Top Dog

Great news for Croots in July – we receive our first award. I’ve been awarded accolades for my Field House Foods flavoured oils and vinegars in the past, but this is the first for the farm shop since we opened last year.

It’s for our black pudding sausage, one of about 30 different types of sausage that Croots’ butchers Rob Tomkins and Ant Griffiths have created.

We’ve become quite renowned for some of the unusual flavours we put together, and regularly hold sausage festivals and tastings now. Pork, leek and Roquefort cheese was the latest new sausage introduced to the butchery counter. We needed to use up some cheese that had been damaged in transit, which gave us the perfect opportunity to dream up another banger for our range!

The award generated a good deal of interest from local media, and I made the most of the PR opportunities with a radio interview that involves cooking our award-winning sausage live on air.

We’ve seen a big increase in sausage sales since and we’re now selling about 500lb a week – so it’s well worth putting yourself forward for these awards. Winning was great for staff morale too!

With the summer holidays underway and the weather less than ideal for outdoor activities, we’ve had lots of grandparents and grandchildren through our doors. The coffee shop’s been busy, but it’s hardly surprising that many visitors make a beeline for our eye-catching display of traditional sweets from Bon Bon’s, of Wetherby. It’s popular with young and old!

I daresay the sweets bring back fond childhood memories for our older customers, who want to share those memories with their grandchildren. The sweet shop’s always been a favourite section at Croots but it’s in the holidays that we really see a surge in interest.