NUTSHED

Eliza and Evie are the food makers and sister brains behind the NutShed. It’s no accident that this team are feeding Ireland, sustaining people up and down the country with plant-based foodie goodness. Great food and food full stop have always been this team’s passion as they were both brought up not just on it, but in it, like two peas in the family pod of food fanatics.

What was the seed and idea that developed into what is now your food business?

Eliza and I(Evie) had been working in the festival and summer event circuit for years with a stall she created after finishing college called ‘Country Choice on Tour’. Where we served iconic seasonal festival hot food that was carefully sourced. We were always the last ones to be fed after long service shifts on the stall and often ended up eating a bag of chips in the van on our way home late for days on end. I had started playing with plantbased, highly nutritious foods that we could eat on the go easily and we turned to these creations to give us the energy we needed for our long days. In the meantime, I had finished college and set up a market stall selling raw nuts, seeds, granola and we slowly introduced these plantbased treats to the stall with a great response. About a year later we began wholesaling into coffee shops and food halls around the country.

What has been the biggest challenge you have overcome or lesson you have learnt as a female food entrepreneur?

‘At every step there are challenges, and I think you have to make peace with that because the goalposts move’.
The biggest challenge so far I think has been building our production unit. The creating of the recipes came naturally and is always so enjoyable but we had no idea how to scale up for wholesale, this has been a hurdle at every stage, how to grow and maintain our current quality and service. Creating a production kitchen wasn’t anything we had ever seen done before, and we were looking for guides and advice but in the end we just had to figure it out for ourselves. Eliza is really systematic in her way of thinking and spent about 9 months planning every little bit of it based on our requirements. I found it really difficult. We have totally different skill sets which has been a blessing, I love being creative in the kitchen and dealing with people but I’m no good at plans and systems. Thankfully Eliza has that part covered.

What advice would you give to aspiring female food entrepreneurs?

Productivity is cyclical, there are great weeks and weeks where you feel like you’ve got nothing done. Let both come and go.
Nobody has the answers (usually). You could spend forever wondering what the best way to do something is and convince yourself there is a right way. Everything is trial and error until you find what suits your business.
Nobody knows your business better than you do. Ask for advice from people who are more experienced but don’t always take it.
Don’t compare your business to anyone else’s. You’re hopefully in it for the long run so keep your head down and focus on your own milestones.

If there had been (female entrepreneurial) training available to you before you set up your business would you have engaged with it? Did you do any training?

After I left college (prematurely) I did the Total Immersion Chef Programme (TICP) a course with GMIT designed in conjunction with Fáilte Ireland, for 9 months. It put structure on my life when I was very unsure of myself and gave me the confidence to feel at home in a kitchen. It was during the 9 months that I started the earliest stages of NutShed.

If you’d like training what areas would you like to it on specifically?

I would have loved additional training in accounts and bookkeeping. As someone who gravitates to creating and working on my feet, I found it really difficult to get confidence in this area.