Glastry farm ice cream in unique link with vanilla growers
Glastry Farm’s best-selling vanilla bean ice cream is now tastier than ever before as a result of deal with a growers’ co-operative.
Based on a dairy farm near Kircubbin in Co Down, Glastry, a FoodNI member, has teamed up with a co-operative in Madagascar for a direct supply of vanilla beans that provide an authentic flavour for its award-winning ice cream.
Will Taylor, Glastry’s founder and managing director, explains: “We were approached by representatives of the newly formed group of growers and readily agreed to work with them to use their beans to enhance our ice cream flavour and also to help the growers and their families with a fair return for their product that have been described as “the most expensive crop in the world”.
“We’ve taken delivery of the first consignment and have been including the beans in our most popular ice cream. I believe it’s the first time in Ireland that their beans have been delivered directly from the northern region of the island in the Indian Ocean. The vanilla plant thrives in this sub-tropical environment,” Will, a widely respected dairy farmer, adds.
The farm has long featured a successful ice cream and low fat sorbet business which has won a host of UK Great Taste and Blas na hEireann awards.
Eighty per cent of the world’s vanilla is grown by small holding farmers in the island’s hilly forests. They are prey to thieves in season.
Glastry Farm includes over 70 of its high quality milk from its pedigree herd for its base mix of its ice creams. The family-run business, in keeping with its location, takes pride in its focus on the environment and in the highest standards of animal husbandry.
“Working with the growers to help ensure their prosperity is also in line with our clean, green, natural image,” Will continues. “Our focus is on a natural choice for our valued customers. Chemical vanilla from some flavour houses is not compatible with our focus on natural products,” he adds.
