LOVE Local, Trust Local.

That’s the key message in a brand new awards event to celebrate the very best of honest Dorset food and drink.

The new awards have been launched by the Cossins family who own the Langton Arms and the Rawston Farm butchery and shop in North Dorset’s Tarrant Valley.

Barbara Cossins said: “With the whole world turned upside down by the Covid-19 pandemic there is no better time to embrace all that’s local.

“Now is a real opportunity to feed our families with nutritious food and drink we know we can trust.”

The awards were already planned for 2020, but disrupted like so much else.

The Love Local, Trust Local brand was created by the family in 2018 to label food that consumers can trust.

Every third year they host Open Farm Sunday on the family farm talking to as many local people as possible about the food they eat.

Barbara added: “Our visitors love knowing the story of their food, the miles it has travelled and that they are buying and eating genuine local produce.

“The awards are to recognise and celebrate small, independent businesses that genuinely support and embrace everything local in their food and drink production.

“At Love Local Trust Local we want to put consumer trust back into buying local, Dorset food with genuine provenance and full traceability.”

The awards will take place in the autumn and there are 12 categories to enter.

To be in with a chance of winning an accolade, the food must have been grown with love and care and to the highest ethical standards.

There must be full provenance and traceability and the food sourced from less than 30 miles of its origin. It should also foster community spirit and be good for the environment.

See lovelocaltrustlocalsawards.co.uk for more details.