AN artisan preserves company has scooped up a number of top accolades.

Simonburn-based Northumbrian Pantry has won three awards in the Guild of Fine Food’s Great Taste Awards.

The business sells high-quality, handmade jams, jellies, chutneys and relishes and is ran by Alice and David Murray.

After leaving school, Alice trained at Leith School of Food and Fine Wine and then, after a spell living in Edinburgh, ran a Relais and Chateaux safari camp with David in the Okavango Delta of Botswana.

The business' blackcurrant jam with juniper and its spiced beetroot and apple chutney were given a star each. Hannah Glasse’s paco lilla (piccalilli) was given two stars. The piccalilli is inspired by Hannah Glasse, the 18th Century food writer who grew up in the region, and is an ancestor of Alice.

The company, which was given one star for its chilli relish last year, prides itself on the use of seasonal, locally produced ingredients, with all recipes designed to complement a wide range of foods and tastes.

David said: "We feel very fortunate to receive such wonderful feedback from so many of our customers.

"Starting a new preserves business has been extremely exciting but also quite precarious with no true manual explaining what to do. We look to stick to our basic principles of making all our preserves in small batches with the highest quality of ingredients.

"Awards like this are very special, especially when the Great Taste is held in such high regard. It makes us realise we are on the right track and even more excited for the future.

"Seeing Sharon and Diane’s faces (our precious colleagues) when we announced the awards to them was priceless and what all of this is all about for us."

Northumbrian Pantry, which recently celebrated its second birthday as a business, has an environmental policy and is an accredited member of the Produced in Northumberland scheme satisfying all the parameters set by Northumberland County Council.

Great Taste is the world’s largest, longest standing and most respected food accreditation scheme for artisan and speciality food producers.