Maria Flynn – Ballymakenny Heritage Potatoes
Last year, Irish heritage potato grower Maria Flynn took the first steps to expand her business, Ballymakenny Heritage Potatoes, which had initially begun as a hobby.
“We were happy selling to our Irish customers, but now we have found the means to export to the UK market through a partnership with McCreight Potatoes. Customers can order through their website, this year we are hoping to sell more to chefs in the UK, we already sell to quite a few in Ireland.”
Up until a couple of weeks ago, the planting conditions in Ireland had been ideal, then there were a couple of weeks of heavy rain, but Maria said they still have the majority of the seed in the ground. “It is good to be this far ahead at this stage, although there is still a long way to go. I have six different heritage varieties in the ground, the main one is Pink Fir Apple, our coloured varieties also sell very well. We plan to start the harvest in mid-July.”
“It would be great to get more UK chefs to use our heritage potatoes, but we still want to do the softly, softly approach. Our Irish chefs are telling the UK chefs about our potatoes, which is a great thing. There are also a couple of growers in the UK growing lovely heritage potato varieties, Andrew and Amy at The Potato House in Scotland, and David and Karen at Buston Barns in Northumberland. We are looking forward to working closely with these farms to market these beautiful varieties across the UK into restaurants and people’s homes. I believe in working together with these other growers and supporting each other, I don’t see them as competition, more as an opportunity to help promote each other in what we are doing.”
For more information:
Maria Flynn
Ballymakenny Heritage Potatoes
Tel +353 863767334
Email: [email protected]
