We are now offering a free local delivery service on a Thursday afternoon between 4pm and 6pm, for orders over £15 within a 5 mile radius. Please order online before midnight on a Wednesday and select ‘free local delivery’ at the check out. If you are not going to be in please leave a cool box for your delivery and let us know where it will be in the ‘order notes’ box at checkout.
Free delivery area
We also provide a click and collect service from the Well Vale Shop and the Bilsby and Ulceby Spar shops. We deliver to these stores on a Tuesday and a Thursday – please order the day before. Or you can collect from our shop – we now have parking at the rear of the shop. Again please order the day before.
If anything is not in stock we will substitute for something of similar or greater value. If you do not wish to accept substitutions please state this in the order notes.
There has been lots going on with the shop. We have had a much busier spring this year than last and then we have all enjoyed this amazing barbeque summer, even if it has meant making a gazillion burgers! We have also supplied food for a lot more private events this year and it is great to be developing a reputation as a go to company when you want something a little more bespoke. We’ll always try to help and I personally really enjoy the variety that working with a client to produce something tailored exactly to their requirements gives.
We decided to try and broaden out our brand and have been delighted to take on one of the premier coastal hotels as a customer, and they have given us some great feedback. We have also joined Select Lincolnshire to try and start building our brand away from Alford – look out for us in the Autumn edition of the Good Taste magazine.
Jon and Kitty displaying the Great Taste award winning products.
For me the biggest achievement of this year so far has been to have two brilliant results in the Great Taste awards – a 1 star award for our Lincolnshire sausage and a 2 star award for our sausage rolls. To put this in context over 12000 products were entered, all of which were believed by their producers to be of the highest quality. Of these around 25% were awarded 1 star, less than 10% 2 stars and just under 200 gained 3 stars. Only 2 sausage rolls in the entire country were awarded 2 stars and ours were one of them. Again only 2 Lincolnshire sausages received a star, and ours was one of those. For both products no one achieved a higher rating. These awards are nationally recognised and hotly contested so I was over the moon to achieve these results, and really hope that it will help us to build our sales of these products to more wholesale customers.
The counter complete with Great Taste bunting.
Frighteningly in our world we need to start planning for Christmas very soon so know it is time to replenish stocks after a busy summer and then hunker down and get prices and order forms ready for what will hopefully be another amazing December. Eeek…
It feels like we have only just sent the children back to school and finished juggling rotas to fit everyone’s holiday in and now we are taking Christmas orders!
We have had a good summer, with noticeably more footfall in Alford during the warmer months. We developed our range of barbecue food, which has sold well. We were very pleased to supply several hundred burgers and sausages for the August bank holiday craft market at the Manor House. We have provided food for a few other events, including the Retriever Club Area Championships which was hosted on our farm this year.
As people have tried and enjoyed our pies and ready meals I am starting to be asked to provide ‘scaled up’ versions for people hosting events. My favourite commission was a 5 tier savoury pie for a wedding, photographed above.
We had received one or two comments from people who were struggling to find our shop, so we decided we needed a more striking wall sign. I found a traditional sign writer, Tim Fry, who is based in Woodhall Spa and he produced a gorgeous sign which manages to be very eye catching whilst still being sensitive to our conservation area site.
Yesterday was a very exciting day for the business as we supplied our products to other shops for the first time. Our sausage rolls will now be available in the Spar shop at Bilsby, along with a small range of fresh meat and ready meals. We are delighted to be working this local business and hope to roll out to their shops at Ulceby Cross and Partney Pumps shortly.
I have been absolutely rubbish at updating the blog, but fortunately we have been harder at work in the shop! Well December was quite a month. We opened on schedule on 1st December and had a fabulous first few days. We were over the moon at how many people trusted us with their Christmas dinner, and feedback suggests we didn’t disappoint.
Our Christmas counter, complete with holly.Our deli section
We had been warned that January and February would be a struggle, and they were steady. We were getting great feedback, and earning some loyal customers, but we could have done with a few more of them. We used the time to develop our product ranges and tweaked the layout of the front of the shop.
Our chilled ready-to-eat counter featuring our award winning pies
March saw a very nervous morning making pies for the National pie Awards. I didn’t tell anyone I was entering as I didn’t expect any awards, but I was over the moon to receive 2 silver and a bronze medal from our three entries. This would have a big impact on our business and gave us some credibility quickly. We also ran a promotion for British butchers Week and again this got some new faces through the door.
Easter was busy and now, at the end of May, the weather is finally warming up. We have started producing more summery products in our raw counter – burgers and kebabs for the barbecue, and a beef stir fry. These are going really well, but I have been really surprised at how many pies and ready meals we continue to sell.
Our counter looking fabulous in May
I have been delighted at how well our little team has come together. As you can see from the picture above our fantastic head butcher Jon continues to grow in confidence and skill. He has also done a great job of mentoring our two part time staff, who have both really added to their already strong skill sets. It’s lovely going to work in a happy team. Jon has also managed to squeeze in getting married this spring, so congratulations Jon!
