WILD ABOUT THE HIGHLANDS Since moving to Scotland, one Dutch couple now produce appetising venison charcuterie
When Anja and Jan Jacob Baak swapped their Dutch home for Scottish lochs and mountains, they had no idea they would go on to start one of the country’s most prestigious artisan food businesses, making appetising venison charcuterie
wanja hen the sun sets before four o’clock, it’s important to make the most of every hour of daylight, which means an early start for
and Jan Jacob Baak. Buttoning up their coats and pulling on hats, the pair venture out for a wintry morning walk along the banks of the River Roy; their youngest four children, Anne-marije, Jochem, Walter and Lennard, in tow. “One of the things I love most about living in the Highlands is the space,” Anja says, motioning to the sprawling moorlands that stretch out far into the distance. It’s this remote landscape – with its ancient forests and snow-capped munros – that inspired the couple to set up their artisan food business Great Glen Charcuterie back in 2003. Made with meat from the wild red deer that roam the hills and valleys between Glenfinnan and the Cairngorms National Park, their range of products combines provenance and sustainability with a delectable, carefully balanced flavour. It’s a blend that has won praise from critics and customers alike, helping to establish venison charcuterie as a contemporary Scottish staple.
Upping sticks and moving nearly 1,000 miles overseas would fill most people with trepidation, but the couple, originally from the Netherlands, had always longed to live abroad. So when, by chance, a local businessman mentioned that he’d recently bought a Scottish estate and needed someone to manage it, it felt like the opportunity they’d been looking for. Leaving their jobs as a primary school teacher and interim farmer respectively, Anja and Jan Jacob, along with their then-three children, who were all aged under five, swapped their home in Holland for a rambling residence in the village of Spean Bridge near Fort William. “It may sound like a huge step, but we wanted the openness for our growing family,” Anja says. Drawn to the rugged beauty of Lochaber, a historic area of the
Scottish Highlands that encompasses Spean Bridge, it didn’t take long for them to embrace their new surroundings. “In Holland, there were so many restrictions. You couldn’t even have a bonfire without the fire brigade being called out,” Jan Jacob says. “But there’s so much freedom here – the kids can go off exploring, ski in the winter and swim outdoors in the summer.” Aside from the dramatic backdrop, the local sense of community was a big draw, too, and the pair discovered their new neighbours were quick to welcome them. “I was invited to a mother and toddler group in the village hall,” Anja says. “It was pretty lucky as that’s where we met some of the people who have gone on to become our best friends.”
A self-described “outdoors person”, Jan Jacob found his new job as a groundsman – which involved forestry management and horticultural duties – highly rewarding, despite the Highlands’ inclement weather. It was while working with local deer herds that he came up with an innovative idea to help tackle the ongoing problems of falling meat prices and overpopulation (with no natural predators, deer numbers have to be humanely controlled). “When I was little, we’d buy a cured dry sausage called droëwors from the butchers,” he says. “It stuck in my mind and I started thinking, ‘Could I recreate something similar with venison?’” After a few years of experimentation with his homemade smoker – a humble wooden box in the garden – he had created a product he was sure would tempt customers with even the most discerning of palates.
By 2011 Jan Jacob had left his job to focus solely on what had become a fully functioning-business – graduating from the back garden to a state-of-the-art butchery in nearby Roy Bridge, where the couple now live. Since then, the Great Glen Charcuterie team has grown to include one full-time staff member who helps Jan Jacob with production and another part-time employee who assists with packaging. Meanwhile, Anja is in charge of marketing, having taken on the role full time in 2010 when her youngest, Lennard, started school.
At the butchery, fresh cuts of venison are finely minced before being combined with a mix of spices (the exact recipe is a closely guarded secret), along with a fermentation culture, which works in a similar way to yeast in bread. Netted and suspended, the sausages are then smoked over a mixture of oak and beech and left for up to seven months to mature. “It’s not a process you can rush,” Jan Jacob explains. “Recently we sold out of our green peppercorn salami and had to wait for a month for a new batch to be ready.”
With quality and provenance paramount, Jan Jacob procures his meat from game dealers within a 50-mile radius. “As they’re wild, every animal is slightly different depending on their age and diet, which means each piece must be treated individually. You need to balance the delicate tastes and textures.” Great Glen Charcuterie’s range now includes bresaola-and-chilli chorizo, although its signature salami is a firm family favourite – not to mention a hit with the judges at the Great Taste Awards. And, while the couple pride themselves on their products’ wonderful flavour, they know the story behind them is equally important. “Consumers today are
much more savvy,” Anja says. “They want to know who makes their food and where it comes from. It’s not just the meat that’s important, it’s the landscape the deer live in; the heather and herbs they eat – everything has an impact.”
As clouds start to gather, casting a shadow over the summit of nearby Stob Coire Easain mountain, Anja rallies the troops to return home: a whitewashed house surrounded by heath and woodland. Although eldest daughters Rosalieke and Pieternel are away at university, four of their six intrepid children are living there. Caring for them while running a flourishing company may seem like a tall order, but Anja and Jan Jacob are adept at multitasking. “As soon as the school bus leaves,i head straight to my home office,” Anja says, “and then, when they get back, I’m here ready. I might not have finished and may have to work after bedtime, but that’s just the way it goes.” Family comes first but, luckily, everyone likes to muck in: “The eldest girls each run a stall at farmers’ markets in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, where they’re studying, and the boys do packing in the holidays. Six extra pairs of hands definitely come in useful!” Anja also serves as an ambassador for Women’s Enterprise Scotland, which aims to boost female entrepreneurship. “I’m proud to be able to show that you can be a mum with no background in business and learn everything along the way.”
Back in the warm, the clan gather around the kitchen table while Anja churns out slivers of salami on a vintage Berkel slicer. Now stocked in farm shops and delis up and down the UK, Great Glen Charcuterie has quickly, and rightly, earned a reputation as one of Scotland’s most prestigious producers. And, as the family tuck in to a simple supper of crusty bread topped with a generous serving of smoky venison charcuterie, it’s not hard to see why.
Visit greatglencharcuterie.com for more information. Country Living readers can receive a 20% discount and free delivery (UK only) on online orders over £30 until 28 February 2019 when entering the code CL2019.
“The landscape the deer live in, the heather and herbs they eat – it all has an impact”