Drumeen Organic Farm - Ben and Charlotte Colchester

Drumeen is probably the longest established organic farm, still existing, in the country.  For more than 30 years, Ben and Charlotte Colchester have been developing an organic farming system which respects the needs of the land, the animals and the people who buy our wonderful food! Certified by the Organic Trust, our farm and farm products go from strength to strength each year!

In recent years, it became clear to us that our customers needs could be better served by selling directly from the farm. This means that we care for our animals from birth all the way through to sale.  Having no middlemen means we can sell certified organic meat for lower prices than would be paid in the supermarket.

We grow the meal that our animals eat, therefore, we can be confident that there are no growth promoters, hormones, antibiotics or meat and bonemeal in any of our rations.

We sell organic lamb from June to December, either half or a whole lamb, butchered to your requirements. A whole lamb weighs approximately 20 kgs (44 lbs). These animals are naturally reared outdoors on grass throughout their lives.

Organic beef is sold all year round - customers usually take a half, quarter or an eight of the whole animal, butchered as you wish. Whole-weight is 280 kgs (approx 600 lbs).  Our herd is becoming increasingly Aberdeen Angus premium cattle which are considered to have the best eating quality of all breeds.

Organic Chickens - are available at various times during the year.  We dont believe we can produce genuinely free-ranging organic chickens throughout the winter as we believe they are a seasonal delicacy reared during the long daylight spring and summer months. We sell a number of times during the spring/summer period and our customers fill their freezers!  Our chickens and turkeys live twice as long as non-organic poultry. They are a different breed and live outdoors, eating green food. The flavour and meat quality is completely different from conventional poultry.  To keep the price per kilo as low as possible and to ensure that the birds mature slowly, the average weight is 2.7 kgs (approximately 6 lbs) - these are large family-size birds but we are happy to halve them for the smaller household.

Organic turkeys for Christmas - these are sold directly to customers or through Superquinn and some Dunnes Stores branches. A very slow growing strain, producing a really moist flavoursome Christmas dinner.  Customers may also buy, directly from us, halved or quartered turkeys for their freezers. This meat freezes very well without losing flavour or texture. Weight range is 5.5 - 9.5 kbs (12 - 21 lbs).

We also sell organic rape seed oil and expeller cake. 

Our own honey is available from August until stocks run out! (unfortunately current EU rules relating to organic farming preclude the honey being labelled as ‘organic’ but it is produced by the bees on our organic farm). 

Our farm is halfway between Dublin and Cork, 2 miles off the main road - we welcome enquiries from anyone interested in seeing how our organic food is produced - simply telephone 056 88 31411.

Ben and Charlotte Colchester

Drumeen Organic Farm
Islands
Urlingford
Co Kilkenny

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