Cork food mecca is making Christmas hampers with local produce
Laura Manning (centre), Val Manning (right), and Laura’s husband Andrew Heath, of Mannings Emporium.
BUYING local isn’t all that bad a prospect when it comes to food – especially when you live in Cork.
This Christmas, Mannings Emporium in Ballylickey are making the most of Cork’s rich food culture by preparing hampers of local produce.
Ranging in price from €45 to €300, the hampers pay tribute to Mannings’ close and longstanding relationships in the West Cork area, many of them amongst women.
I visited the deli grocer last week, and travelled with its third-generation owner, Laura Manning, to meet some of her neighbouring suppliers.
Mannings began in the 1940s when Laura’s paternal grandparents ran it as a post office that sold its own milk, cream, and butter before slowly developing into a general store.
Each iteration of what is now described as a ‘food mecca’ built on the one before.
Laura’s uncle Val was hugely innovative in the ’70s, importing wine from Bordeaux to accompany local produce and giving opportunities to local producers in the region, transforming the store into a delicatessen.
In turn, Laura has moved with the times, and the online hampers are a part of that, a way to sustain Mannings’ relationship with local suppliers into the future.
Mannings is still a shop, but it is also a bustling café that thrives and survives on local relationships.
Treating me to a coffee, Laura fills me in on how the whole online hamper-making began.
“People were coming in at Christmas asking us to put a gift together and we were rummaging around,” she recalls.
"Then we put more structure on them, creating a leaflet with different options and taking them online.”
The move towards the hampers has been positive for the family-run business.
“A lot of buyers will have visited West Cork and loved it. They want to recapture that magic, especially at Christmas time.”
Good relationships are central to everything Mannings does.
“The products in the hampers are regular suppliers to the shop; this is not just for Christmas. It is so amazing to be able to tell a local producer that we would like a big order for Christmas.
“If you buy in through Amazon, you miss out on seeing the face of the person behind the product; you never really get to know their story.”
Our first stop on our tour, Rearour Orchards, is where Mannings sources many of its jams, marmalades, and pickles.
This gleaming white cottage on Ballyroon Mountain in Kilcrohane is stunningly beautiful, with purple window frames and gables; it is also a very significant place for my guide.
“This is where I spent my childhood summers. It’s where my mum grew up. I haven’t been here for years.”
She points to the main cottage and the various outhouses, recalling the games she played on the remote peninsula with her brother.
We meet Dorien Benjamin, a smiling, energetic Dutch woman who arrived in Ireland in 2012 along with her husband and three children. Together, the family meticulously restored the breathtakingly scenic spot, adding an extension and using the land to grow fruit and vegetables.
Chickens cluck as we pass into the kitchen, the wind gathering.
Dorien said: “I started making the jams and selling them locally some years ago. Laura spotted the name Rearour Orchard on the label, so she got in touch.
“Mannings have been selling my products ever since. I make everything here in this kitchen.”
Laura reminisces as she explores the small, homely rooms, noting what is changed and unchanged.
Before leaving, Dorien takes us into her impressively organised storage space before handing us her boxed up jam and pickles, including seasonal Christmas treats like ‘Mrs Claus Marmalade’.”
Our next stop is to the famous and award-winning Durrus cheese. Mannings’ relationship with Durrus is a special one, dating back to Val Manning’s reign, when he offered to sell Jeffa Gill’s very first batch of cheese in his delicatessen.
Jeffa Gill arrived in West Cork in the 1970s and was part of a network of innovative women who began to develop small cheese-making businesses. She bought a small farm on the hillside valley of Coomkeen just above Durrus village in West Cork.
After a winding drive, we meet Jeffa and her daughter Sarah. A sizeable order is just being dispatched – these are clearly very busy, hard-working women but they make time for Laura.
Sarah tells me her mum is the ‘real boss’ around the place, although she has years of experience in the food industry, including a stint in Mannings. “I just do what I’m told,” the gregarious young woman laughs.
Jeffa adds with a smile “and I’m just very patient,” before describing her cheesemaking as a hobby that grew.
Her ‘hobby’ now supplies cheese to big retailers like Dunnes Stores, Neal’s Yard in London, and of course, her original supporters at Mannings Emporium.
“Val was instrumental. I think he was the first person to hold a food fair. He gave us a great start,” says Jeffa.
There is an ease between the three women as we sit for a chat beside a small tasting counter for tour guides and random visitors like me.
Jeffa visits Mannings every Thursday, sharing a coffee with the owners as she drops off her cheese.
Before we leave, accompanied by her adorable dog Murphy, Sarah shows me the large copper vat where the cheese is made.
Laura tells me about other suppliers as we return to the shop, including Mella, who makes the hugely successful fudge (See WoW! page 6 and 7 for our big interview with Mella, as part of our monthly WoW! Bites column), another hamper staple.
She also mentions Claire O’Sullivan and her delicious WASi Seaweed Pesto, another local treat.
I leave Mannings with a new understanding of what buying local means; to these women in West Cork, it means everything.
Hampers available for order now. Customers are asked to give their preferred delivery date at checkout: Gifts & Hampers – Mannings Emporium
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