news
October 19th 2012The Lincolnshire Poacher Competition organised by Lincolnshire County Foods took place on Tuesday this week and today we learned that our butchers shop, Meridian Meats Family Butchers Ltd. in Louth, won Champion in the Bacon Class and a total of 6 GOLD Awards, 9 SILVER Awards and 5 BRONZE Awards. Click here to see how Meridian Meats did amongst all the Award Winners. Congratulations to Jim and all the Team in Louth!
July 2nd 2012
I have just received an email from Farmers Weekly with a link to their website featuring their new July Caption Competition showing Tetford Jedi and a man down at the Great Yorkshire Show in 2010! Check it out and leave your funniest/wittiest suggestions - there's £25.00 prize for the best!
Click for Farmers Weekly July Caption Competition.
There is every chance that we will be doing a repeat performance next week as the show runs from Tuesday 10th to Thursday 12th at Harrogate. Think Wednesday or Thursday will be the day/days to see the "performance"! I look forward to seeing eveyone next week. In the meantime here is Jedi in a more recent pose at the Lincolnshire Show 20th June this year.
Tetford Jedi Reserve Breed Champion
Lincolnshire Show 2012
June 23rd 2012
During May this year we were visited by Mr. and Mrs. Heap from Sussex whilst compiling the last of four guidebooks covering the new Greenwich Meridian Trail. Hilda and Graham Heap very kindly emailed today with a photograph they had taken during their visit. It shows Tetford Jedi, our ten year old senior stock bull who recently won Reserve Supreme Champion at the 2012 Lincolnshire Show, together with Tetford Querida (on his right) and Tetford Rowan (on his left). You can read more about the Greenwich Meridian Trail by visiting their website.
You can read our full report on the 128th Lincolnshire Show, both about our successes in the showring and Jim and Odile with the Meridian Meats stand in the Tastes of Lincolnshire Food Court, by clicking here.
L to R: Tetford Querida, Tetford Jedi and Tetford Rowan. May 2012.
July 25th 2010
Heckington Show, the largest village show in England, took place over the weekend of 24th & 25th July.
We had Tetford Jedi and Tetford Quiescience entered in the Longhorn Classes to be judged by Richard Warner from Markfield, Leicestershire.
An early start was called for and we left home at 7am having washed both the cattle ready for the show. Having unloaded, fed and settled the cattle there was time for a bacon roll and a cuppa before brushing them up and putting on the leather show halters for the classes which started at 10 o'clock.
The first class was for Bulls of any age and Jedi was at the front of the field of 6 bulls as he was the eldest there. Richard Warner called him in 1st ahead of Richard Burton's young bull Riverlands Joskin. We were able to relax for a couple of classes until the class for Junior Heifers, born in 2009, were called out. Quiescience, the youngest in the class of 6, was placed a very satisfactory 3rd.
Jedi won the Male Championship and then took Breed Champion ahead of Riverlands Joskin in Reserve spot. Click here for the full show results.
Heckington Show is a wonderful day out, it could teach a lot of the big county shows a thing or two about providing what the visitors want! It is entirely organised and run by volunteers headed by show Chairman Charles Pinchbeck. They all deserve many congratulations for their efforts, every year is better than the last and I never cease to wonder what they will come up with next time, but I have no doubt that this time next year Heckington 2011 will have surpassed this year's show by some way or other!
13th - 15th July 2010 The Great Yorkshire Show, Harrogate.
Tetford Jedi, Tetford Quarryman and Tetford Quiescence relax at the Great Yorkshire Show 2010
On Sunday 11th July our show team left Tetford in Richard Coulson's wagon on their journey to the Great Yorkshire Show at Harrogate. We had three stalls booked for our three entries - our senior stock bull 8 year old Tetford Jedi, Tetford Quarryman a yearling son of Jedi and Tetford Quiescence a yearling daughter of Jedi. We spent Monday settling in, cleaning halter brasses and working up a thirst in the swealtering heat! By Monday evening all the other exhibitors had arrived and we were able to establish that 21 Longhorns would be forward for the competitions on Tuesday. Thirsts were suitably quenched in a good pre-show atmosphere during Monday evening!
On Tuesday the Longhorn classes followed another breed in the ring so we did not get started until after midday. Jedi was placed second in the Senior Bull Class whilst Quarryman, who was the youngest bull in his strong class of 4 was third. Quiescence was placed third in another strong class of 7 Junior Heifers which was particularly pleasing as she was second youngest in the class, giving away 3 and 4 months to some of the other entries. We rounded off by coming second with Quarryman and Quiescence in the class for pairs sired by the same sire, a total of 6 pairs were forward in that class.
The following day, Wednesday, Jedi was picked for the Longhorn Team of 4 to represent the breed in the Interbreed Competitions and then on Thursday morning he was chosen for the Housewife's Choice competition - a light hearted competition with teams of 3 judged by housewives picked from the crowd which created much good humour and laughter with some teams in fancy dress. We had our own spot of fun in the cattle sheds with a pair of wellies and a boiler suit stuffed with straw as can be seen in the photo below!
Tetford Jedi and a man down at the Great Yorkshire Show 2010
With early starts and late nights being quite usual as the cattle must be looked after, washed, fed, watered and bedded it can be a tiring time but as always at the Great Yorkshire we managed to find time to have great fun in great company with plenty of new jokes and stories being shared over good food and drink during the four days at Harrogate. Our wagon left at around 6pm, arriving home at 9.30pm, the cattle were unloaded and settled for the night before turning in ourselves in readiness for returning to a normal routine on Friday.
