DUMFRIES and Galloway has a lot to celebrate on the food and drink front with a host of craft distilleries and artisan food outlets picking up top awards for their quality products.
Regional food organisation DG Food and Drink has congratulated five local food and drink producers who have been recognised at national awards over the last week.
The Earth’s Crust Bakery has just been named as a finalist in the Best Producer category of the prestigious BBC Food and Farming Awards, the highest-profile food award in the UK. To make the final shortlist of three, the artisan bakery based in Castle Douglas beat thousands of nominations, including 400 for other bakeries alone. The nomination will shine a national spotlight on The Earth’s Crust Bakery and Castle Douglas Food Town when they feature in BBC Radio 4’s Food Programme later this year.
Meanwhile, four food and drink businesses won major prizes at the Scottish Rural Awards which took place in Edinburgh last week.
Loch Arthur Camphill Community social enterprise was named as Scotland’s top Artisan Food Business, Waulkmill Cider from Langholm won Scotland’s Artisan Drink Producer, beating off tough competition from two of the region’s other top drink producers, Annandale Distillery and Sulwath Brewers, who were also finalists.
Cream o’ Galloway dairy and visitor centre won the Rural Tourism award and Roan’s Dairy from Dalbeattie was runner up in the Rural Enterprise Category.
At the tourism “Oscars”, the Scottish Thistle Awards, Laggan Outdoor Activity Centre at Gatehouse of Fleet was awarded Best Visitor Attraction, and the Brookford B&B in StJohn’s Town of Dalry scooped the Most Hospitable B&B/Guesthouse award.
Lorna Young, from DG Food and Drink, said the awards showed the strength of the local artisan food and drink sector. She added: “Dumfries and Galloway is one of Scotland’s most important food-producing regions and it is fantastic to see our artisan producers being recognised on the national stage. These are remarkable achievements and are a testament to the dedication, passion and commitment to quality of our craft producers.
“Scotland’s food and drink industry is going through a period of rapid growth. Our region is playing a part in that national success and there are significant opportunities opening up for our local businesses.”
The area is also hosting Europe’s first International Dark Skies Conference in September and is likely to be the first region in Scotland to switch to fully LED street lighting, supporting the dark sky status of the Galloway Forest and Moffat, which could make the whole region the first dark sky reserve in Europe.
Stranraer Oyster Festival will launch in September – Scotland’s only oyster festival, focusing on the Loch Ryan sea loch, which has Scotland’s only wild, native oyster fisheries. Stranraer Development Trust has just won funding for the community project.
The Peter Pan Moat Brae Trust has just secured all the funds it needs to refurbish the historic property where JM Barrie lived as a teenager, ahead of the creation of a National Centre for Children’s Literature and Storytelling in Dumfries.
Dumfries Camera Club is celebrating its 70th anniversary year with a People of D&G initiative.
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