A FARMING family cooking oil brand is hoping for award success after already proving itself as a prize-winning delicacy.

Adam Palmer took over his family’s 134 acre property, Breckenholme Farm, when he was just 19, and successfully diversified into rapeseed oil production, launching the Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil brand in 2008.

The oil, produced from Breckenholme Farm seed is pressed, bottled and labelled on the premises, and has won two gold stars in the 2013 Great Taste Awards.

Mr Palmer’s wife Jennie, who is the company director, said: "The chalky soil gives the oil a distinctive, yet gentle, nutty taste and its low saturated fat content and its high burn point makes it a healthy and versatile alternative to olive oil.”

The company, which is hoping to be named Family Business of the Year, has now expanded to include 13 employees, all of whom are Palmer family members and friends, and produces a range of 21 flavoured oils, dressings and mayonnaises.

The company’s Oak Smoked Oil, developed with Staal Smokehouse, won Best Culinary Oil in the Great British Food magazine’s Farm Produce Awards.

The Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil team also work to raise the profile of Yorkshire’s artisan food industry. They helped organise ‘Taste the Wolds’, a food showcasing event beginning in 2012, and Mr Palmer sits on the board of ‘deliciouslyorkshire’, a not for profit organisation supporting local food and beverage producers.