After eight years of Owen’s Angus Jams, 22-year-old Owen Foster still meets people who don’t believe he makes his own jam because he’s a man.
The young entrepreneur from Lunanhead learnt to make jam from his grandmother Joyce Morrison at 14-years-old.
He’d been selling eggs around the village for two years, but the supply dried up and he instead started Owen’s Angus Jams.
The very first batch of 50 jars sold within a week, and at £3 per jar, the Lathallan School student had £150 in his hands.
“I’ve always taken an interest in business, because I didn’t like school,” says Owen.
“I was sitting in school thinking ‘I’d rather go and make money’.
“Growing up, mum and dad had their own businesses, so they were always talking about business.
“I’d be hiding behind the door listening to the conversations, it’s always intrigued me.”
Owen’s Angus Jams take off
Owen’s first big success came in 2018 when Glamis Castle contacted him because they wanted to sell his jams.
He thinks an advert at a carwash in Forfar is what got him noticed by the general manager at the castle.
“They actually phoned me up out of nowhere,” the jam maker recalls.
“They got my jam in and did a taste test with about five or six different other jams.
“I won, so I was like, happy days!”
Owen’s Angus Jams is now also served in hotels across Scotland, including Gleneagles and Braemar’s The Fife Arms. He has also picked up four Great Taste awards for his jams and marmalades.
At 17-years-old, Owen moved the business out of mum and dad’s kitchen and into a production unit. He quickly learnt that having your own premises and running a business comes with lots of different costs.
Leaving school after fifth year, he went on to do a HNC in Business at Dundee and Angus College. At the time he wasn’t very motivated, but today he realises he made the right choice.
“I did a year of college to mature a bit, and it allowed me to grow as well,” Owen admits.
“But at the time I didn’t want to do that, I just wanted to make jam.”
Disbelief at young jam maker’s skills
For the driven teenager, just jams wasn’t enough. After ending up with a lot of fruit he didn’t know what to do with, his mum got a personal licence so the pair could start infusing gins.
The gin range is named Ethan’s Angus Gins after Owen’s younger brother and are a popular addition to Christmas hampers and gift boxes.
The next big step for Owen was Foster’s Farm Shop and Cafe, which sits on Old Brechin Road between Forfar and Lunanhead. It opened a month before the first coronavirus lockdown, turning out to be a blessing in disguise.
As local supermarkets were running out of flour, milk and eggs, Owen and his family got in touch with local suppliers and stocked up the farm shop. As his dad is a former chef, he taught Owen how to cook and he now runs the cafe kitchen with six staff.
Open Thursday to Sunday, the 22-year-old spends these days cooking and baking, with jam making scheduled for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Sometimes he’ll travel to markets on weekends, and if he can he’ll take Saturday afternoon off to play rugby for Dundee.
“I like going to the shows, because it gets you out and you can speak to people,” Owen says.
“The last few weeks I’ve had shows so I’ve not been able to play rugby, which is frustrating, but it is what it is.
“Sometimes I’ll go to bigger shows and ask people ‘do you want to try some homemade jam? I made them’ and they say ‘no you didn’t’.
“I have to get old articles up and show them, to prove I do make them, but some people still don’t believe it.
“Then I ask ‘if I was a woman saying I make jam, would you believe it?’ and they would.”
Owen’s Angus Jams hopes for expansion
Being a man making jam means Owen extra unusual, but overall there aren’t many jam makers left.
He hopes to take on staff in the future, but finding someone strong enough to lift a 30 kilo pot that knows how to make jam is “like finding a needle in a haystack”.
Making jam has also become more expensive. When he started out, jam berries would cost him £1 per kilo, but now they cost £5. Sugar has also doubled in price.
Since he works in both the cafe and on the jams, he is unable to take on new contracts to supply jam as he simply can’t make enough. Finding a chef for the cafe isn’t easy either, as experienced hospitality staff are few and far between these days.
Despite the difficulties and workweeks often reaching 70 hours, Owen wouldn’t have it any other way.
He is living the dream of being his own boss and earning money for himself.
“I take more pride in my work. Everything that comes out of the kitchen, I make sure it’s to the highest quality,” he says.
With age, and eight years of business experience, the young jam maker has learnt that having some downtime is important. He plans to prioritise rugby practice a bit more and take some time to enjoy life.
Though his advice to young entrepreneurs is to work hard before taking a break.
Owen says: “When I was younger, I thought this will be easy. Then some days I’m in the kitchen until 11pm.
“You think to yourself, why am I doing this, but you’ve got to have that strong, positive attitude to keep on going.
“It’s going to be tough, if you want anything in life it’s never going to be easy. I’ve learnt now you’ve got to put the hard work in before you can enjoy anything.”
Conversation