Bolster Moor Farm Shop sweeps board at annual Great Yorks butchers showcase Bolster Moor Farm Shop in Golcar, Huddersfield, created history at the 2016 Great Yorkshire Pork Pie, Sausage & Products Competition when making a clean sweep of the principal honours in the two flagship classes for the first time in the contest s 28-year history. The shop clinched both the supreme and reserve supreme pie titles with its first prize-winning large and small pork pies - then repeated the feat in the sausage section with its speciality sausage and thick pork sausage class winners. Bolster Moor Farm Shop has a real pedigree in the annual showcase, having won the supreme sausage category last year and the supreme pork pie title in both 2012 and 2013. Simon Haigh, who runs the business with his second cousin, Andrew Whitwam, said: We ve certainly worked big time for the competition. It s been a massive team effort, so it s a great reward to win all this we d been up since 4am on the morning of the contest getting everything ready. This is the big one for us, particularly now that it s been opened up to be a national event. The business, which is based at Harden Road Farm, and also has a coffee shop, employs a total of 85 people. It remains a family-run concern, with Mr Haigh s butcher son Luke and Mr Whitwam s 17-year-old son Henry also integral members of the team. In fact, Henry, who is still studying at New College, Huddersfield, and works weekends and holidays at the shop, was making his first real hands-on contribution to the competition. The fourth member of the Bolster Moor team was pie maker Gary Sugden. Bolster Moor s supreme champion speciality sausage, which received The Dalziel Trophy, presented by Territory Sales Manager, Stephen Firth, along with The Gordon Rhodes Shield, presented by The Dalesman Group s Business Development Manager Steve Jones, was made to a pork, chilli and cheddar recipe developed in-house. Judges awarded it a maximum 60 out of 60 marks and described it as the perfect sausage. One of them, Glossop Q Guild butcher John Mettrick, a former president of the National Federation of Meat & Food Traders, enthused: I have never tasted a speciality sausage as good as this one. Luke Haigh explained: We like anything with cheese, and chilli is quite popular at the moment. People are experimenting a lot with chillis, so it s something we really wanted to try. The shop s reserve supreme champion thick pork sausage, recipient of The Devro Cup, now qualifies for the 2017 national Champions of Champions sausage-making competition. The supreme champion pork pie received The Ted Jones Supreme Pie Trophy, presented in memory of the competition stalwart, who sadly died last year, along with a product donation from William Jones Packaging, while the reserve champion sausage again received The Willis Hall Cup for Pork Pie Excellence, presented in memory of the late, great Yorkshire playwright who was such a fan of the competition. Bolster Moor s large pork pie received The Lucas Trophy, presented for the first time by the company s Judith Johnston, with the small pork pie awarded The Interbake Shield, presented by the firm s Therese Dunne.
Bolster Moor Farm Shop sources all its pork from Paddy s Pigs, a farm just up the road, as well using beef raised on its own farm. In fact, the local supply process is key throughout the operation. It s important to us to keep it all local, but also high quality, said Simon Haigh. For good measure, Bolster Moor Farm Shop was also runner-up in the thin pork sausage class and third in the speciality sausage class with a second entry Luke Haigh added: Everything we ve had here is made exactly to the same recipes we use in the shop. A lot of hard work has gone into it and it really makes it worthwhile to spend all those hours to come out on top. This year s annual Confederation of Yorkshire Butchers Councils highlight, staged at the Cedar Court Hotel, Bradford, on Sunday, October 30, was open to all UK independent retail butchers, farm shops and bakers who make products on their own premises. It attracted close on 250 entries. CYBC secretary Mike Ward, from Keighley, said afterwards: The quality throughout was every bit as good as ever, though Bolster Moor Farm Shop s clean sweep of the major prizes really is history making. We change and rotate the judges every year and no one knows whose products they are judging and tasting. For them to take all four leading honours is nothing short of remarkable. He also thanked all who had supported this year s competition sponsors, trade stands, programme advertisers, judges and helpers. Back in the pie classes, the first prize speciality cold eating pie, recipient of The John Spencer Memorial Trophy, with the class kindly sponsored by AHDB Pork, was presented by Hinchliffe s Farm Shop & Restaurant in Netherton, Huddersfield, which is itself a former dual Great Yorkshire pork pie and sausage supreme champion. The pie was created especially for this year s contest and, as well as pork, contains Butlers Choice mature cheese with beetroot and apple chutney. Craig Midwood, from Hinchliffes, said: We were experimenting for the competition and following its overwhelming success our Cheese & Chutney Cold Eating Pie will now being going on sale to all in the shop. H Hofmann and Sons Butchers, from Wakefield, was responsible for the champion thin pork sausage, receiving The Oris Shield. The business, which is run by Nigel Hofmann, was founded in 1896 and is Wakefield s oldest butcher. It s well-known at the competition, having become supreme sausage champion in 2014, while Nigel s daughter Emily was named supreme pork pie champion in 2013. Collecting the 2016 award, Emily, now 20, who is in the final year of an advertising, marketing and PR degree course at Worcester University, though works with her father when time permits, said: Every time you enter here you get worried about whether you re going to win and whether you ve done enough. So to leave with a trophy means an awful lot. She added: It s the recipe that my dad has used it for years. It s come down though the generations, originally from my great grandfather. H Hofmann and Sons also claimed two runners-up prizes in the thick pork sausage small pork pie competition classes. First-time entrant Mike Wormald, from Rhubarb Triangle Farm Shop in Carlton, near Wakefield, was named Beef Burger champion, receiving The WR Wright & Sons Shield, presented by technical sales manager Steve Sefton. He said: I think what makes the burger so special is the small bit of bacon we put into it. It comes from our own pigs that we ve bred on the farm. I then smoke and cure the bacon myself. The beef also comes from our own farm usually from Herefords. We re a new business only three years old, and this is the first time we ve entered. As well as the farm and farm shop, Rhubarb Triangle also has a coffee shop, and a petting corner with alpacas and sheep.
