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 for Ryeburn Ice Cream has won more than 50 awards, including a gold medal in the National Ice Cream Competition held in Blackpool and organised by the industry body for small and medium producers, the Ice Cream Alliance.

The competitions have been staged 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 you're 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 is bilberry yoghurt ice-cream. Unusual flavours he has created include liquorice 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-style chocolates.

Updated: 11:04 Friday, November 14, 2003