The Hawkshead Relish Company is a small family run business based in the beautiful English Lake District, Mark and Maria started making Relishes, Chutneys and Preserves to serve alongside the dishes in their busy village centre cafe, however, when the Foot & Mouth epidemic of 2001 hit the region they were forced to diversify and making more of their delicious chutneys and relishes seemed the obvious way to go.
Within a couple of years they had to close the cafe down to concentrate on the production full time and were winning many awards and accolades for their products. In 2005 they received the top award from the Great Taste Awards, when they won the coveted "Speciality Producer of the Year" award.
"Receiving this award from our peers was the ultimate icing on the cake for us" said Maria, "from almost going out of business in 2001 to this has been a huge emotional rollercoaster of hard work and determination".
In 2007 they moved production into a lovely 16th century restored cruck barn, just a mile south of Hawkshead, ensuring long term employment for the small but dedicated workforce, supporting the local economy and community is very high on their list of priorities.
All the products are still made by hand in small batches with no colourings, preservatives, artificial flavourings or padding out. "If it doesn't add flavour it doesn't get added" said Mark, who is the creative influence on the partnership. "Allowing the great quality of the ingredients to speak for themselves is the key to creating a product that bursts with flavour".
A little bit about our shop..
The Hawkshead Relish shop can be found in the centre of the picturesque south Lakeland village of Hawkshead and is packed with all sorts of foodie treasures, including the staff ! - You will not only find the full range of our Hawkshead Relish, Chutneys, Pickles, Preserves, Marmalades, Jams and Pickles but also a few more that we make exclusively for our shop – usually seasonally based when we have a glut of fruit or vegetables and Mark is inspired to be creative with things like Runner Beans and Marrows ! Alongside this array of condiments you will also find cakes, biscuits, puddings, cheese , spices, beers, wines, spirits and old fashioned cordials to name but a few. At the shop you can have your own choices made up into hampers, boxes and gift bags to your specification and best of all you can taste your way around the range before you buy.
The shop is open daily (except for Christmas Day and Boxing Day and New Years Day). Winter Opening: 9.30am – 5.00pm, Summer Opening 9.00am – 5.30am (we change when the clocks do!).
Hawkshead is a lovely village with plenty of small independent shops, cafes, pubs and places to stay so come along and make a weekend of it, with Grizedale Forest just a mile away and so much to see and do, it s not just a pretty village, you need to come and stay a while to absorb the community spirit (and there’s plenty in the village pubs !)
