National Trust Freedom Food award winners

Congratulations to all Freedom Food’s members who produced award-winning dairy and meat products for the National Trust’s 2010 Fine Farm Produce Awards.

The National Trust’s Calke Abbey in Derbyshire won an award for their Hogget lamb, which one judge Gillian Carter - editor of BBC Good Food - praised for being ‘very pale with a lovely sweet flavour’. The lamb comes from a small flock of Portland sheep - a rare breed that has been associated with the Calke area since the 16th Century. All the hogget is sold through Calke Abbey restaurant.

Another award winner was the Dolaucothi Estate in Carmarthenshire, who won for the fourth time this year, with their popular lamb. Eight tenant farmers on the picturesque 2,500 acre estate – a designated conservation area – began working together in 2003 resulting in an ongoing relationship with Sainsbury’s. The farmers sell the lamb exclusively through selected Sainsbury’s stores in Wales and the long M4 motorway corridor west of London. Tenant farmer Arwyn Davies recognises that the quality of his lamb is down to ‘good welfare, good systems and good food’.

Free range eggs from Ochr Cefn Isa on the National Trust’s Ysbyty Ifan Estate in North Wales are first time winners this year. Their award-winning eggs were selected by the judges for their rich-coloured yolks, creaminess and freshness. Trefor and Marian say that ‘welfare and good husbandry are essential and result in the high quality eggs that our hens produce’.

Yet another repeat winner was Wimpole Home Farm, in Cambridgeshire who won awards for their lamb, diced hogget and diced mutton. Home to rare breeds of cattle, pigs, sheep, poultry, horses and goats, Wimpole Home Farm is one of the Rare Breed Survival Trust’s Approved Conservation Centres. Good animal husbandry and welfare are at the heart of how the farm is run. The award-winning lamb, hogget and mutton come from their White Faced Woodland breed.

Last, but by no means least, Yew Tree Farm, near Coniston in the Lake District, won an award for its Belted Galloway beef this year. As well as Belted Galloway cattle, the farm has Herdwick Sheep, which won them an award for their Hogget at last year’s Fine Farm Produce Awards.

For more information on the National Trust and its Fine Farm Produce Awards, please go to: www.nationaltrust.org.uk/food