“WE don’t want to change the world but we do want to create handmade, tasty pies”.

These are the words of Goldcliff-based family business Elm Tree Foods whose pies and pasties, while not yet taken over the world, are creating a buzz across Gwent.

Last year the business, which was founded in 2011 by mother and daughter Cheryll and Collette Crewe, opened its first shop, taking over Newport’s Griffiths bakery on Church Road.

The pair had been making vegetarian food since 2005 but spotted a gap in the market for artisan pies which they started selling at farmers markets in Usk, Chepstow, Abergavenny and Caerphilly.

Since opening the shop, the business, which has now been joined by Collette's husband Steve Bridges, has made and sold bakery goods like breads, cakes and sandwiches as well as what they started with - their signature award-winning pies and pasties.

And just one look at the family’s pies is surely enough to make even Paul Hollywood go weak at the knees.

Elm Tree Foods make all the pastry and fillings separately at their farm in Goldcliff and then bake it together at the Newport shop. They now has a core range of around 10 pie flavours.

Standard flavours include the Porky Pear, the Boozy Beef, Butternut Scrunchie, Minty Mutton and the pork pie.

They also make seasonal special flavours including their Festive pie, “basically a Christmas dinner in a pie”.

Collette Crewe, the daughter in the family business, said: “We do notice a trend in sales at various times of the year as each pie will literally go in and out of ‘flavour’.

“The Festive pie is always a much anticipated pie and people always ask us to continue it all year but we produce it November through to start of January so that the novelty never wears off.“ The family’s Boozy Beef Pie and Pork Pie, which Ms Crewe said are both “firm favourites with traditionalist”, have both won Gold Awards at the Melton Mowbray British Pie Awards.

For people who like to try something a little different, Ms Crewe said the Homity Pie and slow-cooked Minty Mutton are always popular.

Her personal favourite is the Butternut Scrunchie which also won gold at the pie awards.

Ms Crewe said: “It’s a vegetarian pie with roasted butternut squash, feta cheese, caramelised balsamic red onions and double cream.

“It’s such a yummy combination of sweet squash with the salty feta plus you can eat it hot or cold so great for summer picnics.”

Steve Bridges said the business uses shortcrust pastry because it is better to work with, holds a shape well and tastes better.

He said Elm Tree also supplies to delis, hotels and weddings, like when they made 144 individual pies for guests and a three-tier wedding pie.

The business originally started with the family making a broader range of pies, ready meals and pizzas but later shelved the other lines, with pizza being dropped in 2013.

Ms Crewe said: “We planned to become a premium brand for Wales and to become something that Newport could be proud of.”

She said the new shop, which now employs seven people, has meant customers now do not have to wait to come and get their pie.

“It has meant people who have heard about us but maybe cannot visit the farmers markets or festivals can have a more local fixed place to visit.

Also popular at Elm Tree is their pasties including their Elm Tree Pasty, a take on the traditional Cornish, and the Bacon, Brie and Cranberry Pasty.

The Elm Tree Pasty was named best pasty in the UK last year at the British Pie Awards and Ms Crewe said “obviously since then the production and sales have increased tremendously”.

But what is different about Elm Tree’s pies and pasties which makes them scoop these awards?

“It’s a premium product,” said Ms Crewe.

She said there is something special in running the company with her family.

“They are all hand made by our family business. That means you take immense pride in your product and your company name."

For more information about the business, on Church Road, Newport, please visit www.facebook.com/Elmtreefoods or call 01633 258613.