Part of our series with Euro-Toques Ireland
TheTaste.ie is a proud community partner of Euro-Toques Ireland, and we are delighted to relaunch our Producer Series together, where we shine a spotlight on the passionate people behind Ireland’s exceptional small-scale food producers. Next in the series we talk with Velvet Cloud, a husband and wife led team who have been operating their business since 2015 and now are suppliers to venues such as Ashford Castle, Adare Manor, Dromoland, Michelin star Chapter One, Terre, Dede & many more.
Can you tell me about your own background in the food industry?
We are a husband and wife team, myself Aisling and Michael (Flanagan ) are the founders of a relatively new business, Rockfield Dairy, which produces the Velvet Cloud range of sheep’s milk, yogurt and cheese. Farming is in the blood for Michael, he grew up on the family dairy farm in Co. Mayo.
We met in college both studying agricultural science in UCD. I then went on to work for Bord Bia helping Irish companies identifying markets to sell their food products to in Italy and Greece. I then moved on to work for HJ Heinz based in Paris looking after the brand strategy for frozen ready meals with brands such as Weight Watchers and Linda McCartney. When we moved back to Ireland I worked in advertising . Michael worked in finance in the IT sector for Hewlett Packard in France and when we moved back to Ireland he continued to work in finance for an online bank.
What inspired you to set up your business? Did you notice a gap in the market?
While working abroad, we noticed the prevalence of sheep’s milk products in places like France and Italy. Despite the strong tradition of sheep farming in Ireland, there are not many farms milking sheep, as most are produced for meat. We also observed that changing consumer demand was placing an increasing emphasis on healthy foods, the importance of the microbiome and the gut brain axis and increasing demand for high protein foods. The list of reasons to switch to sheep’s milk products is a long one it is creamier and thicker than cows’ milk and contains higher levels of minerals and vitamins. It also suits many people who are sensitive to cow as it is easier digest. Its mild creamy taste lends itself to both sweet and savoury dishes, and three years into the business Velvet Cloud can be found on the menus of the top restaurants in the country.
How did you set up the business and how has it grown over time?
We set up the business in 2015 on a shoestring, we made prototypes of sheep’s yogurt in our kitchen and passed them around to chefs to get feedback . Once the feedback was positive about the product, and our market research had shown that the food and consumer trends were going in the right direction we pulled as much resources as we could together and started producing our Velvet Cloud live yogurt. Our yogurt is still our hero product and is usefully to be seen on the menus of the best known restaurants in Ireland and in over 300 supermarkets around the country.
We then produced a semi hard sheep’s cheese called Rockfield – which is aged for a minimum of 12 weeks. This has won numerous awards and we are increasing the volume we produce every year.
We then launched a soft sheep’s cheese labneh, which is actually a strained yogurt with 1% salt added, we launched this because lots of chefs were taking our yogurt and making their own labneh in their kitchens. So this labneh now saves them time and kitchen space!
Our newest product is actually a cows milk cheese it is made using fresh grass fed sheep’s milk from Michael’s uncle’s farm in an area in Mayo where he grew up called: Cloonbook. We used exactly the same recipe for our semi hard sheep’s cheese, and it has turned out really well. In fact at the recent Irish Farmhouse Cheese Awards it was awarded very best new Irish cheese.
Where do you source the ingredients used to make your product(s)?
We use fresh grass fed milk from our own farm, so it all comes from our flock of Friesland and lacune ewes. These are breeds of sheep, especially bred to produce milk. For our live cultures we get 4 live cultures from Denmark, and for our cheese we use a lamb rennet in keeping with the traditional recipe.
Can you tell me about some of the benefits associated with your product(s)?
Sheep’s milk has a higher nutritional value and higher concentrations of proteins, fats, minerals, and vitamins, compared to cow’s milk. Because of the unique properties of sheep’s milk, many with digestive challenges or who are sensitive to cow’s milk, can eat sheep’s dairy products Sheep’s milk contains the protein A2 β-casein compared to A1 β-casein the type of protein found in cows milk in Ireland. A1 β-casein has been shown to cause inflammation of the gut and exacerbated gastrointestinal symptoms, which can result in acne, eczema, bloating etc.
Many people who think they are lactose intolerant are actually not they are intolerant to the protein in cow dairy. People often prefer sheep’s milk to plant based alternatives. They may be using dairy free options, but are delighted to find that sheep’s milk which is still dairy, suits them. In Ireland, most of the plant based alternatives, are produced thousands of miles away, therefore have a high carbon footprint by the time they reach Ireland, and so many people prefer to choose a more sustainable option.
