Kildare's Deborah Ní Chaoimhe talks about the importance of biodiversity when it comes to food

Kildare native Deborah Ní Chaoimhe of The Field Kitchen and Camus Farm talks to Ciaran Mather about the importance of biodiversity when it comes to food, in addition to other intriguing tales

Biodiversity is all the rage now, isn’t it

It makes sense — after all, if you look after the environment, the environment will look after you.

Two people who definitely agree with this sentiment are husband and wife duo Deborah Ní Chaoimhe and Vic Sprake of The Field Kitchen and Camus Farm in County Cork.

Deborah grew up in Kildare and now lives in Clonakilty, while Vic originally hails from England.

Read on to find out more!

Tell me a bit about yourself Deborah.

I am an artist / art therapist / restaurateur who grew up in Kildare and now lives in Clonakilty.

Whereabouts in Kildare did you grow up? Did you like living in Kildare?

I was born in Galway and moved to Newbridge from Kilkenny in 1974.

We moved to Cutbush on the Curragh in 1979 so I grew up there but went to school in Newbridge.

My dad was from Dublin and had gone to Newbridge College, he wanted my brother to go there too but my mum refused to allow any of us to go to boarding school so we moved there instead.

I loved living in the countryside.

Have you always been interested in biodiversity and food?

Yes. My Mum was a pioneer in many ways and grew vegetables, herbs and fruit in our back garden.

Both Mum and Dad were into the environment and mum especially had a great love of nature.

They even dragged us to the anti-nuclear demonstrations in Carnsore point in 1978 to protest against the introduction of nuclear power to Ireland.

How did you and Vic first meet, and how long have you been together?

Well that’s a funny turn of events: I used to sing with a world music group called Yemanja.

We performed throughout Ireland and were invited to sing at a Carnsore anniversary event. We were also invited to sing at a festival of world music in Wales. I chose to go to the festival in Wales and ended up camping next door to Vic. Over the week we were in the same workshops and got chatting around the campfire. On the last night, I sang a love song in Irish and that got his attention! It was only later that I discovered he was a nuclear physicist! We have been together for 23 years.

What made you decide to move to Cork?

Vic moved to Ireland a year after we got together as the commute over and back to Bristol (where he lived) was too much for us both. We lived in Newbridge for a year but the deal was that if he moved over, we needed to live near the sea.

Tell me about the origins / inspirations behind Camus Farm and The Field Kitchen.

We bought our 30 acre farm in 2006 and immediately started planting native trees and hedgerows. We spent the first 13 months renovating the derelict stone barns which date to the 1850’s. We wanted a native Irish breed to manage the land and after some research we chose to breed a pedigree Dexter herd. Once the herd was established, Vic sold the beef at the Clonakilty farmers market.

There was such a demand that it soon became obvious that it would make more sense to sell it directly from the farm. We had a regular stream of customers including several restaurants who wanted to purchase premium organic Dexter beef. Some friends who are professional chefs said it would make sense to open our own restaurant and sell directly. We have family in Exeter and when we visit we love to go to the Riverford which is an organic restaurant in a barn.

The model is very similar to what we offer, for example, farm to fork, but in our case the vegetables and beef have food metres rather than food miles!

We also do a set menu with a carne, vegetarian or vegan option. We can cater for special diets as our customers pre-book online. We have one sitting at 7pm on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and 1pm on Sunday in the summer.

In the Winter, we are open on Friday/Saturday at 7pm by reservation.

How many people do you employ?

We have a team of four in the kitchen, two growers and 15 front-of-house staff over the busy summer months when we are hosting weddings, music events and theatre. Our chef Bob Cairns and his team create magic with the simplest of ingredients grown on our farm. Our grower Jason Linton has transformed 1 acre into wonderful horticulture and it is a joy to walk through the two polytunnels when they are full of vegetables, herbs and flowers for The Field Kitchen.

We really feel exceptionally lucky that we get to share this beautiful environment that we have created.

What can visitors expect to take away from attending the Camus Farm / The Field Kitchen?

They can expect to have a truly unique dining experience starting with the tree lined walk to the restaurant. There are farm walks with stunning views of Clonakilty Bay and delicious meat, vegetarian or vegan dishes served in a large barn-like setting.

The walls are decorated with an array of art from local artists. We are fully licensed and our ethos is to support other local businesses as much as possible.

What do you think are some small steps that people can do to, for example, grow sustainable food, increase biodiversity in their gardens and / or local parks?

We did a presentation as part of the green schools initiative last year and the message we were trying to get across is that every person can play their part in helping with biodiversity from growing their own herbs to

planting a native woodland and everything in between!

It all starts with educating ourselves about the role we play and the power we have as consumers. It's about making informed choices. Trying to eat more seasonally and sustainably is a good start: planting flowers that are great for pollinators is also helpful.