Video: Yorkshire Post Taste Awards, with Rosemary Shrager

One thing united all the finalists of our awards at the Guildhall in York – complete commitment to producing food their way and the right way.

These annual awards, in association with the York Food and Drink Festival, are part of this newspaper’s all-year-round determination to support and campaign for local food and local producers.

In the six years we have run them we have played our part in creating a climate of opinion where buying locally produced food is seen as a sound and sensible objective.

It’s a good thing from the point of view of sustainability but there’s also the not inconsiderable matter of local pride involved here.

In addition, there’s the fact that local food, fresh from pasture to plate, does taste better.

These sentiments were echoed by Rosemary Shrager, the television chef and cookery school boss from Masham, who was the host for the evening.

This year we had a record number of entries for the awards, many of them trying for the first time.

Small businesses don’t often have a great deal of time to blow their own trumpet and spread the word about the excellence of what they do.

So the awards are an opportunity for them to step forward for once and take a well-deserved bow.

There were 18 finalists, three in each of six categories, which were judged by a panel chaired by Michael Hjort, the director of the York Food and Drink Festival.

Plus there was a Readers’ Award. This was open to all entrants who wanted to make their products available for tasting during the York Food and Drink Festival.

The public came along to taste and then voted for what they thought was the best.

A family-run butcher’s shop at Brompton-by-Sawdon near Scarborough lifted the pies trophy.

It was was started by Brian and Doreen Glaves in 1973 and is now run by their son James.

All the produce comes from their farm or local producers and they have their own abbatoir next door to the shop.

Tom Parker Bowles filled half a page in the Mail on Sunday with a story of how he made a 500-mile round trip from London to try one of their pork pies which he judged to be sublime.

But the customer endorsement that really matters comes from the local builders.

It’s said that all those working within a 50-mile radius of Glaves’ shop down tools at lunchtime to come and queue here for a pie or pasty.

Peter Middlemiss, whose pies have been previous winners in these awards, won again, this time in the butchers and meat category.

Peter’s shop is in Otley market place and nearby he has a Turkish neighbour who runs a cafe.

The neighbour is partial to the pastrami they make back home and his enthusiasm got Peter interested.

Between them they came up with a couple of ideas and refined them until they had a recipe that worked.

It sounds exotic. Pastrami on rye has long been a favourite in New York. But this is a Yorkshire twist and all the beef is sourced near Otley.

Brine is injected into Silverside to cure it, then it’s smoked and cooked at 60 degrees so no moisture is lost. It’s then rolled in paprika and chilli to give it a thin crust with a bit of a kick

Shepherd’s Purse launched their Bluemin White Cheese in January last year and started winning prizes almost immediately.

It won the dairy category here at the Guildhall. It was the project of Judy Bell’s daughter Kate, who received her trophy from Heather Parry, managing director of the Fodder and Yorkshire Event Centre of the Yorkshire Agricultural Society.

Wold Top Brewery won the local brew category with their Anglers Rewards beer.

It’s a golden pale ale hopped with the fruity Cacade and Goldings hops.

Using the finest hops and home-grown malting barley coupled with chalk-filtered Walds water, Wold Top brews from traditional recipes.

Tom Mellor owns the Wold Newton-based company with his wife Gill who specialises in marketing and events.

When Mark Palmer was managing a pick-your-own farm near Oxford, one customer was a young chef called Raymond Blanc.

Mark and his wife Moira moved on from that to vegetable packing. Now at Home Farm at Hutton Conyers near Ripon their Copperwheat Agriculture is certified by the Soil Association.

They lifted the winner’s trophy in the growers category.

Having given expert advice to a national business on growing garlic in Eastern Europe they formed the idea of growing it in Yorkshire.

As well as dry garlic bulbs available from July onwards, they also sell green garlic – the immature form of the plant – not usually available in this country because of its short shelf life.

The whole of the plant can be used and its garlic flavour is sweeter and slightly milder.

Charlotte Shaw’s family has been baking in Halifax for over 100 years. She and her husband Tom run Thomas’s Bakery in Elland. Charlotte took time out to have two children and also launched Parkin into the wider world. The idea was to persuade people that Bonfire Night was not the only time to enyoy it.

Outside its Yorkshire heartland, Charlotte found there were benighted parts of the country where they had never even heard of Parkin.

She has brought a little piece of Yorkshire happinesss into their lives and Lottie Shaw’s Yorkshire Parkin Biscuit won the handmade category in our awards.

In 2007 Oliver Wright started running a business on the 300-acre farm where the family have been for three generations at Wombwell in South Yorkshire.

He had just come back from university and he created a steak, red wine and mushroom pie based on his mother Kay’s recipe.

She looks after the baking and insists on traceability and top quality produce.

The public agreed about the quality because their steak pie topped the poll at the York public tastings.

So Oliver and Kay and took home the Readers’ Award trophy as well as a certificate and rosette for being highly commended in the butchers and meat section.

Winners

Pies: Glaves Butchers. Pork pie

Meat: Geo Middlemiss. Yorkshire Pastrami

Dairy: Shepherd’s Purse. Bluemin White Cheese

Local Brew: Wold Top Brewery. Anglers Rewards

Growers: Copperwheat Agriculture. Yorkshire Grown Garlic

Handmade: Lottie Shaw’s. Yorkshire Parkin Biscuit

Reader Award: Billy’s Farm Shop. Steak, red wine and mushroom pie

Highly Commended

Pies: Billy’s Hill Farm Shop. Steak, red wine and mushroom pie.

Drewtons Ltd. Steak pie

Butchers & Meat: Billy’s Hill Farm Shop. Dry cured back bacon

Rosewood Farms. Grass fed Dexter beef

Dairy: Yorvale. Diabetic vanilla ice cream

Yummy Yorkshire Ice Cream Company. Product: Chilli Jam Man ice cream

Local Brew: Great Newsome Brewery. Frodingham Best

Haworth Steam Brewery. Fallwood beer

Growers: Newfields Organic Produce. Carrots, onions, potatoes

B Whiteley Farmshop and Nursery. Albenga Tomato Salad

Handmade: Hayloft Foods. Soup

Pattacakes. Apple strudle and Strawberry Shortcake.