Profile: Carrow Coffee and its big sister Carrowgarry Farm

Carrow Coffee is a beautiful boutique roastery that specialises in gently roasting single-origin coffees sourced directly from high-altitude farms in coffee growing regions of South America. On the day I visited, Andrew Willis, one of only a handful of certified Q-Graders in the country, he was roasting beans grown by Frank Torres’ on the most westerly ridge of the Andes mountain in Nariño in Columbia. Andrew first met Frank and many of the other farmers from whom he sources coffee while working as a commodity journalist in Columbia. While in Columbia, he quickly developed a deep interest in coffee and started roasting and tasting the unique flavours of the beans grown by the passionate people he met. After nearly seven years in South America, he had developed contacts with farmers, suppliers and exporters. So, upon moving to Sligo, Andrew and his wife Paolo had established a solid network to launch their new venture. 

Carrow focuses on light to medium roasts, which carefully preserve and express the character of the beans. Andrew explains. “a single-origin coffee is an expression of a small area; the minerality of the soil, the altitude, the aspect of the land, and all the things unique to that one location, like the terroir of wines.”

Not all of the coffees at Carrow roast are grown by organically certified farms for many reasons, but the ones that are not are all chosen personally by Andrew for their commitment to ethically and sustainably growing the best coffee within their context. Returning to Frank as an example - he grows his coffee in a mixed-species agroforestry of banana, mandarin and lime trees. These larger trees provide shade while enhancing mineral cycling and biodiversity. Frank also fertilises his coffee plants with compost made from the fruity pulp surrounding the beans. 

The coffees that are organic have been certified by the Organic Trust since 2020. The roastery is nestled in the farmyard of their Sister company Carrowgarry Farm, which has just gone into organic conversion earlier this year. 

Carrowgarry is a stunning 275-acre sheep farm that runs down to the Atlantic ocean. Now, in June, the shoreline is blanketed with a pink carpet of sea thrift flowers. Fifty acres of the farm is beautiful mature woodland, and broad shelter belts of sycamore and Monterey Pines take the brunt of any salt-ladened weather. Andrew grew up in Dublin and spent his summers visiting this his grandparent’s farm. After some time under the management of his parents, Andrew and Paolo settled at the farm in 2018 to establish Carrow Coffee and also to turn the soil in the old walled garden, which had been under grass for many years. The walled garden and two polytunnels in an adjacent field became their second enterprise. They established a market garden producing chemical-free (soon to be certified organic) vegetables for local veg box direct sales and several cafes. Paola and Andrew assume different roles in both enterprises. Paola focuses on the communications and management of the coffee business and is essentially the head gardener outside. Andrew’s expertise is in the art of coffee roasting and is regularly drafted as the brawn in the garden. 

A magnificent old orchard flanks the garden on two sides, and new apple trees have been planted on the other sides. The annual apple harvest is carefully hand-picked and sent for juicing, pasteurising and bottling in Clonmel. Carrowgarry apple juice is available seasonally and while stocks last, direct from the farm and in a few of the finest delicatessens of the northwest. A small portion of the apples is kept for some domestic adventures in cider-making!

Andrew and Paolo have now taken on the management of the sheep enterprise too. The sheep have always been managed as an extensive low-input operation, but they are excited to be putting the whole farm into organic conversion. Andrew’s parents ran a dry stock system of buying 500 ewe lambs, rearing them on before running them with a flock of rams and selling them in lamb the following year. The sheep were rotated around the farm all year and out-wintered on standing grass. 

Andrew plans to work towards closing the flock by keeping a flock of hardy Mayo blackface breeding ewes and crossing them with a Wicklow Cheviot. He hopes the sheep will require minimum maintenance and that they continue to have a largely self-sufficient, extensive flock. 

Meticulously maintained dry stone walls designate the field boundaries. Some walls are 5ft high and often sensitively circumvent trees in their path. There are a lot of other subtle details around the farm that allows wildlife to thrive. A small shed for handling and sorting sheep has openings built into the walls to allow birds and bats to enter; inside, nest cups are fixed to the wall to encourage birds to reside. It is evident that the farm has a long generational history of farming close to nature, and its future looks bright in the hands of Andrew and Paolo.