Since The Flour Patch opened for business at Castlefreke near Clonakilty, the ‘honesty box’ venture is proving hugely successful for young enterprise owner and chef, Anna O’Leary.
The honesty box is stocked with her own baking, bread, and scones, with honey and homegrown vegetables from her parents’ land. The ‘box’ itself is the repurposed playhouse, made into standalone roadside shop by the chef’s young brother, Barra.
Payment is taken via an honour system using cash or Revolut, and the business is thriving.
Customers here aren’t solely benefitting from the baking skills however, as the provenance of the baking ingredients is playing a great part in the success of the business as well.
A respect for the raw ingredients of the baking is something Anna is passionate about, as she recalls the high regard for food in the home where she grew up.
Parents Catriona and Gearoid O’Leary keep a suckler and sheep farm in Kilmichael, and this is where the vegetables and fruit comes from for The Flour Patch.
Catriona also keeps the bees, responsible for the honey.
Donncha O’Sullivan with chef and busines owner, Anna O’Leary who was restocking at around 10.30am on Saturday.
‘We’d nearly be self-sufficient; we’d slaughter our own lamb and beef and have our own vegetables and fruit’, says Anna.
‘My dad’s parents were like that, and my mam’s grandparents too. It’s how I grew up. I was always reminded that everything on the plate came from outside. When we were younger, we were always involved. We took them [animals] to the abattoir, we knew what was going on It was kept very real.’
She will only use free-range eggs, but space constraints means she can’t quite keep the 40-or-so hens she’d need to keep her supplied so she gets some from outside.
The milk comes from a neighbour’s across the road, from the farm of Michael Cahalane who runs Bó Bainne Úr, a mobile milk dispensary in a converted horse box.
‘One thing I’m allergic to is caged hens. And I only use butter, I wouldn’t compromise on that, or the milk. Mike’s milk is as close as possible: the cows are nearly looking over at the Flour Patch.’
Butter is a huge cost for any baker; at the moment, Anna is making good use of Dunnes Stores voucher offers, but as she makes plans for a bigger premises, she’ll have the option of buying in bulk.
The oven, too, is ‘going all day long. It’s like milking a herd of cows by hand!’ The roadside premises of the honesty box came about as a permit for a converted horsebox was met ‘with a flat no’ by the council.
‘I always wanted a place of my own. I went down the rabbithole of a farm shop-café enterprise, but again, it’s about location. I want a location that works.’
Anna, who used to supply a number of cafés and is due to graduate from MTU in October, has plans for a bigger kitchen and premises in a few weeks, with a number of local premises already showing interest in stocking her baking.
Driving by the Flour Patch honesty box on Saturday morning, there is a small queue at P85 HX10.
About the size of a hot press, there are three ladies stocking up when The Southern Star pulls in.
One of those customers, Charlotte Jennings from Ballineen/Enniskeane, happily reported that she had heard of the business through TikTok, and that people she worked with had said the ‘stuff is unreal!’.
Social media is the primary driver of customers; every customer said they’d heard about The Flour Patch through TikTok or Instagram, with one noting that young people were inclined to go on a roadtrip to find it and get a coffee nearby on their way.
This wasn’t the only customer to mention a picnic, as yet another, Cara Culloty was excited to come by the honesty box too with her mother Niamh O’Sullivan; the previous week, the homebaking was the accompaniment to a picnic at nearby Castlefreke.
Niamh O’Sullivan with her daughter Cara Colloty, both Clonakilty.
Another customer on Saturday morning, Donncha O’Sullivan, was there for the second time that day.
He’d been sent back for more gluten-free goods, with the fresh baking a welcome alternative to the over-processed and artificial prepackaged offerings.
Anna has a HSE-registered kitchen, and all her gluten-free baking is done first in the morning, so none of the equipment or ingredients is reused later.
In the new premises, however, she hopes to have the capacity to cater to a higher output.
One aspect of the honesty box that Anna says she’s missing out on however, is the chance to meet people: ‘People like the self-service, but I’d love to be meeting people.’
One pleasant surprise, however, is the level of honesty among the public.
‘I have a lot of faith in the community anyway, and Mike (Cahalane) said in a year and a half, he’d had nothing happen to him. I think people want to be honest.’
The Flour Patch honesty box can be found at Castlefreke, at Eircode P85 XH10.
Payment can be made by cash or by Revolut transfer, and goods are available from Saturdays and Sundays, 10am until 6pm.
