Ballymakenny farmers are delighted to feature in this years Leaving Cert
Ballymakenny farmers Maria and David Flynn featured in this year’s Leaving Certificate paper for Business students.
Maria is probably Ireland’s most famous potato farmer especially with the success of the SpudShack ‘drive thru’ she opened during the lockdown last year.
Everyone knows she loves her ‘spud chats’ with customers who call to buy her potatoes, including the purple Violetta potato that is favoured by chefs.
Before lockdown Ballymakenny Farm potatoes were used by chefs who were her niche market for heritage and speciality potatoes, including the Violetta.
Maria told Drogheda Life she could not believe they had made a State exam paper. She found out through private messages on Instagram and said, “I thought they were talking about the (Sunday) Business Post newspaper. I couldn’t comprehend that it was an actual exam paper.”
They featured in the Enterprise section on the Higher Level Business paper.
Students were told Maria and husband David are potato farmers and Maria saw a niche in the market to start growing purple Violetta potatoes and were asked questions about them and their business.
The pandemic and lockdown meant that last year Maria had to adapt when restaurants had to close.
She said she was ‘blindsided’ by Covid-19 and the loss of her customers.
She immediately opened a ‘drive thru’ where people pulled up, put in their order and she would then place it in the boot of their car.
A few weeks later she packed and stamped 3kilo bags of the different varieties and entered the retail market.
This week she said, “we had some teachers contact us to say that they had discussed our farm in class with their students. It really is a surprise for us as we are so focused on making the farm work that we don’t see ourselves as anything other than farmers.”
She opened the SpudShack earlier than planned due to COVID but says,”it is here to stay. We would love to think that pop-up SpudShacks may begin to appear in shops who are interested in what we do.”
Her wish for the students who took the paper is, “I really hope that the idea of purple potatoes captured their imaginations and made learning fun.”
“Thinking outside the box is to be encouraged and no matter what happens with exams and results, life is constantly giving us opportunities and it’s recognising them and taking them that counts.”
“People thought I was mad growing purple potatoes in Ireland but I followed my belief and didn’t allow other people’s opinions sway me.”
