A SOUTH Lakeland farm has achieved a cracking national accolade for its free range eggs.

Low Sizergh Farm, near Kendal, was recognised at the National Trust’s Fine Farm Produce Awards, presented during BBC Countryfile Live at Blenheim Palace.

Now in their thirteenth year, the awards celebrate the very best produce from the trust’s 1,500 tenant farmers and estates. As well as being judged for taste, products were assessed against a range of environmental standards to guarantee their quality and origin.

Low Sizergh received a Produce Award for its eggs which are sold in the farm shop and used in the cafe.

Around 450 hens, which produce on average 337 eggs a day, live a free range life on the farm’s pastureland.

Their home is a mobile hen hut, moved each day by a small tractor. It means the hens can follow the cows around, making the most of the fresh manure left behind from the cows grazing in the fields.

Alison Park, co-owner of the enterprise, said: “It’s good for the hens, their eggs and the soil and even the scraper tractor, brought out of retirement, to pull the egg mobile.

“This system is what makes our free range eggs different to other free range eggs. Our hens are on the go, moving pasture on a frequent basis, rather than being based from a stationery hut with access to the same field.”

Low Sizergh Farm is a third generation National Trust tenanted dairy farm with a farm shop, café and farm trail. There is a viewing window to the milking parlour from the café., so people can watch the cows being milked.

A total of 27 producers were recognised at the awards for 64 food, drink and countryside products, ranging from heritage wool and free-range eggs to hogget, venison and sparkling cider.

The produce was judged by a panel of nine food and drink experts, including Clive Goudercourt, the National Trust’s development chef.

“Our Fine Farm Produce Awards have attracted a great range of winning products this year,” said Rob Macklin, the National Trust’s head of food and farming, “The quality of entries has been as high as ever and it has been a pleasure for the judges to see that the highest standards of farming can deliver excellent produce and work hand in hand with nature.”