The many benefits of ‘ewe-ghurt’: how this Mayo couple made the most of a gap in the market for sheep’s yoghurt
Aisling and Michael Flanagan saw sheep’s milk products flying off the shelves when they were living in Milan and Paris, and decided to take their family farm in a new direction. Their Velvet Cloud yoghurt has been a huge success, and their cheese business is also booming. They reveal their breeding, lambing and milking secrets.
Hand-made: Michael Flanagan of Velvet Cloud in the yoghurt and cheese production facility. Photos: Ray Ryan
While working in France, Aisling and Michael Flanagan realised just how valuable their sheep at home could be. On returning to Michael’s 60-acre family farm between Claremorris and Knock in Co Mayo, the couple took the traditional dairy and sheep farm in a different direction.
“We’d been working in Milan and then in Paris and had become accustomed to and interested in nice food. We always had a great interest in farming, having studied agricultural science in UCD,” says Aisling.
