Whey drinks and soft cheeses from Tullahay Farm in South Tipperary feature on the menu in some of the country’s leading hotels, including the five-star Cashel Palace.
The enterprise had a highly successful 2022, winning a slew of awards. All the products are handmade on the farm, using milk from the family’s herd of British Friesians.
As a working mother of three turned entrepreneur, Rosemary O’Shea founded Tullahay Farm to fulfil her goal of introducing liquid whey to the Irish market.
“My grandmother recognised the powerful properties of this natural drink and we drank it daily for its health benefits,” she recalled.
“Liquid whey is more hydrating than water with its mineral content [it] contains all the essential amino acids, easily digested protein and is loaded with gut-friendly bacteria, vitamins and minerals,” Rosemary said.
Tullahay Farm
“Our brand Tullahay Farm was founded with the mission to create great-tasting nutritious and delicious Irish dairy products, using the very best raw materials,” Rosemary cotinued.
“I find it so fulfilling to be using our own milk to produce our whey drinks and soft cheeses. We pasteurise a few times during the week,” she said.
“We farm in the valley of Slievenamon. I am a big believer in sustainability and quality. We are a zero-waste company, using both the whey and curds and the quality of the milk transfers to our quality products,” she said.
“Tullahay Farm is a family run business where we are all very much involved in farming. I find farming with my husband Jim very rewarding and we all enjoy helping out with milking the cows,” said Rosemary, who worked with FBD Insurance for 25 years.
She left her job in 2018 to help her husband on their busy farm and launched the enterprise in October 2020. An existing building on the farm was converted into a department-approved unit.
“I enjoy walking the farm before breakfast each morning, listening to bird song and watching the animals interactions,” she said.
“Milking our cows morning and evening brings you very close to them,” Rosemary said.
“You build a bond with the animals and that gratitude is in every drop of milk we use.”
Liquid whey
“We produce soft cheeses and liquid whey drinks on our farm. We produce two flavoured whey drinks: Fresh whey with mango and passion fruit and fresh whey with Irish apple juice.
“We produce three soft cheeses: Natural soft cheese; soft cheese with honey and chilli and soft cheese with tomato, basil and garlic.”
In the family’s short time in business, they have won numerous awards. They include: Blas na hEireann bronze 2020; Great Taste awards 2021; Blas na hEireann gold 2021; Cais cheese awards bronze 2021; artisan cheese awards UK silver and bronze 2022 and the Blas na hEireann gold 2022.
They supply local Supervalu stores, Ardkeen Quality Food Store and hotels, and have recently joined up as a supplier for Odaios Foods in Dublin where they will supply restaurants and hotels in the Dublin area.
“We are also getting lots of interest from other food service companies,” Rosemary said.
“We got accepted onto the Lidl Ireland Kick-Start programme with our award-winning fruity whey drinks and we had a two-week promotion last September and our second promotion will be mid-March this year where we will supply Lidl stores nationwide,” she said.
“We have also recently started doing farm tours with cheese tastings. We had our first American visitors last year where they got to see our production unit and farm and were given locally produced food for lunch.
“We will have the local secondary school visit us during the spring as it will help them with their school projects,” Rosemary added.
At present just family members work in the business, but Rosemary hopes to employ locally as they expand.