A MULTI award-winning family-run Somerset farm shop is celebrating after scooping eight new 2024 Taste of the West Awards for its homemade products with four category golds and four silvers (May 2024).
Rumwell Farm Shop on the A38 between Taunton and Wellington was given the awards for items made onsite with some featuring meat from livestock hand-reared on its own farm.
Partner at the Farm Shop, Anne Mitchell says: “We’re so delighted to have won these fabulous awards and to have so many golds and silvers.
“These are wonderful achievements that really demonstrate the commitment and attention to detail shown by everyone in our team – not just here in our shop but also on our family farm, which is just a few miles away.
“Nearly every department on site scooped an accolade for a Made at Rumwell product this year and we’re particularly overjoyed for our Gluten Free (GF) Kitchen team who have won two 2024 awards and are really going from strength to strength in terms of product range and recognition.
“Our team is highly motivated and driven to create delicious products for our customers to enjoy. We would like to thank each and every one of them for their hard work, dedication and expertise.”
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.
Sophie Mitchell, Farm Shop Partner, explains: “We won golds for our Bakery-made fruity teacakes, our Butchery’s dry cured smoked back bacon – featuring our own farm-reared, free-range pork – and our Deli’s chicken and ham pie.
“We also won gold for our gluten free toffee apple crumble tart, baked in our inhouse bespoke GF Kitchen. We scooped silvers for our GF milk chocolate teacake, our Bakery mince pies, our Jam Kitchen pink grapefruit marmalade and our Butchery free range pork and apple burger.
“All these awards are just brilliant. It’s particularly wonderful to receive recognition for our Butchery products that are made from pork from our pigs who lead happy outdoor lives on our farm just four miles from our shop.
“We started our GF Kitchen around 18 months ago and are so delighted to have received these two awards this year.
“These items that have received awards 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.”
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.
The Shop has a traditional Butchery counter selling its home-reared and free-range pork and Rumwell Angus beef. 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.
In 2023, the farm shop picked-up Taste of the West Awards for its homemade products including six category Golds for its bakery-made sourdough loaf and rock cakes, its Butchery beef burgers – featuring its own farm Angus beef – and its lamb burgers.
The team also won gold for its gluten free bread, baked inhouse in its bespoke GF Kitchen, and its Countryman’s Pickle, made by its onsite Jam Kitchen team. It was commended for a further two products – the Bakery’s Biscoff doughnut and the Deli’s chilli and spring onion Scotch egg, using eggs laid by its farm hens.
To add to this, Rumwell Farm Shop received a prestigious Gold Award in the Farm Shop category at the Taste of the West Awards.
It was then named ‘Champion’ Best Farm Shop at the south west Taste of the West finals in November 2023 and also scooped the top prize for its instore made Butchery beef burgers, using beef from its farm.
It was also a finalist in the Large Farm Shop of the Year category in the 2023 national Farm Retail Awards and won nine Taste of the West Golds in 2022 for its Shop, Café and products too. Its dry cured back bacon was given the title of overall Champion Bacon in the 2022 Taste of the West Awards as well.
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.
