AN AWARD-WINNING family-run Somerset farm shop is celebrating this month after picking-up eight new 2023 Taste of the West Awards for its homemade products including six category golds (July 2023).
Rumwell Farm Shop on the A38 between Taunton and Wellington received the awards for items made onsite by its team – some featuring meat from livestock hand-reared on its own farm.
Anne Mitchell, Partner at the Farm Shop, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled to have won all these awards and to have gained so many golds. It demonstrates the dedication displayed by all our team – not just here at our shop but also on our farm, which is just up the road.
“Everyone works exceptionally hard to deliver outstanding products and they are all so committed to creating something special for our customers to enjoy. I would like to thank the whole team who individually have made all this possible, through their commitment and expertise.
“We won golds for our Bakery-made sourdough loaf and rock cakes. Our Butchery took golds for our beef burgers – featuring our own farm Angus beef – and our lamb burgers.
“We also won gold for our gluten free bread, baked in our inhouse bespoke GF Kitchen, and our Countryman’s Pickle, made by our onsite Jam Kitchen team. We were also commended for a further two products – our Bakery’s Biscoff doughnut and our Deli’s chilli and spring onion Scotch egg.
“All these awards are just brilliant. It’s particularly wonderful to receive recognition for our beef burgers, which are made inhouse by our Butchery from hand-reared cattle that live content lives on our farm just four miles from the shop. Our wonderful Deli makes the Scotch eggs inhouse using our eggs, laid by our happy hens and with pork from our free-range pigs.
“We’re famous for our doughnuts but are also well-known for producing wonderful bread and cakes here onsite in our Bakery too, so it was great to get awards for these this year. Just over a year ago we started producing our gluten free range and we’re really delighted to have received an accolade so soon for our GF bread.
“All these items are part of our Made at Rumwell range, which includes hundreds of products created with love onsite. They often showcase ingredients we grow or raise on our family-run farm or, wherever possible, come from Somerset and the Westcountry suppliers and producers.”
Taste of the West, established in 1991, is the regional food and drink trade organisation for the South West of England.
It rewards the region’s exceptional food and drink identity and works to develop the very best of the area’s industry.
Rumwell Farm Shop is an independent, family-run, award-winning business owned by the Mitchell family. It was originally a potato store, when David and Anne Mitchell began selling their potatoes and free-range eggs at the gate more than 25 years ago.
Due to customer demand, the range of products soon increased, and the Farm Shop grew into the place it is today. David and Anne’s sons, James and Jack, are now also involved in the business, as well as their wives, Sophie and Donna.
Rumwell Farm Shop won nine Taste of the West Gold Awards in 2022 for its Shop and Café and also for some of its made onsite products. It was also a finalist in the Large Farm Shop of the Year category in the 2023 national Farm Retail Awards.
The Shop has a traditional Butchery counter selling its home-reared and free-range pork and Rumwell Angus beef. Its dry cured back bacon was given the title of overall Champion Bacon in the 2022 Taste of the West Awards.
Also onsite is the new, purpose-built Rumwell Orchard events space, a Delicatessen, Bakery, Jam Kitchen, Food Hall, Wine Cellar, Gluten Free Kitchen, Food To Go service and Gift Room.
The food prepared in the Café kitchen is sourced from the Farm Shop, the Mitchell family farm, which is just four miles away, and other regional suppliers. The Café kitchen has Coeliac UK’s Gluten Free accreditation.
For more information, please call Rumwell Farm Shop on 01823 461599 or visit www.rumwellfarmshop.com.
