A local food producer has scooped one of the most acclaimed awards in the food industry, an Irish Food Writers’ Guild Award.
The winners of the prestigious awards were announced this week and cheese maker Helen Finnegan from Knockdrinna Farmhouse Cheese stole a march on the competition with her farmhouse sheep’s cheese.
Helen was among a group of just five indigenous food producers, all artisan farm-based producers, acknowledged as some of the finest food producers in the country.
Knockdrinna Farmhouse Cheese are based in Stoneyford and have been making cheese at their farm since 2004 and Helen’s sheep’s milk cheese, already an award-winner, is one of a selection of speciality cheeses on offer.
Helen began making cheese six years ago on her husband’s farm as an experiment, using goats milk from a neighbour, and it wasn’t long before she was winning industry awards.
Her award-winner, Knockdrinna Farmhouse Sheep’s Cheese, is made from sheep’s milk sourced from a previous Guild winner, Henry Clifton-Browne’s flock, from outside Cashel in Tipperary.
And IFWG chairperson, Orla Broderick was vocal in her admiration for Helen, describing her as ‘highly regarded as a farm cheesemaker’.
“Made from March to October, this is a distinctive cheese with a golden rind produced by washing three times a week with organic hite wine, which Helen believes is a major factor in the development of the flavour,” Ms Broderick said of the winning cheese.
“Acidic when young, gradually a caramel flavour emerges and by four to six months, when it is probably at its best, a characteristic, robust, sweeter earthiness develops.
“Knockdrinna cheeses are made on the farm in a purpose-built unit inserted into an old farm building that holds the temperature and humidity in the curing rooms really well.”
The award-winning sheep’s cheese began being sold at farmers’ markets and then in speciality shops and delis, going onto win accolades in the British and Irish Cheese Awards. It is also available from the Finnegan’s own farm shop.
