Family Opens Vodka Visitor Experience - From Potatoes to Vodka

A family in Scotland have managed to renovate misshapen potatoes into vodka by opening their own tasting room for visitors on their farm.

The plan was developed in Angus at Oglivy Farm, where the Jarrons have farmed the land at Hatton since 1910.

Oglivy potato vodka was first ever extracted in 2014 amongst thoughts of diversification and a wish to start something new.

Their potatoes grow closely to where they’re transformed into vodka. Angus LEADER, which has an account of over £2 million accessible for projects in rural Angus, presented the farm nearly £150,000 to build a visitor experience centre.

‘Oglivy’ is another word for ‘high pain’ in old Celtic, and the farm is located just above the Strathmore valley, come 12 miles away from the North Sea.

Angus LEADER explained that the money which was funded by the EU and the Scottish government permitted a ‘planned and organised response to continual causal demand for public tours of the distillery’. The development lets the projected revenues from the visitor enterprise carry out important provisions to the local community organisations.

The farm has 34 fields differentiating in size from a single hectare to 10. It is estimated that 60% of the land is used for growing their potatoes.

Formerly there are a variety of potatoes, these range from Maris Piper, Velor, Cultra, Estima and King Edward. They are grown on alternation in the fields once every six years, other crops are also raised between these times.

Graeme Jarron, who manages the farm with his wife Caroline stated: “Since Ogilvy Vodka was launched, we’ve dreamt of expanding our offering to take visitors behind the scenes and follow the journey of the humble spud from field to bottle.

“As well as being the first vodka visitor attraction of our kind in Scotland, we’re also excited to offer spirits lovers something a little bit different – we’re not your conventional distillery experience, that’s for sure.”

Recent research from the NFU Mutual shows that nearly two thirds of diversified farms say income produced is ‘vital’ or ‘significant’ to their farm.

As one in five farms are looking to expand to make farms continuous without direct affiliates, NFU Mutual has formed a succession of podcasts and an in depth diversification report to support farmers explore opportunities after Brexit.