Here at Belvoir Fruit Farms, we’ve been trawling through your Great Scot! competition entries. My, they are impressive!

We’ve loved reading your poems and donning the correct accents to deduce the hidden meanings. And it’s been terribly difficult choosing the winners from the forty-one tickling and touching entries. Pats on the back all round for your efforts.

Sadly, there can only be five winners. So without further ado, here are those fantastic five. Congratulations – your Ginger Cordial will be posted very soon.

Beverley kicks us off with this ditty from Derbyshire.

Ey up, mi duck, ah’s it gooin? Arta rate?
Ah’m jus’ in me way fer a trawl up Bath Strait,
Sundee dinner, termorrer, if I ain’t got a badly rabbit,
So up ter market for nobby greens, as is me ‘abit,
Call in ter Bailey’s, gerra nice chunk o’ pork,
An ov’er t’ Copper Kettle ter gerrova t’walk,
Dahn t get me ‘Appy Liza from John’s News,
Might tret mesen ter a bag o’ peppermint chews,
Back dahn ter bottom, past owd swimmin baths,
Remember when it wer theer? We did ay some laughs,
Call in t’chippy for fish n mix wrapped,
Eight quid, ‘e’s askin’, I must be ‘afe tapped,
Berra then cookin; though, when yer stuffed from that ‘ill,
Eyup! Is this me bus? Nah, this un’s gooin’ ter Mill,
Theer’s my bus, stuck up be’ind it,
See yer agen, duck, and if it ain’t lost yer won’t find it!

Next up is Jill with this delight from Dundee.

We bide in a toon thats cried Dundee
Its a braw wee place tae be
If ye’re a culture vulture we hae the airts
Wir universities hae fowk fae a the pairts
Theres twa fitba teams an the hame o The Dandy
A totty wee airport thats affy handy
Theres a train station, an buses an a
An we looked affy bonny when we were covered in sna.

Gemma from Bradford was picked for her rhythm and rhyme

T’was Bradford I wer’ born n bread, Mi ma n fatha too,
Wi back t’ backs n high rise flats n a sky of grey not blue,
A town a closed down factories, yet Bradford holds me heart,
cos that is where me family is, of which Bradford feels a part

Laura made us chuckle with an inspired second verse

I’m from Warrington, mate, I cannot lie,
It’s a town’a strange iden-it-i an’ I’ll tell yer why,

We’re arf way from Manchest-oh,
Arf way from the ‘Pool,
So when 50%’s saying ‘our kid’,
The other ‘arfs calming down and playin’ it keewl.

It’s rightly called the Warring-town,
Cos our scallies, they like ta fight.
But the Norf west’s God’s own country,
So don’t take the mickey mate, only I’ve got that right!

Emma is our final winner with this gem about Gloucester

Glawster’s got old spot, rugger and beer
So catch the next buz and we’ll see yous ‘ere.
Walk the via sacra, it aint that far,
An’ bring ya babby ‘cos its safe from them cars.
See the cathedral mind, we’re famous for that,
‘Arry Potter wuz filmed there and that’s a fact.
We wuz ‘oping he’d use ‘is magic and charm
To rustle us up a Belvoir Fruit farm,
Cos thats all we’re missin’ in this city of old,
Class in a glass would turn us silver to gold!

And that’s it. Well done everyone. If you’ve been inspired by these entries and are feeling creative, enter our new competition.

Monday is Burns Night. And with this annual event approaching rapidly, here on the farm we’re celebrating all that’s Scottish with a fabulous new competition.

Burns Night may have been held on a completely different date if merchants born in Ayrshire didn’t realise their mistake. The first Burns Supper was held in 1801 on what they thought was Burns’ birthday. It was two years later that they realised they’d got the wrong date and to this day the celebrations take place on the 25th of January.

And to make this Burns Night go off with a bang we’re offering top-notch prizes to five lucky winners. But like Burns’ poetry we’ll tease you and move on.

We’ve got our haggis, cock-a-leekie soup, tatties and neeps ready for the main supper and also a fine bottle of Scotch whisky to accompany proceedings. Perhaps, like us, you need a little something to take the edge off the whisky, so we suggest mixing our organic ginger cordial with a bit of water and whisky to provide a less overpowering version.

Each supper starts with a reading of Burns’ poem The Selkirk Grace:

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it;
But we hae meat, and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.

Burns’ poetry uses the Scottish language and dialect to comment on the wonderful Scottish landscape and people that inhabited it. Which neatly brings us on to this month’s competition. Because we’d like you to do the same.

The Competition

In true Burns style, we’d like you to compose a poem about your hometown or homeland – and if you can put it in your own dialect, even better!

Submit your poem in the comment box below.

Five lucky winners will each receive a gift pack of three bottles of our ginger cordial. We’ll announce the winners on the 22nd February along with some exciting news about new drinks for this summer.

So find your muse and grab a pen, and we look forward to reading your entries! (Terms and conditions are here.)

Belvoir’s Ginger Cordial is a deliciously warm and spicy beverage made with 100% natural ginger root. And after consulting the wise words in the fabled Belvoir Fruit Farms recipe book, it seems that ginger is a tremendous little tuber if you’re expecting a baby.

Allow us to explain …

“I have to be honest, my morning sickness has been horrendous.” Kirsty Gallacher recently told celebrity babble magazine Hello! “I’ve been experiencing terrible nausea. Digestive biscuits, which I carry everywhere, help to alleviate it, but I take a sick bag wherever I go just in case.”

Nice. Well, Kirsty, perhaps you should carry around ginger biscuits and a flask of Belvoir Ginger Cordial instead. Because ginger has long been touted as a remedy for morning sickness and other types of nausea. And it’s also meant to alleviate discomfort associated with indigestion, gas pains and stomach cramping.

(Words of warning: We are not doctors and nurses. If you’re feeling very unwell, don’t pin your hopes on a glass of cordial. Please go and see someone with a medical degree.)

If it does help with morning sickness, it seems we could see sales of Belvoir’s Ginger Cordial rocketing in Iceland. According to The Guardian, Iceland is experiencing a baby boom – there’s been a 3.5% increase in the birth rate this year. It’s been suggested that people’s new found amorous nature is a result of the economic meltdown. “I think many of us have sought solace in love,” explains blogger Alda Sigmundsdóttir. Back here in Blighty, we’ve sought solace in chocolate.

Not pregnant? Don’t worry – it seems ginger might be able to help with that, too.

In herbal lore ginger is said to be an aphrodisiac. It’s mentioned in chapter seven of the Karma Sutra (apparently), and in Melanesian Islands in the South Pacific it is employed ‘to gain the affection of a woman’. So much for a nice bunch of flowers!

Ginger is native to India and China. It takes its name from the Sanskrit word meaning stringa-vera which means ‘with a body like a horn’. Ginger has been important in Chinese medicine for many centuries, and is mentioned in the writings of Confucius. It is also named in the Koran, indicating it was known in Arab countries as far back as 650AD.

Ginger was one of the earliest spices known in Western Europe, used since the ninth century. It became so popular in Europe that it was included in every table setting, like salt and pepper.

So, this summer, why not make ginger popular at dinner tables once again with a bottle of Belvoir? Our range includes Ginger Cordial, Organic Ginger Cordial and a rather tasty Ginger Beer (available in 75cl and 25cl bottles). Find them in farms shops and supermarkets around the country or grab a few bottles from our online store.