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From pasture to plate: Here's a feast of Yorkshire's finest
THE Yorkshire Post Taste Yorkshire Awards have thrown the spotlight on the quality and diversity of Yorkshire's food and drink and its artisan producers. Michael Hickling celebrates the winners at the third annual awards dinner.
ONE thing defined all our awards finalists at York Guildhall – a passion for doing things their way and the right way. It's that which underpins their success in exploiting niche markets and although it's simply stated it's not so easily achieved.
To this you could add other characteristics such as ingenuity, stickability and sheer hard work. These certainly apply to farmer Jenny Whiteley, self described as "well beyond pensionable age" who, in addition to tending the family farm finds the time to bake the unique pork pies that won our Best Yorkshire Pies category.
There's a perfect symmetry about Jenny's operation. Her Berkshires, Gloucester Old Spot and Large White crosses are bred on the farm, are fed on what is grown there and are then fed into the pies.
Jenny branched out into these handmade products ten years ago. She decided not to use any preservatives or cured meat, and making them, along with her sausages and game pies, has remained a one-woman operation in the kitchen.
In Gargrave, Linda Hartell found an ancient and tricky farmhouse skill and revived it. She took over The Dalesman – which anyone heading through for the Lakes will know as a caf tea room where walkers and cyclists like to rest their limbs – and then spread her customer net. It now includes ladies who lunch and the sort of people who need a tempting delicacy or two on the table to ease the flow of gossip.
Exquisite fruit jellies are one of them, and at our awards these lifted the title of Best Yorkshire Handmade Product. Once a traditional standby, these jellies (which are nothing like the sort of thing found at children's parties) are now a rural rarity.
The knack of making them in the traditional farmhouse kitchen seems to have been lost. It's very time consuming, requires critical timing and scrupulous care when putting the jellies into jars. Linda, who used to teach food technology and health education, seems to take these requirements in her stride and she adds a modern twist to the flavours with intriguing combinations such as chilli and apple jelly.
Linda only makes the jellies when the fruits are in season and either forages for them in the wild or has them grown locally. The precise location is then written on the label of each jar. It's the ultimate in provenance information.
Tineke Bentley came to Yorkshire from Holland to be an au pair. She got to know one of the family's relatives, William Bentley, who had been running his salad business since 1956. The couple were married in 1972 and, when William died 20 years later, Tineka kept things going until her children were old enough to lend a hand.
Her eldest son, Jan, is now in charge.
Their product was that great egg sarnie standby, salad cress – most of which goes to Morrisons and Asda.
But they felt that relying on two customers left them vulnerable. Innovation was called for, and trips to Australia revealed that alfalfa and sprouting seeds were all the rage over there.
In Oz, they enjoy the way these things add a layer of texture to a meal, and deliver health benefits which boost your immune system, improve digestion, even help to prevent and fight some diseases. All in one bite.
So the Bentleys picked up on this Antipodean enthusiasm and launched a new brand called And Sow On to produce alfalfa and a new range of sprouting seeds, beans and leaves.
Their sprouting radish with leeks is also about to hit the market. It received the thumbs-up from our judges, who gave the company the Best Yorkshire Grower award.
All this success has been achieved in circumstance which are not exactly ideal. Peter Charlton, editor of the Yorkshire Post who introduced the awards evening, said that fresh food price inflation has hit over six per cent this year and shoppers were watching the pennies. All sorts of things conspired to make things difficult for producers – most of them fuelled by the soaring price of crude oil – and a poor summer had not helped.
He believed all the finalists deserved to be celebrated for reaching this stage of a fierce competition where the number of entries received in most categories was a record.
He encouraged Yorkshire small food producers to try and look beyond local markets and to take a leaf out of Tim Wilson's book. Tim Wilson, who runs Ginger Pig at Levisham on the North York Moors, sells most of his produce in London.
"Of course many of our food producers are smaller than Tim," said Peter Charlton. "They don't always have the time or the opportunity to blow their own trumpet. That's why we devised these awards to give them their moment in the spotlight. We hope the attention they deservedly receive will help them to reach their markets.
"For the Yorkshire Post, I think the awards help fulfil what I think is our obligation to stand up for Yorkshire individuality and the quality of life. It's a commitment that's not just for one night, only once a year. We have also campaigned steadily for Yorkshire food producers and we fight their corner at every opportunity.
"This year – through our Save Our Uplands campaign – we are supporting Prince Charles' scheme to revive the fortunes of farmers on the North York Moors.