Sheep’s milk is naturally homogenized, this means that the fat globules float naturally in the milk and don’t need mechanical processing to homogenize them. People often ask, what does sheep’s milk taste like? When they try it the common response is, that it is much creamier and has a milder taste, than cow or goat. Sheep’s milk has higher levels of “heart healthy fats” (or what in food chemistry we call “polar lipids”) compared to cow’s milk. Because of its make up sheep’s milk is a perfect choice for chefs, it has a thick creamy mouth feel and mild naturally sweet taste, so sheep milk products work very well in both sweet and savoury dishes.
How important has social media been for you in spreading the word?
It has been very important, particularly when we launched the business and chefs who bought from us shared their creations on social, this helped endorse the products. “If the best chefs in the country are using it, it must be good” However now that the algorithms have all changed unless you pay to advertise it is very hard to get exposure organically.
How has being a part of the Euro-Toques community helped you and what is the best part about the community?
The best part about the community is the network of both food producers and chefs that you make. This makes it easier to contact people if you have a problem or a challenge and it also makes it easier to build sales because chefs within the community will always try and support you or recommend your products.
What makes your product unique?
Our yogurt is the only Irish sheep’s milk yogurt available and is the only grass-fed sheep’s yogurt in Europe. Velvet Cloud yogurt is the only yogurt named regularly on the menus of the best food establishments in the country, it’s the first time an Irish yogurt has created a food service and consumer brand at the same time.
Our sheep’s cheese Rockfield is one of very few sheep’s cheeses in Ireland and is the only semi hard sheep’s cheese of its kind made in Ireland, it has won numerous awards including a World Cheese Award and Best Irish Artisan Cheese at the Artisan Cheese Awards in the UK.
Our new Cloonbook cows’ cheese, won The Best New Irish Cheese recently (April 2024) at the CAIS Irish Farm House Cheese Awards. These awards are judged by experts in cheese from all over Europe and are blind taste tested to eliminate bias.
Tell us about the chefs/restaurants using your products to create dishes.
We have everyone from the higher end of Ashford Castle, Adare Manor and Dromoland to Michelin star Chapter One, Terre, Dede, as well as gastro pubs and fine dining establishments all around the country.
Are there any other small Irish food producers you admire?
I love what Maria in Ballymackenny spuds has done bringing old varieties of potatoes back onto menus.
Grainne in Gra chocolates is also just such an inspiration and its so great to see what a fantastic business someone can build at such a young age.
What are the biggest challenges you’ve faced since going into business?
Funding growth and expansion
Banks won’t lend to small food businesses, we’ve sold out of our sheep’s cheese every year and had double digit growth every year, but we cannot raise funds to help us grow. We desperately need to move into a bigger premises and get equipment to help us be more efficient but we can’t get the financial support to do this. So the business has to fund the growth itself and therefore is going to be much much slower in growing and developing. This is really disappointing as there are opportunities we have to say no to, because for now we haven’t the capacity to deal with them.
What do you feel is your biggest achievement to date with this business?
Surviving! Surviving Covid when we lost 50% of our sales overnight when the restaurants closed and then surviving the crazy cost increases as a result of the Ukraine war. In the face of this we have continued to grow and now we are also exporting.
Could you ever have imagined doing anything else with your life?
I don’t take time imagining what I am going to do with my life, we just seize opportunities and try to do the best for our family and ourselves. If you had told me when I was 20 I would be doing this I would not have believed you.
What does the future hold for your business?
We need to continue to develop export markets because Ireland is too small and Island to build a sustainable business like ours on this market alone. In Ireland for this year and next we want to grow sales of our new soft sheep’s cheese labneh and Cloonbook cheese.
Anything further to add?
Any chefs interested please get I touch 😊 We have a great relationship with La Rousse Foods who stock everything we have and also we ship direct to chefs if they are interested
About Euro-Toques Ireland
Euro-Toques Ireland is a nurturing community of chefs, producers, educators and food writers that celebrates and preserves the culinary heritage and food culture of Ireland today and tomorrow.
The key ingredients of our community are our deeply engrained values that emphasise a high set of principles within the kitchen, from sourcing to serving. This means striving for excellent culinary standards and always working with quality local produce, in season where possible.
Euro-Toques Ireland is part of a wider European network of like-minded Chefs. Founded in Brussels in 1986, Myrtle Allen is one of the European founding members who then went on to establish Euro-Toques Ireland.
