We have a couple of winners at this year’s Wales The True Taste Food And Drink Awards. A gold medal was awarded to Llwynhelyg Farm Shop for Jenny’s Sticky Ginger Cake in the Cakes section. Celtic Country Wines won a silver medal for its Farmhouse Piccalilli With Ginger Wine in the Condiments, Sauces & Chutney section. Congratulations to both.

New research has shown the potential benefits of adding ginger to bread and you won’t even know it is there. Researchers at the University of Bologna in Italy found that adding three per cent ginger powder to the dough doubled the antioxidant content of the bread without having an adverse effect on taste, texture, consistency and smell. Further research will be needed to verify the health-giving properties of ginger-enriched bread.

A pork and ginger sausage from Wiltshire has been named as the best in the UK. The ‘Malmesbury King’ was created six weeks ago by butcher Michael Thomas at his shop in the town. The competition was run by Country life magazine and Bar Boulud, a London restaurant.

Halewood International, makers of the popular Crabbie’s Alcoholic Ginger Beer, has launched a range of Crabbie’s Nuts. This range, the first of a number of products to be announced by Halewood before the end of the year, will include Luxury Ginger Spiced Dry Roasted Peanuts & Cashews, Luxury Nut Mix with Lime Pickle Flavour & Crystalised Ginger and Luxury ‘Raj Mix’.

This summer will see the launch of a ginger manuka honey from Rowse, the UK’s leading honey company. This honey will be one of four new ‘Supahoneys’ to be introduced as part of a multi-million pound overhaul of the entire product range.