Looking To Christmas

It’s been sunny outside, but I’ve made a big effort to get into ‘Christmas mode’ and am delighted that my festive ordering is already all wrapped up.

Now I can concentrate on planning for the events we have lined up between now and Christmas. We’re staging a vintage car and beer festival on 28th August. Nutbrook Brewery, which is based nearby and brews our Croots beers, will be running the beer tent. It’s the first time we’ve organised anything like this, but we’re getting a lot of interest and on the first day we announced it we had ten cars entered. Then there’s British Food Fortnight, British Sausage Week and a number of other events we want to get involved in before December.

This month we’ve started stocking products from three new local suppliers – which brings the number of producers we use within 50 miles of the shop to about 40. One, Duffield Dairy, is literally a mile away from the shop, as the crow flies, and is now supplying our milk. This is great because it gives me an extra two days life on it. Ashbourne Foods, who make lovely cakes, and pasta sauce producer Teresa Lambarelli, have also come on board.

Another new product for us this month is the Scotch egg, which we’re making ourselves. I’d read that they were becoming popular and before I knew it our deputy manager, Margaret had dug out a recipe from one of the books we sell in the shop and made one. It was really tasty, so we costed it all out and decided it was well worth going for! We sold the first batch of 16 on the first day they went on sale, and then the second batch of 18 just as fast, so now Scotch eggs are becoming a permanent addition to our range.

We sold the last of our World Cup sausages and burgers following the end of the football tournament last month, raising £310 for our local adopted good cause, Treats Children’s Charity. Ten percent of the sales of our World Cup range was donated to the charity. We were really pleased with how our customers supported our fund-raising effort.