The winning recipes from the Buy Haywood Market Development Project are now available for sale at retail outlets.

This past June a panel of judges chose three winning recipes for Buy Haywood’s value-added product contest. All winning recipes utilized Haywood County tomatoes.

The Buy Haywood Project supports farmers in Haywood County in Western North Carolina by promoting high-quality farm products to community-minded consumers.

Charles Hudson, Research and Development Chef for Sunburst Trout Company in Bethel, took first place with a smoked tomato jam. Chef Ricardo Fernandez, owner of the Lomo Grill in downtown Waynesville, took second and third with a Mediterranean pasta sauce and a hot and spicy “Mucho Macho” sauce.

The smoked tomato jam is available for retail at the Asheville City Market every Saturday now through Dec. 20 and is also available via Sunburst’s Web site at www.sunbursttrout.com. It retails for $6.

Hudson said the smoked tomato jam is best used on biscuits, bagels or even for baked brie. It can also be used as an ingredient in salad dressings, marinades and cheese spreads.

Meanwhile, Earth Fare stores, a chain of 13 stores with corporate headquarters in Asheville, recently agreed to carry Chef Ricardo’s Appalachian Tomato Sauce in four of their stores: East Asheville, West Asheville, Johnson City and Knoxville.

The Appalachian Tomato Sauces are also available at Lomo Grill in Waynesville; Greenlife Grocery Store in Asheville; The Grove Corner Market in Asheville; and at the WNC Farmer’s Market (Mountains Sunshine Farms). The sauces retail for $10.

Chef Ricardo’s Appalachian Tomato Sauces are made with all locally-grown ingredients featuring sustainable agriculture practices, gourmet recipes and appeal, and all natural ingredients.

Since June the winners, with the assistance of the Buy Haywood marketing partners, have been working to market, package, and sell these new and exciting products. Project partners include the N.C. Department of Agriculture, the Haywood Community College Small Business Center, the Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project, and Blue Ridge Food Ventures.

The Buy Haywood project is managed by the Haywood County Economic Development Commission and receives support from the Golden LEAF Foundation. For more information about the Buy Haywood program visit www.buyhaywood.com.