Pictured: (l-r) Rob Tomkins, Neil Cartledge, Margaret
Robinson and Sylvia Maunder
Derbyshire farm shop Croots has a dozen reasons to celebrate
today after scooping 12 awards for its sausages, pies and meat
products at the BPEX regional roadshow.
The farm shop near Duffield was awarded three gold, seven silver
and two bronze awards at the excellence in pork products event,
held at Newark Showground in Nottinghamshire.
Croots Farm Shop owner Steve Croot said he was delighted that
every entry put forward by Croots had been given an award at the
event, judged by industry experts.
"I am absolutely thrilled for the team," said Steve. "The
products are evaluated by a team of industry experts and points are
given for a range of attributes, including appearance, consistency,
texture, taste and smell. The judges in the BPEX awards use a set
national criteria and so we can quite confidently say that our
sausages and pork products are amongst some of the best in the
country."
Croots Farm Shop, based at Farnah House Farm, Wirksworth Road,
took gold for its mutton rogan josh, black pudding and black
pudding with bacon, silver for its mutton and veg sausage,
Cumberland sausage, beef and tomato sausage, as well as its Brian
Clough Banger - created especially for British Sausage Week this
year - and its pork pie, meatballs and lamb and mint pie.
Bronze awards were awarded for Croots' pork and Roquefort pie
and its game pie.
The accolades are the latest in a long line of awards that the
butchery and deli counter at Croots have achieved and come just
weeks after its Henry Cooper Sausage won through to the regional
final of a contest to find Britain's best banger held during
British Sausage Week.
It picked up a gold star award for its pork pie in the Great
Taste Awards 2011, and also scooped four accolades in the British
Pie Awards 2011, including a gold award for its popular steak and
kidney pie.
In May, Croots took three golds and a silver award for its
sausages and pies at the 17th Robin Hood Championship.
Produced by the shop's in-house butchers, all the pork sausages
at Croots are made using free range Packington Pork from
Barton-under-Needwood near Burton-upon-Trent. Croots has a range of
around 40 different flavours of banger, which it sells on a
rotating basis.
Entries to the BPEX awards were a team effort, with Croots
deputy manager Margaret Robinson creating the pies and the rogan
josh, and butchers and deli counter staff Rob Tomkins, Neil
Cartledge and Sylvia Maunder producing the sausages and black
puddings.
"It was an excellent team effort," added Steve Croot, who opened
Croots Farm Shop in June 2008 and recently welcomed its 250,000th
customer.
Croots Farm Shop & Kitchen is open Sundays from 10am to 4pm
(café until 3.45pm), and from Tuesday to Saturday from 9am
to 5pm (café until 4.30pm). It is closed on Mondays.