Martin Thomas Family Butchers, from Pattingham, South Staffordshire, was black pudding champion for the second year in a row, retaining The WR Wright & Sons, also presented by technical sales manager Steve Sefton. Last year, the Wolverhampton Road business became the first non-yorkshire winner of one of the main prizes with its real ale black pudding, but this year they stuck to a more traditional recipe. However, the quality still shone through and impressed the judges. Craig Thomas said: It s a recipe we ve developed ourselves and it s good to follow up from last year s success. We won a gold medal at the IFFA in Frankfurt, Germany, with our beer black pudding, so it s nice to win this for our more traditional black pudding. It s the same basic recipe, so it shows the quality is always there. Craig is the sixth generation of butchers in his family, with the current shop set up in 1971 by his grandfather. It was taken over by his dad Martin in 1978. The New Kid on the Block competition class for the best newcomer from Yorkshire to the competition was awarded to Dean Worsnop, of Haggarts Family Butchers in Low Lane, Birstall, who received a trophy donated by John Gallagher, of sponsors McDonnells/Dick Knives, along with a generous product donation. Mr Worsnop said: I entered the thin pork sausage, thick pork sausage, small and large pork pies, and beef burger classes. I got up at 1.15am and worked really hard getting everything just right, but it was definitely worth it, as now I can take home a trophy home to display in the shop window. It s a brilliant award, and I think it s the first thing I ve ever won - apart from a rugby ball in a raffle! Bradford butcher Ian Hopkins, who trades as P&I Hopkins in Birkenshaw, was runner-up in the large pork pie class, with Andrew Trueman, from Johnsons of Thirsk, finishing third. Andrew Voakes, who runs Voakes Pies at Whixley Grange, near York, was again among the prizes when coming third in the small pork pie class for the second year running. Weegmann s Butchers in Market Place, Otley, the 2015 speciality cold eating pie champion, was runner-up in the same class at this year s renewal, with last year s supreme pork pie champion, B&M Collins Butchers, based in Westgate, Cleckheaton, finishing third. Also among the prizes again this year was Country Harvest, based on the main A65 road just outside Ingleton in North Yorkshire, which was last year voted reserve supreme sausage champion when entering the competition for the first time. George Taylor, who runs the butchery department at Country Harvest, picked up a trio of third prizes in both the thin and thick pork sausages, and black pudding show classes. The first-ever Great Yorkshire entrant from North Wales, Michael Kennedy, of FR Kennedy & Son Butchers, based in Bryn-y-Gwynt, Pe-y-Maes Road, Holywell, Flintshire, performed with great credit when finishing as runner-up in both the speciality sausage and black pudding classes. Seventeen-year-old Ben Barnes, a highly enthusiastic trainee with Roy Dykes Butchers in Keighley Market Hall, who was making his debut in the competition, was runner-up in the beef burger class, with third prize falling to a Cumbrian entrant, Mark Duckworth, of Dales Traditional Butchers in Market Street, Kirkby Lonsdale. Main competition sponsors were Lucas Ingredients, Interbake, The Dalesman Group, William Jones Packaging, Dalziel, AHDB Pork, WR Wright & Sons, and the NFMFT. Other annual trophy donators included Oris, Ripon Select Foods and Dublin-based McDonnells/Dick Knives, who sponsored the New Kid on the Block competition class, open to Yorkshire entrants only.
Pictured with their 2016 Great Yorkshire supreme and reserve supreme pies and sausages are, from left, Henry Whitwam, Gary Sugden, Luke Haigh and Simon Haigh. Pictured with their 2016 Great Yorkshire supreme and reserve supreme pies and sausages, and trophy haul, are, from second left, Henry Whitwam, Simon Haigh, Luke Haigh and Gary Sugden. Left is CYBC president Konrad Kempka and right sponsor Alwyn Evans, of William Jones Packaging.
Emily Hofmann, of H Hofmann and Sons Butchers, is pictured receiving the thin pork sausage trophy from CYBC president Konrad Kempka. Craig Thomas, centre, of Martin Thomas Family Butchers, receives his Great Yorkshire 2016 black pudding champion s trophy from Steve Sefton, left, technical sales manager of sponsors W R Wright & Sons, joined by CYBC president Konrad Kempka.
Mike Wormald, centre from Rhubarb Triangle Farm Shop, is pictured receiving the Great Yorkshire beef burger trophy from CYBC president Konrad Kempka, left, and Steve Sefton, technical sales manager of sponsors W R Wright & Sons. Dean Worsnop, of Haggarts Family Butchers, is pictured receiving his New Kid on the Block trophies from John Gallagher, left, of sponsors McDonnells, and CYBC president Konrad Kempka.