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Summertime, eh? Could have fooled us.

However, we at The Harvest Store feel that summertime isn’t so much a season, as a state of mind.

Yes, it’s usually chucking it down out there, in the land of grey skies and boggy grass. And yes, in some parts of the country the latest de rigueur fashion tips nod more to flippers and snorkels than to Bermuda shorts and flip-flops.

But here, in the heart of Cheshire, we have summertime embedded in our souls, and sunshine pulsing through our arteries.

We’d like to take time to congratulate Caroline Aspinall on her graduation from Preston University. The boisterous Tea Room assistant gained a 2-1 in Journalism, spending a week with the Granada News team in the process. She’ll be with us for a time yet, we hope, but if we lose her to the glamorous world of television news we won’t mind so much.

Peter recently came back from another of his annual 3 Coasts runs (Liverpool to Whitby and back again), with the Vintage Tractor club. Down B-roads and across country it took them a week and, unusually for the time of year, the weather was very clement, and they raised a bit of money for Marie Curie Cancer Care to boot.

And Joanne Martin, Margery & Peter’s other daughter, will be competing in this year’s Great North Run. She took up running about eighteen months ago and has been in training for the occasion in September for a few months. Joanne is running the half-marathon (13 and a bit miles) around Newcastle in aid of the Macmillan Cancer Appeal and any donations will be greatly appreciated.

Trish, the boss, is still making those scrumptious cakes for the Tea Room and Shop (she also bakes to order, if you’re in need of cakes for a special occasion or want to treat someone — we also do Christmas Cakes with handpainted pictures on them, details of which will be available later in the year). The award-winning Sticky Stem Ginger cake, the moreish Crumble cakes, the best-selling Reduced Sugar Tea Bread, her dairy-free Carrot cake and the always-delectable sandwich cakes, and the rest, are available to enjoy on a daily basis.

Margery, too, has been quite busy making some wonderful preserves. Her small batches of jams and marmalades are selling very quickly (as they always do) and she has produced some jams that probably won’t have a repeated run this year, like the Strawberry Jam with Blueberries, the Strawberry & Gooseberry Jam, and the Strawberry & Rhubarb Jam. As usual though, there is the Raspberry Jam (which Trish also uses on her Victoria Sandwich cake).

And if you like your marmalade, then Margery has made two types. The first is the regular Seville Orange with Lemons and Limes — hand cut, by the way — and the second is just that little bit different, a tad more special. How does Margery’s Marmalade with a splash of Tia Maria grab you? Intrigued? It’s a wee bit of decadence spread across your morning toast.

Also look out for the Specials (one-off’s and the occasional recurring) in the Tea Room. Recently Marge has been turning her hand to Potted Meats including Beef and Chicken, and Margery-made beefburgers are on the cards, too, as are some other quite interesting things. Our specials are borne out of Margery’s dedication to looking for ideas that’ll fit rather snugly with The Harvest Store Tea Room’s ideology ― good homemade food.

In the Farm Shop, just like in the Tea Room, we love our food, and we love to bring in some fantastic things for you to enjoy, and recently we’ve been loving things so much it’s been giving me a headache ― not that the wife’s too upset about that.

Some real top quality producers have been seeking us out and bringing us their wares of late and we’ve been more than happy to stock them.

We’ve got chutneys, mayonnaises and mustards from The Garlic Farm on the Isle of Wight that quite a lot of our customers seem to have visited at some time; we’ve got jams and chutneys from Claire’s Handmade of Wigton, Cumbria; the incredible non-alcoholic Ginger Still from Garvey’s of Nottingham that’s sure to warm your cockles, or anything else that needs warming. It’s a rich ginger drink that can be drunk neat, as a long drink with lemonade and ice, or something to take with hot water on those long winter nights.

Also new in we have Loopy Lisa’s Great Taste award-winning fudge, some new pies and quiches from Simply Pies ― including a rather good pork pie ― a new handmade card supplier, Louise Ellen, that compliments the incredible ranges on offer from both Sheila Wharton and Karen Phillips.

  And then we have what in my mind is the cherry on the cake. Flavoured butter from the Flavoured Butter Co. They started in September last year and are based in Denbighshire, and the stuff is amazing.
“How can that be?” you may ask. “Surely it’s just butter with a bit of added flavour.”
Well, yes, I suppose it is, but that is doing the products an incredible disservice. It’s like saying a Tasmanian Devil is a furry little marsupial with anger management issues. This butter will unleash the culinary beast ― or Tasmanian Devil, if you like ― in you. It will make things taste just so much better.
Margery was so impressed by what I’d done for Sunday’s dinner (chopped vegetables up, threw into a roasting dish, dotted knobs of butter liberally around and whacked it in the oven ― I am that subtle) that she posted “Graham can cook!” on Facebook. Cheeky, maybe, but the credit deserves solely to go to the butter. On roasted vegetables, on toast, on bread, on anything that you do with butter already, you can do with the flavoured butter ― even the naughty things. At the moment we have Red Chilli & Garlic; Sun Dried Tomato, Black Olive & Parmesan; Sea Salt, Szechuan Pepper & Garlic, and Basil, Parsley & Chive flavours. And the creators have promised to come in and do a tasting session at some point, so keep a look out for that.
But honestly, as much as I get excited about new things, I rarely get excited about food as what I do about beer and all things alcohol — and that reminds me, we have some awesome liqueurs from Bramley & Gage. Damson and Sloe gins, Cherry Brandy and liqueurs of both Elderflower and Quince. Very, very nice.
But, right now, the butter trumps the lot. Come in, buy some, be impressed.

