Wye Valley Salads, from Ross-on-Wye, reached the National Final to represent the Midlands in the delicious Magazine Produce Awards.

Their Barba di Frate, Salads, Edible Flowers, and Heritage Tomatoes from Wye Valley Salads were just some the produce that earned them their place.

Starting 8 years ago as Veggies Galore, the company supply and produce in the beautiful Wye Valley, supplying local pubs, chefs and businesses, employing local people, and growing chemical free products.

To be even more eco-friendly, they use wool based packaging, with a bio-degradable cardboard box.

Their heritage tomatoes, with over eighty different varieties are not pumped with water and are full of flavour.

All the salads are hand-picked to order for the local chefs. Amanda’s Wye Valley Salads is a family run business, that has the help of chief veg taster, Wombat, the family Jack Russell.

The judges joined TV chef and author, Valentina Harris, at the award winning home appliance kitchen of Fisher & Paykel in front of a live audience at the Leamington Food & Drink Festival on the September 8th.

Delicious Produce Awards Editor, Karen Barnes, said: “The delicious Produce Awards were conceived to honour and champion the very best producers all around the UK. We’re delighted to be putting these top quality products through to our national finals, which will be judged in London, in October this year.

“The standard is higher than ever for our 2018 awards, so it’s a huge achievement for every shortlistee.”See this week’s paper for more stories like this, available in shops and as a Digital Edition now.