Five Canterbury stallholders received recognition in the Taste Farmers Market New Zealand Awards recently.
Stewart Island Smoked Salmon Ltd won the ''freshest food producer from the water'' category, while four other Canterbury stallholders were highly commended in their categories.
Westwood Free Range Chicken was highly commended in ''from the butchery'' category, while Christchurch baker Bellbird Baked Goods and Lyttelton restaurant Roots received highly commended in the ''from the kitchen bench'' and ''innovation from the kitchen bench categories.
North Canterbury vegetable grower Grown, which was featured in Courier Country on August 21, was also highly commended in the ''from the paddock'' category.
Steward Island Smoked Salmon Ltd was founded in 2010 by Stewart Island couple Gary Huggins and Nic Banks, from the salmon they smoked for their restaurant Church Hill.
Ms Banks' Christchurch-based daughter Amanda and son Matt sell the salmon at the Christchurch, Lyttelton, Mt Pleasant (in Christchurch) and Ohoka (near Rangiora) farmers markets and at the Sunday market at the Riccarton Racecourse.
Matt Banks said his mother and Mr Huggins cured and smoked the salmon themselves, over manuka. It was also sold at farmers markets in Queenstown, Wanaka, Cromwell, Arrowtown and Wellington.
The salmon business had been so successful it had taken over from the restaurant as the couple's main income source.
Westwood Chicken, of Darfield, has been owned by Pete McLeod for 13 years. Jennifer and Grant Inch have been growing free-range chickens for Westwood Chicken on contract for five years and Mrs Inch has been selling frozen chicken at the Christchurch, Lyttelton and Ohoka farmers markets for the past four years.
Mrs Inch said they grew up to five batches of about 450 ''genuine free-range chickens'' on a 16ha property. She said 450 was a small batch, as most big operators grew chickens in batches of thousands.
''We call them genuine free-range because most free-range chicken operators feed them the same antibiotics as the other operators, but ours are chemical-free.
''We feed and water ours outside. I am like Mother Hen going out and showing them how to get round and getting them eating grass and bugs which brings out the flavour.''
Bellbird Baked Goods is a boutique bakery in the old tannery building in Woolston, Christchurch, and sells baked goods at the Christchurch Farmers Market. Roots is a restaurant on Lyttelton's London Street, which also runs a stall at the Lyttelton Farmers Market.
More about these stallholders can be found at: www.christchurchfarmersmarket.co.nz www.lyttelton.net.nz/farmers-market and www.ohokafarmersmarket.co.nz