Please don’t forget the other fantastic things we sell, though:

Seasonal local salad, vegetables and fruit from Allostock, Peover, Nantwich, Byley and Kelsall.

We have eggs from Congleton that are better and cheaper (and less well-travelled) than anything the supermarkets have to offer.

Beef, Sausages, Bacon and Chicken from Crewe, Market Drayton and Wilmslow.

We’ve got frozen fish that tastes fantastic; exotic meats that make the adventurous part of you cry out and get the oil heated up; Ice Cream from Buttertons of Oakhanger that tantalizes the taste buds like no other and is all set to become the ice cream of choice in the region’s top hotels and restaurants ― and we were the very first people to stock it.

We’ve got wine made from fruit and grapes grown within the confines of this wonderful country’s coastline; and beer made by this county’s finest micro-brewers.

On top of all that we do bird seed at prices guaranteed to have the birds tweeting, and we have logs (cut and bagged by us) and kindling, too.

Those of you who’ve been in the shop recently may have noticed we’ve changed it around a bit, and the changes will keep on coming.
Now, this is where we involve you, our fantastic customers. What would you like to see us stock in the shop? What lines do you think are missing from our range? Are we missing something blindingly obvious? Or do you think we’re missing a trick by not stocking products that litter the shelves of the supermarkets?
We’ll be asking you to fill in a questionnaire soon — only a small one, mind — so you can share your thoughts and help point us in the right direction. We really need your feedback on this issue, so don’t be shy and tell us what you think.

All that’s left to be said is that we hope you enjoy any sunny days that are given to you, and until the next time, take care

Graham

          Over the course of the last few years we've entered a few awards competitions. Not all of them, as there are quite a few nowadays in our line of work, but the ones that we feel we have a chance in.
And in the four we've entered we've had four top three places.
The most recent of which was in the 2009 Chester Food & Drink Festival Awards where we came third (and received a nice plaque) for Best Use of Local Produce in a Menu.
We won the Cheshire Life Readers' Choice Award at the  2007/2008 Food & Wine Awards, and were Highly Commended for the same award the following year. 
And we were also Highly Commended at the Vale Royal Business Awards in 2008, another award where members of the public voted for us. 
As for the rest of this year, well, we'll just have to wait and see.

Tea Room Prices

           We love our customers. And because we value your repeated custom, and hope that you’ll continue to support us, we haven’t increased our prices in the Tea Room since August of last year. In that time our bread supplier, alone, has increased their prices three times, and wages have also risen.
But, especially in times like these, in consideration of you, our customers, we need to ride the storm, and if we work together we can keep the prices as they are.

          On the subject of price rises, both eggs and milk have been in the papers recently. The supermarkets will have you believe that they are cheaper and better than the little guys (us, for example), but when it comes to eggs and milk they can’t touch us.
Eggs from the supermarkets spend at least a week travelling the length and breadth of the country, from one warehouse to the next, before they arrive at the store. And they’re expensive. A box of large eggs rolls in at about £1.55 for 6.
Peter goes and gets our eggs from Pace’s of Congleton, and even the Free Range Extra Large are nowhere near the cost of the supermarkets’.
And then we have milk. We get our lovely white stuff from the Boffey’s of Cloudview Dairy, Buglawton. It’s milk from just the one farm, not blended and characterless like the supermarket’s stuff. And, unless there’s a special offer on, it’s cheaper too.  

