A NORTH Yorkshire jelly maker has won the vote of approval from some of the country’s top politicians,

Ryan Tindall, 22, was one of 12 small businesses selected as case studies from around the UK to attend the event at Parliament to tell MPs how fibre broadband has transformed his business

Attendees included Andrew Jones, MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough, and the Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.

Ryan, who runs his business Just Jelly – making traditional Yorkshire savoury jellies, from the family home in the village of High Hawsker, near Whitby, brought a selection of his special beetroot, rosemary, mint, and port-infused jellies along for guests to try.

He said: “It was a great experience, especially to meet all the other businesses from around the country. It was a chance to swap experiences of starting up and pick up some business tips as well.

"I was impressed by the level of interest from MPs. I think it helped that I’d brought a selection of my jellies along for people to try.

"I got quite a lot of MPs promising to order some from my website and a number of them mentioned me on Twitter. Since doing the event I’ve had quite a few more orders come through via the website so that has been a nice bonus.”

Ryan joined the county’s fibre broadband revolution after his village was connected up to fibre as part of the multi-million pound Superfast North Yorkshire project in April this year.

He was also chosen as Superfast North Yorkshire’s 50,000th customer and to mark the event was a special guest at this year’s Malton Food Lovers Festival where he was presented with a celebratory food hamper from multi-Michelin starred Chef Jean-Christophe Novelli.

Ryan launched Just Jelly at the start of the year, running it from the family home.

He said: “These days if you want to set up on your own you have to be online because that is increasingly how people first find you and buy things from you.

“We are a bit out in the sticks here so it is much easier to reach customers online. Before getting fibre the broadband was really slow. It’s so frustrating when you’re trying to do things like process orders or change and upload things quickly on the website.

“Both my parents use the internet, my dad uses it for book keeping for his work and my mum likes to shop online. The difference now is that we can all be online at the same time without worrying about things crashing or slowing down to a snail’s pace.”

Ryan was inspired to start Just Jelly after eating mint jelly as a child, made by his grandmother Elizabeth Tindall.

“She used her own recipe and as I kid I loved it, and had it with most of my meals. Once I started to get an interest in food and cooking I decided to have a go at making it. I started experimenting with different flavours to give it a modern twist," he said.

“I sent her a selection as a gift at Christmas and she loved them. She didn’t realise I’d made them and even said she thought they were better than hers, so that was the seal of approval for me.”

Ryan, who already sells his jellies to delis, restaurants, gift shops and gastro pubs across the county, hopes eventually to attract interest from big supermarket chains and beyond.

“The great thing about the internet is that is brings the world right to your doorstep – now hopefully I will be able to bring a real taste of Yorkshire to a much wider audience.”