A Taste of Lancashire at Fine Food North

Lancashire producers served up a slice of success at this year’s Fine Food Show North. Marketing Lancashire introduced six producers to the prestigious event as part of the Taste Lancashire campaign to fly the flag for the county’s food and drink.

Culinary snails from the Forest of Bowland, exotic drinks made from fruit and flowers and rapeseed oil grown on an historic Lancashire farm as well as the tastiest cheeses, craft beers and gins caught the attention of food experts at the trade show, organised by the Guild of Fine Food. BBC food and drink presenter Nigel Barden (pictured right) as well as 1,300 buyers from some of the country’s leading food retailers, wholesalers, farm shops and delis visited the Taste Lancashire stand.

Leanne Aspinall of L’Escargotiere, Lancashire’s first snail farm, said: “The show was very successful. We had lots of interest and were pleasantly surprised at the amount of people that wanted to try our snails, many that hadn’t had the opportunity to try them before.
“It was a pleasure to meet Radio 2 resident foodie Nigel Barden.  He is a lovely man who showed great interest in our business. We are grateful to him for the coverage he gave us and to Marketing Lancashire for giving us this opportunity.”

Clare Wignall, from Wignalls Yallo rapeseed oil said: “We had a great three days, met lots of potential customers and the people we spoke to loved the quality of our products and our story. It was great to be promoting Lancashire products with some other amazing producers.”
Calyx Drinks founder, Raphael Ogunrinde, said: “We found the event very helpful and it has enlightened us a bit more about retail. It was an opportunity to have face-to-face conversations with business owners, managers and buyers. Those people we would have found challenging to get our product story across to on usually business working days.”

Lancashire attracts over 67 million annual visitors and many of these are drawn to the county by the excellence of food and drink experiences, thanks to an abundance of quality local produce on the doorstep.

Anna Izza, Head of PR and Communications for Marketing Lancashire said, “We were delighted to introduce such a diverse group of food producers, all passionate about putting Lancashire food and drink on the map, to the many influential and informed food-lovers at Fine Food North.

“Marketing Lancashire has led on ‘meet the buyer’ events in Lancashire but our aim at this three-day trade event was to extend our reach outside the county and raise awareness of the new Taste Lancashire campaign.

“Our producers met with buyers from big name retailers and chefs as well as farm shops, delis and cafes dedicated to local products and food provenance.  Together, we have a lot to talk about in Lancashire and now we’re seeing our ambition to take Lancashire food and drink to a much wider audience come to fruition, with real benefits for our producers in new contacts and sales.”

For more information about Taste Lancashire please contact: Anna Izza, Head of PR and Communications, Marketing Lancashire Tel: 01772 426459 [email protected] or
Emma Mayoh, PR and communications executive, Marketing Lancashire Tel 01772 426456 [email protected]

Bowland Brewery at Holmes Mill

Bowland Brewery’s ales of outstanding natural beauty are brewed at Holmes Mill, where a dedicated team of artisan brewers craft a collection of cask beers inspired by the landscape of the Forest of Bowland, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Bowland Brewery started life as a microbrewery on the edge of the edge of the Forest of Bowland, making a selection of beers named after the scenery and wildlife of this picturesque corner of Lancashire.  Beers like Hen Harrier, Boxer Blonde and Pheasant Plucker have quickly established themselves among local ale aficionados – earning the brewery a string of awards.They relocated to larger premises at Holmes Mill, where visitors are welcome to tour the brewery and sample their ales in the fabulous surroundings of the Bowland Beer Hall.

Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses

Richard & Annie Butler used milk from their own herd to make cheese by hand in the farmhouse kitchen – cheese was even matured in the family bedrooms! Now their granddaughter Gill runs the business, and the milk which makes their award winning cheese still comes from the family farm – thanks to Gill’s brother, Andrew.
As much care and love goes into hand-making cheese at Butlers Wilson Fields Farm today as it did then and Butlers Farmhouse Cheeses continue to wow chefs, cheese experts and loyal fans with a raft of awards won at the world’s most prestigious cheese shows every year.

Calyx Drinks

Calyx Drinks Ltd is a soft drinks manufacturer located in Burnley, Lancashire.  Flowers are at the heart of Calyx Drinks. The company’s name was derived from a flower’s ‘Calyx’ which is the green outer whorl of a flower that encloses the petals and forms a protective layer around a flower in bud.

Calyx offers a collection of floral products that capture the essence, symbolism, healthy wellbeing and cultural values flowers bring to people. Calyx makes natural fruit brew drinks and food condiments from flowers, fruits and spices. Passionate about flowers, natural ingredients and wellbeing. Calyx present a refreshing healthy drinks option to the mainstream market. Ingredients are rich in antioxidants, vitamins A, B and C along with phenolic phytonutrients and anthocyanins. Hibiscus flower, Ginger and Stevia historically have been suggested to have health benefits such as improving cardiac health, treating nausea and weight loss.

Cuckoo Gin, Brindle Distillery

The Cuckoo story begins on a cold, dreary day in the village of Brindle. Suddenly the mood is lifted by the heart-warming call of a cuckoo in a local field. Spring! Now the crafty villagers hatch a plan. They build a wall around the field to keep the cuckoo in the village, for this will surely bring them good farming weather all year round. Sadly, the wall isn’t built high enough and the cuckoo escapes.

To this day, anyone born and bred in Brindle is known as a ‘Brindle Cuckoo’. The name that has inspired this new Lancashire gin from a family firmly rooted in Lancashire farming heritage.

Cuckoo gin is infused with sustainably and ethically sourced botanicals including juniper, coriander, grapefruit peel, orange peel, oats, almonds, cardamom, chamomile and cinnamon which give our original gin its unique taste.

Spiced Cuckoo Gin has warming aromatics on the nose and palate, our Lancashire Spiced Sip delivers instant spiced warmth to help with the cold nights!  Clove, ginger, cinnamon, fennel and lemongrass are followed by spicy Tellicherry black pepper (considered the finest pepper in the world) then mellowed with hints of jasmine, fig, rosehips and the unmistakable scent of tonka beans.

L’Escargotière

L’Escargotière (Bowland) Ltd is a snail farm based in the Forest of Bowland in Waddington, Lancashire.  They breed the finest quality snails then deliver to a range of eating establishments including superior restaurants, prestigious hotels, pubs and not forgetting domestic kitchens direct from their base in the beautiful Forest of Bowland.

Future plans include opening a Deli containing other snail products including snail salami, snail pate, jars of snails with a range of different sauces, a visitor and information centre to offer educational day trips for families and schools.

Wignalls Yallo

Producer of rapeseed oil with true farm-to-fork provenance, Wignalls Yallo have the passion and expertise which goes into maintaining a sustainability-focused farm and producing top quality rapeseed products. Yallo is a single seed variety oil, sown, grown, and harvested on previously neglected land recently brought back to life and pressed on site. The sustainability story is a lesson to us all.

Yallo produce Cold Pressed Rapeseed oil in 5lt and 500ml bottle (Great Taste Winner), and 250ml bottles with a natural infusion, Cornish Sea Salt & Rosemary, Garlic & Garden Herb, Lemon & Thyme (Great Taste winner) and Habanero Chilli.