THE Country Butcher in Huntley and Andy Creese Butchers, Newent, have taken home 14 medals between them, plus three prestigious 'Champion' titles, after a trade awards event.

David Tomlins, from The Country Butcher, topped both the home cured bacon category with his 'Blackened Bacon' and the home cured gammon category with 'Sweet Cured Gammon'.

Husband and wife team at Andy Creese Butchers attended the event hoping to get some constructive feedback from the judges on several of their newly introduced ready meals.

The couple were pleasantly surprised, however, to discover that all three dishes entered achieved gold awards, with their 'Lamb Tagine' being awarded the champion prize.

David, who triumphed with his 'Sweet Cured Gammon' for the second year running, said: "I launched the gammon last year in support of our pig farmers and the product has gone from strength to strength. Not only is it popular with our customers, but the judges thought it was the best in the category for the second year running, which is quite an achievement.

"This year my new product was Blackened Bacon, made from pork loin which is dry cured with black treacle. I'm very pleased with the fact that I can create a new product and it is able to achieve such an award the first time round.

"I'm now in the process of the getting ready for Bacon Connoisseurs Week (19-25 March) when I plan to launch another three or four new bacon products, including 'Rum-cured Bacon'. I will have tasters available in my shop during the Week for customers to try."

Sally Creese said: "We have only been making ready meals for a short period of time, so I wasn't expecting this at all! It's also only the second time we have entered our products into a competition, which makes it even more pleasing.

"We normally make two or three varieties of ready meals a week using around a kilo of meat for each, so currently it is only a small scale operation. The Lamb Tagine is cooked slowly with spices, chick peas and prunes, and is either sold as a meal for one or we have a larger sized meal which will serve two to three people."

The BPEX regional roadshow took place at the Three Counties Showground, Malvern.

BPEX butchery and product development manager, Keith Fisher, said: "This was a great show with more than 180 products received from butchers and farm shops for evaluation. The standards were excellent, with almost all of the products receiving a gold, silver or bronze award – which clearly shows that butchers in the region produce some of the best meat products around."