A BOLTON farm is training the butchers of the future.

Students paid a visit to the Wellbeing Farm in Edgworth and are now making their own sausages.

The winners of the competition to find the best banger will see their products sold at Whiteheads Butchers, which is also based at the farm.

Managing director of the Wellbeing Farm, Celia Gaze, said: “At The Wellbeing Farm, we have always been focused on education and the provenance of food.

“We are sick of schoolchildren thinking that food comes out of plastic packs so we have promoted farm to fork and sustainability.

“We have schools looking around the farm, we have our own cookery classes and I met Blackburn College’s curriculum manager Sarah Sarginson and suggested a link up with their catering students.

“She jumped at the chance and we have had students from the college looking around the farm. We came up with the idea of the students making a meal sourced from everything on the farm and a specialist sausage.

“We have invited judges from the Chamber of Commerce, Blackburn College governors, Blackburn with Darwen Council officials and business leaders through Hive.

“We have done it in conjunction with National Butchers Week, which runs from today (MON) until March 31, and the winning sausage will be sold in Whiteheads Butchers, which has been trading for 128 years.”

Students from Blackburn College have been working on a variety of flavours, including beef and bitter, chocolate, lamb with mint and couscous, pork curry and mango, lamb biryani and a vegetarian Lancashire cheeses sausage.

Blackburn College level two co-ordinator, Keith Simpson, said: “We will begin with six and it will go down to three or four for the judges to choose from.

“It’s a big chance for the college students to showcase what they can do and also understand a lot more about farming and the food industry.”