Dart Mountain say ‘cheese’ with novel products

Award-winning Dart Mountain, a craft food venture owned by husband and wife team Kevin and Julie Hickey and based at Park, near Claudy, has recently teamed up with farming brothers Ryan and Fergal Mortimer at Carraig Bán, a 100-acre family beef and sheep farm close to the Hickey’s purpose-built dairy on their small estate.

The two brothers, both part-time farmers, last year decided to introduce a small herd of goats and approached the Hickeys to see if they would be interested in taking the milk.

“Their timing couldn’t have been better, because we had been looking around for an additional supplier of goat’s milk closer to our dairy,” Kevin explains. “While we already had a goat’s milk cheese, Carraig Bán, in our existing range we were interested in an additional supply that would enable us to develop a blue veined variety in particular. We were keen to work with Ryan and Fergal in helping them to develop their goat business. Having this ready supply of good quality goat’s milk just down the road gave us the impetus to create two new cheeses and for the future growth of our business, we’ve extended and tripled the capacity of our cheese ageing room.”

Joining Carraig Bán, until recently the only goat’s milk cheese produced here, are a hard cheese and a blue. Dart will be the only producer of goat’s milk cheeses in Northern Ireland. “We’ve named them both Meeny Hill, the landmark where the goats roam. The new cheeses are Meeny Hill Goat, which is a hard cheese aged for at least two months and Meeny Hill Blue, Northern Ireland’s first blue goat’s cheese, a semi soft and firm cheese that’s been matured for at least one month,” he adds.

Julie, originally from Lincoln in Massachusetts, is the expert cheese-maker who developed her skills at the School of Artisan Foods in Welbeck in England, while

Kevin looks after the management and especially marketing roles. All the cheeses are produced in small batches in a purpose-build dairy on the small rural estate owned by the Hickeys. This approach ensures consistent quality and outstanding taste.

Test marketed last year, the novel cheeses attracted very favourable reactions from family, friends and business connections. The small company already has extensive business contacts with restaurants, hotels, delis and specialist stores for its existing range of pasteurised cow’s milk and Carraig Bán goat’s milk cheese.

Indeed, the impressive artisan enterprise has created a portfolio of original cheeses including Kilcreen, Northern Ireland’s first – and still only – Alpine-style cheese, which is crafted from an Emmental recipe.

The company, in addition, pivoted its business successfully in response to the closure of its foodservice contracts due to the coronavirus pandemic. It meant Kevin had to get on the phone to delis and other specialist retailers. It proved “a great success”, he continues. “To our great relief and delight the retailers responded enthusiastically and businesses grew rapidly. We are immensely grateful for their support.”

Formed in 2010 by Kevin and Julie as Tamnagh Foods, the company developed a broad range of foods including hand crafted cheeses, granolas, relishes, chutneys, drizzles and biscuits for cheese. Julie’s first cheese was Sperrin Blue, a successful innovation and winner of gold in the Irish Food Award in 2015 and silver in the UK and Irish Artisan Food Awards in 2018.

This was followed by Dart Mountain Dusk, a unique ash rubbed cheese and a bronze winner in the World Cheese Awards which was named after a landmark in the Sperrins.

Tamnagh Foods was replaced by Dart Mountain in a major rebranding of the business which also saw the granolas being axed as the strategic focus switched to concentrate on the artisan cheeses and accompaniments such as chutneys, relishes, drizzles and biscuits for cheese. This rebranding gave the small enterprise an integrated identity in the marketplace.

“The granolas had become a bit peripheral due to the growth in the cheeses and other associated products,” Kevin explains.

The company, he continues, also experienced significant growth in on-line sales during the coronavirus lockdowns.

“Our on-line sales of our existing eight-strong range of cheeses, biscuits, craft chutneys, relishes and drizzles really took off in the run in to Christmas and, I am delighted to say, have continued to grow strongly since then. We expected there would be a bit of a drip at the start of this year but this hasn’t been the case. Sales remain strong,” he adds.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper whenever you are able to do so.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper when you can safely.

You can also enjoy unlimited access to the best news from across Northern Ireland and the UK by subscribing to newsletter.co.uk

With a digital subscription, you can read more than five articles, see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times, and get access to exclusive newsletters and content. Visit https://www.newsletter.co.uk/subscriptions now to sign up.

Thank you