Win a £400 hamper filled with Dorset’s Local Flavours!

The New Year will see the start of a new monthly column in the BV Magazine, celebrating the importance of local food production and the work of the organisations and businesses that promote it.

Local Flavours will feature news from the food and drink scene across the Blackmore Vale (and a little further), with interviews, the latest products, information on where to buy the best local and seasonal food and drink, updates on special or regular events, some tasty history from Dorset’s archives and kitchens – and the occasional recipe to stimulate you to try something new. And we’re thrilled to have persuaded Fanny Charles, author of the original Local Flavours column and long time editor of the original Blackmore Vale Magazine, to write it! Fanny was one of the founders and organisers of Screen Bites Food Film Festival, co-founder of the Dorset Festival of Food and Art, was Dorset Food and Farming Hero 2017, and is a judge and co-ordinator for the Guild of Fine Food’s Great Taste Awards. 

What’s the story behind Dorset’s famous Blue Vinny Cheese? When and where is your nearest farmers market? What label tells you something’s genuinely been made in Dorset by a local producer? You’ve heard of black garlic – but what would you do with it? Who was Sir Kenelm Digby – and why is he important in food history? You see “Free from …” labels and signs in supermarkets and there are allergy warnings on pub and restaurant pub menus. Many dishes and bakes are defined as gluten-free, but what does it mean to be coeliac, and which Dorset bakers have built their careers on creating fabulous pies, tarts, cakes and cookies which are safe for sufferers of this incurable condition?

From some of the world’s greatest cheeses (OK we’re prejudiced, we love farmhouse Cheddar – and Blue Vinny, of course) to award-winning gin, from organic farm products to the area’s best food festivals and fairs … Local Flavours will be serving up some interesting and appetising treats.

To celebrate the launch we’ve spoken to some of the myriad of local artisan food producers we have featured since launching the BV three years ago – and with their help we have put together a hamper filled to the brim with local produce, worth more than £400 for one lucky BV reader to win for Christmas!

We need to thank the following producers for their generosity and support:

• Felthams Farm – Four cheese coffer
• Meggy Moos – selection of milk, cream and butter
• Ajar Of – selection of preserves and a Christmas Pudding
• Wild and Game – Luxury pate gift set
• Chococo – Large festive chocolate collection
• Book & Bucket Cheese Company – Classic hamper
• Weymouth 51 – selection of sauces and preserves
• Little Waddon Vineyard – a bottle of Three Summers 2018 Brut
• Stony Groves – Zesty Kampot Spice Blend and Spice Mill
• The Watercress Company – watercress plus vouchers
• Brace of Butchers – Joint of beef
• Honeybuns – selection of cakes and biscuits
• Christine’s Puddings – Christmas puddings
• Tack Room Distillery – London dry gin
• Shroton Fair Gin – Zummit Dry
• Rawston Farm Butchery & Shop – Christmas Cake
• Virginia Hayward – one very large wicker hamper!

How To Enter

To be in with a chance to win the Local Flavours Dorset Hamper, just answer the question in the widget box below – and as there’s gin and wine in the hamper we also have to check you’re over 18, sorry!

There are more chances to win by completing the other entry options if you so wish – they’re entirely up to you! The closing date for this competition is 14th December 2023 and only entries received on or before that date can be included. The prize will go to the first randomly chosen entry, and we will arrange to deliver the hamper the weekend of the 15th December. Good luck!