Meet Some Of Our Fab Local Food And Drink Suppliers
We love championing local, quality produce and we'll continue our quest to enhance our offering by finding the best suppliers in Devon!
In this months blog, we meet a few of our regular suppliers, who tell us more about their Devon food or drink business and why quality and provenance is so important to them.
Susie Hodgkin - Commercial Director, talks to us about Granny Gothards delicious ice cream and sorbets
Where are you based and how long has your business been established?
It's in Willand, in the heart of the beautiful rolling hills of Devon that, since 2012, our team has been creating and churning the Granny Gothards ice creams and sorbets. As artisan ice cream makers, we believe in adding nothing artificial and using only the very finest natural ingredients to make our amazing ices.
Quality and creativity are our driving forces to bring you our multi award winning products and as the Company goes from strength to strength, we continue to make our ices in the same traditional way but on a larger scale.
Can you tell us about your business and what you do?
We produce award winning artisan ice cream and sorbets specifically for food-led establishments who pride themselves on quality and provenance of ingredients. A huge advantage of Granny Gothards is that we are made for Chefs, with Chefs rather than for the retail market therefore the calibre is head and shoulders above and won’t be found on the shelves of all the supermarkets.
Our milk comes in from the first milking at the very local Oak Park Dairy, Devon double cream, rich Clarence Court egg yolk and then the very best of seasonal produce with great care taken in sourcing. No skimmed milk powders, colourings, flavourings, preservatives – natural, pure and powerful flavours
We work closely with leading Chefs and Caterers in producing exclusive ice creams for their menus and have 200+ stunning flavours of ice creams and sorbets (including plant based) our Epicurean Range. From the much loved favourites to the “weird and wonderful” including Coconut & Charcoal ice cream, Sour Cherry sorbet, Caramelized Walnut ice cream and Smoked White Chocolate, their ice creams can be fully tailored to the dessert.
Have you won any awards?
An abundance! Most recently we’ve scooped up 7 Golds in the Taste of the West Awards with the Supreme Champion Crown for best ice cream in the West Country, 2021, with our Salted Honey ice cream. Our Strawberries & Cream was crowned the Best Food Product in The Food Drink Devon Awards, 2022. In total, we have won over a hundred awards for our Products from Highly Commended in the Great British Food Awards to Board of Trade Export Champions. We are as proud of our first award as we are of our last!
What do you love about being a food producer in Devon?
The incredible suppliers that we work with supplying us the most awesome ingredients to work with – from the milk and cream to our packaging suppliers and most importantly – our brilliant team in Production making the ice creams. It’s a very special County with an abundance of wonderful suppliers, Restaurants and Chefs to work with. We pinch ourselves everyday that we are part of this Devon Heaven!
Mark Smedley - Partner, talks to us about his family business.
Where are you based and how long has your business been established?
We're based near Sidmouth, in Devon and have been established since 1962. We are a family run business, and the farm which includes 70 acres of orchards, is now in its third generation of the Smedley family.
Can you tell us about your farm and what you do?
Four Elms produce premium quality eating apples (14 varieties in total), a range of 7 multi-award-winning Real Devonshire juices and we have most recently broken into the cider market!
At Four Elms Fruit Farm, we take great pride in supporting the environment in and around the farm and orchards, and we recently became an ambassador for the 'East Devon Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty'.
Have you won any awards?
Four Elms Cox and Bramley juice is currently the NATIONAL CHAMPION apple juice for 2 years running! Furthermore, at this year’s Taste of the West Awards, Four Elms won 6 gold medals for our apple juices and ciders. We have many years of experience in the industry our team's passion and dedication to quality has paid off which these amazing accolades.
-What do you love most about being a food and drink producer in Devon?
The beautiful landscape of East Devon is hard to rival. It’s a pleasure to work in such a stunning environment.
(Formally Dart Fresh Produce Ltd)
Chris Gillard - Business Development Manager, tells us more.
Where are you based and how long has your business been established?
In 1957 The Dart family founded ‘Dart Fresh Produce’ in the very same site we still occupy and operate from today. The site is located just off the River Clyst in Topsham and was originally set up as a wholesale Fruit and Vegetable merchant. Shortly after in 1970 they began to supply recognised supermarkets such as Tesco and Marks & Spencer with fresh produce. In 1984 Geoff Pritchard took over the running of the business along with his son John, who now runs the business along with his Sons and Son in law Ben, George and Jamie.
Can you tell us about your business and what you do?
In 2014 Dart fresh began the journey from Fruit and Vegetable merchants to Foodservice and shortly after introduced the butchery offering to the range. During Covid we were fortunate enough to find some very skilled professionals with a wealth of experience in fresh fish, so it was then the Fresh Fish operation began. We now take great pride in supporting local farmers, fishermen and produces all over the South West.... dare I say it but we’ve become the ‘local one stop shop.’
Provenance is key to everything that we do. We prioritise local producers who have a fantastic product, and we also work very closely with many local and national growers, so we can guarantee the best quality British produce throughout the seasons.
What do you love about being a food provider in Devon?
At the site you can see local farmers delivering daily supplying lovely locally grown fruit and vegetables or even our vans arriving with the morning's catch from Brixham and other ports in the South West. This is what makes us so popular with Chefs all over the South West as they are able to get all their fresh produce on one van, coupled with our personal service, it truly does make us unique.
Have you won any awards?
After a lot of hard work we have been highly rewarded in the past few years with some very flattering awards. We have won several Taste of the West gold awards for our meat and fish along with several other awards for adapting our business to support vulnerable families during the lockdowns.
The biggest reward will always be the daily feedback we get from our customers such as Rockbeare Manor. For us being able to champion so many local producers and so many local businesses serving fantastic dishes is what makes it all worthwhile.
Thank you to the food suppliers that we have featured in our blog this month - we love working with you!
All our delicious menus, created from scratch, by our talented chefs can be found by clicking here.
Originally published:
Wedding Brochure
If you are getting married we have a beautiful wedding brochure that we would just love to pop in the post to you.
