{"id":504105,"date":"2026-07-01T07:15:13","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T07:15:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/504105\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T07:15:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T07:15:13","slug":"hawkes-bay-butchers-claim-medals-for-quality-bacon-and-ham","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/504105\/","title":{"rendered":"Hawke\u2019s Bay butchers claim medals for \u2018quality\u2019 bacon and ham"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wild Game, Hastings:<\/p>\n

Gold Medal: Old School Middle Bacon\u00a0Gold Medal: Wild Game Pepper Flavoured BaconBronze Medal: Wild Game Ginger Flavoured Bacon<\/p>\n

Waipawa Butchery, Waipawa:<\/p>\n

Silver Medal: WB Sliced Ham<\/p>\n

Wild Game<\/a> co-owner Jordan Hamilton-Bicknell, who owns the company with wife Varnnah, said he was \u201cabsolutely stoked\u201d with the medals.<\/p>\n

\"VarnnahVarnnah and Jordan Hamilton-Bicknell pictured in 2023. Photo \/ Warren Buckland<\/p>\n

He said there is \u201dsome stiff competition\u201d each year, and the gold medals were a testament to his amazing team, which includes seven fulltime staff, as well as casuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving a good team is the secret ingredient.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it was particularly pleasing to see two new products, the Wild Game Pepper Flavoured Bacon and Wild Game Ginger Flavoured Bacon, picking up medals.<\/p>\n

He said the award-winning products were in stock for people to try.<\/p>\n

Wild Game, based in Camberley, has won a list of accolades at the awards over the years, including the Supreme Ham Award<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Aussie Butcher New Lynn (Auckland) claimed the 2026 Supreme Bacon title for its middle bacon, while Sam\u2019s Butchery in Silverdale (north of Auckland) earned bragging rights as 2026 Supreme Ham winner with its bone in ham.<\/p>\n

The judging process spanned three days and brought together a panel of experienced butchers and culinary experts, before the winners were announced on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when consumers are seeking value for money, the competition helps shoppers take the guesswork out of choosing bacon and ham, highlighting quality products they can buy with confidence,\u201d judge Greig Buckley said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wild Game, Hastings: Gold Medal: Old School Middle Bacon\u00a0Gold Medal: Wild Game Pepper Flavoured BaconBronze Medal: Wild Game…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504106,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[95,44403,1561,4192,2741,2082,184176,305,1976,49539,167214,111,139,69,4993,213,165],"class_list":["post-504105","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-and","tag-bacon","tag-bay","tag-butchers","tag-claim","tag-for","tag-ham","tag-have","tag-hawkes","tag-medals","tag-mouthwatering","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-quality","tag-sports","tag-their"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504105","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504105"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504105\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504106"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504105"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504105"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504105"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}