Last week the 2016 state winners for the Delicious Produce Awards and the separate Dairy Awards were revealed.
From the Barossa, winners of the Produce Awards included Trevallie Orchard Dried Fruits, Saskia Beer Farm Produce Barossa Free-range Pheasant, Hutton Vale Farm Pekin Duck and Barossa Birds Pasture-raised Quail.
Winners at the Dairy Awards included Barossa Valley Icecream and Jersey Fresh.
The awards nomination process for the Produce Awards began when the country’s top chefs and restaurateurs were asked to nominate the passionate producers they work so closely with.
The Produce Awards state judges met to taste their way through nominees in the Sea, Earth, Dairy and Paddock categories.
From here, state winners will progress to the national judging stage, where their produce will be blind-tasted by the national panel of judges before being revealed on September 12.
Caitlin Angas from Hutton Vale Farm said winning the award was great to encourage them to keep going with what they do best.
Lisa Werner from Jersey Fresh added, “It’s nice recognition from the industry, it keeps us going and reminds us what we do for our customers.”
Saskia Beer was also one of the state winners and won the delicious paddock category.
“It’s great to be part of an award that recognises producers and small businesses that work so hard to provide such a high quality of produce,” she said.
Barossa Birds won the Produce Award for their pasture-raised quail.
Owners, Michael Hemphill and Amy Tucker, both agreed that winning the award will be really good to get the word out about what they’re doing.
“It’s very, very exciting,” said Michael.
“Last year we won for our pasture-raised chicken, so it shows we have a good quality product.”
For the full story see this week’s edition of The Leader.
