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A Passion For Food

John and Sarah Devoy tell Grace Maher how they have turned their smallholding into a successful enterprise.

John and Sarah Devoy are based near Rosscarbery in West Cork. They grow a wide range of organic vegetables and fruit. They have been growing organically in this picturesque location for almost ten years. The farm is 2.5 hectares and it has evolved into an intensive operation with a multitude of crops and enterprises combined on the farm. The business developed around supplying local restaurants who wanted good quality mixed salad leaves and this remains the core of their business.

Winter Broccoli

The rest of the business centres on vegetable production with a range of crops grown year round. The presence of 6 x 32m polytunnels allows for a range of protected crops such as tomatoes, salad and herbs, beans and mange tout. Outside potatoes, beetroot, chard, spinach, onions, leeks, kale and a range of summer and winter squash are grown. This year one of the best looking crops of purple sprouting broccoli (and one of the few in the country that survived the harsh winter!) was being harvested when we visited the farm in March. The crop is in high demand, particularly from restaurants, and it provides a nice income for this time of the year.

Over the past few years the Devoys have been establishing a substantial orchard on the farm and now have over 300 apple trees. The main varieties are Topaz, Cevaal, America Mother, some local varieties bred by Paul McCormack from Skibbereen and also over 40 varieties from Irish Seedsavers. These are a welcome source of food for the beehives on the farm.

John Devoy and Eugene Scally of SuperValu.

Egg Enterprise

Another enterprise was developed on the farm in spring 2010 and that was the introduction of 200 laying hens which has expanded to 350 a year later! The birds are happy roaming the farm and supplementing their organic feed with lots of nice organic vegetables and trimmings, including chickweed. “The introduction of the hens to the farm has been a welcome addition both to our farming practice and also to the range of organic goods that we supply. It is labour intensive but we all love having them here on the farm especially the kids” says Sarah. “We have not had any problems finding a market for our eggs. In fact, we find that we probably need more eggs to fill the demand as the response has been so good”.

Encouraging Biodiversity

Biodiversity is an important feature on the farm and many initiatives have been developed such as a reed bed, a willow and coppice grove, a pond and a stream to increase biodiversity. “This is really how it all began for us” said John. “We were passionate about the environment and to us food is a major part of how we live. In an attempt to live sustainably we need to produce food in a manner which does not compromise the environment. So with our convictions firmly in place we set about searching for a place to grow food organically and we settled on this wonderful corner of the country. The rest has evolved organically you might say. Our business matched by our resources started out small and we have continued to expand over the last few years which is crucial to making this a viable business”.

Supporting Local

The Devoys have a stall at the farmers markets in Clonakilty on Fridays and in Skibbereen on Saturdays. They also supply a wide range of restaurants in the area and some wholesalers. They buy in from other organic growers to supplement their own range, particularly root crops as they do not have sufficient land to grow a large amount of field scale vegetables.

They started supplying Super Valu in Clonakilty in 2006. Eugene Scally the owner of the store is committed to supporting local food businesses. “I am delighted and proud to have small food producers such as the Devoys as one of the main attractions in our store” said Eugene.

“Organic growing is back breaking work and the quality of the produce coming from this farm is excellent. Customers love it, our fresh produce manager loves it, and we are delivering on supplying local organic food to Clonakilty”. Scally’s Super Valu has won store of the year for 2010 and also in previous years. It offers a great range of artisan, local and organic foods and it is a fantastic shopping experience.

Making It Work

“It is great to have the support of Super Valu and I am glad that Eugene recognises that organic growing is back breaking,” laughed John. “The work is relentless and not for the faint hearted. At the moment we are looking at expanding the eco-tourism side of the farm. We have the facilities and we are in a gorgeous location so we want to make the best of it and also try to bring in some extra income from the farm. In order to sustain ourselves in the future we need to look at employing someone full time on the farm as we cannot rely on WOOFERs as it is not practical. However, for the moment we love what we do. Our blood sweat and tears have gone into building the business and we really enjoy supplying great quality organic produce to the local community”.