8th June 2016

Delicious Salted Caramel flavour fudge features in the dessert of our Sky Dining menu this summer! We sat down with Mike Offord from Fordingbridge Fudge to learn more about how his business began and the secret behind his tasty fudge…

 Can you give us a brief introduction to Fordingbridge Fudge?

We produce traditional, luxury quality, old fashioned, home-made fudge, hand-made in our own kitchen, to our own unique recipe. We use the best quality locally produced milk and butter from a Guernsey herd, straight from the farm. We only use natural flavourings, there are no artificial preservatives or colourings.

How did you get into making fudge for a living?

My youngest daughter is an accountant, 5 years ago she was looking for a unique Christmas gift for her clients. She asked me to make some fudge for her, unfortunately I wasn’t used to doing more than a domestic size batch for the family, and I got, somewhat, carried away, resulting in a glut of fudge. At the time I had a shop in Fordingbridge and as it was approaching Christmas, I put a large bowl of fudge out on the counter for people to help themselves. The feedback was so positive; at first I thought that they were just being polite, however, I was convinced that I could add this to my confectionary stock in the shop, and perhaps sell 20 or 30 bags a week. It has taken off in the last 3 years, and I now produce about 150 kilos in over 14 flavours weekly.

Describe the fudge making process

Basically it consists of one stainless steel pan, a wooden spoon, milk, butter, sugar, condensed milk and an old curmudgeon to drive it all!

What’s your favourite flavour?

At the moment Sea Salted Caramel, which also happens to be our biggest seller, closely followed by Passion Fruit.

Where can people get hold of your fudge?

It is available from a variety of farm shops throughout Hampshire, and we also take orders online. We attend most Hampshire Farmers Markets and some New Forest Marque events and a few Hampshire shows – Romsey, New Forest, Ellingham, Highcliffe Food Festival, Sparsholt Food Festival, and a few local community fetes and fayres.

How important is it to you to use locally sourced ingredients?

It is very important to use local ingredients. I collect the milk and butter fresh from the farm every week, and they couldn’t be fresher. The fresher the better. We are members of New Forest Marque, Hampshire Farmers Market and Hampshire Fare – we could not be associated with any of these unless at least 30% of our produce was sourced locally.

Fordingbridge Fudge will be featured in our Sky Dining event menu this summer. 

Learn more about Fordinbridge Fudge and buy your own sweet treat on their website at www.fordingbridgefudge.co.uk