more awards for lizzie's homemade...

Lizzie Smith used to be a nurse, but when she went on holiday to Italy for the first time, she was so inspired by the food and landscape that she changed careers. Lizzie started making Frutta Cotta, a preserve probably best described as Cumbria meeting Umbria. At her perfectly located home, tucked away in the fells near Ullswater, Lizzie, inspired by the equally stunning Cumbrian views, works on her mainly fruit based products in a purpose built kitchen. One of her achievements was to win a regional award for creating the overall best tasting product in the North West at the 2006 Taste Awards - no mean feat for a then recent starter. Lizzie has gone on to create many excellent products, including the most recent one, Damson Fruit Cheese. This new creation secured the best tasting product award in the Honey, Curd or Cheese category in the North West Fine Food Awards 2008.

Damson Fruit Cheese is traditionally made in Cumbria to accompany meat and cheese - a simple way of preserving the autumn fruit for all the year. The damsons are hand picked from the trees, some in old orchards, hedgerows or new planting. In past years the fruit was sold by Cumbrian farmers to help pay the farm rent. The fruits Lizzie has used are from old trees growing in Cumbria, mainly in the Lyth and Winster valleys. Making the fruit cheese is a fragrant, colourful process. Lizzie uses organic cane sugar because she likes the taste, and with the frozen fruit no extra water is required. Lizzie's aim is to produce a fruit cheese which complements small artisan dairy cheeses on the cheese board. It is of course a hand made, home made product, reliant on the local damson harvest and will therefore vary in taste each year, reflecting its roots and the weather conditions. But its taste is assured.

Elizabeth Smith, Lizzie's Homemade, The Bank, Dockray, Matterdale, Penrith, Cumbria, CA11 0LG
Tel. 017684 82487 www.fruttacotta.co.uk

Content and photography supplied by www.Artisan-Food.com, funded by Distinctly Cumbrian.