West Sussex Farm Shop takes home four Great Taste Awards

Smoked Back Bacon, Unsmoked Back Bacon, Unsmoked Streaky Bacon and Smoked Dry-Cured Streaky Bacon, produced by Sky Park Farm Butchery in Harting, were all awarded a two-star prize at this year’s ceremony.

It’s a big win for the farm shop, marking it out as one of the best food producers in the UK in a competition with more than 14,000 entries. Each of the four expert judges were blown away by the products on offer: “The bacon was very well smoked and succulent…looks great and is cut well, with a great proportion of meat to fat,” one said of the Smoked Dry-Cured Streaky Bacon. Describing the back bacon, another said: “These are succulent pieces of bacon.”

The products are made onsite at Sky Park Farm itself, by resident butcher Hawie Jooste. Trained in Johannesburg, He’s worked throughout South Africa and in a number of locales in the UK, often specialising in product development at leading outlets like Harrods and Harvey Nichols. He’s proud to produce bacon using traditional methods like dry-curing and takes care to ensure meat is perfectly salted and smoked.

“I take pride in my work, customer feedback is always important to me and the combination has resulted in these Great Taste Awards - international recognition - which I am thrilled about. I have been a part of the Sky Park team since its inauguration, it’s an exceptional set-up always striving for the best and the business certainly deserves a place as a leader in the UK food and drink world.”

Sky Park owner Pierce Noonan added: “This is a tremendous moment for the team; being recognised as a Great Taste award-winner means so much to independent producers. Several years of hard work and determination are behind these stars and our decision to invest in our experts has certainly come to fruition. Hawie and his team deserve the recognition and as a relative newcomer to the UK’s Farm Shop market, Sky Park has been acknowledged alongside the very best.”

All four of the award-winning bacons are available to purchase at the Sky Park Farm Shop at £14 per kg.