Cook ClubHelen Keown gave up her job to follow her heart and start a food stall, writes Catherine Cleary
The fact that Helen Keown's childhood sounds like something out of a pastoral novel is a sign of how much life, and food, have moved on in the past two decades. "I've been cooking since I was very young," she says. "I have vivid memories of standing in my granny's larder looking up at big jars of fabulous things. She had a big old house where she raised 14 children."
Keown grew up with her nine brothers and sisters on a Co Fermanagh farm where their own cows provided the milk and fish suppers were taken from two small lakes on the land. "My parents were growing their own produce and it was organic before we even realised what that was.
"I suppose I became obsessed with food. My friends used to laugh at me, because if they said they had gone out to dinner I'd always ask, 'What did you have to eat?' rather than, 'Who was there?' or, 'What happened?' "
Keown has gone from being a part-time food producer, selling at the new farmers' market in Limerick city, to setting up a food company, Gingergirl.
"People were always getting me to do things like bone a leg of lamb to cook on the barbecue. Part of it was showing how accessible food is, because sometimes people are afraid of it.
Keown left her full-time job last month and is now in the food business because it is where her heart is. "If you did it to make money you'd go under. If you work out the hourly wage, it's probably way less than minimum wage."
Her range of organic, home-made chutneys, preserves, brownies and, of course, gingerbread men is on sale at her stall at Riverside Market in Limerick on Sundays from 11am to 5pm. See www.gingergirl.ie