About Ballymakenny Farm
Maria Flynn is passionate about her potatoes and the chefs she grows them for.
During challenging times growing mainstream potato varieties on the farm, Maria decided to pivot and grow heritage and speciality varieties not widely grown in Ireland.
When the pandemic closed restaurants Maria showed more entrepreneurial skill when she opened Ireland’s first drive thru Spud Shack. People pulled up beside her Spud Shack, put in their order and she would then place it in the boot of their car.
A few weeks later she packed and stamped 3 kilo bags of the different varieties and entered the retail market.
The Spud Shack is now a permanent feature on the farm and will soon be upgraded to a farm shop and tearoom.
Maria’s speciality potatoes, including the dazzling purple Violetta and Red Emmalie, remain favourites with leading chefs and continue to be grown on the farm by her husband David. Her entrepreneurial spirit and business acumen saw the farm feature in the Higher Level Business paper in the Leaving Cert in 2021.