Success for Northern Ireland in UK Farm Produce Awards

Two Northern Irish artisan enterprises have won recognition in the UK Farm Produce Awards 2015. Abernethy Butter was highly commended by the judges in the Dairy category for its handmade and rolled creamery butter; and Harnett's Oils was also highly commended for its rapeseed oil in the Cooking Oils section.

Abernethy Butter, based at Dromara in county Down, is run by husband and wife team Will and Allison Abernethy and specialises in hand churning, rolling and packing of creamey butter using milk from a local farm. The company has developed a range of three butters - original, smoked and seaweed and sea salt flavoured.

Abernethy has won a series of awards for the taste and wholesomeness of its butters including Great Taste Awards. It also makes dairy fudge and a brandy sauce for the Christmas market.

Harnett's Oil is another family run business based near Banbridge in county Down. The company grows oil seed rape, cold presses and bottles rapeseed and other culinary oils on the family farm which has been owned by the Harnett family since 1656. It also produces hemp, linseed and sunflower oils on the farm.

The small company has won Great Taste and National Irish Food awards.

The Farm Produce Awards is a competition organised by Great British Food magazine and is now in its second year. The awards were judged by chefs and other industry experts including Nathan Outlaw, Rosemary Shrager, Jimmy Doherty and Valentine Warner.

The awards were developed to provide a platform for the "skilled, passionate - and often unsung - artisans behind the nation's finest speciality food and drink."

From cheese and bacon to beer and oil, the 14 award categories represented the huge spectrum of fine farm produce on the market. The judges were tasked to identify "products with stellar British credentials". Close attention was paid by the judges to the provenance of the ingredients.