Suffolk dairy farmers are over the moon after scooping a national cheese award for the second year in a row.
Fen Farm Dairy’s Best Artisan Producer award at the Great British Cheese Awards comes hot on the heels of another national accolade for the Bungay business, which also took Farmer’s Weekly Diversification Farmer of the Year Award at an event earlier this month.
The Great British Cheese awards celebrate the best of British cheese produced and distributed by independent cheese makers and retailers. Now in their second year, the awards attracted more than 9,000 votes after members of the public were asked to choose their favourite cheeses, producers and retailers.
Dairy farmers Jonny and Dulcie Crickmore and the Fen Farm team said they were “thrilled” at the second accolade, which was announced at a ceremony in London on October 11.
The award, presented to Jonny and head cheese maker Mark Mitchell, involved a public voting round with those with the most votes in each category shortlisted for each of the awards.
The prestigious judging panel for the second round included chef restaurateur and president of the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts Brian Turner, Chantelle Nicholson, group operations director for Marcus Wareing Restaurants, Galton Blackiston owner and chef patron of Morston Hall, actor and food blogger Adam Woodyatt.
The Crickmore family has farmed the land at Fen Farm for three generations, and produces butter and cheese from its herd of Montbeliarde and Friesian cows.
The Great British Cheese Awards were organised by food webside Great British Chefs and bakery firm Peter’s Yard.
Co-founder of Peter’s Yard, Wendy Wilson-Bett said: “We hope that these awards will also encourage more people to seek out and buy great British cheese like those made by Fen Farm Dairy.”
Ollie Lloyd, chief executive and founder of Great British Chefs said: “We launched The Great British Cheese Awards last year with the objective of producing a catalogue of great artisan cheese and to also discover up-and-coming cheesemakers.
“The response we have received again this year was way above expectation and we are grateful to the remarkable support from producers, retailers and especially the general public.”
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