June 25th 2010
The 126th Lincolnshire Show took place on Wenesday and Thursday the 23rd and 24th June where we had 3 animals competing in the Longhorn classes, judged by Steve Gray from Herefordshire. It was the first show we have attended this season.
Both days were sweltering, temperatures in the mid 20s with bright sunshine. The Breed Classes were judged on Wednesday, followed by the Interbreed Classes on Thursday morning.
The first of our classes was for Bulls born before 1st January 2009 with 3 entries forward. Our entry Tetford Jedi, born in February 2002, was the oldest Longhorn entry forward in the class and in fact the oldest Longhorn at the show. Jedi was placed 1st, ahead of Dunstall Genesis a 2006 born bull from Mrs. E.M. Hallifield in 2nd place and Overdale Iceman born in 2008 from J.A. Warner in 3rd place. In the next class for bulls born in 2009 we had the youngest animal forward at the show, Tetford Quarryman a son of Tetford Felspar by Tetford Jedi, and he was placed 3rd out of 5 animals forward. We were delighted with this as he was only one year and thirteen days old and had only been registered the week before the show! The Male Championship was held after the Junior Bull class, before judging the female classes, and Jedi was chosen as Male Champion. Our third entry was Tetford Quiescence, a daughter of Tetford Fritillary again by Tetford Jedi, in the class for 2009 born heifers. She was placed 4th out of 9 animals forward, again a result we were very pleased with for her first outing.
Wednesday's proceedings were concluded with judging for the Breed and Reserve Breed Champions and judge Steve Gray picked Tetford Jedi as his Breed Champion with Dunstall Harriet, a 2007 born cow, from Mrs. E.M. Hallifield taking the Reserve spot.
Tetford Jedi having taken Breed Champion for the Longhorns was forward for the Supreme Beef Breeds Championship, judged on Thursday morning by all the breed judges on a points system. Having received some very complementary comments from a number of the judges during their deliberations we were elated to come out as Native Breeds Interbreed Champion, ahead of both the Lincoln Reds and Aberdeen Angus champions!
Click here for the full Longhorn show results.
January 6th 2010
Meridian Meats have just been declared regional winners of the Countryside Alliance ‘Daily Telegraph Traditional Business’ for the East of England Region. Click here for the Countryside Alliance Regional Winners page.
The Countryside Alliance Awards, now in their fifth year, aim to celebrate the characters, skills, traditions and enterprise of the countryside through the people who work so hard to make it tick. This year’s Awards attracted a record 2,500 nominations from the public, all of a high calibre. Regional finalists across four categories included village shops and Post Offices, butchers, breweries, pubs, cheese makers, feed merchants, smokeries, tea rooms, hotels, ice-cream makers, farm shops and even an oysterage.
The Grand Final will take place at the House of Lords in London on Wednesday 3rd February 2010, and we shall be there with the other regional winners to find out who has taken the British crown in each of the four categories. At the Grand Final the Rural Hero of 2009 and the Countryside Alliance Political Awards will also be announced.
December 11th & 12th 2009
Congratulations to the Woolatt Family, Sid Hollier and Peter Mitchell for their fantastic successes at AgriLIVE Smithfield. Click here to read about their individual successes culminating in the Society's nominated Group of Three Purebreds taking the Reserve Championship behind the Aberdeen Angus Team, but ahead of all the rest!
November 20th 2009
Following Jim winning the BBC Young Butcher of the Year we are featured in the Farmers Guardian. Click here to read the article.
November 16th 2009
The BBC Young Butcher of the Year is broadcast. Having made it to the final five Jim went on to win the title! Click here for Jim's Blog.
November 10th 2009
Jim and Odile go down to London to attend the 2009 Q Guild Smithfield Awards presentation lunch at Butchers Hall and receive 4 Gold Awards, 3 Silver Awards and 3 Bronze Awards from celebrity chef Brian Turner. Click here for more details...
November 4th 2009
We learn that Meridian Meats are one of three regional finalists in the Daily Telegraph Traditional Countryside Business category of the 2009 Countryside Alliance Awards. Click here for more about the awards and here for an article by Charlie Brooks about the awards in the Daily Telegraph.
August 27th 2009
Unfortunately when we moved Meridian Meats from its location here on the farm to our new premises in Louth at the beginning of February 2008 we had to withdraw our online ordering facility in response the disappointment being caused to customers ordering in good faith only to be told that their choice was temporarily out of stock! We are delighted to say that today we have relaunced the facility and our Online Shop is again open for business! We shall be adding new products and categories over the coming months.
June 24th 2009
Our bull Tetford Jedi wins Male Champion and Reserve Breed Champion at the Lincolnshire Show. Click here for the results.
March 5th 2009
Dave Myers and Si King, the Hairy Bikers, dropped in to see us whilst in Louth filming for their new BBC2 TV series 'The Hairy Biker's Food Tour of Britain'. After congratulating us on our recent success winning Britain's Best Steak they left clutching a fresh pork pie!
February 18th 2009
Country Life magazine organised a beef tasting session where steaks from 11 native breeds were cooked by the staff at Hix Oyster & Chop House in London and were tasted by a panel of 10 judges. We supplied the Longhorn beef for this contest and were absolutely delighted when our steak was voted "Britain's Best Steak" Click here to read the full article.
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