Magnificent seven as Eileen cracks Great Taste with “fantastic flavour”

The poultry farm, located near the Cavan border, gained a prestigious Great Taste Award on Monday, the company’s seventh in a row in the awards run by the influential UK Guild of Fine Food in London. The judges said the eggs “delivered fantastic flavour”.

Eileen, a busy mum of two boys, loves to unwind by running and cycling around Fermanagh and neighbouring counties. She’s a frequent competitor in local marathons and other energetic challenges.

Her professionalism and enterprise with Cavanagh Eggs, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in March, have supported John to develop it into one of the most successful egg businesses on the island of Ireland. In addition to its success in Great Taste, the company has won a series of awards for Ireland’s best free range eggs in the annual Blas na hEireann, the Irish National Food Awards and the Irish Quality Food and Drink Awards.

Cavanagh Free Range Eggs, benefiting from the high profile from such competitions, has won business with leading chefs and retailers, including major supermarkets such as Eurospar here and food operations in Scotland.

“We were delighted to win another gold star in Great Taste,” says Eileen. “The award is a further endorsement of the quality and taste of our eggs especially after such a challenging year for the poultry industry here especially from rising energy and feed costs.

“We’ve continued to develop the business and grow sales. We’ve got everything well organised. And who couldn’t enjoy being part of a successful family enterprise in one of the most picturesque parts of Northern Ireland. It’s magnificent to have been recognised every year for the past seven years in what is the world’s largest food and drink accreditation scheme that’s based entirely on taste.”  

She believes that the family company’s success is down to “the deep yellow yolks and firm whites which don’t disintegrate in the pan”.

“Our eggs, as Great Taste says have an outstanding taste. We are also a family business and this means we have total control of all aspects of production. Our eggs have provenance as well as an amazing flavour.”

The 100-acre family-owned and run farm is based in the. Fermanagh Lakelands and just across the border from Clones in Co. Cavan.

Eileen looks after the administration and marketing of the company the couple established in March 2012. She also helps with grading eggs in the farm’s modern sheds. These house the egg boxes and automated processing equipment that takes the eggs to a new packing plant. The farm had been producing eggs since 2002 before launching the Cavanagh brand a decade later.

More than 40,000 chickens have free run and are fed a rich diet, a high corn feed that’s packed with a range of vitamins and trace elements. The happy hens have the run of the farm and produce upwards of 13 million eggs a year.

The award to Cavanagh was among 159 made by Great Taste earlier in the week.

Five producers won the highly coveted three gold stars for outstanding flavour – Ballylisk of Armagh, Portadown for Triple Rose Cheese; Baronscourt Estate in Stewartstown for wild sika venison; Corndale Farm, Limavady for chorizo; and Morelli’s Ice Cream, Coleraine for raspberry sorbet.

All five will now be in the running for the top award for Northern Ireland – the Regional Golden Fork, which will be announced next month at a glitzy dinner in London. A further 21 products were awarded two stars and 133 one star each.

Golden Fork winners in the past have included Hannan Meats of Moira, Belfast’s Suki Tea and Mill Bay Oysters from Carlingford Lough.

Some 14,000 products were entered by companies from across the British Isles for awards. A three-star award means the expert judges rated a product “extraordinarily tasty”, while a two-star was “above and beyond delicious” and a one star “really delivers fantastic flavour”.

Recognised as a stamp of excellence and actively sought out by food lovers and retailers alike, Great Taste values taste above all else. All products in the line-up for judging are blind-tasted: every product is removed from its packaging so it cannot be identified, before entering a robust, layered judging process. 

This year, the judging took place over 90 days across two judging locations (Dorset and London) with a panel of more than 500 judges. The line-up saw food and drink products submitted from a staggering 110 different countries from across the world.  

This experienced panel, each with trusted palates, have together tasted and re-judged the 3-star winning products to crown the Golden Fork trophy winners as well as the Great Taste 2022 Supreme Champion.