          I was reading an article in the March ’09 issue of Fine Food Digest and to say I was intrigued is a marked understatement.
The article in question concerned a Farm Shop owner form Norfolk, who, by liaising with his suppliers, managed to undercut the prices of his local Tesco by a significant margin.
So I did a little checking of my own. I already knew that our prices were realistic and reasonable.
I registered online with both Tesco and Asda so I could see their prices and then compare them with our own. This is what they do with each other – as their incessant televison adverts keep telling us – so I thought I’d do that too.
And you know what I found?
I found that over the past few weeks Asda are pretty reasonable for fresh produce and that Tesco are trying ever so hard to keep up with them. But for the most part – and Tesco’s adverts will never tell you this – Asda are cheaper.
But not cheaper than us.
I’ll repeat that.
Not. Cheaper. Than us.
For the most part, on all essential vegetable and salad produce, we are far and away cheaper than the big two.
We, a little concern, can effectively sell produce a good bit cheaper than the two largest supermarket chains in the country.
Now, isn’t that a thing?
The best way, and the fairest way is to compare like for like. There was absolutely no point in comparing our prices with those of the wallet-emptying Finest ranges, because some terraced houses currently cost less than Tesco’s free-range chicken…
So, our whole chickens and chicken breasts from Price’s of Wilmslow (that are not free range, by the way) were compared against the regular (and not bargain-priced) variants from the Big Two.
And with the vegetables, I’ve compared only against the loose produce available. We don’t do pre-packs, as we’ve found that our customers buy just how much they need, and that’s the way it should be. It might be easier for the multiples to sell in packs, but it produces more packaging and produce has a tendency to get binned – and that’s a waste.
There’s no way on this Earth that we should be cheaper as our orders are brought in by a driver unlikely ever to break into a sweat, whereas their orders arrive on numerous pallets and in badly stacked shrink-wrapped cages.
Their buying power is so high they dictate to the supplier just how much they’ll hand over.
We pay what we’re told to pay.
Luckily, our suppliers are very sensible and don’t charge us exorbitant amounts for our orders.
So, at the time of writing this, we are cheaper than either Tesco or Asda, or both, for loose potatoes, carrots, leeks, garlic, onions, mushrooms, Bramley apples, peppers, rhubarb, parsnips, iceberg lettuce, white cabbage, whole chicken, chicken breast fillets and eggs (free range or standard).
Obviously prices change week on week, but where you’ll find that they are competing with each other, we are simply trying to get you the real value for money that you’ve been craving.
As for everything else, we try not to sell anything the supermarkets do. For all the ambient lines – including the Fair Trade products – we can’t and won’t compete with their pricing. We’d go out of business in a fortnight if we tried.
And besides, we’re here for the little guys – the producers just starting off, and those who cater solely for the independents. We want to champion them and continue to tell you all just how good they are.
For instance, Rudds Tomatoes of Peover, who supply us with the vine tomatoes that smell (and taste) just like they’re supposed to. The new season salad and vegetable produce is slowly coming in from all our local suppliers and they herald the way for the New Cheshire Potatoes. Those glorious little spuds will be available around the middle of May.
…or the simply fantastic ice cream from Buttertons of Oakhanger …
…and the free range porcine products of Buttercross that just shout quality…
…also the seasonal organic produce of Rob & Abi Fuller’s Field Fresh Ltd., whose large vegetables – which we should be getting in over the coming months – should take pride of place in everyone’s kitchen…
...and please don't forget the amazing, utterly scrumptious, New Cheshire Potatoes from Royston Ford at Moulton
…and we have lots more brilliant products besides. From exotic meats to free range eggs, from English grape wine to gluten free chocolate, and from Fair Trade tea to some very interesting books about Cheshire and the Northwest, we have many, many interesting things.

          We get quite a few phone calls by new producers who have just started making something which they think is fantastic – we’ve yet to be pitched to by someone who thinks what they’re selling is average.
It gets so that we’re quite cynical as to these new products, because as real food lovers – by that I mean the foodstuffs that are regularly in the papers saying they’re not good for us – we’ve had our hopes dashed many a time.
If the products are not up to standard then we have to be honest with people; it’s no good to either party if we aren’t.
So, we took a call from a man called Robert Aspden, from Oakanger, who had just started making ice cream.
Now, as you will be aware, there are a few really good ice cream makers in Cheshire – Snugburys and Cheshire Farm Ice Cream to name but two. And for us to even contemplate stocking his new product it would have to be better than, not just as good as, his competitors.
Robert turned up looking nervous, which he would be as Margery had that little twinkle in her eye.
We sat at the table and Trish and myself held our spoons at the ready. He took out a few sample pots and placed them in front of us.
And to be honest, I took a dig at the Vanilla Custard expecting it to be okay – to be vanilla ice cream that was all right, but nothing more than that. I popped the loaded spoon into my mouth and all manner of words and phrases rattled around my bald head, few of which are suitable to print.
Without a shadow of a doubt this was the best ice cream I’d ever tasted. We had a go at every single one of the pots he had for us, at least a dozen or so flavours and all were pretty special.
Buttertons Big Brown Cow ice cream stands out from the herd (sorry) as they use their own milk to make the product. A practise not as widespread as you’d think.
Whichever flavour you try, you are in for a treat. Be it the Panna Cotta with Wild Fruits, the Lemon Meringue, the Liquorice Humbug (sounds plain wrong, but tastes Mmmmmm!) or even just the regular vanilla – the Vanilla Custard will be ready soon – every flavour is just magnificent.
It is just that little bit more expensive than the Snugburys tubs, but in my opinion, it is just that little bit better.
But like I said before, Snugburys is brilliant ice cream and had set the benchmark to which all other Cheshire makers compare.
We were the very first shop to stock Buttertons Big Brown Cow Ice Cream, and Robert has since begun supplying to Pecks Restaurant, who prove that they – like us – know good food when they taste it.

English Wine Week (23rd May - 31st May)

National Barbecue Week (25th May - 31st May)

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The Harvest Store

 Wimboldsley, Middlewich, Cheshire, CW10 0LN

01270 526 292    mail@harveststore.co.uk