A TASMANIAN vodka – made from potatoes – may soon be joining the state’s award winning whiskeys on the shelves and in licensed outlets.
Dunalley Potato Farm’s Sue Daly is about to start work on the potato vodka, adding it to a line of products, which use spuds the supermarkets won’t take.
“We are just waiting for our licence from the Australian tax office and then we will be away – we have done all our research and development, and it’s pretty good,” Ms Daly said.
The vodka would be named Hellfire Bluff, after a prominent local landmark.
“We will be only one in Tasmania and we are hoping it will be successful, because there is such a strong interest in Tasmanian spirits at the moment,” Mrs Daly said.
“Hellfire Bluff is just one of those iconic pieces of land - it does look a bit like hellfire, if you have to climb up it, in the wrong conditions.”
Sue and Gerard Daly’s Dunalley farm, which has been in operation more than a century, overlooks the Tasman Peninsula.
It is home to Daly Gourmet Potatoes.
In January, 2013, the worst bushfires to hit Tasmania in 45 years went through the property, wiping out crops a new state-of-the-art processing factory and their home.
Since then, the Dalys have picked up a major supermarket contract for washed potatoes and are branching out into transforming second and third grade spuds.
Last year, they were one of a number of Tasmanian farmers and agri-businesses to receive money under the Australian Government Innovation and Investment Fund.
The government chipped in $200,000, and they’ll contribute $580,000, to build a new commercial kitchen and processing facility to transform second and third grade potatoes.
“It’s going to be built at the packing shed,” Mrs Daly said.
“We’re getting some chefs to develop some different recipes for the commercial market – we are trying to go down the value added line, with different potatoes, with things like gourmet mash and gourmet potato cakes.”
Hobart food industry expert Dr Hazel McTavish-West said she was pleased to be working with Ms Daly, on adding value to the potatoes.
“I’ve never met a woman more focussed and fast moving than Susie Daly,” Ms McTavish-West said.
“Very few vodkas are made of potatoes now, only four come from potatoes and the rest are from grain.
“We have some Tasmanian vodka from grain, but this will be unique, because potato vodka has a different flavour profile.”
The historical links, including the length of time the farm had been in operation, would be part of the packaging of the new product.
“We believe it may be possible to go out with not only a potato vodka, but a single potato vodka, which has some wonderful provenance.”
