Slow Food farmers Martin and Noreen Conroy are renowned for the free range pork, bacon and sausages that they produce, with the help of their five children, on their small mixed farm near Midleton - and for which they received a very well-deserved Euro-Toques Award in 2009.
Their wonderful pork is the meat of pure traditional Saddleback and Gloucestor Old Spot pigs, which they breed, rear, butcher and process themselves. They feed their pigs only on locally grown rolled wheat and their own vegetables, to produce a slow-maturing, flavoursome meat - and the difference is in the tasting.
The pigs travel just six miles to Midleton to be slaughtered by a local butcher and the same trip to be sold at market, which combined with the use of local feedstuffs, means their produce has virtually no carbon footprint. What’s more, it’s a real nose to tail operation - just check out their website and see the cuts they offer, it really is ‘everything but the squeak’.
The Conroys also rear free range bronze and traditional white turkeys every year for Christmas.
Available from Midleton Farmers Market (Sat 9-2; Mahon Point Farmers Market (Thu 10-3) Douglas Court Farmers Marke (Sat 10-2) and the Ballymaloe Cookery School Shop.
