Ballinasloe, Co. Galway-based Úna Ni Bhroin, who has spent the last 20 years growing Beechlawn Organic Farm, was recently featured in the TG4 series Mná na Talún.
Although she grew up in Clondalkin, Co. Dublin, Úna spent her summers on her grandmother’s farm in Elphin, Co. Roscommon.
“My mother brought us down every summer and from a very early age I remember the turning of the hay and bringing home the turf,” she reminisced.
“My grandmother grew vegetables in her back garden as well as having hens, and my uncle also grew a lot of vegetables.”
“Playing in the haybarn with the old small square bales was so much fun. My mother really encouraged a love of nature and being a music teacher, she taught us tunes and songs about living in the countryside in the past,” Úna said.
Although she remembers these times fondly, she did not expect to live a life in nature.
“If you asked me at the age of 18, if I would end up being an organic grower, I would have laughed,” she said.
“I was in the Girl Guides from aged seven to 18 so learned lots of outdoor skills. I did a degree in English and Nua Ghaeilge at Maynooth [University] and initially I wanted to get into acting.
“By the end of my degree, I had completely changed my mind. I wanted to live with nature.”
During her final year in Maynooth College, while suffering from irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), she started buying organic vegetables at the Dublin Food Co-Op in Pearse Street, now in Inchicore, and met organic growers.
She also went on tours of organic farms in Co. Wicklow in the summer of 1996.
Through the co-op she also met environmental groups and got involved in campaigns to prevent the use of genetically modified foods (GMOs) in food and agriculture.
She was also introduced to permaculture, biodynamic farming and seed saving, and became aware of climate change and wildlife habitat loss.
This led her to get involved in direct action as she joined the eco warriors at the Glen of the Downs, fighting to save a sessile oak woodland in Ireland’s first nature reserve.
And so it began
Úna then began studying organic horticulture and farming and got a diploma at The Organic College, Dromcollogher, Co. Limerick, where she met her husband Padraig.
In 2002, they got their organic vegetable holding underway, starting out on a patch of land on Padraig’s father’s farm in Ballinasloe.
Around the same time, the first of their four children, Meadbh, was born, and Padraig was working full-time as a teacher of horticulture on a FÁS course. Róisín was born two years later.
While Úna was at home with the children over the next ten years she hosted dozens of ‘woofers’ – ‘worldwide opportunities on organic farms’ or ‘willing workers on organic farms’ .
Volunteers and work placement students from horticulture colleges comprised the workforce needed to do the hard work involved in growing vegetables and getting Beechlawn Organic Farm going from scratch.
Úna had the admin, office, communication and media know-how to promote the business and assist Padraig in grant and loan applications and getting new ideas off the ground.
Padraig had the business and accountancy skills to understand that level of managing the business. Business advisors helped with grants from Bord Bia, the organic unit and the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) horticulture unit.
“We live day-to-day at times and know that ‘the nearer your destination, the more you are slip sliding away’ as in the famous Paul Simon song,” she said.
“It’s a case of two steps forward, one step back. Every time we move forward, we have to be ready for something going wrong. It’s always stressful but usually works out.
“Bord Bia has been great but there is a huge blockage in the acceptance of organic being the way of the future and being prioritised by the Irish agriculture and food authorities here.
“The Origin Green project, while it is great, doesn’t recognise the high standards that organic brings to a farm from an environmental perspective and for organic farms to be asked to do more for the planet than they are already doing by joining Origin Green can be very challenging.”
Organic forum
Úna has been sitting on an organic forum with Minister Pippa Hackett, members of the DAFM, other stakeholders from organic farming organisations and businesses in Ireland, Bord Bia and public procurement offices.
“We have been thrashing out how to improve our organic farming figures in Ireland as we are way behind most of Europe with our volume of organic versus conventional farmers. We import lots of produce that could be produced here,” she said.
“Organic consumers really want grass-fed organic which we could be producing if it was moving fast enough.
“Lots of new organic growers are moving into the sector though with the new subsidies announced recently from the new CAP (Common Agricultural Policy).”
