From Friesian to freezing
Something Good has come to the coastal town of Kinsale.
5 Market Street is now home to the Good Dairy Company following its launch by entrepreneurial Kinsale woman Catherine Good. The shop has her own brand of farm to fork ice cream products.
Catherine Good began her ice cream venture in 2021, using milk from her family’s dairy farm. Since then, her creations have gained a loyal following, thanks to the fun names and mouth-watering flavours which are favourites among customers who regularly queue at her catering pod at events.
Catherine, whose husband runs a busy dairy farm in Nohoval, had always dreamed of producing her own ice cream, using what she calls “the creamiest milk” from their husband’s pedigree Friesian herd, which grazes on green pastures overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
While many struggled through the lockdowns of the pandemic, Catherine said she used the time to focus on building her business idea. She completed a number of business development courses, including the Exxcel Programme at the Rubicon Centre, MTU.
She said as her confidence in her product grew, she invested in a state-of-the-art catering pod, bringing her ice cream directly to customers at markets and corporate events, a move that proved the appetite was there for a permanent shop.
Speaking about the shop opening, Catherine said: “Making a delicious dairy artisan ice cream from our own cows’ milk has been a dream of mine for many years. I stepped back from my career when my children were small. I later became a fitness instructor and ran local classes, but that all changed during the pandemic. I’m not someone who sits still, so I decided to seriously explore turning our amazing milk into something special.”
She added: “The past three and a half years have been a steep learning curve, but I’ve taken the idea from a dream to a product that people genuinely love. All the flavours are inspired by farm life with names that bring a smile to people’s faces. Having completed the Grow with Aldi Programme (2023) and Kick Start Programme with Lidl (2024), flavours such as Chocolate Cows Lick, Salted Caramoo and Udderly Vanilla are available to purchase in their stores, whilst I develop new artisan flavours for sale in the Kinsale shop.”