"This has brought in big business and the major supermarket players to help devise a North York Moors brand. It's hoped it will to usher in a changed farming culture where enterprise and marketing play a bigger role.
"If continuity of supply to supermarkets can be guaranteed, then farmers will feel more confident about their ability to influence what happens in their business." This was the third year that we had run the awards, and the second time that Tom and Tricia Wallis have lifted the Dairy category trophy.
Theirs is another story of pragmatic innovation – in this case a successful business grew out of seeking to resolve a serious challenge facing the family.
Tom left school at 15 to be a builder and only started experimenting with milk from their small herd of goats when their baby granddaughter was discovered to be allergic to cow's milk.
Within a decade, their Lowna Dairy has progressed from being a single-bucket operation to a favourite of the Duchess of Cornwall who ordered some of Lowna's ice cream for Prince Charles at Highgrove.
Joyce Ashbridge and her son Charles don't live in the most sheltered spot in the world – Mount Grace Farm at Cold Kirby is 150 feet above sea level. But here they set up Taste Tradition to cater for a gap in the market for top quality, rare breed pork, to which was subsequently added beef and lamb for wholesale.
It was their Porchettas – milk-fed suckling pigs which are slaughtered at 13-14 weeks then boned by their in-house butcher, stuffed and rolled – which caught the attention of our judges. They awarded Taste Tradition the title of Best Yorkshire Meat producer.
Great Heck Brewery, who only began brewing in May and selling in June, walked off with the Best Yorkshire Local Brew category. Here Denzil Vallence and Jason Hall, the head brewer, are assisted by their partners Lisa and Julie.
The aim of the awards is to win over hearts and mouths to the idea of buying Yorkshire, and this was the first time they had been run in association with the 10- day York Festival of Food and Drink. Peter Charlton paid tribute to the festival's director, the indefatigable Michael Hjort, who had also chaired the judging panel and cooked the meal for the Guildhall event.
In the wider world, almost every day we seem to get gloomy news about the unsustainability of the world's system of food production – soil degradation, food contamination, the issue of obesity and so on. We think this is even more reason why we should continue to try and feed the growing appetite for buying local. It gives you peace of mind because of traceability from pasture to plate. And it tastes better.
Next page: All the winners and nominees Yorkshire Post Taste Awards 2008: Roll of Honour
Category: Butchers and Meat
Winner: Rare Breed Porchetta. Taste Tradition. Joyce and Charles Ashbridge. Mount Grace farm, Cold Kirby, Thirsk
It's nowhere near Mount Grace Priory, but there's no problem finding Mount Grace Farm. It's at the top of one of Yorkshire's best-known landmarks - Sutton Bank. These 60 acres 150 feet above sea level are not the friendliest spot to outdoor rear the Saddlebacks which eventually become the Porchettas. These are milk-fed suckling pigs which are slaughtered at 13-14 weeks then boned by their in-house butcher, stuffed and rolled. A one kilogramme Porchetta would serve four adults and they come up to four kilos - the larger ones are in demand by, among other establishments, the Restaurant St John in London, one of the most reowned in the country for nose-to-tail pork eating. Taste Tradition was set up in January 2004 by Joyce Ashbridge and her son Charles who saw a gap in the market for top-quality, rare breed pork to which they have since added beef and lamb for wholesale.
Highly commended:
Organic chicken. Swillington Organic farm. Coach Road, Swillington, Leeds. Jo Cartwright.
Jo's farm is 160 acres, about half is good farm land and the rest is woodland, marsh and water - her husband Andy runs a separate fishing business with four ponds for coarse fishing which is essential to keeping the farm going. There are some excellent wildlife habitats with good hunting areas for barn owls which regularly breed and the marshland attracts waders. Jo started a unique scheme called Community Supported Agriculture where local people can buy membership shares and lend a hand tilling the soil if they wish in return for a weekly veg box. Now Jo has hatched another idea. She supplies Fowl Co-op, a group of residents of Headingley in Leeds with organic chickens. They pay six months in advance for a monthy chicken at a discount and she delivers them to the Headingley farmers' market. Jo buys them as day-old chicks and slaughters them at not less than 81 days under Soil Association standards. They are free-range and are only locked up at night, a plan which, local foxes permitting, works well. The 21 members of the Fowl Co-op have an open invitation to come and watch the chickens being reared and see how an organic farm works.
