Glastry Farm Ice Cream in Parliamentary showcase

Glastry Farm, the award winning Northern Irish producer of dessert ice creams and sorbets, is showcased in the influential Agriculture Edition of The Parliamentary Review from Westminster Publications in London.

Glastry Farm Ice Cream, which is based on a family farm at Kircubbin, county Down, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, is the only Northern Ireland company in the publication that also features articles from Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond and Jane King, chief executive of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.

The publication is circulated widely in Parliament and in political circles in Britain.

The ice cream producer, a leading supplier to high-end hotels and restaurants in Northern Ireland, is based on a farm owned and run by Will Taylor and son Gareth. The ice cream is produced from milk from the farm's 300-strong pedigree herd on 150 hectares feed mostly on grass.

Will Taylor, quoted in the review, says that it is now a sixth generation specialist dairy farm that focuses on "our greatest natural asset - grass". "We aim to be a business that is totally integrated, from grass in our fields to the final consumer product range," he says.

"The business is now consumer led, rather than production led. We have an ongoing innovation programme in conjunction with the expertise of recognised knowledge providers such as Loughry College and the University of Ulster.

"We seek to harness the wonderful flavours from around the United Kingdom, to produce ice creams and sorbets that the consumer recognises.

"We have total control of the process from the grass and clovers that the dairy cows eat, to the composition of the final product."

The company is run by Will Taylor and wife Cynthia while Gareth and his wife Liz look after the farm.

The ice cream business was launched in 2005 and has since collected a string of awards such as UK Great Taste Awards, mostly recently a gold award at the Blas na hEireann Awards for a sorbet product. Glastry was chosen from the rural townland where the farm is based. Glastry means the 'townland of the green pastures'.

Other accolades have included UK Grassland Farm of the Year and Northern Ireland Dairy Farm of the Year.

"We have nearly completed a decade since the concept of adding value to our primary raw material was instigated. The vision for the next decade is already formulated. In an era post milk quotas, where commercial reality will take the place of artificial constraints on production, market research will be crucial."

The luxury ice creams and sorbets are now the preferred choice of high-end hotels and restaurants in Northern Ireland and parts of the Republic of Ireland.

Pic Caption: Will Taylor Glastry Farm, Kircubbin pictured with his Gold award at the Irish National Food Awards in Dingle for his Apple Schnaps Sorbet.