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Hello and thanks for your interest in our products !
We are Alan and Valerie Kingston, Sally (8), Grace (6) and Ben (3).
We are West Cork dairy farmers, living in Alan's family home, see photo, which has been in the Kingston family for generations. As the farm is small, we milk 50 cows, we had to diversify or seek outside employment. With Valerie's degree in Food Science & Technology from UCC , and a plentiful supply of milk, the experimentation began in 1997 in the kitchen, and we started selling at the local country market and farmers markets. Due to the response we got to our products in 2002 we built a dedicated cheese house here in the farmyard, adjacent to the milking parlour, so the milk could be pumped straight over to the cheese house for transformation into any of our products.
We have now outgrown our initial dairy and building is well underway behind it for a new extension which will allow us to increase production, this should be up and running by summer 2008 D.V.
We are passionate about what we do and love being able to produce everything from scratch (grass !). As we say on our packaging, we firmly believe in unprocessed foods.
We add only the best quality ingredients to our own and use the HACCP quality system.
We have a team of 8 full time and part-time staff: Rose, Aga, Josephine, Sebastian, Brendan, all at the cheesehouse , our delivery guys on the road, Frank & Eammon, Rhona on the accounts. and Alan & I (wherever we're needed)
In case you wondered where the name "Glenilen" came from, the river Ilen runs through the farm ,also the land is very hilly so we put these two characteristics together ! Presently we are undertaking a feasability study on generating hydro power from the river, the first indications are very positive ... that we will be able to generate excess to our needs. It will take time but we are excited about the prospect of producing our own green energy and being able to contribute to the environment. We are also looking at a wetland system for our effluent.
Glenilen Farm is pleased to be a supporter of Fields Of Life, an Irish based charity, working in Uganda, building schools and running child sponsorship.
www.fieldsoflife.com
Glenilen Farm is honoured to have won several awards:
Bord Bia, The Real Thing, catagory Food & Drink Industry Award 2007.
Euro-Toques\Cavan Crystal Food Award 2007
Irish Food Writers Guild Award 2006
Bridgestone Guide, 2005,2006,2007
British Cheese Awards (silver) 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002
SFA National Small Business Awards 2006 (highly commended)
The following link should let you get a glimpse of life on the farm as filmed by RTE's Nationwide and screened on Jan 4th 2008.
www.rte.ie/news/2008/0104/nationwide_av.html?2322867,null,228
The picture on our logo is by kind permission of the artist, Robert Duncan.
www.robertduncanstudios.com
We are Alan and Valerie Kingston, Sally (8), Grace (6) and Ben (3).
We are West Cork dairy farmers, living in Alan's family home, see photo, which has been in the Kingston family for generations. As the farm is small, we milk 50 cows, we had to diversify or seek outside employment. With Valerie's degree in Food Science & Technology from UCC , and a plentiful supply of milk, the experimentation began in 1997 in the kitchen, and we started selling at the local country market and farmers markets. Due to the response we got to our products in 2002 we built a dedicated cheese house here in the farmyard, adjacent to the milking parlour, so the milk could be pumped straight over to the cheese house for transformation into any of our products.
We have now outgrown our initial dairy and building is well underway behind it for a new extension which will allow us to increase production, this should be up and running by summer 2008 D.V.
We are passionate about what we do and love being able to produce everything from scratch (grass !). As we say on our packaging, we firmly believe in unprocessed foods.
We add only the best quality ingredients to our own and use the HACCP quality system.
We have a team of 8 full time and part-time staff: Rose, Aga, Josephine, Sebastian, Brendan, all at the cheesehouse , our delivery guys on the road, Frank & Eammon, Rhona on the accounts. and Alan & I (wherever we're needed)
In case you wondered where the name "Glenilen" came from, the river Ilen runs through the farm ,also the land is very hilly so we put these two characteristics together ! Presently we are undertaking a feasability study on generating hydro power from the river, the first indications are very positive ... that we will be able to generate excess to our needs. It will take time but we are excited about the prospect of producing our own green energy and being able to contribute to the environment. We are also looking at a wetland system for our effluent.
Glenilen Farm is pleased to be a supporter of Fields Of Life, an Irish based charity, working in Uganda, building schools and running child sponsorship.
www.fieldsoflife.com
Glenilen Farm is honoured to have won several awards:
Bord Bia, The Real Thing, catagory Food & Drink Industry Award 2007.
Euro-Toques\Cavan Crystal Food Award 2007
Irish Food Writers Guild Award 2006
Bridgestone Guide, 2005,2006,2007
British Cheese Awards (silver) 2006, 2005, 2003, 2002
SFA National Small Business Awards 2006 (highly commended)
The following link should let you get a glimpse of life on the farm as filmed by RTE's Nationwide and screened on Jan 4th 2008.
www.rte.ie/news/2008/0104/nationwide_av.html?2322867,null,228
The picture on our logo is by kind permission of the artist, Robert Duncan.
www.robertduncanstudios.com