Beetroot production a great example of farm to fork journey

Benefits of using local skills, valuable expertise, and quality produce to create something special are very clear to see from one famous brand

Joe Hartnett & Yasmin Hyde Agribusiness 17/05

A chance meeting eight years ago between Yasmin Hyde, founder of Ballymaloe Foods, and Joe Hartnett, a farmer from Saleen in east Cork, has led to a growth in the harvesting, processing and consumption of beetroot.

Yasmin was delivering products to a local supermarket when she met Joe and discussed with him the idea of growing the purple and versatile vegetable for her food company based in Little Island.

He later dedicated eight acres of his land in east Cork to growing the crop for what is now the popular Ballymaloe Irish Beetroot. Today, he has over 14 acres set aside to produce it every year.

As demand for the product increased, Yasmin’s nephew, Darren Allen of Ballymaloe Farm, also grew and supplied the business with beetroot, a food that has been eaten by people since Roman times.

The beetroot is handpicked from both farms, thoroughly washed, and delivered to Ballymaloe Foods. Here it is peeled, chopped, cooked, and combined with fresh ingredients, making it the only 100% Irish locally produced beetroot available nationwide.

CLIMATE & SUSTAINABILITY HUB

Over 200 tonnes of beetroot will be harvested in east Cork this year, with 24 acres of it being planted by the two farmers who exclusively supply it to the business, which employs 38 people.

Health and wellness

With increasing consumer interest in health and wellness, the demand for beetroot, which is packed with essential nutrients, is on the rise.

It is a source of Vitamin C and folic acid and provides a wide range of possible health benefits, such as reduced blood pressure, improved digestion, and a lower risk of diabetes.

Yasmin Hyde, daughter of Ivan and Myrtle Allen, was immersed in the family business from a young age while growing up at Ballymaloe House Hotel in Shanagarry.

By her mother’s side, she learned the importance of using the best quality ingredients to make delicious food. She also had a keen eye for business and could see how popular her mother’s relish recipe had become.

She put an adapted portable building in her back garden, made Ballymaloe Relish and then drove in a hand-me-down Lada to put it on supermarket shelves.

Yasmin Hyde and Joe Hartnett. Picture: Joleen Cronin

Passionate about Irish food, she is a strong supporter of local producers and increasing the range of ingredients in her products year-on-year.

West Cork Veg Solutions (onions), Dungarvan Brewing Company (stout for steak sauce), Clonarn Clover (eggs) and Long Meadow (cider vinegar) are among suppliers to the company.

Although it now sells sauces and relishes to many countries around the world, it is still a small family food company at heart.

The core of the business is still Ballymaloe Relish, with a taste and quality that has never changed since Myrtle Allen first cooked it in her kitchen all those years ago.

Yasmin is still involved in the day-to-day running of the business. Her daughter Maxine is now the company’s general manager and works alongside her siblings, Rosaleen and Sean, to ensure the brand is constantly innovating and creating new products.

Ireland is blessed, she said, with exceptional suppliers of local, high-quality food products. Ballymaloe Foods is determined to support local when and where it can. Products, apart from beetroot, include steak sauce, Irish apple cider vinaigrette, mayonnaise and balsamic.

Family affair: Rosaleen, Yasmin and Maxine Hyde

“We work with local farmers, suppliers, and businesses to source ingredients for many of the products. These products are not only sold to retailers they are also available to buy in our foodservice range for use in deli’s, cafés, and restaurants,” she said.

Traceability

Setting up production of beetroot was not easy, according to Maxine, but it has become a great example of a farm to fork journey, showing traceability, sustainability, and the benefits of using local produce to create something special.

“We are very proud that this product has been awarded two stars in the Great Taste Awards in 2020 and we share this honour with Joe and Darren as without their hard work this product would not be on shelves and in kitchens around Ireland,” she said.

East Cork, where the beetroot is grown, is one of the country’s most fertile regions and has a proud heritage of quality vegetable production and processing.

Extending from Dunkettle on the edge of Cork city to the sea at Youghal, it is largely a landscape of limestone and sandy soil with a soft moistening climate that is conductive to the planting and harvesting of root and other crops including turnips, potatoes and cabbages.

That reputation goes back for generations as Arthur Young, the English writer and a one-time resident agent of Lord Kingsborough’s estate in Mitchelstown, outlined in his acclaimed two volume work, Tour of Ireland 1776-1789.

During a visit to Castlemartyr, the Earl of Shannon told him how his father began growing turnips many years before and he had continued with the practice. He once took one of the turnips with him to the Dublin Society “where it was seen by the whole city.”

Young also quoted Shannon from an account the nobleman penned in 1771 about the quantities of turnips he was getting from the patch of land he had cultivated: “I neither manured or burned the ground. It was naturally good. I tilled it well and hoed the crop carefully.”

Nearly 250 years later, the fertile soil of east Cork is still growing quality vegetables including the beetroot crops for Ballymaloe Foods, a family business where sustainability is key to everything it does.