Kilkenny People will pay more for locally sourced, ethically produced and sustainable food

CUSTOMERS will flock to your business and are prepared to even pay a little more for quality produce they know is locally sourced, ethically produced and sustainable, coffeehouse owner and passionate community activist, Etaoin Holahan, says.

Two and a half years ago, Etaoin opened Fennelly’s  of Callan as a cultural coffeehouse and casual eatery, just 20 minutes’ drive south of Kilkenny. To this day, nearly everything they serve in Fennelly’s, bar avocados and bananas, comes from the surrounding hinterland. They’re fully behind the new Kilkenny Food Strategy - Kilkenny Food Vision 2020- 2025: “Add 3 Ingredients”

Fennelly’s is a thriving community hub and Etaoin wouldn’t have it any other way.

“People come to Fennelly’s because they know what they’re getting is locally grown and produced and it tastes and smells like food should. We have a fantastic local supplier base and are currently in talks with a local gardener about having a number of beds specifically dedicated to Fennelly’s so we can be more involved and experiment with what is grown, so as to stay sustainable and truly seasonal with what we source and serve.

“We’re not just providing a service in our community, we’re helping to sustain and grow it. We believe in buying from small producers that we feel are doing it right, ie treating their land and animals with care.  

“Our free range pork comes from Butlers farm in Piltown and the full side is delivered to John Murphy, our butcher around the corner, where he sweet cures it for one week in brine and brown sugar beforehand cutting the rashers for us. Our wonderful eggs come from John Walker near Coolagh and are truly (not just box ticking) free range.

“Our White Rustic bread comes from Keoghs Model Bakery here in Callan and we bake our own Brown Bread to my grandmother’s recipe - though we ferment our own kefir milk in house to use instead of buttermilk. We locally source as much as possible and a lot of our dishes are made to order and are fresh and delicious.  People come here for these reasons and more.

“We’re now in the harvest season so it’s even easier to support local. We even have swapping arrangements with friends and neighbours, like a basket of plums for an echium plant! Being sustainable in rural Ireland and our small towns does means there should be a bit of give and take: through exchange, kindness and fair mindedness, we all benefit”

Fennelly’s supports the food verification system proposed under the Kilkenny Food Strategy Kilkenny Food Vision 2020- 2025: “Add 3 Ingredients”. They also support more dedicated food festivals and events in the city and county as well as a distinctive, ethical brand for food sustainably produced in the region. But any system has to be sustainable and be developed for the right reasons, Etaoin added.

“Certification and verification in the food industry needs to be more about ethics and humanity, rather than another layer of red tape and frivolous non-compliance hurdles and paperwork for the small producer. A common sense approach should be applied.

“The large monoculture producer should be looked at and a reshuffle of the perimeters of ethics should be applied with regard to overuse of chemicals on crops, destruction of species, habitat and soil quality. For the meat producer, a new code of ethics that stops the criminal, cruel treatment of animals is critical. Small producers must be encouraged.

“The brand proposed needs to be ethical and true and not just a box ticking exercise. There’s momentum behind the strategy; there are some really good, strong people involved who value traditions and lineage rather than squeezing value out of our land and animals which is not only criminal, but monetarily short sighted,” she concluded.

Kilkenny Food Vision 2020- 2025: “Add 3 Ingredients” will launch tomorrow (Thursday).  The vision is focused on three high-level objectives which the stakeholders believe will have long-term and broad-based strategic impact for food culture in the County and adjacent region to which it is closely linked.

As a driver of the objectives, the strategy plans to set up Ireland’s first ever food verification system which would be guided by the principles of the highly-successful Canadian-based food service certification program Feast On® that recognises businesses committed to sourcing Ontario-grown and made food and drink.

Kilkenny has also vowed to support new and growing food enterprises and the vibrant food industry and wants to create more market, pop-up or festival-focused retailing and direct selling access and opportunities to local and visiting consumers.

A key enabler of the objectives is the creation of a Food Development Office to drive the objectives.  The Vision also proposes the development of a distinctive Kilkenny Food Brand to unify the various strands of the county’s vibrant food culture.

The Food Vision development process involved over 70 local stakeholder inputs, initially led and supported by a partnership of the Local Enterprise Office (LEO) Kilkenny and Kilkenny LEADER Partnership (KLP).  It maps the pathway for growth of the local sector in Kilkenny city and county and the surrounding hinterland over the next three to five years.