Olde pork sausage. Weetons, Harrogate. Andrew Loftus.
Weeton's takes it's name from the Weeton Herd of pedigree Holstein dairy cattle founded by Frank Loftus at Preese Hall Farm in the 1920s. This herd is owned and managed by John Loftus and has had a significant influence on the national dairy herd. There's now a second herd of pedigree Red Poll cattle, owned and managed by Andrew Loftus, producing a significant proportion of the meat Weeton's sell. Old pork sausage, hanndmade and hand-linked, has been a favourite from the day the shop opened three years ago. All the pork comes from a local farly farm, the Walmsley's of Pennypot Lane, where the pigs are free to roam and straw-bedded.
Category: Dairy
Winner : Blue Stone cheese. Lowna Dairy Tricia and Tom Wallis, Raywell, East Yorkshire.
Tom and Tricia Wallis's Lowna dairy and cheese-making operation is one of the sights of East Yorkshire. When royalty visited the area a year ago, this is where the Duchess of Cornwall came to open the new dairy extension and be introduced to the flock of 100 goats fed on locally-grown meadow hay and cereals. Camilla revealed she was a fan of goats' milk ice cream and, after tasting Tom and Trish's product, reckoned Prince Charles would love it and asked for 18 litres to be delivered to Highgrove. Tom left school at 15 to train as a builder. He thought of swapping bricks and mortar for curds and whey after experimenting with milk from their small herd of goats to see if it might provide the answer to their baby granddaughter's cow's milk allergy. The dairy began modestly seven years ago as a single bucket operation. Now they turn 130 litres of milk a day into soft, fresh cheese. Tom has always dealt direct with the people who sell his products and does not intend to change now that his range extends to ice cream and other things and trebling the size of his herd. "I'm not going to have anything to do with supermarkets, although Tesco have been badgering us as well as Waitrose and Sainsbury's," he says. "I'm a Yorkshireman, and I want to provide people with the opportunity to buy direct from the producer. I'm not against supermarkets, but a lot of us should produce in the market for independent food."
Highly commended
Ice cream. Yorvale. Lesley Buxton, Fossfield Farm, Acaster Malbis, York
This started out as a diversification from a dairy farm which turned into the principal business. It began 19 years ago when Lesley Buxton stopped working on the farm to have a family. But it was seven years ago when she and husband Ian turned the operation round. They installed purpose-built buildings for ice cream manufacture and sold the majority of their cows. The 30 that remain are very laid-back, being milked once a day when they come in for their breakfast. The milk - none is sold for bottling - goes into ice cream preparation within 90 minutes. It remains a family business - daughter Sally who is studying Medicine at university, runs the quality control side - and all suppliers are local.
Ice cream. Yummy Yorkshire Ice Cream. Delph House farm, High Flats, Denby Dale, West Yorkshire.
The farm, started in the 1960s and now run by father and son, Philip and Jeremy Holmes was a finalaist in the Yorkshire Post Farm of the Year Competition. It has produced and bottled its own milk for over half a century and the ice cream making was added in April last year. They use fresh milk and cream from the farm's Friesian Holstein herd and the result is a traditional product with silky smooth texture and creamy taste. All flavours are made with natural and locally-sourced ingredients wherever possible. The strawberries are from Brecks Farm in Swillington and the lemon curd is made using fresh lemon curd made with free range eggs, from 'Kitchen' in Snaith.
Category: Growers
Winner: Alfalfa and mixed beans. WS Bentley (Growers) Ltd, Cliff Hill Nurseries, Cliffe Lane, Gomersall
Tineka Bentley came to West Yorkshire from her native Holland to be an au pair for the Bentley family. She married a relative of the family, William who had started his salad business in 1956 and they were married in 1972. When William died in 1992, Tineka kept the operation going until her children were old enough to lend a hand. Her eldest son Jan is now in charge. Most of their cress goes to Morrisons and Asda and they came to feel that relying on two customers left them vulnerable and innovation was called for. The alfalfa idea arose out of trips to Australia where its healthy eating connnotations has made it popular. The Bentleys new line was only lanunched at the end of last year and already it's become a quarter of their business.
Highly commended
Chicory, frozen flageolet beans. Scholes Ltd. Mark Southwell. Green Lane Farm, Nafferton, Driffield.