We’re pleased to announce our Christmas list for 2016. Please download the order form from here if you would like to place an order with us.
These are the items we have available for Christmas orders:
Norfolk Black or Norfolk White free range turkey
Norfolk Blacks and Norfolk Whites are traditional, slow growing breeds. Norfolk Blacks are a gamier, slightly leaner bird renowned for flavour and Norfolk Whites are plump breasted and juicy. Our birds are sourced from a Lincolnshire farmer who rears free range birds in a traditional manner. They are sold oven ready, with giblets.
Rare breed gammons
From our own middle white-cross-saddleback pigs, slowly dry cured using a traditional cure and sold off the bone, rolled and ready for cooking.
Beef
From our own cross bred cattle, which have been grass fed and allowed to slowly reach maturity. Ribs of beef will have been dry aged for at least 21 days. Ribs will be sold French trimmed and chined for fabulous flavour and presentation combined with easy carving. Topside will be rolled for best presentation and easy carving
All the trimmings – all made on site, using the best quality ingredients.
Bread sauce, made using our own bread
Cranberry sauce from fresh cranberries
Pigs in blankets – half-length chipolatas wrapped in dry cured streak bacon
Pork, sage and onion stuffing
Christmas pudding
A traditional Christmas pudding made to a Delia Smith recipe, ready for reheating on the day. Presented in a ceramic bowl wrapped in muslin and tied with a ribbon. Supplied with a pot of rum cream (just like brandy butter, only much nicer!)
We are now well into the final push of getting ready to throw open the doors of the Well Vale shop. Our manager has been appointed and started work on the 1st. We have interviewed and appointed our shop assistants. Tradesmen are beginning to reach the end of their roles and the shop is starting to look like a shop and the prep area a prep area! We have sent the first heifer (young female cow which has never had a calf) to the abattoir and so we will have the first carcass on site on Monday. This means we will have well aged beef to sell over Christmas. Two pigs will go to the abattoir next week to make the Christmas hams.
The shop chillers were installed at the end of October.
Every day is varied, but all seem to involve spending lots of money and ending the day with a longer to do list than I started with… I’m on site a lot, liasing with the tradesmen and sorting out little niggles, making decisions and hopefully providing praise and encouragement as we go. We have been incredibly lucky with our tradesmen, with a fantastic bunch who have all worked really hard and to a very high standard, getting on with each other and working around each other. Tradesmen always seem to get a bad press, but ours have been superb – thank you guys!
From this…to this in 2 1/2 months!
I’m off to talk to suppliers now, as we try to organise a deli offering that is hopefully a little bit special and unique as well as being accessible on price, which is just the same as what we are trying to do with our home produced offering. Tomorrow morning I’m going to be making sausages and bread ready for a celebration breakfast to mark our stockman’s last day at work for us after an incredible 46 years of service. He wouldn’t want to be named on here, but he will be very much missed.
Some of this years calves, mostly with mums who were also delivered by our retiring stockman.
At the moment there is a slight pause whilst solicitors hammer out a couple of details with the properties deeds so I have time to stop for a moment and blog about the last month. I have had a procession of tradesmen and suppliers around the building to discuss what works need doing and to provide quotes. I have had my consultant Rich Summers in to look at layouts and sort out equipment requirements.
My favourite butchery interior Pin
I’ve been Pinterest-ing as I’m really keen for the shop to have a strong look. A pre-planning application has been submitted for signage and external paint colours.
I’ve got an electrician lined up, a 3 phase supply ready to install, a tradesman to strip out and another to line the food prep areas. I have a quote for a cold room, some gorgeous serve over counters for raw meats and grab and go chillers for cooked meats and sandwiches. I needed a little lie down after getting that one! The company is registered – Well Vale Ltd. The business plan is written. Do I know how much it costs to make a sausage roll? I do. Do I know how many I will sell? According to my business plan 18 a day. I’ve been to the abattoir to sort out having our animals slaughtered – A Wright and Son. Andrew and his mum were exceptionally generous with their time and advice, steadfastly asserting that they wouldn’t try and open a new butchers in Alford. Now I’m desperate to get cracking, but until that premises is in our ownership most of the above is on hold.
Ready for some kitchen table butchery
I’ve been on a few secret shopper trips recently, spotting great ideas to try and emulate and some not so great ones to try and avoid… It has also been a chance to think about my pricing point. Most recently I purchased a half pig from The Pink Pig near Scunthorpe, where the young butcher, Brent, was very helpful. Their pigs are all free range but they have moved away from the Gloucester Old Spot crosses they used to favour for a more commercial cross, to provide the leaner meat which they feel their customers want. To my mind the pork was a bit on the lean side for what I wanted, but the flip side of that is that of the 44 kg of pig I would imagine that there was less than 5 kg of waste, including bones. I just had it split into three ‘primals’ (shoulder and front leg, loin and belly, and hind quarter and hind leg) so I got to practise my butchery.
