Great taste awards.

[dpearce4]

define local or whole foods. they are spurious terms, even 'local' food can have sugar from cane, or meat from other countries or other non local products within the produce, as allowed in the term, just means final processing within a defined area, for farmers markets this is 50miles, how many times you go to a farmers market and seen marinated olives, not many of them grown in the uk commercially. sorry to bring bad news to you, lol.

 

[psafloyd]

define local or whole foods. they are spurious terms, even 'local' food can have sugar from cane, or meat from other countries or other non local products within the produce, as allowed in the term, just means final processing within a defined area, for farmers markets this is 50miles, how many times you go to a farmers market and seen marinated olives, not many of them grown in the uk commercially. sorry to bring bad news to you, lol.

I wasn't looking for a fight, dpearce64 (I noted your lol, don't worry), just noting my error, as I hadn't realised it was a national awards.

But local for means within a small radius, maybe 10-20 miles.

Whole is unprocessed, in some cases raw, which is what most of us end up with.

Not sure either of those could be applied to the Aldi honeys and was merely articulating my surprise.

I like Aldi and have for years. If anyone out there hasn't tried some of their products, you really should do so. We've had one here for about 15 years –*one of the first in London –*and we used it a lot when we had no money, then just for certain things we liked.

We went back a few years ago to buying most of our stuff from there and last year we ditched Sainsbury's except for a few things not available elsewhere because our weekly shop was regularly £110-110. For two people. Crazy. A weekly shop is usually £65 or £70 unless we are buying detergents and such like.

 

[village girl]

I've had a bit of a surprise today.

The people that take my honey in the south of England entered the summer one in the Great taste awards 2012 organised by the Guild of fine food this year and it's been awarded a two gold star rating. OK not the three star but not bad all the same - 2 star = faultless but not sublime and blind tasted by a number of what they call "food experts".

Better than a poke in the eye with a blunt stick and I can use the award logo on my honey.

http://www.greattasteawards.co.uk/

Chris

congratulations i hope you rememberd to name all thous who contributred, to the sucsess of your honey in your thank you speech

 

[dpearce4]

lol psa its ok it i just find it amazing how some people buy stuff at tesco and think its local they are even worse some of the stuff they sell you think is from the uk when its from thailand or brazil.

or youngs frozen foods that catch their cold water prawns off iceland then bring them into the uk and ship them to the far east to be peeled then shipped back because its cheaper than using people here. its bonkers.

but shows how marketing works. even people like Payne s use blends of different peoples honey its not just theirs.

its a shame people dont know the dodgy dealings of the major players im sure they would think twice about shopping with them.

aldi and lidl might be discounters but they are much better companies to deal with as a producer and the price is cheap not at the expence of the producer like the big T or sainsbubs.

 

[Chris Luck]

aldi and lidl might be discounters but they are much better companies

We use them here because they are German. Better quality than French, more products from outside France and usually much cheaper.

Chris

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Local food!

Stopped at a farm shop between Bath and Warminster on the way home last patrol they had one shelf labelled 'low food miles - only 39 miles from the processor' checked their honey - not even produced within the EC, probably Chinese! didn't bother looking at the rest of the stuff

But well done Chris, it's always nice to see your product appreciated even if it's only at a local show

 

[Chris Luck]

it's always nice to see your product appreciated even if it's only at a local show

I couldn't agree more. Although I don't actually show locally I get a lot of pleasure from selling locally, having a large local "following" and meeting people I don't know telling me how much they like my honey. The pleasure of supplying something natural that is appreciated and has your name associated with it is worth as much as the money.

Chris

 

[Into the lions den]

Good on you. One of the things I used to do at talks, even to beekeeper groups, was challenge prejudices by doing blind tastings and giving them all a sheet to fill in about all the samples. It was amazing how often a non UK honey would top the list, even among diehard 'UK is best, foreign is inferior' types'. Very pleased to hear you won the award. There are some wonderful honey types come out of France. Good honey can come from almost ANYWHERE in the world with enough forage and beekeepers. Yes, even China.