Bakery rises to the challenges by keeping it traditional
Esther Barron and her husband Joe Prendergast of
"Making bread is a passion for us — it’s a bit like farming, we do it because we love doing it."
This was the sentiment expressed by Esther Barron of the famous and well-known Barron’s Bakery and Coffee House in Cappoquin, Co Waterford, after the Covid-19 pandemic saw demand for their products swell.
No stranger to dealing with adversity, the bakery faced enormous challenges back in the 1970s and 1980s when factory bakeries came on stream and pushed many of the smaller traditional facilities out of business.
But Barron’s of Cappoquin survived and continued making its bread — including its famous Waterford Blaa — for the masses.
“Back in the 1970s and 1980s it was a matter of survival for us; the big factory bakeries came on stream and became the market leader in supermarkets across the country,” Esther Barron told the .
“They were very difficult times for us but we stayed doing things the way we always did and we survived.
“And, here we are today, surviving again.”
Esther boils the survival mechanism down to sticking to what you know and doing it well.
In fact the motto at Barron’s Bakery and Coffee House is ‘small is beautiful’.
“That way you produce a very good quality product all the time,” she said.
“I think the fact that we didn’t change the way we were making the bread and continued doing things in the traditional way has stood to us.
“People are more conscious of their health nowadays and they want food that is fresh, local and in season and that is great for small food producers like us.”
The bakery started out in Cappoquin in 1887, and today it’s the same family doing the same thing.
The Coffee House was established in 1983 and Aoife and Emma, Esther’s nieces, have been running the cafe since 2016.
It’s here at the cafe where the wonderful confectionery baked at Barron’s is made available to customers — everything from scones and breads to delicious cakes and pastries are there to sample.
“We still use the same Scotch Brick Ovens to bake our crusty bread, the bread is proved slowly and naturally and the loaves are shaped by hand,” said Esther.
“We have very old fashioned ovens which are expensive to run but produce a beautiful product and a lot of hard work.”
Barons is famous for its Waterford Blaa and the bread’s importance was sealed when it received EU Geographical Indications (GI) status recently.
Within the European agricultural system, different regions have over generations produced cheese, wine and other products in a way that is unique and traditional to a locality.
The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) protects such products through GI which recognises food that is linked to a geographical region, by reason of reputation, local ingredients or production method.
“We haven’t had to change the way we make bread over the years but the change we are noticing now is that people want local and in that respect we find ourselves going back 30 or 40 years to when food was sourced and produced locally,” said Esther.
“What people are looking for now is our large pan loaf which we always made but more and more people are interested in the product now.
“We have a coffee shop which our nieces have been running since 2016. And Covid-19 impacted that side of the business when they had to close down.
“Then when they reopened they had to cut back on seating to allow for social distancing.
“From the bakery side of things it Covid-19 had the opposite effect because people are shopping local and beginning to realise that you can get good food very close to home.
“The demand on the barm bracks this year were incredible in fact and we also do Christmas puddings and our signature bread is the turnover.” Barron’s of Cappoquin is the brand name and the family also supplies the local Musgrave group (Supervalu, Centra, etc) within an 17-km radius.
Ardkeen superstores also collect bread from the Barron's to sell.
Meanwhile, the last 30 years has seen the closure of hundreds of small bakeries and while Barron’s Bakery has survived, this is due in no small part to its loyal customer base and dedicated staff.
And, as the bakery faces into its third century in business one of the greatest threats it faces, says Esther, is the “aggressive trading practices” of the large retail outlets.
“More than ever before Barron's Bakery will depend on the support of its loyal customers in the years ahead,” added Esther.
“I want to thank all our customers for their great support over the years; Ireland really is a great little country.”
