Leahy’s Open Farm’s Ice Cream and Chocolate Factory opened to the public in summer 2018. Leahy’s Open Farm, once upon a time milked up to 45 cows, due to lack of grazing for cows and the need to develop the open farm, it was decided to stop traditional farming.
When we stopped farming cows we sold all the equipment and livestock, so for a few years we had no cows on the farm. However, in 2014 we bought a lovely small Jersey cross cow called Daisy. Jersey cows have a lovely temperament and have a high butter fat content in their milk. This high butter fat content is very good for making delicious ice cream, and that is what we did.
We bought a small counter top ice cream maker and started making ice cream, using different ingredients and trying out different recipes. Once we were happy with our ice cream and the ingredients, we went ahead and bought a batch freezer, which has proved a great investment. We make numerous flavours of ice creams and sorbets for our visitors to enjoy.
Next onto the chocolate, what better accompaniment to ice cream is our very own delicious chocolate. Our chocolate ranges from plain to filed chocolates to figurines to lollipops. We have started running chocolate workshops and chocolate birthday parties. A visit to Leahy’s must include a trip to our amazing Ice Cream and Chocolate Factory.
Each day at the farm we milk our cow at 4pm. Visitors at the farm can come and watch the milk come from the cow through the clusters and pipes into a glass churn. Visitors get to rub the cow after milking. We use to use Daisy’s milk in our ice cream production in the ice cream factory at the beginning but since our ice cream production has grown we now get milk from local farmers.
