![\"‘I](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/EKDPLRW3Q5AKROU2GMZV72KQXI.jpeg\")
<\/a>![\"Meet](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/QZ5QF2UT3VCFJNVWFL5MGODZIA.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nTracey said baking soda bread gives her a chance to introduce visitors to a part of the north\u2019s food history that many of them know little about.<\/p>\n
![\"Tracey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/RKCU5H2MDJDFFPHJAMIBAHNHJE.jpg\")
Tracey in the kitchen <\/p>\n
\u201cI did research and learned things myself, like the word \u2018farl\u2019. I didn\u2019t realise it meant one of four, or a quarter, because we cut the bread into four farls.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of Americans think soda bread is made the same way across the whole island of Ireland. I tell them that in the south they call brown bread soda bread, but they don\u2019t make it on a griddle the way we do here and they\u2019re always fascinated.\u201d<\/p>\n
Visitors from Northern Ireland are often more surprised by how quickly they can make it.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople wouldn\u2019t necessarily know that it\u2019s as quick as anything to make,\u201d Tracey said. \u201cBy the time you\u2019ve gone to the shop to buy bread, this is ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
The eldest of five children, Tracey grew up helping her mother bake for the family at home in Co Antrim.<\/p>\n
![\"Freshly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/DOCQ4ILSQ5F27LZFAOURST2PCM.jpg\")
Freshly made soda and wheaten bread served at Tracey\u2019s Farmhouse Kitchen. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe didn\u2019t have much money, so my mum was constantly making things that were quick, easy and would last for a while, like corned beef hash and things like that. <\/p>\n
\u201cOr sometimes we\u2019d come in from school and she\u2019d have made all sorts of traybakes for us which were amazing.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I think my love for baking stemmed from there, I just loved being in the kitchen making sweet things with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tracey went on to study languages at Queen\u2019s University Belfast and trained as a teacher, although she admits her desire to do something with food was always at the back of her mind. <\/p>\n
While studying, she worked in a patisserie in France, where she learned to make macarons.<\/p>\n
It was really important to me to do something that is truly of Northern Ireland, something that\u2019s just unique to us<\/p>\n
\u2014 \u00a0Tracey Jeffery<\/p>\n
When she returned home, she began making them for weddings and farmers\u2019 markets. But the precision required was a far cry from the baking she most enjoyed.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou had to be perfect about your measurements, down to the last gramme,\u201d she said. \u201cI did it for weddings for a while, but I found it quite stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Eventually Tracey began looking for a way to share her love of local food. A friend suggested holding classes at home, but she was unsure whether people would make the trip to Ballymorran Bay.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy worry was that I was stuck out in this rural part of Co Down,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, \u2018Will coaches come down here? Will people find this, or will they just give up?\u2019<\/p>\n
![\"Tracey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/O74COBZC65EAJLZRF7JG4ZOLQM.jpg\")
Tracey Jeffery demonstrates how to make traditional soda bread at Tracey\u2019s Farmhouse Kitchen. <\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s worked. Now tour operators bring people here as part of their itineraries. By the time they get down here on a coach, they\u2019re like, \u2018Where are we?\u2019 because it\u2019s so rural. Then I bring them into my home and they just love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Visitors make soda bread, eat around the kitchen table and take their own baking home with them.<\/p>\n
Americans and Canadians are among Tracey\u2019s regular guests, and she said many keep in touch once they have gone home.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first thing they say is, \u2018I want to do this when I go back home.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I could show you the number of emails and pictures I\u2019ve had from people who\u2019ve made it at home, it\u2019s amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ten years after she began, Tracey\u2019s Farmhouse Kitchen has received a five-star visitor experience rating from Tourism NI and been shortlisted for Best Food and Drink Experience (Small) at its Giant Spirit Awards.<\/p>\n
The experience has also featured in Tour de Fred: Northern Ireland, with Tracey welcoming First Dates star Fred Sirieix into her kitchen and teaching him how to make soda bread.<\/p>\n
![\"Tracey](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/R2IGDL6PBNE5RFE6G4BIAB2XJ4.jpg\")
Tracey welcomed First Dates star Fred Sirieix into her kitchen and teaching him how to make soda bread. PICTURE: Instagram <\/p>\n
\u201cIt really doesn\u2019t feel like 10 years,\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was looking through newspaper articles and thought, \u2018Oh my God, I can\u2019t believe 2016 is when I actually started.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
As a result of the business\u2019s success Tracey and her husband Joe have also expanded what they offer at Ballymorran Bay. Visitors can now go canoeing or paddleboarding with Joe on the lough before returning to the farmhouse for pizzas he makes in their pizza oven.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re right beside the water, so it made sense,\u201d Tracey said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey go out around the little islands with Joe, then come in and sit down to a piping hot pizza.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple have also recently launched Strangford Zero Gin, having made their own fruit-infused gins from sloes, damsons and rhubarb for years.<\/p>\n
![\"Visitors](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/VHR4S3GH3VF53PMGITLLCS2YEQ.jpg\")
Visitors to Tracey\u2019s Farmhouse Kitchen enjoying their host’s hospitality <\/p>\n
\u201cWe thought, wouldn\u2019t it be great to have something that is a gin, but you don\u2019t get a sore head the next day?\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople think it\u2019s just flavoured water, but it\u2019s distilled in a copper pot still with juniper, cardamom and all the ingredients you would get in gin, just without the alcohol.\u201d<\/p>\n
An Invest NI innovation grant helped the couple develop the drink, although Tracey said perfecting the product and its packaging had been a long process.<\/p>\n
They hope to keep building that side of the business, but she has no plans to stop welcoming people into her kitchen.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anybody had told me at 50 that I was going to be making soda bread, I would have said, \u2018Wise up, that will never happen,\u2019\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I get such a buzz out of it. I feel passionate about it.\u201d<\/p>\n