Grubb Court, a lane just off the historic West Gate brick building in Clonmel in Tipperary, is named after a Quaker family with strong roots in the region.

After Samuel Grubb passed, his newly married son Louis Grubb returned to his father’s Beechmount Farm in Tipperary with his wife Jane in 1979.

They decided to buy around 90 dairy cows for the farm and Jane started experimenting with making cheese. By 1984, the couple became cheese makers and the company, Cashel Irish Farmhouse, was borne.

Since then, the business became a staple small food producer for the region, burrowed away in south Co Tipperary for over 30 years.

Their cheese soon became a sought after premium product and even featured in television chef Nigella Lawson’s book ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess.’

However, in times of crisis, premium products and small food producers are not always at the front of people’s minds causing businesses to suffer.

As the Covid-19 pandemic continues, financial pressure increases for businesses. For this reason, Grubb is branching out of selling just Cashel products with an initiative that aims to help local business.

Covid-19 is changing how businesses, small and large, operate across Ireland. The cheese makers are now doing their bit for Ireland’s food industry by supplying a Food Box of premium products sourced around Co Tipperary.

“The objective is to assist companies that have lost business because of Covid-19,” says Louis Grubb, co-founder of the cheese farm.

“It’s really to help people so that they don’t have to go out, but they still sell their premium products,” he continues.

On Saturday Cashel took to Twitter to announce their Food Box idea. In the box would be products from small food businesses that create premium products and are finding it difficult to get their products to market while Covid-19 occupies the nation. The aim of the box is to promote local produce and business.

Many markets and artisan businesses around Ireland have either closed or are enforcing social distancing rules. The Honest2Goodness market in Dublin was only letting a set number of people in at a time until they were forced to shut after new measures were introduced the government.

As businesses close and people stay in their homes, those offering more upmarket products are suffering.

Co-founders of Cashel cheese farm Louis and Jane Grubb from 1982 when they were experimenting with cheese. Photo: Cashel Cheesmakers.

The food box so far contains food produced in Co Tipperary but Grubb states that there is room to expand on what goes into the box, depending on what customers are looking for.

For the moment, the contents of the box includes outside reared pork sausages from Crowe’s Farm, pasture range eggs from Magner’s Farm, organic spinach from Annie’s Farm, Cashel Blue and Crozier cheese and apple juice from apple farmer Cornelius Traas. There will also be vegetables from locally sourced growers.

“Food business is a small business,” says Grubb who hopes the food box idea will create an alternate route for speciality businesses that create premium products to still go to market and stay viable.

Once the post was published on Twitter, the cheese-making couple received over 100 positive replies in support of their idea.

The price of the Food Box is still to be decided and the plans around the idea are still being drawn up on the back of recycled paper, according to Grubb.

In terms of how interested customers will get the box, they are going to use a call and delivery system. Grubb says they plan on using the courier service they already use to deliver the boxes to the doors of customers.

The Cashel cheese farm is now run by Louis and Jane’s daughter Sarah Furno.