Cliona Brophy

My Mum says one of my first sentences as a child was 'me do it'. It seems I've always liked to do things my own way. As an adult this has developed greatly, having found someone very similar in my husband Shaun.

Together, we enjoy growing our own vegetables, we currently keep 5 allotments on the go (total available land about 500 sq m). One is planted up with apple trees with the intention of creating our own cider when they're mature. One other is mainly devoted to fruit. The remaining three are for vegetables.

Other unusual family projects involve Shaun butchering whole pigs and us making sausages, puddings, salami and parma ham.

We make all our own breads.

We make wine and beer as well as country wines and cider.

I've also tried my hand at cheese-making, and intend to continue.

If that isn't enough to keep us occupied, we also home-school our two children Alice and Bobby, while Shaun works as a full time musician and I work part time as a tutor.

For fun I like to sing with the Goethe Institute Choir in Dublin and I read a lot.