This family-run business which farms more than 2,000 hectares in East Yorkshire is well known for its potatoes and is a big player in the growing, packing and distribution of other regular crops. Now they are moving forward with two new and distinctive ones. Richard Scholes, joint managing director with sister Rachel, says that after talking to customers, they narrowed the range of possibilities down to flageolet, chicory and squash. The conditions on their land were suitable and they already had an experienced team who could deal with the very specific growing needs. Their frozen flageolet bean is a now first in the UK market and the chicory root, after harvesting, is is transferred to purpose-built forcing-pods where a carefully controlled environment nurtures the growth. The plan is to become one of the biggest chicory providers in the country.
Fruits, vegetables, herbs. Wharfedale Grange Farm. Richard Snowden. Harewood Leeds
Richard Snowden was born in the front room at Grange Farm near Harewood 56 years ago. He took over from his father Malcolm who is now in his eighties and he farms fruit, vegetables and cereals on about 80 hectares. Richard's philosophy is constant innovation and attention to detail. "I'm interested in flavours and in this trade you have to keep an eye open for other things. As soon as the big boys move in, the little lads like us have lost it. It's a case of knowing what you'd like to see on a plate." Most of his produce goes to two distributors in Bradford and Leeds to supply the catering trade. He adds, "I'm quite keen on short-circuiting the system - getting chefs here to say what they want and we grow it." Richard has also been a painter all his life and the dramatic use of colour and fluid draftsmanship are proof of an observant eye, endless curiosity and a sense of natural balance. He has his own studio, makes his own brushes and fills hundreds of sketchbooks exploring ideas for his canvasses.
Category: Handmade (jams, pickles, chocolates, etc)
Winner: Fruit Jellies. The Dalesman. Linda Hartnell, High Street, Gargrave
Linda Hartnell took over The Dalesman, a landmark cafe tea room for walkers and cyclist usually often heading for the Lakes, ten years ago. To her traditional clientele she has also added ladies who lunch, thanks to her homemade baking and other products which include her exquisite fruit jellies. Once, these were a traditional rural item but are now something of a rarity, the knack of making them in the traditional farmhouse kitchen seems to have been lost. It's extremely tricky, much more so than making preserves. But Linda, who used to teach food technology and health education, seems to take it in her stride and adds a modern twist to the flavours such as chilli and apple jelly. She only makes the jellies when the fruits are in season and either forages for them in the wild or has them grown in locally. The jar is then then labelled so say precisely where. It's the ultimate in provenance information and intrigues customers who can then walk to the part of the canal towpath or the garden in Gargrave where the fruit was picked.
Highly commended
Luxury fruit cake. Stickylicious. Carolyn Chapman & Judith Weighell. Hesselton Farm, Bedale.
Carolyn Chapman and Judith Weighell have been friends for many years through farming circles. The idea of the business was fomulated during rides together - it had been their topic of conversation on horseback to come up with a range of indulgent cakes, locally sourced wherever possible. It is a cottage industry at the moment based at Carolyn's family home. But their aim is to grow it into something rather special. Guilt-free indulgence is the order of the day - "cakes and bakes to eat with glee" is the marketing tagline. Their luxury fruit cake based on Carolyn's old recipe handed down through her family. They are baked lovingly in the farmhouse Aga overnight by Carolyn and they form the backbone of the Stickylicious range.
Raspberry and rhubarb preserve. Bracken Hill Fine Foods. Neil Maycock, West House farm, Elvington, York
Neil Maycock met his wife Gill when they were students at Bishop Burton agricultural college. Twenty years ago Neil left farming to go into product development in the food industry. Eventually, with Gill and their son Peter, Neil decided to go it alone and four years ago set up Bracken Hill Fine foods, specialising in chutneys and preserves, converting farm buildings for the purpose. Innovation is the name of the game in a competitive market and their raspberry and rhubarb preserve is another new product. It's made from forced rhubarb from the famous sheds in the 'rhubarb triangle' in West Yorkshire and raspberries grown at Acaster Malbis near York.
Category: Local Brew
Winner: YPA. Great Heck Brewery. Denzil Vallence. Harwinn House, Main Street, Great Heck, North Yorks
They only began brewing in May and started selling in June - but already they are a year ahead of where they expected to be. Denzil Vallence is now working here fulltime and he and his partner Jason Hall, the head brewer, are also assisted by their partners Lisa and Julie. Another of their products Great Heck Dave (Dark and Very Enjoyable) speaks for itself and they have also developed an exclusive best bitter for the Judges Lodging in Lendal in York. This was originally the place where the judges stayed when presiding at the York Assizes where their duties included donning the black cap to pass a sentence of execution. The new beer is called Final Judgment.
