Jamisons support Open Farm weekend

The free event will see almost 30 farms that are participating in one of Northern Ireland’s biggest awareness initiatives, that seeks to reconnect consumers with farms and farm producers, as well as showcasing the excellent work farmers do in caring for their local environment.

Although no visitors can attend the farms, online viewers will get to see a schedule of live activities from 10am-4pm on Friday, Saturday and Sunday as well as enjoying farm videos of each participating farm streamed online across Open Farm Weekend’s social media channels and shown at www.openfarmweekend.com

Brothers Adrian and Nigel Jamison, who own and run the business are keeping up the family’s potato-growing tradition instigated by their father Tom over 50 years ago. The north Antrim area is renowned for its soil which gives potatoes here a distinct look and taste and the family feel lucky to be able to harvest these in such beautiful locations beside the sea. Adrian runs a dairy and beef farm alongside his wife Noreen and children David and Kerry in the townland of Lavin and holds significant roles as Chairman of the NI Ploughing Championship and Vice-Chairman of the Randox Northern Ireland Potato Festival which showcases all that is good about the mighty spud.

Adrian Jamison said: ‘We have been involved with Bank of Ireland Open Farm Weekend for several years as it offers a great opportunity to educate people from a non-farming background about where their food comes from and to give consumers an appreciation of the work that goes into getting produce from farm to plate. We particularly enjoy the schools day as it’s great to see the faces of children when the see the potato growing process from them being picked out of the ground, going into the production line and then placed into the bag. We have been very busy over the last 18 months and have seen sales of our potatoes increase by 30% as people have been cooking at home. We appreciate the virtual format of this year’s Open Farm Weekend, but look forward to welcoming people back onto the farm in person next year all being well!”