Heron Farm has been awarded a prestigious Gold Award by Taste of the West in the Café/Tea Room category.

The café, vineyard and shop is located just on the outskirts of Honiton. It opened in September 2020 and since then has gone from strength to strength.

General Manger Jack Pickering (34) spoke to Nub News about what he thinks sets Heron Farm apart. "We've just got the most beautiful site, and a beautiful building. The gardens and grounds are incredible. People can come for a play, have a walk, bring their door, see the orchards, say hi to the sheep and make a day of it."

The Taste of the West judging panel said: "Heron Farm is a real success story and very lovely, welcoming café. I will definitely be returning."

Set in 17 acres, Heron Farm consists of a café which serves breakfast, lunches and cakes. There is a vineyard which produces Heron Farm wine, a children's play area, a collection of sheep for families to feed, and an orchard which produces their own apple juice. All of the grounds are available for guests to wonder in and enjoy.

Jack has worked at Heron Farm since June 2020 and has been part of the team since the very beginning. He arrived when the current café was just a concrete shell and helped to design the interiors – his friend even came from Amsterdam to paint the murals on the walls.

Jack is from Somerset and he now lives in Exeter. He has experience setting up restaurants in Australia and New Zealand, but he is now happily settled in Devon.

The small initial team at Heron Farm has grown to about 22 full and part-time members of staff, who Jack speaks very highly of.

"The whole team is absolutely thrilled to win the award. We're so passionate and proud of Heron Farm, who we are and how we have developed as a business.

"To be recognised for all our hard work is fantastic. taste of the West also gave us some really good feedback which will help us in the future, for example they suggested improving our communication with the customers about just how local all our food is.

"We always try and minimise our mileage for our products, and get as many things from our garden and our grounds as possible. We spend more money on our produce because we try and buy as local as we can, and get the highest quality.

'We're a really new business and so we're still learning about our customer base and about the locals. What we want to do is improve on what we have, but further down the line there may be some exciting expansions and developments."

You can find out more information about Heron Farm here.

You can find the café and vineyard here.

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