WEST Cork business woman Avril Allshire-Howe found her family home on RTÉ’s soon to end teletext service, Aertel.
Avril who founded Caherbeg Free Range Pork and Rosscarbery Recipes with her husband Willie, remembers scrolling through the Aertel listings in 1994 to find the home they now live and work in.
‘Aertel was a sort of directory on the television,’ she explained to The Southern Star. ‘You used your remote control to go through the listings.’
Avril shared her story ahead of Aertel’s imminent closure after nearly 40 years in service. Since 1986 the service provided up-to-date news, TV schedules, sports scores, and gave television viewers the option of watching shows with subtitles.
The house Avril discovered was on three acres in Rosscarbery and she remembers thinking that she had distant relatives living there because her maternal grandmother was from there.
‘I didn’t know until I moved there how many I actually had,’ reminisces Avril.
‘We contacted the estate agent and set up a meeting. We loved how the property was at the end of the cul-de-sac and so close to the village.’
They bought the house, married in 1995 and welcomed son William in 1996.
They established their herd of free-range outdoor pigs in 1997 and welcomed their second son Maurice in 1998 before establishing Caherbeg Free Range Pork in 2000.
In 2001 they took over Rosscarbery Recipes, buying in meats that didn’t come from their own herd, but butchering and processing everything on premises to produce their own range of sausages, cured bacon and ham and black and white puddings.
These days sons William and Maurice look after most of the day-to-day running of the businesses.
According to Avril the boys always helped with the farm and once they did their leaving certs they created their own jobs within the business.
Avril is still busy though. She provides farm tours and forest bathing, a contemplative guided walk through the family farm, which can be booked through westcorkfarmtours.com.
The Aertel service will be switched off on Thursday, October 12th.
