THIS YEAR’S annual Pembrokeshire Produce Mark Awards has seen four local businesses congratulated for their food’s exceptional quality. 

On Wednesday (Aug 17), awards were presented to a gourmet pub, artisan butchery, sustainable restaurant and a microbrewery. The ceremony took place in the Food Hall at the Pembrokeshire Agricultural Show, Withybush, Haverfordwest.

The awards were announced by Cllr Tony Brinsden, Chairman of Pembrokeshire County Council.

The Pembrokeshire Produce Scheme has over 300 members, who are verified to ensure that the product they use or sell is made in Pembrokeshire.

The scheme is home to craftspeople and artists, food and drink producers, retail outlets which sell locally-made items, and hospitality establishments which use Pembrokeshire food and drink in their menus.

The ‘Best Use of Local Produce in a Hospitality Outlet’ category has seen two winners this year: Grub Kitchen, St Davids, and the Griffin Inn, Dale.

Grub Kitchen at St Davids, known for serving up dishes involving insects (referred to as entomophagy) is a leader at promoting sustainable local produce. Grub Kitchen is run by chef Andy Holcroft and is situated on The Bug Farm, a working farm visitor attraction and research centre in St Davids that supplies the k itchen with most of its produce, including Welsh Lamb, Welsh Black Beef and a variety of vegetables.

The Bug Farm is even due to house its own edible insects soon.

Despite not even being open for a year, Grub Kitchen has achieved Landmarc 100 status for rural innovation, and has also won the Social Entrepreneur Award from UnLtd, who provide support for social entrepreneurs.

Andy has developed a wonderful range of ‘best of’ dishes, with edible insects taking centre-stage on the menu.

Commenting on the importance of entomophagy, Andy said: “We’re all about sustainability at Grub Kitchen. It is widely estimated there will be between nine to 10 billion humans by the year 2050 and edible insects will help provide us with protein.

“We want to turn entomophagy from a novelty to normalcy and we can do all of that here in Pembrokeshire.”

Sian Mathias and Simon Vickers run the Griffin Inn at Dale, a traditional seaside pub that has become locally famous in recent years for its fantastic seafood and fresh fish.

In the Welsh Tourism Awards 2015, the Griffin Inn won silver in the ‘Best Place to Eat’ pub category, and also won ‘Best Seafood Establishment in Wales’ in the Food Awards Wales 2016.

When the couple moved to Dale six years ago (Sian’s previous hometown, where Simon spent many childhood holidays), owning a pub wasn’t an ambition at all. When the Griffin Inn became available, however, the pair couldn’t resist snapping it up and taking over their own seaside pub.

Thanks to the delicious seafood provided daily by fisherman Mark Gainfort in their own fishing boat, ‘The Griffin Girl’, the pub has become a staple as a welcoming food-lover destination.

Simon said the feedback had been fantastic. “People say they’ve been have been looking for somewhere like this for years. It’s just gone from strength to strength.”

Tenby Brewing Co. Ltd. have won the ‘Best New Product’ award.

Owners Rob Faulkner and James Beaven spent most of their lives in the bar and pub industry, both abroad and in the UK.

Bored and frustrated with the UK beer industry’s range of largely bland ales and tasteless lagers, the pair decided it was time to start brewing something more exciting.

At the end of March last year, they sold their first bottle of beer.

James said: “After eight months of planning, and many late nights reading and hounding other microbrewers, hop merchants and industry boffins for information, we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to purchase Preseli Brewery since the owner was retiring.”

Rob also commented: “Our mission is to brew interesting and full flavour beers using the best quality ingredients leaving as little impact on the environment as possible.”

Their variety of interesting beers include West Coast Rocks (‘WC Rocks’ being a term used by local kite surfers) and the Pembrokeshire Promise – ‘full of character yet light and easy drinking’.

The beers are stocked in parts of England and throughout North and South Wales.

Gwaun Valley Meats were the winners of ‘Best Online Marketing of Pembrokeshire Produce’.

William and Tina Evans had already operated the Pembrokeshire Spit Roast business for a number of years, but they decided to start up Gwaun Valley Meats, a small family-run butchers firm, in 2003.

The couple have won numerous awards since opening their butcher’s shop in Letterston in 2006, including a ‘True Taste of Wales’ reserve for their Gwaun Valley cooked ham and the ‘Great Taste: Best Welsh Speciality’ for their home-cured back bacon.

To expand further, towards the end of 2015 they developed an improved website offering a next-day delivery service of all their products across mainland Britain. The website, supported by a grant from Cywain, has seen a significant boost in their number of online customers.

Willliam said: “We’ve had orders from all over the country, including Cardiff, London and Scotland. It’s also been very successful in letting people know about our shop here if they are intending to come on holiday in Pembrokeshire, and to order more products from us when they return home.”

The new website was designed and developed by Leighton Phillips of Graphicwave, with photographs by Derek Phillips Photography.