Traveling Spoon
Dairy Farm Tour and Traditional Irish Cooking
A fun, warm and loving couple, Sharon and Andrew make you feel like part of the family the moment you enter their home. Andrew runs the family-owned dairy that produces milk for the famous Kerrygold butter! Sharon’s biggest passion in life is cooking for her family and friends. Her cooking knowledge has been gained through years of experience, first from her mother and then as she worked in the hospitality industry all over the world. Her interest in hospitality took Sharon all the way to Singapore to open an Irish pub. Sharon is known to brew her own kombucha and milk kefir and makes soft cheese and yogurt from milk produced from their farm. Sharon lives in a farmhouse with her husband and three children who are equally enthusiastic in the kitchen. She and her husband Andrew run a seasonal grass fed dairy set in the heart of Golden Vale. They farm beside the famous working monastery, Glenstal Abbey, and are close to the Wild Atlantic Way. Join this family for a delightful farm and culinary adventure in County Limerick.
What to expect:
Market Visit:
Meet your host Andrew or Sharon at their farmhouse and get to know each other over a cup of coffee and warm, freshly baked scones. Walk or drive two minutes to their farm for a tour of their family dairy. As you visit the dairy you will learn about how the dairy produces milk after which Andrew will drive you over to the fields. Hear about the local history of the farm as you see a mixed herd of Jersey and Holstein cows grazing on the pastures next to the Glenstal Abbey monastery. See the milking process (only available in the afternoon experience) and discover about how Irish farmers work with the grass growing seasons to produce the best quality milk. You will get an understanding of how they work in harmony with nature and turn grass into delicious butter. If you are visiting in March or April, you might even get a chance to experience cows calving! The milk produced on their farm is used to make Kerrygold butter! Your farm tour will last about 45 minutes.
Farm tours are only offered between the months of Mar - Oct.
Cooking Experience:
Join Sharon at her spacious farm kitchen to learn to cook an authentic Irish meal created from family recipes. Your hands-on cooking class will last about two hours during which you will learn to cook three Irish dishes from scratch. Enjoy learning to bake a traditional Irish soda bread, churn own own butter from milk from the farm or cook cabbage while retaining its color, and prepare an Irish stew before you sit down at a farmer’s style table to share the meal you helped prepare. Please note that if you decide to make a stew (and you chose the dairy farm tour), you might start your cooking class before breaking for your farm tour to take advantage of the time it takes to prepare the stew.
Meal:
Join a food loving family for a traditional homemade Irish meal in their country home in a pastoral village outside Limerick. You will share your meal with Sharon and Andrew and their children (when in town) at a farmer’s table over delightful conversation and laughter. Your meal will consist of an appetizer, a traditional Irish main and potatoes, a side vegetable and homemade Irish bread. Some of the main dishes that Sharon loves to cook are stews of root vegetables and wild venison (hunted in the woods by their neighbor), roast pork with apple cider sauce, or the family favorite, Irish bacon (from the local butcher) served with leek and potato mash, parsley cream sauce and sautéed green cabbage. You will conclude your meal with a dessert such as chocolate fondant (a dessert that her daughter Caragh specializes in) or a tarte tatin (made from homemade butter). Feel free to go for a walk through the woods after to digest your hearty, traditional Irish meal.
Choose a starting time, either: 12:30pm or 6:30pm.
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