Healthy food advocate

INDEPENDENT PEOPLE: Lynda McFarland

Those who doubt the benefits of organic food might well be turned into believers if they spent some time talking to Lynda McFarland. It's a topic about which the Athlone nutritionist and chef is particularly passionate.

'Organic food has become known as elitist, because of the fact that it’s more expensive. But I try to remind people that our grandparents, or great-grandparents, grew up on organic food. That’s what it was. It’s food that’s not sprayed with chemicals,' says Lynda.

'When you think about it, these herbicides and pesticides are designed to kill living organisms – micro organisms – but we are just bigger organisms and, over time, they build-up in the system and cause all sorts of issues with allergies and illnesses. More and more of them are being linked with cancer as well.

'Unfortunately, that’s how messed-up our food chain has become, that conventional food is the stuff that’s sprayed with chemicals, and organic is ‘elitist’. It shouldn’t be that way.'

Lynda is speaking in Lowe & Co, her new deli and general store on O’Connell Street in Athlone. The shop is unique in many aspects, one of which is that origins can be traced to an English country estate.

It was there that Lynda, after completing a chef’s course in Athlone IT, went to work as a private chef for about a year and a half.

'It was a great experience, but it wasn’t my own life either,' she says. 'There were long hours… it was a role where you were very much at the beck and call (of the employer).'

While Lynda was working there she met her partner, Eddie Lowe, a Londoner who worked as a forester on the same estate. They decided to move to Lynda’s home town and, together, fulfilled her longstanding ambition to open a healthy food business.

Lynda explains that, in her work as a nutritionist, she would often advise people to include things like 'sourdough bread, and good quality dairy' in their diets, but they were finding it hard to locate these goods locally.

'That’s how the shop and the deli came about,' she says. 'Personally, I’ve been dreaming about doing something like this for about ten years. My family and friends thought I was never going to do it because all I did was talk about it!'

After looking at a few possible locations in the town, she and Eddie settled on a premises that had not been in use commercially for decades. It was formerly a tailor’s shop, called Rowland’s, and is believed to have closed in the 1960s.

Lynda has been asking around for a photograph of the shop in its previous incarnation, but, so far, to no avail.

'We were looking (for a premises) for a good while, and wanted to find something with a bit of charm. We like this side of town as well. Eddie did all the work here, really, because it did need a lot of attention.

'We had been planning to open in time for the Drama Festival (last May), but the best laid plans and all of that...'

The shop ultimately opened in July and Lynda says it’s been going well so far. 'There’s a lot of interest in organic food and we’re trying to keep it all ethical as well; fair trade and environmentally friendly.'

While there is a small seating section at the moment, Lynda says the next stage will be to open an upstairs seating area, hopefully before the end of the year.

Asked to describe Lowe & Co, she replies: 'We try to keep everything high quality, with really good ingredients. Obviously with the nutritional background I want it to be nourishing food.

'I’m very passionate about organic, so I don’t like to choose anything with genetically modified (GM) ingredients, or GM feed, or anything like that. I want it to be healthy and nourishing and we want to keep the atmosphere informal and casual as well.'

Lynda is a native of Sli an Aifrinn, Athlone, where her parents Breege and Joe still reside. She is a former student of Our Lady’s Bower and recently gave a talk to the school’s retired teachers’ association.

'Some of my old teachers were there, so it was funny being on the other side of the classroom!' she smiles.

She studied English and French at third-level, but later went back to college to study nutrition and then a chef's course.

'I always felt there was a huge link between what we eat and our health, and I was always keen to explore that further. So that prompted the studying of nutrition. I had all sorts of people come to me with digestive issues, heart issues, and immune issues.'

While her work as a chef brought her to England, she describes herself as 'a bit of a homebird' and says she was keen to return to Athlone before too long.

She points out that one of the key aspects of Lowe & Co is involvement in the community. Since September, approximately ten people have been attending a ‘grow it yourself’ group which meets there on the first Wednesday of each month at 7.30pm.

'Before this, I think Athlone was the only town in Ireland that didn’t have a ‘grow it yourself’ group. The people who have been coming to the group are absolute beginners who want to start growing, so it’s for everybody.

'The great thing about the group is that everybody has tips about what to do with slugs, what to do about rabbits, how to manage them and keep them away from your produce.'

Some customers of the shop have also been coming in with goods from their gardens.

'I don’t know how many boxes of apples we’ve gone through in the last few months but it’s lovely that if people aren’t using something, like apples, they bring them in and we make chutneys or crumbles out of them.'

A men’s group also meets at Lowe & Co once a month, and there are plans for workshops on preserving and fermenting foods.

'That ties in nicely with the grow it yourself group because you’re preserving the food, you’re fermenting it so it’s good for the gut, it’s good for overall health and it’s got really good flavour as well.

'So fermentation is a huge part of our food side of things and we’re going to be teaching people how to do it themselves at home.

'We want this to be a little food hub in the community,' Lynda concludes.