Marmalade Awards
May 04, 2017
The Proper Marmalade Company scoops the inaugural Mackays Award for Artisan Excellence.
All serious artisan marmalade makers want the prestigious stickers awarded at the WMA held in Cumbria at Dalemain House in March. Judged by some of the leading lights of preserve making (Pam Corbin and Dan Lepard to name but 2) these awards aim to encourage improvement and award quality.
Victoria Cranfield of the Proper Marmalade Company has been entering these awards for several years and her stable of marmalades have an impressive tally of awards including the Double Gold (chosen from the gold winners) twice for her Pink Grapefruit marmalade and the Tawny Seville.
This year, not only did every marmalade she entered receive recognition , 3 gold, 4 silver, 4 bronze and 1 highly commended but she was surprised with the Mackays Artisan Excellence Award being awarded here for the first time to the small producer who the judges felt demonstrated the highest quality of production, presentation and manufacturing.
Victoria said "I am absolutely delighted! I tend to live and breathe marmalade and so know the standard of the competition out there. It is just so nice to have our hard work recognised in this way. Without my two right hand marmalade preparers Shirley and Justine I couldn’t make the number of jars I do, they take the slog while I do the easier bit. We wouldn’t even have been in the running if my daughter Robin hadn’t insisted on the rebranding (which she designed )as the award came after scrutiny of the website and branding. I am so lucky that we have such a strong team.
We are just opening a marmalade shop and moving the business out of home. I’d been looking for premises and came across a little shop in Ilfracombe, and when it opens – hopefully just after Easter – we’ll be cooking at the back and selling at the front with everything available to taste. As I am an ice cream lover we are collaborating with Sam of Tennacott Farm who has a dairy on her parents farm to make 4 different marmalade ice creams, a truly local collaboration. We hope the shop will become a mini tourist destination in its own right in due course. Slowly but surely we’ll have “The Proper Marmalade Shop” established."
Martin Grant, MD of Mackays said: “Well done to all the winners of this year’s World Marmalade Awards 2017. It’s been another successful year of marmalade making which Mackays is so proud to be a part of yet again. I would like to take this opportunity to personally congratulate Victoria Cranfield of the Proper Marmalade Company, the first winner of the ‘Mackays Award for Artisan Excellence’. You really have set the bar high for future contestants.”
Notes
The World Marmalade Awards are held in Dalemain House Cumbria and run by Jane Hassel McCosh
The Proper Marmalade Shop will open Thursday to Saturday for Easter and the season from 11-4.00
At 9 Belgrave Promenade, Wilder Road, Ilfracombe, EX34 9AS