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(l-r) FUW Montgomeryshire county chairman Mark Williams with Ithyl and Lynda Brown and FUW president Glyn Roberts[/caption]
Farmers’ Union of Wales members Lynda and Ithyl Brown, who run the well-known Neuadd Fach Baconry, Llandinam, are celebrating after striking gold twice in the 2015 Great Taste Awards, the Oscars of the food world.
The company won the coveted gold awards, organised annually by the Guild of Fine Food, for its Lemon and chilli sausage and bacon wrap and thin cut shoulder bacon, taking its collection of Great Taste Awards to 31.
The delicious products are produced from pigs grown and cured by the couple on the family farm in Llandinam.
“It still gives us a buzz when we win a Great Taste Award ,” said Lynda after receiving the award.
“We have been making the sausage and bacon wraps for a while now, and they are proving very popular with our customers. So we were thrilled to win an award for them which underlines the quality of our product.
“We pride ourselves on personally handling the whole process from farm to customer and that is how we know that what we produce and supply is a totally delicious product from well looked-after pigs.”
FUW president Glyn Roberts, who sampled some of the chilli and lemon sausages at a recent BBQ, which was organised by the union during the National Eisteddfod, said: “I must congratulate Lynda and Ithyl on their achievement and recommend their products as being most delicious. I further thank them for donating the sausages and burgers for our BBQ at the National Eisteddfod, which was held to welcome our new Montgomeryshire county executive officer Emyr Wyn Davies to the union. ”
Having run the business for 20 years, the Browns have recently begun hosting visits for local groups who can see how the pigs are reared and how the products are cured.
The couple have been keeping pigs at Neuadd Fach since 1986 and started the Baconry in 1999 when pig prices collapsed and they were losing £10 a pig.
The business was then badly affected by the foot and mouth crisis in 2001 and they were unable to send anything to the abattoir for 10 weeks. This caused terrible problems with overcrowding as of course the pigs kept coming.
“Thanks to financial help with the cost of the additional feed by RABI and then the RSPCA to help us offload the pigs because of the overcrowding, we were able to continue our business and are pleased to see it go from strength to strength.
“We are now in a position where we can take people on tours around the business and it is nice to see that people are very interested in where their food comes from and how it’s produced. We have had wonderful reactions to the tours and welcome visitors who are interested in trying our produce,” added Mrs Brown.