Three local businesses that champion the use of Pembrokeshire produce have been congratulated for the outstanding quality of their food or drink in the annual Pembrokeshire Produce Mark Awards.

Homemade Biltong, together with a shop and a restaurant that make the best use of local produce, comprises the shortlist of winners that were presented with awards at a ceremony in the Food Hall at the Pembrokeshire Agricultural Show, held at Withybush, Haverfordwest on Wednesday, August 14.

The awards were announced by the Chairman of Pembrokeshire County Council, Councillor Aden Brinn.

Four friends with a passion for producing top quality food are behind the restaurant that picked up the ‘Best Use of Local Produce in a Hospitality Outlet’ award.

Duncan Barham, Helen Hillary and Matthew and Jade Flowers are the team that has driven The Salt Cellar in Tenby to success since the restaurant opened in 2016.

They use the local landscape as an inspiration for their food and local ingredients for their dishes.

“One of the key goals for us when we started was to use as much locally produced food as possible,” said Duncan Barham.

“Anything local that was of good enough quality was used and we worked hard to find good local suppliers and build relationships with them.”

Such is their commitment to local produce that during the local growing season 80 per cent of their vegetables are sourced from an organic farm near Tenby. They make the majority of their desserts using locally grown fruit such as Strawberries, Blueberries and Cherries.

“We use local brewers for our beers and serve wines, gins and ciders that are produced in Wales too,” he continued.

“And living so close to the sea it’s only natural that our fish is sourced locally.

“We use line-caught fish which is more sustainable than deep sea trawling and source our Lobster, Crab and Sea Bass locally too,” he added.

A rugby tour to South Africa was the inspiration behind Michael and Rachel George’s decision to start producing Biltong at Upper Robeston Farm near Milford Haven.

The husband and wife team were discussing ways to develop and diversify their business when Michael remembered tasting the snack of dried meat – biltong - on his trip to the Rainbow Nation over ten years ago which fuelled the idea for their From our Farm brand.

Little did they know that two years later they would be picking up the ‘Best New Product’ award for their range of Pembrokeshire Biltong.

“Biltong was virtually unheard of in Britain,” said Michael. “But I remembered loving it when I toured South Africa on a school rugby tour and we thought we’d give it a go.

“We made several trial batches using a homemade dryer consisting of a plastic storage tub, bathroom extractor fan and a lightbulb!

“After tasting the biltong, we decided it was too good not to share! This started a twelve-month journey to develop the From Our Farm brand, 

“Today the biltong dryer is a substantial state-of-the-art piece of equipment, very different from our experimental apparatus!

“We produce our biltong in small batches and ensure our products meet the same high standards that we strive for in all areas of our farm making around 750 packs of Biltong a week and selling the product locally and as far afield as Cardiff, Mid-Wales, Derby and Yorkshire.”

It is the second big award for From our Farm this year following the recipt of a Great Taste Award – a nationally acknowledged benchmark for fine food and drink.

Serving local produce is central to the ethos of the winners of the ‘Best use of Local Produce in a Retail Outlet’ category.

Lobster and Môr, located in the heart of the beautiful fishing village of Little Haven, offers high-end craft and local produce, together with delicious crab sandwiches and outstanding coffee.

They even offer the chance to take home the live shellfish catch of the day from their very own aquarium!

The shop works with some of the best regional food producers and artisans in the country including Dash Shellfish that sells shellfish caught by local boat, Martha Rose.

All three are owned by Danny Curtis, born and bred in the village, who is determined to showcase Pembrokeshire produce far and wide

“Lobster and Môr is a treasure-trove of local produce although I hadn’t intended it to be that way,” he said.

“Initially, I was just going to sell shellfish from the shop but when I realised how big the premises were I thought it would be best to break it down into sections to sell a range of different items.

“We’ve been open just over a year but I’ve gone with the flow and developed it from there.”

Future plans for the shop include developing online sales next year to enable products to be seen and sold further afield and branching out to other areas such as Tenby and maybe even London.

“I have friends living in London who think the shop could do well there so it’s an option, but I’ll be developing the online store first,” he added.

For more information on the Pembrokeshire Produce Mark Scheme visit: www.pembrokeshire.gov.uk/foodanddrink