Who are the best food producers in Britain?

Country Living magazine and Waitrose went in search of the nation's top quality traditional food producers, and came up with some incredible finds in the Made in Britain Awards

The Made In Britain Awards was set up by Country Living and Waitrose to find the very best small businesses making great local food. Happily, the standards of entrants was incredibly high. The prize for each winner is to have their product stocked by Waitrose, so look out for the winners below on Waitrose aisles soon.  ‘I can't wait to see them on our shelves and I hope you enjoy them,' said Mark Price, MD of Waitrose. Susy Smith, editor of Country Living said, 'Our finds prove that "Made in Britain" still carries a certain cachet.' Without further do, here are the winners and the finalists, with the overall winner first...

 

FOOD CHAMPION OF THE YEAR

Higher Fingle Farm, Drewsteignton, Devon

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR... Organic Free-Range duck

Rona and Nevil Amiss are tenant farmers with long-held organic principles. They first diversified into poultry when the foot-and-mouth epidemic of 2001 slashed the B&B income that supported their Exmoor beef and sheep farm. The geese that thrived on their well-drained fields were soon joined by ducks, and within two years the couple were selling 50 ducks a week (a figure that's now doubled).

 

 

FOOD PRODUCERS OF THE YEAR

SC Price & Sons, Ludlow, Shropshire

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR... Sourdough

SC Price's Perry and Pear Bread is anything but sour. Sprinkled with hazelnuts to distinguish it from the identically shaped pain au levain, its dark brown crust conceals a pale golden loaf with a springy, satisfying texture and subtle sweetness enhanced by generously distributed lumps of soft, yellow pear. 

 

 

Yew Tree Farm Heritage Meats, Coniston Cumbria

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR... Lamb and Beef

The Watsons are not alone in marketing Herdwick meat, but theirs is special because it's reared at its natural pace. "A cross-bred lamb is ready for fattening after five months, but the Herdwick is a slow-growing rare breed that takes one to two years," Caroline Watson, who runs the business with her husband Jon, explains. "If they're treated like a cross-bred and fattened quickly on cereals, you get small, fatty cuts with little flavour. But if you wait until it's ready and finish it on grass, you get decent-sized cuts and tasty dark meat." 

 

 

Sweet Stuff Slow, Bromfield, Shropshire

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR...Seasonal desserts

After spending months perfecting her recipes, Catherine approached independent shops in Ludlow with two chocolate Pots of Deliciousness - a mousse and a truffle-covered caramel. The response was so positive that she soon added seasonal fruit fools and brûlées to her range, as well as a lemon posset whose cheek-sucking zinginess comes from freshly hand-squeezed juice.  

 

 

Stichelton Dairy, Cuckney, Nottinghamshire

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR... Stichelton cheese

Joe Schneider and Randolph Hodgson share a dream: to recapture the flavour of a long-lost cheese that was once the most highly esteemed in Britain - Blue Stilton. Unable to call their wonderful cheese by that name they settled for 'Stichelton', an ancient name for the Huntingdonshire town in Stilton's heartland.

 

 

THE OTHER FINALISTS...

Davenport Vineyards, Rotherfield, East Sussex

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR... Quality organic wine

 

Brockleby's Farm Shop, Asfordby Hill, Leicestershire

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR...Pork pies and Longhorn Steak Parcels

 

Sandisions, Baltasound, Shetland

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR... Oatcakes

 

Lick the Spoon, Chippenham, Wiltshire

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR... Gorgeous chocolates

 

Lyburn Farmhouse Cheesemakers, Salisbury, Wiltshire

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR... Gouda-style Lyburn Gold cheese

 

Lizzie's Homemade, Dockray, Cumbria

LOOK OUT FOR HER... Cumbrian Frutta Cotta, fig, prune, apricot and rum preserve

 

Iain R Spink, Arbroath, Angus

LOOK OUT FOR HIS... Smoked rainbow trout

Somerset Orchards, Bleadney, Somerset

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR... Yummy apple juice

 

Isle of Skye Smokehouse, Broadford, Isle of Skye

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR... Smoked salmon

 

Stratta, Eastbourne, East Sussex

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR... Raspberry vinegar

 

Tickety-Moo, Irvinestown, Co Fermanagh

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR ... Ice Cream

 

Jo Hilditch British Cassis, Lyonshall, Herefordshire

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR... British Cassis (an fruity alcoholic mixer)

 

Westerham Brewery Co, Crockham Hill, Kent

LOOK OUT FOR THEIR...Little Scotney Best Bitter

 

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