SALAD days are blooming for an East Yorkshire couple who won a prestigious award.
Horticultural husband and wife team Andrew and Anna Johnson won the Salad Grower Of The Year accolade.
The honour is national recognition for their ground-breaking Living Salads business in Ellerker, near South Cave.
Their fresh idea involves selling trays of growing baby leaves through supermarkets for shoppers to pick at home.
Farmer's son Mr Johnson, 38, said: "This is recognition and reward for the pain and heartache we went through when we started in 2005.
"We still work incredibly hard, but in those early days I worked non-stop for three years without taking a day off.
"There were many times when we felt like giving up so to win such an important award is brilliant to mark the achievements of Living Salads."
The innovative business started to take root in a �45 flat-pack greenhouse at the bottom of their garden.
Mr Johnson had the vision of people being able to pick fresh baby salad leaves from a tray on their kitchen windowsill.
It might have been a simple idea, but it took a great deal of research and development before Living Salads was ready for the market.
He said: "The idea was that salad leaves would be growing up to the moment people cut them and put them on their plate.
"After a year we had not earned a penny, but I was buoyed along by all the negativity among celebrity chefs about bagged salads.
"I never dreamt that the business would take off as it has, but I always maintain that as long as the focus was on quality, success would follow."
From those humble beginnings, Living Salads is now run from 11 acres of glasshouses at Cavegate Nurseries in Ellerker.
The business produces more than two millions trays of salad a year, employs up to 45 people at peak times, and has a �1.8 million turnover.
Mr and Mrs Johnson beat off stiff competition from farmers and growers across Britain to win the top award, which celebrates excellence in growing.
Living Salads impressed the judges by demonstrating great innovation, customer satisfaction, and product quality.
They received the award at a glittering ceremony hosted by TV's Paul Ross at the Lancaster Hotel in London.
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