Highly commended
Yorkshire Day Ale. Old Bear Brewery. Ian Cowling, Atlas Works, Pitt Street, Keighley
Real ales.
The Old Bear Brewery started out at the Old White Bear pub in Cross Hills in 1993. It to larger premises near the centre of Keighley - a tough place to make a living since the town has three other breweries. Ian Cowling bought it in 2004 and they now brew seven standard beers, all with a bear theme. They start taking orders for their Yorkshire Day Ale in July and sell until it runs out, usually by the end of the August. It's a traditional beer which sold 250 gallons in the first year. They approached the Yorkshire Society and were part of their main celebration event at Guisborough. Result - 800 gallons sold and they hope to repeat that next year when the venue is Pickering. They only use Yorkshire malt and whole hops to give that true northern real ale flavour, plus of course the unique Keighley water filtered through the Pennines.
Wold Top Brewery. Gill Mellor, Hunmanby Grange, Wold Newton, Driffield, East Yorks.
The family of Tom and Gill Mellor has farmed 600 acres high on the Yorkshire Wolds since the 1940s. They were famed for growing high-class malting barley and since they also have their own supply of the purest chalk filtered water, putting the two together and drinking the result seemed a good idea in the light of a decline elsewhere in agriculture. Their Wolds Way beer, brewed to traditional recipes using homegrown Maris Otter malt, Goldings and Cascade hops, was already on tap in pubs along the route. This year, the Gills thought what better way to mark the silver anniversary of the 79-mile trail from the Humber Estuary to Filey Brigg, than a bottle of their finest to fit into a walker's rucksack? Wolds Way Pale Ale was born.Gill says, "The Yorkshire Wolds Way passes within a quarter of a mile of us. We name all of our real ales after significant local places and events."In the beginning, the brewery produced 100 gallons each week with no paid staff. Last year, production was 10 times that with four paid staff.
Category: Pies
Winner: Pork Pie. E&EG Bullivant & Daughters. Vicarage farm, Claxton.
The hands that make the pies (no machinery involved) belong to Jennie Whiteley who in addition to the baking is also the farmer. The farm is now 34 acres, down from the 155 acres when her late mother and father, Gwendolen and Ernest ran it. But since Jennie and her sister Vivien are well beyond pensionable age, it suits them very well. They rear their own rare breed stock, feed it on what is grown on the farm and market it themselves through their own farm shop or farmers' markets. Jennie Describes it as good, proper, old-fashioned food. She started makaing the handmade pies ten years ago and they soon took off. No preservative or cured meat is used. Along with the sausages and game pies, this is a one-woman band and her sister does all the packing. Jennie describes a typical Christmastime as 'demented' when they don't bother to. Last year the last of her pies came out of the oven at 4.30 in the morning. The pigs that go into the pies are Berkshires, Gloucester Old Spot and Large White crosses. "I'm a great believer in hybrid vigour," says Jennie
Highly commended
Pork pie. JA Mounfield, White House, Bubwith, Selby. David Mounfield
David Mounfield delved into the past to unearth an old family recipe and came out with a winner, a pork pie that won a national food title. His sister Anne had taken charge of the baking operation at the business, which has been in the family for five generations since it was launched in 1890. They have always prided theemselves on making locally-produced products and only sell the pork pies in the shop in Bubwith and the surrounding villages. Locally reared pigs from East Yorkshire are used for the pork, with gilts aged between four and five months slaughtered at an abattoir on site in Bubwith.ere invited to the awards dinner in London, which will be televised for broadcast later.
Steak pie. Tony Neary, Clifton, York. John Neary
Tony Neary, who has been in his attractive, traditional corner butcher's shop overlooking Clifton Green for over 20 years, is now semi-retired and his brother John is in day-to-day charge. The regime however remains unchanged. They buy solely Aberdeen Angus beef (from Turnbulls of Coxwold once a week) and look to use the whole animal. It's not uncommon to see queues outside the shop on Saturday mornings but John describes the corner butcher as a dying breed. Their counter tactic to supermarket discounting is to sell only top quality meat and be in a position to assure their customers exactly where it's from. The steak pie recipe was arrived at by trial-and-error with their long-standing customers. All the pie varieties are baked on the premises by the girls who start at six on Friday and Saturday mornings. That's an hour later than the butchers.
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Wednesday 08 February 2012
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