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Knockdrinna cheese
Sean Keane visited Helen Finnegan in Stoneyford who dreamt of doing something different and came up with an award winning cheese to die for and a life-style to match
GOAT'S Milk from the hills outside Piltown; cow's milk from the prime, undulating farm land of Ennisnag and the milk from sheep grazing in the shadow of the Rock of Cashel are just part of the success story that has made the name of Knockdrinna Cheese a byword for gourmet food and in particular boutique cheeses – Sounds a bit like an advert from Bord Filte but it is just the plain truth.
It strikes me that Helen Finnegan and her famous cheeses could form the backdrop for a Disney film - A mother of three, making her own specialist cheese to secret recipes (some hundreds of years old) in a centuries-old farm house which happens to be in the middle of the village of Stoneyford, backing on the family farm. It comes complete with tree house, dogs and cats and a rambling old complex of old stone buildings that seem to go on forever.
She is in business over three years and is hoping that this year, she might make a profit for the first time. She was warned when she started in her pursuit of excellence that it was going to be difficult and now she wonders if she would have gone through the growing pains of a farm house business if she had realised the heartache involved.
She thinks for a moment and says: "No, I would have done it anyway." Why: "Because I spent 15 years doing community work and that was all about process and very little about product," she said.
What does she mean? "I wanted to do something different, find a niche in the food market, so I looked around and saw there were many people making breads and jams but noticed there was a gap for a good homemade goat's cheese," she said. She has achieved her goal in some style.
Helen doesn't have to travel far to go to work. She goes out her back door and walks up 30 yards to the specialist cheese production unit. Hygiene is paramount and you have to put on flip-flops, a special white coat and hair net before entering. Inside you are immediately struck by the strong smell of cheese being made. After three years, Helen is oblivious to the pong. She explains that everything is done by hand and that this is what makes her cheeses so good.
First, the milk is poured into a vat and after being pasteurised, the starter bacteria (good bugs) are added and this is what gives the cheese a lot of its flavour. After this rennets, which are enzymes, are added that helps to coagulate the milk, form protein - the curds and whey.
This is taken from the vat and put into moulds and compressed over-night. The cheese is then cured by placing it in a second metal vat containing salted water. Afterwards it is left to mature in the curing room. Unlike other cheeses, the ones made at Knockdrinna develop their own natural rind which of course is edible.
When I arrive on Friday morning, Helen and her team are working on a Laviston Cheese. Taking over the production of this well known brand has given Helen a great boost and another string to her bow as she strives to become commercially successful having already been artistically and tastefully successful. The addition of Lavistown Cheese was borne out of her relationship with Olivia Goodwillie from the city's Sion Road who started making cheese at her Lavistown home many years ago.
"She asked us to make some cheese to help out with her Christmas orders because she was always running short. She had always said that when she reached 60 years of age she would stop making the cheese and so it is essentially a handover, a natural progression, a continuation of a tradition and we are delighted to be part of it," Helen said.
Olivia entrusted her with the secret Lavistown cheese recipe which will not be divulged but she did disclose that only the milk of Friesian cattle is used. Helen is lucky because PJ Byrne, a great and dedicated farmer from Ennisnag has a beautiful ban of Friesian cows and he provides her with the milk for the Lavistown brand.
The main cheese, Knockdrinna is made from goat's cheese and the raw material for this comes from a herd owned and managed by Hugh Daniels, on the hills outside Piltown.
This is her signature cheese and it really is delicious and as good or even better than of those swanky Continental cheeses from Provence that are always getting written up in the guides and cookbooks.
It has a taste all of its own and this is due to the secret recipe which Helen will not divulge. "I can say that it has a different curing than normal and I think that the natural flora in an area find their way into the flavour through the grass and the milk, and if this cheese was made using the same recipe in another part of the country it would taste different because of the flora of that area, the grass there and of course the difference in the milk."
The name Knockdrinna comes from a local woodland of the same name and Helen's hugely supportive husband Robert has land bordering the wood.
Helen's passion for what she does is infectious and is remarkable because she never did never did a science degree and has no background in making anything of this quality, yet she is producing award winning, to-die-for cheese.
The secret to Helen's passion for her cheeses lies is in her upbringing. Her mother Maureen who now lives
next to her in the complex of buildings that make up the farmhouse, was always cooking when Helen was a child. "There was always a lovely smell form the kitchen. And it is something that I brought with me - I remember baking my first tart at 10 years of age and it's probably there I started this whole thing unknown to myself," she said.
Helen's father Maurice Landers was the local guard. Originally from Ballyferriter, outside Dingle, Co Kerry, he passed away 30 years ago but is still remembered with affection by the villagers.
Helen grew up in the garda station and little did she think that she would end up living a few doors away married to Robert with three children: Eoin (16), Colm (13) and ine (10).
"Robert does a huge amount of work, collecting the milk, getting up at six in the morning to start pasteurising and a whole lot more and he never, ever complains," she said lovingly of him.
Family is important to Helen. Her sister Lorraine helps with the paper trail. "If I didn't have her, I think I would drown in a sea of paper. It's all very well to feel you have creative talent and that makes it okay to hate paperwork, but someone has to send out the bills at the end of the day, and I have Lorraine to thank for that," she added.
Helen has a great team working with her and it is a reflection of the growing diversity in our society. Edel Foley is a former pastry chef who brings great experience to the Knockdrinna family. Kersin Gluh is from Germany and has been with Helen for the last 12 months. Breda McEvoy came from Lavistown and was making cheese with Olivia Goodwillie for 15 years before she came to Knockdrinna, making her another very important cog in the wheel. Anna Leveque is a young French woman who has been bringing the cheese to the various country markets for over a year.
"There is a great buzz because we all realise that we are doing something different and something really worthwhile," Helen said.
Without the restaurants and shops there would be no business, and Helen appreciates and recognises the importance of receiving patronage from other local businesses.
When she started she received great support from Eamon Langton, John Street, Kilkenny who
purchased the cheese from her and put it on the menus of Langton's Hotel, restaurant and bar on
John Street and on the menu at the Marble City Bar, High Street, Kilkenny.
"I owe him an awful lot and it is great to see the restaurants in Kilkenny supporting locally made produce in this way," Helen said, adding that it was a similar story for Lavistown Sausages and Cramer's Grove ice cream.
For now Helen is living the dream and long may her success continue.
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Thursday 17 May 2012
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