A good story to tell at the heart of cheese making
Jeffa Gill and her daughter Sarah Hennessy in the dairy at Durrus Cheese.
If ever there was a good story to tell it's that of Durrus Cheese and how it became one of Munster’s favourite foods.
It all began in the early 1970s when Jeffa Gill bought a small farm on the hillside valley of Coomkeen just above Durrus village in West Cork.
She set about rebuilding the tumbling-down farmhouse, growing vegetables, and milking cows, and by the early 1980s the cheese had begun cutting its teeth in the market.
Today, it’s not just in demand locally but internationally as well and while the company has weathered the Covid-19 storm well, considering everything, a looming no-deal Brexit is bringing with it some uncertainty for the future for Jeffa and her daughter Sarah Hennessy who is also involved in the business.
“I have been in West Cork since the early 70s,” Jeffa told the .
“Covid-19 has been desperate particularly for those directly impacted by it and for those of us who have had to adapt our working practices as a result of it.
Meanwhile, having studied and worked in fashion design in London and Dublin, and originally from a farming family in Worcestershire, Jeffa was part of a small group of creative and pioneering women, spearheaded by her friend the late Veronica Steele of Milleens, who experimented with small-scale farmhouse cheese making.
And by 1979 she was making Durrus Cheese and developing a local market.
By the mid 1980s, more help was needed, so friend and neighbour Ann McGrath joined in with the enterprise — Ann still works with Jeffa today where she oversees all the maturing and packing of the cheeses.
The Durrus Cheese range now includes the standard Durrus in two sizes — the Durrus Óg, a smoked mini Durrus and the Mature hard cheese, Dunmanus.
In 1986 Durrus Cheese was being distributed within Ireland by specialist wholesalers and to the UK, mainly through Neal’s Yard Dairy who as well as selling on the home market, began exporting it to the USA and Australia.
“When demand increased, the decision was made to sell the small herd of seven cows which started the venture and to buy in milk sourced from the excellent herd of Corney and John Buckley who produce top quality milk for the cheese all year round,” Jeffa explains.
“Summer milk is also sourced from Noel Dukelow of Brahalish — both herds producing wonderful milk from West Cork pasture.”
Now, fast approaching its fourth decade, Durrus Cheese is still handmade in Coomkeen and the business includes Jeffa’s daughter Sarah who has taken on much of the cheesemaking as well as numerous other roles with Ann and the rest of the team.
The cheese continues to win awards at both national and international level and most recently scooped two and three Gold Stars for the Durrus Mini and the Durrus Óg at the Great Taste Awards. Durras Cheese also won ‘Best Semi Soft’ cheese in the Artisan GB and Ireland awards in 2018 and 2019.
The retail sector has been pretty buoyant despite Covid-19 and that has helped small producers too.
“The big casualty of course has been the food service industry — all the lovely restaurants and hotels and those lovely staff and chefs who use our cheese, they are the ones who have lost out.
“We would have contributed widely into restaurants and hotels throughout Ireland and that business has completely dropped off for us.
“But in some respect it has been balanced out by the strength of the retail side of things and they have had support from the local supermarkets including Supervalu and the Simply Better range at Dunnes Stores.
"We have been able to keep our staff and the order book for Christmas is fairly big which is great. But the worry now of course, is what will happen in January with Brexit?
“We just don’t know."
“No matter what we do in our business what we really want is to return to a lovely safe way of living and a life that I don't really think we could have had until this year.”
