Speciality-Food-Magazine-September-2024

specialityfoodmagazine.com 39 Nidhoggr Mead “Mead as a category is growing exponentially,” says Nidhoggr Mead founder Peter Taylor, who started the business in his back bedroom nearly four years ago and is now one of the biggest honey mead producers in the UK, supplying a number of tourist attractions, being the official mead of Warhammer, and exporting around 100,000 litres to the US each year. “There’s a big trend for mead currently,” Peter continues. “A lot of things are stagnating and dropping off in the market, like gin. People want something interesting, and mead is smashing it out of the park. It’s becoming hip again.” The brand sources all its honey from The Apiarist, which has around 3,000 hives dotted across the Yorkshire Moors, with all water sourced from the Swale Valley, and fruit for flavoured varieties selected from local farms where possible. “It’s a proper Yorkshire product,” adds Peter, whose success has allowed him to scale up quickly. “I now have 11 members of staff, 4,000sqft premises and run the largest honey mead company in the UK.” Raydale Preserves Raydale makes dozens of jams, curds, jellies a nd marmalades, but incredibly started out as a she ep farming business, says the brand’s Andrew Kettlewell, with the family diversifying in 1978. “We started off doing farmers’ markets, and when I took over in 2008 we began supplying shops and producing for other brands as well,” Andrew continues. As many British and Yorkshire ingredients as possible land in the jars, including local soft fruits, but the most popular product uses a more ‘exotic’ flavouring, with oodles of fresh lemon juice lavished upon the Lemon Curd. Curds have “taken off” this year, leading the brand to add new varieties such as Apple & Cinnamon and Cherry & Chocolate. “I think they’ve become popular because of Bake Off and various Netflix baking series,” says And rew, who adds their bestseller with retailers is the R ed Onion & Apple Chutney, which is especially in demand at Christmas.” Wensleydale Creamery The creamery takes its role as custodians of a 1,000-year history of cheesemaking in Yorkshire very seriously, says marketing manager Sandra Bell. “We believe it’s important for brands like Wensleydale Creamery, underpinned by heritage and provenance, to champion and lead the way for cheesemaking in the region, encouraging more consumers to buy locally made produce,” she adds. Wensleydale Creamery, nestled in the rolling hills of Wensleydale in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, is a key part of the county’s dairy industry, and a symbol of the region’s dedication to excellence. “Testament to this,” says Sandra, “are the many awards won, this most recent being at this year’s Great Yorkshire Show, where our Yorkshire Wensleydale was judged to be Best Territorial Cheese and took the title of Reserve Supreme Champion Cheese.” The cheesemaker sources its milk from a dedicated group of Red Tractor-assured family farmers, whose skill, hard work and passion is reflected in the quality of the finished product – including Yorkshire Wensleydale. traditionally known for its creamy, crumbly texture. “PGI status qualifies the authencity of our Wensleydale and helps give our customers assurance that they are buying the original Wensleydale cheese that is handcrafted right here in Wensleydale,” says Sandra. Yockenthwaite Farm Granola This family-run granola company demonstrates how the simplest homegrown ideas can snowball to success. “My husband and mother-in-law were running a B&B at Yockenthwaite Farm in the Dales, and wanted to offer an alternative to a full English. Something healthier,” says Lianne Hird. “They started making granola, and it was so successful they took it to a market and sold out. It’s then they realised they had a business, so they got a premises in Skipton, and in 2020 expanded again into bigger premises.” Lianne puts the success of the brand down to its pure, high quality British oats, and the fact just one product in the range contains sugar, with the rest sweetened subtly with honey. “The customer favourite is our Nutty Spelt, which contains the ancient grain. It’s followed closely by Just Ginger. That started as a winter edition a few years ago, and slowly it’s become a firm favourite. We think it’s a bit different to other granolas. Most of them have fruit and nuts, but as far as we can tell no one uses ginger.” Botham’s of Whitby More than 150 years of tradition runs through Botham’s – a trusted family- run business based in the atmospheric coastal town of Whitby. “It started when Elizabeth Botham started baking bread, and that came from a need to feed the family,” says Elizabeth’s great-great granddaughter, Sarah Jarman, who today runs Botham’s alongside her three daughters, two brothers and sister. “Elizabeth started to make cakes and took them to sell at a market stand, and developed from that. We still make things by hand. We’re not fully mechanised by any means,” adds Sarah. “Everything’s hand-mixed and hand-boxed.” The brand’s most recognised products are its Lemon Buns, Chocolate Japonaise, and Gingerbread, which hails from a very traditional Victorian recipe. “But, from a retail point of view, what goes best are the biscuits and bracks. The tea loaves. They have a long shelf life and we sell a lot of those.”