Beechlawn business
“Our vision initially was to provide organic vegetable boxes for local people; ‘locally grown food for local people,” Úna explained.
“That was the dream, and it went very well, although it wasn’t profitable for about five years.”
With the help of their families and volunteers, they built Beechlawn Organic Farm up very quickly and were selling around 125 vegetable boxes a week in 2004.
“We kept the vegetable box scheme going and are still delivering them to homes and have some customers who have been with us for the full 20 years,” Úna said.
“In October 2022 we won the e-commerce award at the Bord Bia organic awards for our ‘grown in Ireland veg box’,” she added.
They then began selling at farmers’ markets in Co. Galway, and did so for about seven years.
“They did very well until the economic crash in 2009,” said Úna, who added that they gradually stopped selling directly at markets by 2013, moving more and more into wholesale.
Nowadays, they supply farmers’ market traders when they are out of their own vegetables, and supermarkets.
“In 2009 we had started working with supermarkets,” said Úna.
“We had been approached by SuperValu about taking part in a pilot scheme with local organic suppliers. We gradually expanded into a good number of shops.
“In 2014 we got involved in the SuperValu Food Academy project. That had us supplying all over Clare and into Dublin which opened doors for us,” Úna said.
Beechlawn Organic Farm’s stockist list grew further and included several independent stores such as Joyces supermarkets and McCambridges in Galway.
In Dublin, Mortons of Ranelagh, Nolans, Clontarf and Cavistons, Glasthule, and the Avoca stores started taking their produce.
“The independents always helped us make ends meet when the larger shop chains weren’t enough for business for us to sell our crops,” the grower added.
Although they grow over 20 different types of vegetables, their main crops are curly kale, leeks and cabbage.
“We also do a lot of Brussels Sprouts which we have specialised in over the last two years although they can be challenging with black spots and slugs,” said Úna.
“We use organic slug pellets, and they are not as damaging to the rest of the wildlife. They only target the slugs.”
Deliveries can be made from Beechlawn Organic Farm to any part of the country. The regular runs are to Dublin and Clare, but pallets are also sent to Ardkeen in Waterford and Organico, Bantry.
Battles
There have been lots of changes in their ways over the years, Úna said, for example one being that Joyces was bought by Tesco.
“We were supplying six of their stores including our local Tesco store in Ballinasloe which is only a few fields away from us,” said Úna.
Úna said that the Covid-19 years saw an upsurge in business, but it “didn’t return on profitability, and costs went up also during that period”.
“We made a financial loss in 2021 which was a bit of a shock, but we had set up a new website and a new accounts system just before Covid-19 hit,” she said.
“The chaos of Covid-19 was immense.
“In 2022, the accounts are looking much better for the end of this year,” she said.
“Things are affected by the cost-of-living crisis and supermarkets are very competitive.
“Ultimately, like all businesses, they are looking to make profit and if that means losing a few growers in Ireland, there’s nothing we can do about that.
“It’s very hard to pay all the bills; keep up our quality standard; grow good vegetables; keep a work life balance; look after nature on the farm; pay people what they deserve; and compete with veg imports from other countries that pay less wages,” Úna said.
Beechlawn Organic Farm employs 20 full-time staff, comprising the field team; packhouse team; drivers; and an office team.
Despite the challenges, they are determined to Beechlawn Organic Farm going. Padraig is in charge of the field work while Una’s brief includes new projects, administration and HR.
“We have a middle management in place now in our packhouse, office and field who have great responsibility,” Úna said.
“I love the outdoors, the fresh air and nature, and I’m a hard worker but not a natural businesswoman,” said Úna.
“I find the ‘dog eat dog’ nature of the business world challenging.
“However, we are luckier than many with a wonderful team and many blessings so we don’t like to complain even when things are difficult as we know that negative thinking can be like a self-fulfilling prophesy.
“It has been a great experience overall and a great place in which to bring up children. Once you have the work life balance right, get the right advice, don’t rush into anything, have a can-do attitude, are willing to work hard and have a community around you, you can do it,” said Úna.