Knockdrinna Farmhouse Cheese and Farm Shop

Artisan Farmhouse Cheese Producer, Farm Shop & Café

Like many of today’s Irish farmhouse cheeses, Helen Finnegan’s first creations sprang forth at the kitchen table. Recipe experiments started with cow’s milk, but Helen soon became fascinated with goat’s cheese, and began to use best quality goat’s milk from a local farmer. The back kitchen was converted to a cheese room and production began in earnest. Cheeses were sold at the farmer’s market in Carlow, and following some success, in 2006 cheese making moved to a brand new purpose built cheese room on the farm.

Helen makes her goat’s cheeses from March to November. The range, which started with the hard style Knockdrinna Gold, the award winning nutty hard cheese, now includes Knockdrinna Snow a soft goat’s cheese. In 2007, Knockdrinna Meadow, a ewe’s milk cheese made from milk sourced from Henry Clifton Browne of Crozier, was introduced, as a result of customer requests for a hard sheep’s milk cheese. It has proved enormously popular, and works well on the cheeseboard as well as for grating over pastas and various other dishes. In 2008 Helen took over the making of Lavistown cheese from the original maker. This well established pasteurised cow’s milk Caerphilly style cheese can be enjoyed at six weeks, when it has a soft crumbly, moist consistency and youthful, citrussy vibrancy.  Helen says it is at its best at around three months, when the extra maturation has depth of flavour, mellowness and a hit of piquancy. 

As promised, July 2009 saw the opening of the Knockdrinna Farm Shop on the main street in Stoneyford where right beside, the cheese making room where all Helen’s famous cheeses are created. The shop is situated in what was once a tiny bakery on the site of the Finnegan family farm since the 1800’s. This old stone building now has a new lease of life housing the farm shop which stocks a wealth of home made and local produce and a small café which is attached for enjoying all the goodies on display. 

The glass fronted building is approached through the original wrought iron gates from the main street in the village, which leads into the pretty walled courtyard of the farm. Creative renovation has kept the old character and rough stone walls whilst letting in lots of daylight through the large shop window and French doors. Shopping takes place front of house with a large chilled cabinet displaying all the Knockdrinna range of cheeses, plus other famous Irish farmhouse cheeses, Helen’s own vegetable based soup, heavenly quiches, locally made chicken liver pate, Goatsbridge Farm Trout fillets and other lovely bits and pieces. The home boiled ham here is fabulous – it comes from the Knockdrinna herd of free range pigs, a cross between Gloucestershire Old Spot and Large White which are reared on another farm a few miles away.  Pork from these pigs is a dream – the perfect balance between meat and fat with an old fashioned taste most people have forgotten existed. Meat is used for a range of pork and bacon joints which are available frozen at the shop. One of our favourites is the meaty pork loin with its dark pink tender flesh, generous marbling of fat and heavenly crisp crackling when it’s been roasted. However you may prefer a bit of leg or some other piece, ask what is in the freezer cabinet. Whichever you choose, you won’t be disappointed. Knockdrinna breakfast sausages are also available along with Olivia Goodwillie’s Lavistown gourmet sausages too. Dresser shelves carry a range of Knockdrinna chutneys, preserves and dressings and there’s a selection of local vegetables in season, free range eggs, rustic soda breads and Helen’s scones and farmhouse apple tarts. Find local apple juice, blackcurrant cordial and many Good Food Ireland member products here too. This season, if you are holidaying in the area, order a Holiday Welcome Pack of home produced bacon and sausages, free range eggs from the hens clucking away outside and brown soda bread, available for collection or delivery in the area.  

Of course all the lovely produce in the shop can be enjoyed in the café at the rear. This cosy corner has a few tables and chairs adorned with pretty oilcloths and fresh flowers, rough whitewashed stone walls hung with photographs of the farm’s happy animals. Seasonal soups and sandwiches are written on the blackboard but Helen points out that you can have anything you see in the chilled counter – a cheese plate or sandwich can be made up with any of the available ingredients, so don’t be afraid to ask! To follow, a selection of desserts and treats are displayed on table menus. Try a Chocolate Muffin or Brownie with Cramer’s Grove ice cream or a slice of Rum and Pineapple Rich Fruit Cake or Tea Brack.  Home made Apple Tart is served with fresh cream, and scones and butter come with home made jam and cream. We love the Irish classics and here they are done to a t! Drinks include a range of teas, coffees and hot chocolate. In summer the outside courtyard area is filled with tables and chairs which makes a great spot to sit down in the sun with some local refreshments after a bit of retail therapy in the shop.

Coming this year is a programme of farm visits and cheese making tours. The farm is just behind the shop and you wander down and see the Knockdrinna hens, ducks and geese grazing happily in grass paddocks. The General Tour begins with a video on cheese making, taking a look a the cheese making facility where this world class award winning range is created and followed by a tasting of the cheeses.  If your interest extends to learning how to do it for real, try the Knockdrinna One Day Cheese making course where you make your own cheese in the morning, enjoy lunch and then take your handmade creation home for maturing. For those in the catering industry or interested in food production for a living, Helen is currently designing a Professional cheese making guidance course.

All tours and visits will be on offer from March 2010

Currently, Knockdrinna and Lavistown cheeses are available in specialist delis, independent food shops and selected supermarkets all over the country including fellow Good Food Ireland members in Dublin Donnybrook Fair, Fallon & Byrne and Cavistons in The English Market in Cork On The Pigs Back and Good Food Ireland Farmers Markets including Mahon Point and Midleton. You can also sample it at many fellow Good Food Ireland members such as Blackberry Cafe in nearby Thomastown L’Ecrivain Restaurant in Dublin and The Tannery Restaurant & Cookery School in Dungarvan and of course you can buy directly form Helen in her wonderful new Farm Shop.

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Contact Details

To Contact a Member Directly, please click on the email or website below

Stoneyford
Co Kilkenny
+353 (0) 56 7728446
Email: helen.finnegan@knockdrinna.com
Web: www.knockdrinna.com

 

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