Local Food Heroes

The Northamptonshire Food and Drink Awards and Northamptonshire CPRE are working together to recognise and celebrate our Local Food Heroes. We are looking for those people and businesses in the food and drink sector in Northamptonshire who go further in producing, supplying, promoting or selling local goods or food services, thereby contributing to the reduction of food miles and carbon emissions.

We received over 60 nominations for this Award for everything from farm shops to village butchers, restaurant chefs to a monthly village lunch club. The competition was very stiff with the result that the judges simply couldn’t choose a single winner.

Congratulations to these winners

Sheena Harris
Sheena has been making jams and chutneys for over 50 years and now sells eggs from her own brood of Colombian Blacktails which give a wonderfully rich and yellow yoke.  They are free range in the truest sense of the word! What impressed the judges was her commitment to delivering her eggs to the local villages - as one of her nominees said “come rain or shine”!  The judges felt that this dedication to the local food scene was a wonderful example of a Local Food Hero.

Beckworth Emporium
Beckworth Emporium is a real jewel in the Northamptonshire crown.  These local entrepreneurs share a passion for food and plants and a centrepiece atrium for excellent meals at reasonable prices.  Their ethos is to offer fresh, wholesome food using the produce from the Produce Market and Food Hall within the building.  The judges were impressed with the development of the business and the commitment to local products and the opportunity to showcase so many excellent local producers too.  One nominator said “Each time we have visited the staff have been polite and courteous at all times and smiling.  Produce in all departments is excellent, the atmosphere is relaxing and above all that the whole place is immaculate.  A treat to visit.”

The Green Patch
The Green Patch is a community allotment project in Kettering, set up in 2002.  It is now run through Groundwork North Northants and the project has been developed as part of “Keep Healthy at Kettering”.  Up to 25 volunteers work on the land with Future Jobs Fund 18 to 24 year olds who have been out of work for six months.  In return volunteers take home some of the produce.  The Green Patch grows everything from potatoes to runner beans, thyme to sage, strawberries to swedes.  They also keep chickens and ducks for eggs.  They sell to local residents and provide an after school club for local schools.  In addition they sell produce in a town centre shop run by a local additional-needs school.  Our judges were impressed with the commitment to community and fresh produce and hope all your team of workers, executive committee and volunteers are thrilled with this recognition.

Limes Farm
Limes Farm is in Farthinghoe between Banbury and Brackley. The farm has been in the Deeley family for around 200 years, although the family can be traced back to farms in the area to 1066!  This is a wonderful example of a farm that has adapted to its community; not only do Limes Farm grow, use and produce marvellous things for sale locally, they also provide meals to six local primary schools as part of the Clean Plate Award scheme in which youngsters are encouraged to eat up all their food with the reward of a sticker to add in their sticker book. They are not a shop on a farm – the produce is theirs!  I’ll leave you with the words on their application “We have incorporated the spirit of traditional farming in to the way we produce our products.  You see, traditional farmers know that you can’t rush nature.  Raw ingredients take time to grow, to ripen and to harvest.  So we wait for nature to tell us when everything is ready and when it is we work flat out to make our range of produce”. This is a very exciting month for Limes Farm as they’re about to open their own shop on the farm in just days, but have already been selling online and at shows for the last three years, with an increasing following.

"Local food economies bring great benefits in terms of safeguarding rural jobs, sustaining local retailers, providing outlets for local produce and conserving the countryside. If we are to ensure the survival of our rural communities and regional food heritage, there is an urgent need to build on our local food networks."

Jimmy Doherty of Jimmy’s Farm
 

About CPRE

The Northamptonshire branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) is a registered charity No. 1116687. It exists to promote the beauty, tranquillity and diversity of rural Northamptonshire by encouraging the sustainable use of land and other natural resources in town and country. For more information visit www.cprenorthants.org