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October-25-06 - Christmas Build Up

As summer slowly disappears in that blur between August and September the weeks suddenly seem to speed up as we now find ourselves racing headlong towards Christmas, dark nights and colder weather. There has been a flurry of activity in preparation of one of our exciting periods, Colin our head butcher is planning ahead to ensure he has enough of our fantastic Organic Bronze Norfolk Turkeys, dry cured gammons, these he cures now to develop that special Rhug taste that proved so popular last year and our special Aberdeen Angus Beef which as it requires 28 days maturing on the bone means he has to plan well ahead. All this is on top of the thousands of hand-linked chipolatas, dry cured streaky bacon & hand made traditional stuffing that must be made ready for the big day makes for a very busy butcher.

Not wanting to be outdone is Manon, our catering manager. With the cold wet weather comes a change in peoples eating preferences and we see a switch to winter favourites such as steak hotpot, traditional home made soup, chilli and savoury mince. All of these are made on site by Manon to very traditional recipes using where applicable Rhug meat. So far Manon has managed to make 9 different varieties of soup from Leek & Potato to butternutsquash & ginger. Production of the soup & hotpot has jumped up 6 fold on last year, but this is no surprise to those of us that have tried them!   

Last but not least is Jaquie our shop manager. Since August she has introduced over 150 new food lines into the shop, many in preparation for Christmas, from traditionally made Christmas puds to hand made local chocolates, our cheese range has grown to well over 40 varieties and we now stock a fantastic range of freshly baked bread. But what has got Jaquie most excited is our range of over 200 gifts that are due in late October, selected from the best we could find of local and innovative products, these are sure to delight anyone who is fortunate enough to receive one this year.

Finally, our farmers market will be helping December get off to a flyer this year and is on the first Sunday of December, if last years is anything to go by then it will be well worth a visit.

Written By: Jon Edwards

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