From city career woman to sheep farmer and now creator of artisanal and specialty condiments and preserves, Leonie Byrne cannot be accused of resting on her laurels.

A native of Dublin’s south side, she was a bespoke kitchen designer in a previous life and has gone from designing larders to filling them with her artisan produce.

She met her husband, Stephen, in a city nightclub before going on to embrace life as a sheep farmer with a new foodie passion project- the Shepherd's Pantry and Misty Green Living.

"Stephen was an apprentice electrician and I was in the National College of Ireland starting out a degree in software systems when we met," said Byrne who went on to work with Newcastle Design as a bespoke kitchen designer.

"He was fully qualified and it made more sense for him to be based at home because he could keep an eye on the day-to-day running of the build," she said.

While Stephen's family had farmed when he was growing up, the land was then "set".

The couple married in July 2007 and spent three months travelling at the beginning of 2008 through Thailand, Malaysia and Australia.

"Stephen is a hard-working and highly motivated guy. He went from working on sites to being a bit of a loose end.

"He introduced the idea of getting back to being a farmer and I thought it sounded great even though I knew nothing about farming. He did the Green Cert and the farm was signed over to him," Byrne said.

She said that in the early days, she really had very little to do with the farm but she knew it was a lot of work for Stephen as the core farmer.

"Because the land had been leased, fencing was not appropriate for sheep, reseeding was necessary, sheds had to be rebuilt.

"Budgets were also tight. While he was farming, I had got a job at a local hotel - The Brooklodge - as a receptionist in the spa," Byrne said.

"I was back working as a kitchen designer at Newcastle Design full time, this time as a general manager.

"Stephen went back to work in late summer/early autumn but it was hard work juggling the two very separate commitments," the Carnew-based woman recalled.

She said their son, Luke, was four years old and on the days when Stephen was at home on "farmer duty', Luke was tucked up beside him wherever he went.

"On the days when Stephen worked further afield as an electrician, Luke was cared for by Stephen's mum. I was gone every day from 8:00a.m until 6:00p.m.

"When we looked at the bigger picture, it was obvious that one of us needed to be at home. As a higher earner, it made more financial sense for Stephen to be working, so he asked if I'd be interested in taking over the reins on the farm. I said yeah, sure, why not?" Byrne said.

At the time the farm was steadily growing.

"We were always pushing forward, trying to improve things, do things differently. At our peak, we had 400 breeding stock which was crazy.

Stephen was gone all week, so we would do all the tasks like dosing at the weekends. It made our weekends pretty busy," according to Byrne.

However, they have changed tack in the past couple of years.

"We have been going in the other direction - downsizing - and our breeding flock is now about 120. Sheep can be a lot of hard work and despite huge investment of time and energy, the margins are very slim.

At this time it makes more sense for us to have fewer sheep and a bit more time," Byrne said.

They introduced alpacas to the flock about nine years ago.

"As it turned out, in my first year as a farmer, we had a perfect storm in our area.

"The previously booming rabbit population was decimated by myxomatosis and the fox population was hungry. We lost about 40 lambs to the foxes that spring which was heartbreaking, but it was an opportunity for anyone looking to get some flock guardians onto the premises," Byrne said.

However the reduction in the flock numbers, did mean she had a little more time on her hands.

"I think I was only at it for about a year when I was asked to return to full time work at Newcastle Design so I packed it up and shelved it, hoping that I might be able to dust it off at a later date. Downsizing the farm gave me that opportunity and I got started on researching and developing all my ideas for the Shepherd's Pantry in October of 2024," Byrne said.

For the Shepherd's Pantry, she creates artisanal and specialty condiments and preserves including chilli jam, pickled onions, piccalilli, and seasoning and spice mixes including cajun seasoning, perfect roast seasoning and steak seasoning.

"It has been interesting being back in direct contact with the customer and seeing what they react to when you are selling. I'm still going through the trial and error period and learning from it," she said.

But having had some experience with the food industry she was able to get important issues like compliance with environmental health sorted early.

"It made it much easier to develop recipes and products knowing the limits I'm working within. I had my first day at Gorey Farmers' Market at the beginning of November.

"My online store went live last Monday. I have just signed up to join the new Cherrywood Sunday Market organised by Irish Village Markets at Cherrywood Luas stop from 11:00a.m to 4:00p.m every Sunday," according to Byrne.

She added that the range is growing and she is working on seasonal offerings too.

"We had items like mulled wine spices and turkey brining spices for Christmas and I have some dressings and infused oils planned for the warmer months ahead. I also had fun developing ideas for hampers for Christmas and am hoping that I can corner a niche spot in the marketplace for artisanal hampers year round.

"I do it all myself - developing the recipes, cooking, labelling, selling, social media and the website. On market days, I'm on my own too, setting up, selling, packing it all up. It takes time and I know I'm inclined to bite off more than I can chew, but it's definitely keeping me on my toes," Byrne said.

She said that she is excited to start at Cherrywood Market.

Byrne added: "Being able to sell in Dublin will be a huge opportunity for me on so many different levels, so I can't wait to see what that brings.

She is also keen for her web sales to take off adding: "Selling at a market is a great way to connect with the customer and it's always a thrill to make a sale, but to have a customer seek you out and choose to buy from you, that's really cool.

Shopping local is important, she believes even if it often requires more effort.

"When we go the extra mile and support businesses in our community, we're keeping jobs local and we're keeping our money in the local community too.

"I saw a quote that every time you spend money, you're casting a vote for the kind of world you want or something to that effect. I like that. I think it's true and in my personal life I try to live by that mantra and lead by example," she said.