I slept until about 7:45, relaxed for another hour, had breakfast (a scone, blueberries, raspberries, and milk), and hopped aboard the nearby van waiting to take us on an adventure to Drimoleague (West Cork). Our destination was Glenilen Farm, owned by Alan & Valerie Kingston, which produces yogurt that is distributed to a variety of Irish supermarkets and stores! Glenilen Farm has been a dairy farm for generations of Alan's family, and hearing Alan's story of the transformation from small family farm selling yogurt at farmer's markets to commercial enterprise selling all over the country is really cool. We loved getting to wander around the farm -- meeting their free-range pigs, who love to eat leftover yogurt/byproducts of the yogurt production; free-range chickens (and touching a still-warm egg); lovely farmyard cat; and friendly farm dog, Shep. We also had a wonderful walk by the River Ilen, a peaceful little gurgling creek that winds through fields and forests. Our path was rocky, quite steep in some places, and the perfect out-of-the-way spot to spend a Thursday morning. Walking back on a quiet country road, past countless fields of cattle and marveling at the glorious sunshine and blue sky, was quite a peaceful experience. Valerie ever so kindly provided refreshments and lunch for us (ham, potato salad, coleslaw, mixed greens, goat cheese salad, beet salad, scones, lemonade, fresh milk, and dessert...I was partial to the lime-polenta cake), and Alan was most hospitable in taking much time to explain the farm's history and current status.
Our next destination was Macroom Buffalo Farm in Macroom, also in the West Cork region. The only buffalo herd in all of Ireland, these are water buffalo that have been imported from Italy. They are so gentle and sweet, and imagine my melting heart when I got to pet 10-day-old to 10-week-old BABY BUFFALO!!! They loved to lick my hand and make the cutest little grunting sounds. I just wanted to take all of them home with me! Sooooo precious! Of course we also got to see the (most important) milking buffaloes, enjoying fresh green grass and a sunshine-filled day. Many of them were flat on their sides taking naps. This buffalo milk is strictly used to make mozzarella and ricotta cheese (Aldi's sells it), which we were fortunate enough to receive plentiful samples of -- in a Caprese-type salad (mozzarella) or in a whipped cream-raspberry sorbet type dessert (ricotta). Then we also got to go be in the midst of the 4:00 milking, which was super cool! We were literally allowed right down into the milking device section between the two milking parlor hallways, just inches from these beautiful beasts. I was in heaven, let's just say!
Once back to Cork, another student and I hurried to tapas/dinner at the Parlour Cafe (these delicious delicately fried potato chunks with a sweet-spicy-creamy sauce, a goat cheese/fig/spinach mixture on crusty bread, and flour-less chocolate brownie with ice cream) before coming back to the dorms for the rest of the evening. For me, today was really inspiring and hopeful to see how two different farms have made a very successful name for themselves -- whether as a family farm that unintentionally became commercial (Glenilen) or a novel, unconventional idea that became reality (Macroom) -- because my fiance and I ultimately want to get into farming (cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, vegetables, and who knows what else?!). I won't soon forget today!!
Happy piggies at Glenilen Farm
Making friends with Shep at Glenilen Farm
Such a pretty view and day!
Macroom Buffalo Farm
She's winking at me!
So tiny and sweet (10 days old)
Most of them were quite curious and loved attention.
Dinner at the Parlour Cafe
Dessert at the Parlour Cafe
~Anna
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