to make her cheese exportable and has opened it up to a number of different markets.
This project was supported as part of the LEADER Programme 2014-2020 under Theme 1: Economic Development, Enterprise Development and Job Creation and the sub-theme Enterprise Development. The Local Action Group is Galway Rural Development and the Implementing Partner Galway Rural Development.
To read the full case study, please click on the image below.
