The Lynam family have been living and farming in the townland of Ballybroder, on the border of Westmeath and Offaly with each generation passing it onto to the next. It is now on my shoulders to carry on this farming tradition. After much research we decided to take a step back from intensive commercial farming to farm alternative, low input, sustainable crops such as Oats.
The dream has always been to launch my own food brand and ideally linked to our own farm. All my childhood, academic qualifications, work experience and
interests revolve around agriculture, food and the food industry. Want to do something more sustainable and slightly alternative. After lots of research, trials and numerous errors Oat In the City was born. This brand was created during the lockdown. So we wanted it to be fun, not so serious but to be truly authentic. Less about perception and more about the actual Oat drink we have created.

Lynam’s authentic Oat drink morphed into Authenticity and then into Oatinthecity to its current incarnation Oat In the city with Eoin the Oat being our mascot.
Eoin the Oat is a down to earth authentic chap. He is a cool fun Oat. A lot of people feel very proud of their country when their athletes or sports teams do well. I feel that same pride when I see authentic successful Irish brands competing on the Irish and world stage. All successful businesses start local and need as much support as possible at the very start.

Our initial aim is to change the retail landscape where currently there are international brands using globally sourced Oat syrup to a place where Irish consumers have a choice to purchase from local Irish food processors such as Oat in the City. Using all of the Oat to make a far more nutritional Oat drink.

We at Oat in the City use all of the Oat and our oat drink range retains oats natural fibres, beta glucans and protein, has no added sugar and is low in natural sugars. This is really important to us, because we are all really interested in sustainability, and food waste is one of the leading causes of climate change. The process by which most commercial oat drinks are made results in the stripping away the parts that have the fibre and the protein, so that you’re mostly getting oat sugar.