RYEDALE ice cream makers have licked 400 rival entries to scoop the top accolade in the dairy industry's national awards.

Former farmers David Otterburn and his parents Richard and Christine, of Church Farm, Helmsley, began making ice cream to use up milk produced that was surplus to their quota.

Ten years ago, the family decided to close the farm and concentrate on running their tea room and ice cream parlour. Since 1995, the ice cream, made by father-of-two David, has won more than 50 awards for his Ryeburn Ice Cream, including a gold medal in the National Ice Cream Competition held in Blackpool, organised by the industry body for small and medium producers, the Ice Cream Alliance.

The competitions have been held for more than 60 years and are held in high esteem in the industry. Ice creams are judged on an anonymous basis by industry experts who mark the samples on palatability, texture and appearance. Six judges voted his cookies 'n' cream flavour to be the best.

"It's brilliant," said David. "It's actually for the quality of the ice cream, which is good. We just like to get quality ingredients into the ice cream - a lot of our flavours come from Italy. It's nice when your own tastes are celebrated."

David was also triumphant in the artistic class. He came second and received a special diploma of merit for an ice cream merry-go-round carousel, despite one of the horse's heads falling off.

At the Yorkshire Show this year, his hazelnut ice cream was first in the flavour class and beat the winning entry of the vanilla class to be crowned champion of champions.

David loves ice cream. "I eat a lot of it," he said. He sells about 46 different flavours including a dozen sorbets and his own favourite, bilberry yoghurt ice cream.

Unusual flavours he has created include licorice and fruits of the forest - "It looks disgusting but it tastes lovely," he said - and malted milk with chocolate chunks. David is currently experimenting with Christmas pudding ice cream.

The family have recently diversified their business, as ice cream is a seasonal product, and now Andrew Feather, a well-known chef formerly of The Plough, Fadmoor, produces Belgian chocolates.

Updated: 11:59 Wednesday, November 19, 2003