Over the next few weeks Food & Farming will be talking to some of the winners at the DEFA Food, Farming and Fishing Awards.

This week we meet Lee Morgan, from Morgan’s Pies, winner of the Food award and the Cain family, from Glendown farm who won the Diversification award.

Morgan’s Pies

Lee was brought up in a bakery: his parents own Muffins in Peel and he went to work there, straight from school, for six years before becoming a computer programmer.

Two years ago, he decided on a change of career, using some of the baking skills he’d learned from his parents to make pies.

So, with his wife and business partner, Helen, he started Morgan’s Pies in a unit on the South Quay Industrial Estate.

He now supplies Shoprite, EVF petrol station stores around the island and a number of cafes.

Using his computer skills he has also built a website which takes a growing number of online orders from workers wanting a tasty, warming treat delivered to their offices, to brighten their working day.

Lee says: ’Having been in that environment myself, I know what people are expecting.’

Favourites include their meat and potato - minced beef, potato, onion and gravy filling in a shortcrust pastry case, topped with poppy seeds - and cheese and onion, featuring mature Manx cheddar cheese and onions in a shortcrust pastry case topped with sesame seeds.

There is also pork, lamb and onion, pork and black pudding and a vegan pie, made with mixed beans and vegetables which Lee says ’has turned out to be pretty popular’.

Lee believes they were given the Food Award because of their commitment to using local meat and produce.

He says: ’Everything we use is Manx wherever possible: we specify Manx meat from our butchers, Harrison and Garrett; our cheese, around 11 kilos a week, comes from the Creamery; our flour is from Laxey Glen Mills, and all our potatoes are Manx.’

Lee runs a very tight operation with little or no waste: pies are made in advance and frozen before being cooked to satisfy their online orders and their wholesale supply.

Because they manage their own stock in Shoprite they have a very good idea of demand there too.

Inside the spotless unit, Lee and his team, Nigel Comley, Chelsea Gale and Steve Wade, make all the pies from scratch.

Lee says: ’We don’t really have set jobs: everybody can do everybody else’s jobs which is useful when people are on holiday.’

The pastry is made on long stainless steel tables then half of it is used to line the base of each pie dish.

The dish then goes into a pastry blocker, which gives the base a neat finish before the filling is spooned in.

The lids then go on and are finished by a different attachment on the pastry blocker which removes any excess and gives a distinctive fluted edge to the pie.

For the future Lee is looking at possible expansion, maybe buying his own, larger premises next year when his lease is up.

And in the meantime, they are working on a special turkey-themed pie for Christmas which will be available from sometime next month.

It’s enough to make your mouth water...

Glendown Farm

The Cain family farm Glendown’s 350 acres which run from Truggan Road in Port St Mary right up to the Chasms at Cregneash.

They have 85 milking cows - Friesians, Swedish Reds and crossbreds - and 280 sheep, mostly mules.

They also breed a small number of Herdwicks and Loaghtans, and one of their Loaghtans made it into the Grand Parade at this year’s Royal Show.

Derek Cain and his son, Will, run the farm on a day to day basis.

Will says: ’Dad is still the boss and still farms full time but his aim is to wind back a bit.’ With this in mind, Derek and his brother, David ’Spud’ Cain, spent last winter building three shepherd huts which now have pride of place on the farm’s lowest field which runs alongside Truggan Road.

There are also pitches for people to bring their own tents or camper vans.

Will says that his dad didn’t originally intend to build the huts himself, as he explains: ’Mum and Dad went to look at some in the south of England to maybe buy them and Dad looked at one that was half made and decided: "I can do that!"’

And he adds: ’It’s been a good challenge for him.’

It’s been good in another way too: to buy a brand new shepherd’s hut typically costs between £14,000 - £15,000 which is a big investment to be recouped.

Even after the cost of the materials has been allowed for, Derek and Spud’s building skills have saved the new venture a lot of money.

But there has been further investment to provide some of the home comforts you can’t get if you’re in a shepherd’s hut or camping: a shower and toilet block, which Will’s mum, Jane, and his grandad keep immaculately clean, and a fully fitted kitchen dining room to enjoy cups of tea and hot meals on a rainy day.

The campsite is marketed in a number of ways: they have a website and a Facebook page and are on Visit Isle of Man as a member of the Stay on a Manx Farm scheme.

’I think Facebook’s the best thing we’ve used,’ says Will.

’I did a post and within a few days 17,000 people had seen it.’

The big surprise, he adds, is how many people from the island are coming to stay there.

’We’ve had a few Australians and Kiwis but Mum and Dad are surprised at the amount of locals that come for a staycation.

’Two families down from Onchan for the Beach Mission in Port St Mary came and stayed for two weeks in their camper van.’

The family also saw entering the awards as another way of raising the profile of their business.

Will adds: ’We didn’t know we’d won until the night itself and it was a complete surprise.’