Ballymaloe House was founded on sustainable food principles, long before farm-to-table or food miles were considered fashionable. When Myrtle Allen started her restaurant, the ingredients used to cook were from her husband's farm.
We are still renowned for our farm-to-table principles and continue to serve simple, wholesome food using a combination of seasonal produce grown in our walled garden, reared on the Ballymaloe farm, or from a variety of local producers and suppliers, reducing the carbon footprint.
The land around Ballymaloe House is sustainably managed, with an emphasis on biodiversity and nature preservation. Wildflower meadows provide an important habitat for wildlife, the beehives on the estate grounds produce honey we use in the restaurant and kitchen. Learn more about our sustainable farm-to-fork principles.
We keep free-range hens for a guaranteed supply of fresh eggs. All the eggs used in the kitchen are free-range from the hens reared on the farm and fed on home-grown grain.
Recently, we have taken to rearing free-range pigs, and we feed them beans and grain grown on the farm. Pigs are then processed locally, reducing food miles, and supporting local butchers. Pork and poultry are locally produced, non-intense, free-range and organic.
All our lamb and beef are grass-fed, and reared on the farms near us. We use dairy produce from a nearby cookery school, where a small herd of Jersey and Friesian cows graze on organic pastures. These cows are milked every morning, providing us with fresh yoghurt and butter.
The fruits we grow include strawberries, raspberries, loganberries, gooseberries, fregolas, red and white currants, plums, apples, pears, cherries, peaches, figs, kiwis, grapes, and rhubarb. We produce seakale, native to Ireland, growing it under a cloche.
In 2014, we planted a 2-acre apple orchard now providing us with apple juice and Ballymaloe Cider. The beehives are managed by Niall Coffey of East Cork Bees and the honey produced is used in the restaurant and kitchen.
We seed-save and grow produce from seed each year. Flowers used in all the bedrooms, dining rooms and public spaces of Ballymaloe House are from the walled garden throughout the year.
Local farmers supply us with ducks, geese, guinea fowl, chickens, and turkeys.
Fish comes from small boats Ballycotton Bay, Ballycotton Seafoods, and shellfish from Kenmare Bay. Sally Barnes, Frank Hederman and George Devereux smoke fish for us.
Meat is sourced locally on the carcass, and we use every part of the animal, including main components, secondary parts for mincing and bones for stocks; we leave no waste.
Vegetables and herbs are supplied from our walled garden, tended to by the Head Gardener Mags Cullinane and her team, as well as from the Organic Farm and Gardens at Ballymaloe Cookery School.
