30 April 2010, 15:50 PM
  • Steve Croot, of Croots Farm Shop & Kitchen, in Duffield, Derbyshire, makes the most of the PR opportunities that pop up

Our planned extension of the butchery department went well, and we’ve now got an extra 2 metres of counter space. The next step is to take on an apprentice butcher to work with our two butchers, Rob and Ant, to help keep the additional counter space full of value-added products. The sunny weather in April meant that we had strong demand for BBQ products.

Regular readers of Deli Diary will know that we have Shire horses on the farm, which are popular with a lot of our customers – especially when new foals arrive. When our fourth foal of the season was born on St George’s Day, we just had to name him St George!

We made sure we got the word out as soon as possible via our Facebook page, and by contacting local media. It was a perfect PR opportunity for us, and undoubtedly helped boost customer numbers that weekend. Talking of Facebook, the friends of Croots Farm Shop continue to increase and we’ve now got more than 200.

This month’s new products include Miss Piggy’s tray bakes, which are made just a couple of miles down the road, and which we’re selling in our coffee shop and also in the farm shop. They’re delicious – and we’ve tried them all…in the interest of research!

We’ve also started stocking a selection of Spanish wines, which have been specially imported for us by our wine supplier. He came along to the shop to run a wine tasting and give customers a few tips on what to serve with the wines from Mont Marcal in the Penedes region.