90 Years of Keelings

Keelings Celebrates 90 Years of Growing with official Launch of Keelings Farm Shop.

Keelings, Ireland’s largest supplier and producer of fresh fruit is celebrating 90 years of growing at its North Dublin farm. The company celebrated the milestone yesterday in conjunction with the official opening of the new Keelings Farm Shop. Almost 50 guests including some well-known faces attended the celebration, and were given a special tour of the farms hosted by David Keeling and his father Joe, followed by a bake-off challenge with Great Irish Bake-Off finalist, Maryanne Dalton.

Stretching back to the 1920s, the Keelings family story is full of heritage. When starting out, the family worked the farm with rhubarb as their mainstay crop.  A lot has changed for the Dublin based company at quite a rapid pace over the years. As the farm grew in the 1930s, they began growing fruits and salads, supplying them to the local Dublin markets.

Today, Keelings is still run by the same family, which is now operated by the third generation and showing great success. From planting their very first strawberries in 1937, Keelings have gone on to grow a wide range of berries, fruit and vegetables, supplying their produce to shops and supermarkets nationwide.

Through investing in state of the art greenhouses, Keelings has completely revolutionised its growing process, with the new technology allowing them to extend the Irish growing season through to December.

The early arrival of Irish strawberries in March this year came at the same time as the company reported expected sales of an incredible 10 million strawberry punnets over the Irish season. Keelings have spent years testing and trialling various growing systems and have between 15 and 30 new varieties in the Research and Development area at any one time.

In perfect timing as the company celebrates turning 90, the new Keelings Farm shop has opened and has already proved a huge hit with customers, giving locals the chance to buy freshly picked fruit and veg straight from the farm they were grown on. The shop stocks a huge variety of berries as well as delicious balsamics, Keelings flowers and a range of plants so that customers can grow their favourite berries at home. The shop perfectly portrays everything the Keelings brand stands for, by stocking the freshest produce straight from Keelings’ own doorstep.

David Keeling spoke about the new Farm Shop and celebrating 90 years of growing:

“We are so proud to be celebrating 90 years of growing here on the Keelings family farm today with all our guests. We have always been very passionate about our work and today we can celebrate our success. The new Farm Shop marks a new chapter in the Keelings story; we are very excited to officially launch the Farm Shop and give everyone the chance to try our range of products, freshly picked from our farm.”

For more information on the history of Keelings, visit www.keelings.com

Follow Keelings on Twitter @Keelingsfruits.