Three hundred year-old Limerick coach house turned into farm shop

CROOM farmer, Hannah Quinn-Mulligan and her family, have refurbished a 300 year-old Coach House on their  farm, to open one of the first farm shops in the county.

Selling handmade ice cream, organic milk and yoghurt, that’s produced directly on their farm, the family hope to reconnect customers with great quality food directly from a local farm.

“One of the nicest compliments we’ve received is from people who say the milk brings back childhood memories of what milk used to taste like,” Hannah told the Limerick Leader.

“Our milk is sold in old fashioned glass bottles and is unhomogenised which means the cream is left in it and rises to the top. People really enjoy coming to the shop because we have other farm goodies for sale and we have a milk dispenser where people can fill their own bottles.

“The milk is also unpasteurised, so it comes straight from milking in the morning – nothing is added or taken away from it. We’re one of only 33 dairy farms in the country allowed to sell unpasteurised milk, and we go through rigorous testing by the Department of Agriculture but it’s worth it when you see how much joy it brings customers.”

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As well as locals, Hannah and her family have found there’s a huge interest from people interested in their fitness and wellbeing who seek out the milk. At the moment, the farm runs both a suckler herd and small-scale micro dairy with just four dairy cows, but Hannah hopes to scale up in the future depending on demand.

“We love selling food we produce on the farm directly to customers. We feel there’s a real disconnect out there between farmers and customers and this is a way of bridging that gap. The local support has been amazing and we’re very grateful as well to the award-winning restaurants who use our milk, including 1826 in Adare and No 1 Pery Square in Limerick city, as well as the Michelin Star winning Aniar in Galway.”

The Coach House farm shop at Tory Hill Housel, Croom is open Friday and Saturday from 12.30pm to 5pm. 

See @toryhillhouse on social media or www.toryhillhouse.ie