Enterprising Wendy creates original cured meats and cheese on Ballymoney sheep farm

Both products are believed to be ‘firsts’ for the vibrant NI artisan food and drink industry.

Behind the original foods is Wendy Dempster, a talented marketing expert who helps husband Alan run their extensive sheep farm just outside the Co Antrim market town.

Wendy, who works in marketing with NI’s biggest food wholesaler as her day job, linked up with technical experts at the College of Agriculture and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) at Loughry, near Cookstown for guidance on creating the original products.

The new foods are an extension of her success in using sheep meat from the farm to make unique sausage rolls and burgers which have been marketed under the Lamb Van brand that’s based on a mobile food truck. The entrepreneurial couple created this from a horsebox to sell their lamb products more than a year ago.

“The cured lamb and sheep milk cheese are a logical extension of our existing Lamb Van products and are a further reflection of our strategic focus on innovative foods from our flock,” Wendy explains. “We are focused on raising awareness about the outstanding quality and taste of local lamb among consumers here by developing a variety of original foods."

They transformed the horsebox into a fully-equipped mobile kitchen for tasty takeaway lamb snacks, the recipes for which Wendy developed in collaboration with CAFRE.

Wendy continues: “We had been exploring opportunities for our lamb for some time before the coronavirus outbreak led to me being furloughed. This gave me time to pick up and to expand on some of the ideas we had been talking about.”

Wendy and Alan are both passionate about increasing awareness here of the quality and taste of local lamb.

“Northern Ireland lamb hasn’t always gained the recognition for rich and natural flavours it deserves,” she adds. “It’s more, much more than just a dish for meals at Easter. Lamb, in addition, is essentially a grass-fed meat that’s produced sustainably and in line with measures to reduce Northern Ireland’s carbon footprint in the planned Net Zero drive."

They were aided on their business journey “to promote Northern Irish Farm Quality Assured Lamb to consumers here and also to help to reduce the high volume of lamb currently exported especially from distant suppliers such as Australia and New Zealand by an Invest NI Innovation Voucher which offers funding support for collaboration on new foods with a further education college.

Based on a unique ‘cure’, which Wendy is keeping a closely guarded secret, the cured lamb is an important addition, the only lamb, in our developing charcuterie sector in which a couple of existing producers have won national awards for taste and quality for other meats. Wendy is currently finalising the labelling and packaging for the cured meat charcuterie which is ideal for salads and snacks. Charcuterie here is still at a fledgling stage in which consumers and producers are experimenting with the products.

There are four existing artisan producers of charcuterie here at present, all farm based – Broughgammon in Ballycastle; Corndale in Limavady; Ispini in Moira; and Ke Nako Biltong in Ballyclare.

While NI also has an embryonic farmhouse cheese sector, Wendy is the first to produce a sheep milk product. Most artisan cheeses here are produced from either cow or goat milk.

“The new products are the outcome of my market research,” explains Wendy. “This led me to pinpoint gaps in the market here for both foods,” she adds.

Wendy has already taste tested both products in a novel Shepherdess Supper at Gracehill Golf Club, located at Stranocum, near their farm in Ballymoney. She created a specially selected four-course tasting menu event to showcase their grass fed lamb and other local ingredients including cocktails with whiskey from Bushmills.

Wendy has also been working closely with her good friend Amanda Hanna, the enterprising owner of the Jam at the Doorstep deli on a dairy farm in Armoy. Amanda was the first to sell the Lamb Van sausage rolls and burgers. She’s also working on a new yoghurt.