Devon-based online butcher, Pipers Farm is celebrating a healthy haul of awards today as the Great Taste results are announced, taking home a highly coveted 3-star award for its Saddleback Neck Steak, alongside three other accolades. Described by the judges as “beautifully soft, with full frontal flavour”, the pork steaks are one of only 192 food and drink products to be named in this year's 3-star list, out of over 12,600 entries.

Other Great Taste stars have gone to products across the farm, with a 2-star rating awarded to the Greig family's Properly Free Range Duck, which spends its life roaming amongst lush Devon pasture, eating a natural diet of forage and whole grains. Pipers Farm's Properly Free Range Chicken, a bird that lives twice the length of most others, scooped a 1-star, while its Grass Fed Red Ruby Oxtail also took a 1-star, heralding the well-deserved comeback of this rich, gelatinous, nutritious and excellent value cut of meat.

It was the pork that was picked out for the highest praise though, described by the Great Taste judges as a “piggy steak with a gentle texture and gamey notes on the nose and at the end, a really delicious thing”. The panel made note of the Saddleback Neck Steak's “fantastic depth of flavour” and “great steak-like texture with porky complexity”, agreeing that “you can tell the time that has gone into the hanging” as they awarded the product Great Taste's highest star rating.

Peter Greig, founder of Pipers Farm, explains: “We're motivated by many things at Pipers Farm, from animal welfare and sustainable land management to the future of family run farms, but above all else our meat needs to taste fantastic. Pipers Farm meat must be a joy to eat in order to showcase the benefits of farming in harmony with nature, so we're delighted to have this massive stamp of approval from Great Taste. I'm always pleased to see less high profile cuts, like our Red Ruby Oxtail, getting their moment in the spotlight and we know that 3-star awards are like gold dust, so we're over the moon with that one. Our Saddleback pigs are reared by the Snell family, who have recently revitalised their farm through the re-introduction of traditional farming practices – and everyone is winning. The family is happy, the pigs are properly farrow and live outside for their entire lives and the land is benefitting into the bargain. Last and by no means least, we've also got some great tasting and nutritious meat for our families to enjoy.”

Pipers Farm's Saddleback Neck Steak, Properly Free Range Duck, Properly Free Range Chicken and Grass Fed Red Ruby Oxtail are all available to order from www.pipersfarm.com

For more press information about Pipers Farm or to arrange a press visit, please contact Amy Brice at Freshly Ground PR on 07717893123 or email amy@freshlygroundpr.co.uk.

Peter Greig will be joining a panel at Abergavenny Food Festival to discuss 'Resilient Farming in Volatile Times', alongside the likes of Guy Singh-Watson from Riverford and rural commentator Rob Yorke. To attend, please email Amy Brice at amy@freshlygroundpr.co.uk for more information.

Notes to editor

Founded in 1989 by Peter and Henri Greig, Pipers Farm produces slow-reared, properly free range and grass-fed meat on its 50-acre family-run farm near Exeter in Devon. Working in harmony with nature, Pipers Farm is a proud steward of its patch of the English countryside, farming native breeds that can digest and thrive on the clover-rich pastures that sweep across this dramatic landscape, resulting in flavoursome meat the way nature intended. Having farmed according to the same principles for the past three decades, Pipers Farm now works with 25 other small family-run farms across Devon and Somerset, helping to preserve their passion, knowledge and skills, while feeding families, sustaining communities and innovating for the future. 

For more information about Pipers Farm, please visit pipersfarm.com.

Instagram: pipersfarm

Twitter: @pipersfarm

Facebook: @pipersfarm