Northern Irish quail takes off with top chefs

Award winning Ballinteer Farm Quail in Northern Ireland has won backing from many of the region's top chefs for fresh quail, quail eggs and seasonal products such as partridge, pheasant and mallard duck.

The farm-based company, winner of the Best Start-Up Business of the Year in recent Northern Ireland food and farming awards, is now supplying its poultry products to chefs at the five-star Merchant Hotel and the Michelin star OX and EIPIC restaurants, all based in Belfast.

In addition the farm-based poultry processor now counts other quality restaurants such as Sapphyre, James Street South and Hadski's in Belfast along with Bushmills Inn in Bushmills, Balloo House in Killinchy, Newforge County House, Magheralin, county Armagh, Galgorm Hotel and Spa in Ballymena, county Antrim and Bartali in Portballintrae among its regular clients.

Ballinteer Farm, located near Limavady in county Derry, is Northern Ireland's only quail producer and only the second on the island of Ireland. It was established earlier in the year by husband and wife team James and Linda Christie. They converted their dairy farm to rear quail and other poultry. They have since expanded the farm by developing local sources for game birds.

"Our decision to focus on quail and seasonal game is proving extremely popular with chefs because they can now source the products fresh from a local supplier," Linda Christie says.

Rearing quail represented a radical and a courageous move for the enterprising couple. They had been milking dairy cows on their 120-acre farm for almost 15 years and had been suffering from a collapse in returns over the past five years.

The company's strategy is to become a free-range supplier of quail and quail eggs as well as game when available. "It's our intention to convert one of the cattle sheds and allow the birds to run free in a field beside it. However, we'll have to cover the free-range area with nets because the birds can fly for miles," Linda adds.