Cork crisp company appeal to community to help save their crop

A CORK crisp company is enlisting the help of the community as they go to heartbreaking lengths to save one of their most special and key ingredients.

The Burns Family, who run Joe’s Farm Crisps in Killeagh, were left with no option but to appeal to locals for support following a devastating failed beetroot harvest. 

Sandra Burns said the only way left to save the acre long stretch of beetroot is to pick the plant by hand. This is as a result of the recent and unprecedented heavy rain that has wreaked havoc in local communities. Ms Burns explained that they are up against the clock to save the beetroot in light of expected frost next week. The only route now left is to pick the plant by hand or be left without beetroot or vegetables until this time next year. 

The stress has been made all the more unbearable by a drawn-out list of Christmas orders the family are determined to honour.

“This is something that we have to do as we were left with no choice,” Sandra told the Echo.

 “We know tractors won’t be able to get it out and we have Christmas orders waiting to go. There is a lot of panic. Rain is forecast for next week. If any frost arrived it will just take it overnight. Normally, it’s all taken out in October. It’s about a month late coming out but this is because of the rain. We were hoping that the ground would dry up and we’d get in but it’s just not happening.” 

Sandra praised the response from the community following their appeal.

“Between 25 and 30 people have already contacted us with offers to help. There will be people coming in and out between 10am and 4pm. The local secondary school got in touch and transition year students are coming on Monday to help out.” She appealed once again for the public’s help.

“We would appreciate as much help as we can get. All we ask is that people bring their wellies with them.” Sandra summed up their heartbreak on social media.

“Joe and Keith tried to harvest our beetroot out this morning, after several other attempts and have failed,” her Facebook post read. 

“We’ve an acre of beetroot that must get out of the ground asap, as one night’s frost will destroy it. We also need to get it cooked into crisps and have it ready in the next few weeks for shows and Christmas. This has never happened us before and the stress of not saving it means we don’t have veg, beetroot and our new trio of beetroot till this time next year. This is the effects from the constant rain and not being able to travel the land".

"We are looking for help to pick 14 beds of beetroot by hand, a job we thought was well behind us. Ideally if we can get as many as possible willing to give us a day, the more we have the better.” 

Sandra added that anybody interested in helping out can text them on 087-6329334.