Clootie Mctoot Dumplings were delighted to hear that they had secured £20,677.50 from Rural Perth & Kinross LEADER Programme 2014-2020: The European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development: Europe investing in rural areas to help grow their operation in Abernethy. The family run business has been producing their multi-award winning traditional Clootie Dumplings from a small family kitchen since December 2016.
Founder Michelle Maddox said ‘Thank you to RPK LEADER funding for helping our dreams come true. We are looking forward to having larger kitchens. This will increase our capacity to produce more wonderful fresh dumplings, enabling us to supply our fresh product to more artisan commercial retailers’
RPK LEADER is a rural development programme which aims to support individuals, organisations and communities in rural Perth and Kinross to be stronger, more confident and inclusive to lead or contribute to local economic and community development. The LEADER programme has been allocated approximately 3.8 million to support local project this year.
Jackie Brierton, Chair of RPK LEADER LAG said, ‘We are delighted to support the Clootie McToot Dumpling project, this is an innovative project which combines food production with a unique visitor experience. Using local ingredients Michelle continues to follow her family’s traditional recipe and method of cooking, as well as developing exciting new flavour combinations, taking a traditional product and giving it an interesting modern twist.’
Mum of four Michelle started Clootie Mctoot Dumplings in December 2016 after her son Jakob asked if she would make Clootie Dumplings from his Great-Grandmothers recipe to sell at his school Christmas fair. Since then Clootie Mctoot has gone from strength to strength winning a number of awards and attending some of the biggest food & drink festivals across Scotland.
Michelle was asked how she planned to invest the funding from RPK LEADER. Michelle said ‘We are going to convert the rear of our shop into large commercial viewing kitchens so that we can employ further members of staff to assist me in making our Clootie Dumplings. Michelle continued to say ‘We will also be offering Clootie Dumpling demonstrations and workshops where people from all over the world will be able to come in and learn the art of Clootie Dumpling making right here in Abernethy’
Michelle continued ‘Our hope is to be able to reach more people in the UK and around the globe with our award winning Clootie Dumplings. We already ship our dumplings to Europe, Canada & America but we want to be able to share the feelings, smells and tastes involved in Clootie Dumpling making with more people, just like I did as a girl with my grandmother”.
