Somerset farmer is cream of the crop (From South West Farmer)

Somerset farmer is cream of the crop

3:50pm Sunday 17th January 2010

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A SOMERSET farmer who started turning a profit by turning his sheep’s milk into ice cream has scooped a top regional award.

David Baker has been named South West producer of the year in the annual awards from Taste of the West, Britain’s largest and most dynamic local food marketing group.

Judges praised his constant search for innovation and the way he had expanded and extended the operation of Styles Farmhouse Ice Cream, now one of the country’s best-known local brands.

David diversified into producing ice cream from sheep’s milk more than 20 years ago in an a bid to lift the fortunes of the Crown Estate holding where he farms on the edge of the Brendon Hills.

His first range of products was an immediate success, particularly for consumers with an allergy to cows’ milk, but the output has been steadily expanded to include sorbets, a range of conventional dairy ice creams and, latterly, Slim Ewe: a low-fat iced dessert (too low in fat to be legally called ice cream) which is selling briskly to calorie-conscious consumers.

Styles Farmhouse Ice Cream is now sold right across the UK and into European markets including Portugal, Ireland and Malta and the full-time staff of 12 expands to more than 70 every summer when local students are recruited to man its fleet of vans.

The Taste of the West award is the second major achievement for David this year: in July Styles Farmhouse Ice Cream was named supreme food and drink champion by the Royal Agricultural Society of England at the last-ever Royal Show at Stoneleigh.

But, said David, the latest accolade is a particularly highly-valued one. “We’ve been members of Taste of the West almost from its inception, and we are well aware of how the South West has not merely been leading the upsurge in local food revolution but has been partly responsible for transforming the nation’s eating habits,” he said.

“It’s largely due to the high-quality craft produce that has been flowing out of all corners of the South West that the British consumer has finally started to turn away from industrial foods and begun to appreciate what fabulous produce they can access from local producers. It has been claimed that the South West is home to more specialist food producers per square mile than any comparable region in the world: to collect this award in that particular arena is about as good as it gets.”

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