Chorizo cooking sausage
I have cured 4kg of bacon, a 3kg ham joint, made 5kg of Lincolnshire sausage, some of which was used for haslet and scotch eggs, and 2.5kg of cooking chorizo sausage. I have also got several joints in the freezer and about 5kg of shoulder ready for another load of sausages. Tonight’s task is pork pies.
The new premises will have room for some bakery goods, so I’m in full product testing mode on that front, too. My signature loaf, made with a mix of white and wholegrain wheat flours, a little spelt flour and with added seeds and malted grains is going down well in testing and last nights parsnip and ginger cake was well received in the office today. The children were given it as mystery ingredient cake, and only told of the parsnip element after having pronounced it delicious! They are keen testers, but not very discerning, all being gannet-like. Ross, however, tells it as it is.
Foodie Friday morning – garden produce, my signature loaf and homemade granola
After a slightly torrid experience getting planning permission for the buildings at Well, a curve ball was thrown when the last remaining butchers shop in Alford was put on the market.
To start from the start, my planning application for change of use on some farm buildings here at Well was submitted and all seemed to be proceeding smoothly. Then I was invited to speak about the proposal at the local Parish Meeting. I went along and spoke and was aware of some hostility from a very few people. After answering some questions I was banished from the room for the discussion and vote. Afterwards I heard the vote had gone against me, but was still not unduly worried. However a couple of days later a 13 page letter of objection was sent to the local planning department suggesting I was going to build a 24/7 food factory which would destroy the village. I spent a couple of frantic weeks building evidence to refute all the ‘harms’ that it was claimed my project would cause. Instead of my application being decided by the planning officers it was sent to committee and heard at a meet where other applications included a new supermarket and a 350 house development. I spoke for my project while the Parish Clerk and District Councillor spoke against, but the planning committee were unanimous in their support. Result!
I began putting together what I needed to do next when one Saturday morning my husband got a text from a friend asking if he knew that the Alford Butchers had come on the market. We had a look online and the price seemed steep, but we thought we would take a look. We duly viewed the premises and saw that whilst it had lots of potential it also needed quite a lot of work. I’d also done some research on what butchers shops were selling for and decided that this one wasn’t worth the asking price to us, and the owners were understandably not keen to take a low offer when they had just put the premises on the market. Ross persuaded me that we should have a look at some other shops on the market in Alford and I fell in love with one of them. We have had an offer agreed and I am very, very excited. More soon!
I had a bit of an unexpected trial run over the last few weeks. We had a heifer that was being weighed prior to being sent to slaughter fall over in our new state-of-the-art handling system. It was clear that she was injured, but she did manage to get back to her feet. She was obviously not well enough to be sent on a wagon to be slaughtered the next day, and the following day she could not get up unaided and she appeared to be in significant pain, so it was arranged that she would be home killed by the local knackerman, and then hung in a local farmers chiller.
My first solo – the hindquarter with the first cut to remove the shin. The blade on the blue handled knife is 10″ to give an idea of size.
I had ace Butchery Consultant Rich Summers coming up the following week, so it was arranged that he would help me butcher the first 5/6ths, and we would further age the undamaged hind quarter, and I would have a solo go at that. We set up the old farm office as a makeshift cutting room and had a long but really good day with Rich.
First I removed the shin meat and prepared a marrow bone from the removed bone.
He powered through the ‘proper’ butchery and I steaked and diced behind him before an all hands on deck session to get the meat bagged and labeled before we handed it out to all the staff on the farm. Home killed meat can not be sold, but it was a great opportunity to see what one of our animals looked like on the hook, and what it tasted like, as well as to get some hands on butchery practice! The poor girl had a broken femur when we butchered her, so euthanasia was definitely the correct course of action.
The thick flank came off next.
Ten days later the undamaged hindquarter was collected and I had my first go at butchering solo! The initial breakdown was quite physical and some of the big muscles that form the topside, silverside and thick flank look a bit similar to an amateur which was a bit scary, but I was generally happy with how it went.
Topside and silverside off…
And then split and rolled, ready for slow or pot roasting.
Again the meat was bagged up and split between all of us working on the farm.
Finally I plucked up courage to tackle the steaks -rump steaks…
tail end of fillet, rump fillet and sirloin. Some aging discolouration can be seen on the top two pieces on the right, which still needs trimming off.
It looked really good – a lovely colour, a nice fat level, and well set with having been hung a bit longer.
Packing supervisor!
We’ve really enjoyed the bits we’ve eaten so far, and it has been good to be able to get a feel for how the meat aged. The whole process has been a great learning curve, so know I feel I understand much better how one of our beast will look broken up and what the body balance of the carcass is. Next I need to perfect some meat pie recipes to add some extra value to the diced meat!
We have had a good summer, with noticeably more footfall in Alford during the warmer months. We developed our range of barbecue food, which has sold well. We were very pleased to supply several hundred burgers and sausages for the August bank holiday craft market at the Manor House. We have provided food for a few other events, including the Retriever Club Area Championships which was hosted on our farm this year.
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