Danestream Farm Shop in New Milton awarded gold, silver and bronze in British Pie Awards

A FARM shop has achieved prestigious gold awards in a renowned national competition celebrating British pies.

Danestream Farm Shop in New Milton scooped the gold, silver and bronze accolades in the British Pie Awards for his steak, dark ale and New Forest mushroom variety, along with his chicken and mushroom pie.

Paul Brolan, who has owned the Sway Road business for 24 years, said he uses meat from local farmers and has a secret pastry recipe that ensures a great crunchy texture.

“I’ve developed the pastry recipe with my dad, who is a baker at the Bread Basket in Old Milton,” said Paul, whose pies were crowned in the steak and kidney pie class in 2022 in the same awards.

“We use a blend of different flours, so it has a biscuit-like crunch to it. And my fillings are slow cooked so the meat melts in the mouth, rather than having big chunks.”

Paul continued: “We get people coming down from London and Kent to buys lots at a time. They are sold with the pastry in a raw state, so people buy them in bulk and then put them in their freezers.”

Danestream’s pies feature on the menu at Redcliff Garden Centre’s cafe, the Potting Shed, and are also sold at Setley Ridge Farm Shop in Brockenhurst. The Paddle in Highcliffe also use Danestream’s award-winning sausages.

As well as pies with various mouth-watering fillings, Danestream sells a range of sausages, bacon, and cuts of meat from its butcher counter.

The shop offers lots of local produce, including bread from the Bread Basket, Sway-based Naked Jam, New Forest Shortbead, seasonal fruit and veg from the New Forest Fruit Company, New Forest Ice Cream, the Garlic Farm goods, and New Forest Mushrooms.

“I try to keep everything as traditional as I can,” said Paul. “My dad supplies all the bread - even at the age of 70 he’s still got it.

“I helped out at my mum and dad’s bakery in Hordle as a kid and was hand-moulding bread aged 10, so some of my customers have known me since I was eight years old.

“My mum sacked me when I was 12, though, because I wasn’t cleaning the shop when I was meant to, so I went and worked as a Saturday boy at the butcher’s in Milford.

“I have a couple of lads working for me here – Ryan and Will. I always try to encourage youngsters to come into the industry; that’s really important to me.

“We used to be able to take young people for work experience but we’re not allowed to do that any more, so it’s hard for them.”

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