CHAIRMAN

David Martin

Tel. 07597 301748

DEPUTY CHAIRMAN

John Parker

Tel. 07970 568425

SECRETARY

Allan (Mac) Black

Tel. 07512 022949

TREASURER

Duncan Pickard

Tel. 01334 870203

TALK CONVENOR

Graeme Hogg

Tel. 01334 653043

COMMITTEE MEMBERS

Jim Lawrence

Maurice Shepherd

David Sinclair

ASSIST.SECRETARY

Vic Broad

ASSIST. TALK CONVENOR

Bill Bowman

TALK RECORDERS

Jim Lawrence

Tony Miklinski

Brian Murray

Grahem Pirie

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Wednesday

12th November 2025

10.00am

Talk: 'Jannettas of St Andrews'

Presenter: Owen Hazel

Club News

Secretary email: macblack.author@gmail.com

The meeting, presided over by Chairman David Martin, in Castlehill Community Hall on 22nd October, was an unusual one. Normally we have a solo speaker, occasionally a pair, but this is the first time that we have had a team of six to give us a well prepared presentation. The group from Kettle Produce consisted of Mark Smith (Learning & Development), Steve Wallace (Crop Mgr), Shannon Reid (Prod Shift Mgr), Kayleigh McScaton (Development Shift Mgr), Darren Gibb (Communications), and Danny Lang (HR Modern Apprentice). Collectively they would be telling us about 'Carrots - field to fork'.

Kettle Produce 

Carrots - field to fork.

Mark Smith and his team from the various departments in Kettle Produce gave Cupar Probus a very well prepared presentation on the “field to fork” journey of a Kettle vegetable, focussed principally on the Carrot!  They described the selection of field, sowing, care, picking, washing and packaging as the crops are turned into the supermarket product we see on the shelves; and Kettle supplies every supermarket in the UK, with 50% of their product coming from UK sources.
Carrots need a sandy soil and a location that has at least 7 years since carrots were last grown to avoid disease build up.  Kettle aims to provide fresh carrots all year round, which means that 50 tons of straw per hectare are required to protect the carrots from frost damage in the winter.  The crop is transported to the Orkie site where the automated equipment washes, polishes and sorts the carrots into high quality for the table, and lower quality for vegetable and soup mixes.  The more complex mixes are generally done by hand at the Balmalcolm site and together, the 2 sites generate hundreds of thousands of packs per day.
Sustainability is at the core of Kettle thinking, with most water being re-cycled and nature friendly crops being planted round the margins of fields to reduce pests and nurture pollinators.  The presentation ended with a description of the Modern Apprenticeships being offered by Kettle to encourage young people into agriculture, through a mix of academic and on-job learning.  Cupar Probus thoroughly enjoyed the highly informative and entertaining presentation; but not as much, perhaps, as the pallets of fresh Kettle vegetables Mark had brought with him to donate to the members.  Nice one Mark!

Tony Miklinski