Demonstrating The Value of Small-Scale Food Production

Jun 20, 2024 | Climate Change, Farm Viability, Green Architecture

Demonstrating The Value of Small-Scale Food Production

1. Overview   2. Introduction   3. Building a Successful Horticulture Business   4. Women in Farming   5. Looking to the Future   6. Image Gallery
Neilie Hurley

Name:

Janet Power and Jenny Watkins

Location:

Bunclody, Carlow/Wexford border

Farm Type:

Organic Horticulture

Participating Schemes:

Organic Farming Scheme (OFS) & Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) Scheme

Farm Size:

1.21 ha (3 acres)

1. Overview of Gorse Farm

Janet Power and Jenny Watkins live and farm on the Carlow Wexford border, just outside the town of Bunclody. Together they established Gorse Farm and have built up an impressive horticulture business on 3 acres of land in the foothills of Mount Leinster. Gorse Farm supplies organic salad leaves to SuperValu supermarkets in Co. Wexford and Co. Wicklow. This is their main source of income & has been for the last 8 years. They joined the Organic Farming Scheme in 2023.

2. Introduction

Janet and Jenny took two very different paths before arriving at a life together on Gorse Farm. Janet grew up on a dairy farm in Co. Limerick. She studied science at university and worked in the pharmaceuticals industry for 10 years. At the age of 32 she left her career to look for a complete change in lifestyle. “I was looking for something that was more in keeping with my own beliefs and interests,” she says. After a few years of travelling abroad and volunteering through the Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF) programme, Janet found herself back in Limerick and enrolled at the Organic College (an tIonad Glas) in Dromcollogher,  

Jenny, who had grown up in Co. Carlow, graduated from college in 2008 as a ceramic artist. However, due to the recession and the lack of opportunities available for artists at the time, she looked to what she had, a 3 acre field gifted by her uncle and decided to study Organic Horticulture. Jenny had recently graduated when Janet arrived in Dromcollogher but they soon found each other and eventually decided to build a life, and farm, together. 

3. Building a Successful Horticulture Business

Janet explains that they made the decision “because the land was there. We were both interested in horticulture, both interested in local food production…without much deliberation we said that we would give it a go.” In the summer of 2016, Gorse Farm began. “We put up a couple of polytunnels, we got a couple of mushroom tunnels sourced locally in Co. Carlow and we got a container,” Janet recalls. Thanks to Jenny’s parents living next door to the farm, as an interim measure, they were able to access electricity and water quickly. This low input setup meant that the tunnels were ready by July and a winter crop was planted immediately. Impressively, by September they had a product to sell. While on an internship in Kildinan farm in Co. Cork, after graduating from an tIonad Glas, Jenny had observed the success of a ‘cut and come again’ mixed salad leaf horticulture business supplying local supermarkets.

They decided to replicate this business model for Gorse Farm, “We went down to the local SuperValu (in Bunclody) and just presented them with this mixed salad bag,” Janet remembers. Their response was immediately positive: ‘Yeah that looks great. Bring us in 5 or 10 of them on Monday and we will see how we get on’. It just continued on from there. It was very straight forward.” 

“Within a few weeks we tried, and succeeded with the same approach in the SuperValu in Enniscorthy, which is owned by the Pettitt family who own a number of other SuperValus in Wexford. Having successfully established in Enniscorthy, we had a straightforward route into their other stores in Wexford town, and Gorey.” The Pettitt family have since built a SuperValu store in Bray, Co. Wicklow and Gorse Farm is now selling their product there also. Salad production is the core of the business and provides 80% of their income.  Gorse Farm salad is also available in a number of restaurants and cafes across Wexford.  It was established so quickly that by 2018 the farm had reached peak salad leaf production.

Nicky Byrne is Store Manager of Pettits SuperValu in St. Aidans, and he is unequivocal in his praise of what Janet and Jenny are producing. “Gorse Farm, under the guidance of Jenny & Janet, is an extremely passionate local business,” he said when asked for comment. “Their produce is highly sought after by our customers for a variety of reasons. Gorse Farms locality to our store, along with their commitment to organic status sets them apart for our customers along with the high quality and long shelf-life of their products.” 

 

“Gorse Farm, under the guidance of Jenny and Janet, is an extremely passionate local business.”

Janet and Jenny also get income from other fruits and vegetable crops. “We have done veg boxes, particularly during Covid when there was huge demand. We have the honesty box which we fill up in the summertime. It’s a nice way to sell produce that we wouldn’t be channelling through the supermarkets.” 

Gorse Farm now has 5 polytunnels covering 600m² of land as well as 1500m² of uncovered land dedicated to mixed salad and vegetable production. When asked about the expansion of the salad leaf business, the answer was quite clear. “It is never going to get any bigger, it’s as big as it is going to get,” Janet says without hesitation.  “There is a lot of routine, we follow a certain formula. It works well for us.”  Apparently, they would not be interested even if more land became available. “Maybe if it was flat land,” she laughs. 

All Janet and Jennys’ produce is certified as organic, and Gorse Farm is registered with the Irish Organic Association with whom Jenny currently sits on the board. They are participating in the Basic Income Support for Sustainability (BISS) and are receiving useful financial assistance for their business through the Organic Farming Scheme (OFS), both of which are funded by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM).  The OFS encourages farmers to produce organic food through financial supports and is a welcome additional income which is used for further investments in the Gorse Farm business. 

4. Women in Farming

The area Jenny and Janet are farming is dominated by beef and sheep enterprises. As female farmers with an alternative enterprise, they feel they are well respected in the community for having created and sustained a successful business on a small parcel of land. “We often receive positive remarks from neighbours about the hedgerows & diversity of native tree cover we have established.  I think most people appreciate also the level of work we put into our farm” says Jenny.

 

“The fact is that succession is still very much biased towards males and this is something we need to look at as a country.”

Jenny and Janet are very grateful for the fact that they do have land, which is “out of reach for so many other women and young people,” offers Janet. “the fact is that succession is still very much biased towards males & this is something we need to look at as a country.”  

 

5. Looking to the Future

With the core business established, there are a lot of other developments currently happening on the farm. They hope to provide training courses on the farm in the near future and also intend to return to Social Farming soon. Tree planting, in the form of hedgerows and shelter belts is an annual occurrence during the winter months “while the business offers a great sense of achievement, we probably feel most proud about the level of biodiverse habitat we have created on our farm in the last 8 years” says Jenny.  

It is quite impressive what Janet and Jenny have achieved with a small holding.  “It’s a simple enough lifestyle but we make it work.  We enjoy it but there is a certain amount of pig-headedness in it too.  It’s nice to be self-employed and it’s lovely to grow your own food.  It’s a privilege to be able to do that.” 

“We need small scale food production as an answer to a lot of our problems. We (as a country) could be a lot more resilient and we need to encourage and support young people to enter the small-farm sector.”

“I see the value in doing this work,” Janet says, “Demonstrating that you can make a living through small-scale food production.  We need small scale food production as an answer to a lot of our problems.  We (as a country) could be a lot more resilient and we need to encourage and support young people to enter the small-farm sector.” 

Most Irish communities would be delighted to have a local food producer like Gorse Farm on their doorstep.  With the number of registered organic food producers in Ireland tripling in recent years, this will hopefully be a reality for many more Irish people in the near future.