ALMONTE — Distillers across the country are shifting their efforts to churning out hand sanitizer amid the covid-19 outbreak, and Ontario is no exception.
The Dairy Distillery at Almonte worked to turn 10,000 bottles worth of Vodkow, their signature vodka made from milk, into 4,000 litres of hand sanitizer. Some will be donated to non-profits that need it, like the Shepherds of Good Hope who run homeless shelters in Ottawa. But the Ottawa Hospital is also in short supply, said Omid McDonald, who founded the distillery.
The hospital has “offered to pay,” which will help cover costs, he said. “This is not a profit-making effort. We’ve been called to help out and we’re doing the best we can.” The distillery is not making vodka for the time being.
The distillery is hoping to keep production at 4,000 litres a week. To keep up, the team is going to be on 24/7 production, he said. Their first batch was the result of months of work preparing for spring, a busier time for vodka sales, said McDonald, but he was hopeful that they’d be able to keep up.
Get the full story in the April edition of the Eastern Ontario Farmers Forum newspaper.
