BBC Radio London

Thanks to Nigel Barden (from BBC Radio2, Great taste awards etc etc) we had a slot with Robert Elms on BBC Radio London earlier today listen again on the BBC I player for up to a week- take the timer slide to 1:34 to drop in on the conversation

Feckenham village shop

Congratulations to one of our regular stockists, Kieron caught the news on the way to work and then Cath sent out the following press release so it seems only fair that we should do our bit to spread the word..."Feckenham village shop has just had its first birthday and what a year it has been for the once sleepy village. The community owned shop has a strong base of 90-village residents who run the shop and every single one of them is a volunteer! The shop won the Countryside Alliance Regional award and was put forward along with 12 finalists for the British National Countryside Alliance award. (3,000 initial entries) Off went 6 of the team to represent a cross section of the shop on Wednesday 3^rd February 2009 to the House of Lords for the final announcement of the British Champion 2009.
The rest of the village waited on tender hooks until finally the phone call was made. WE WON!Feckenham Village Shop is very proud and honoured to announce that we have become the 2009 British Champion for Village Shops class from the Countryside Alliance awards"

Don't you just hate it...

when people start up a blog and then don't keep it up to date!?

Yes we know we've become one of the many!
sorry...

..since launching the friends online community we've been putting all the stories into the news letters and it seems wrong to repeat everything again on the blog, our favourite blogs are the spontaneous chatty variety where we can share ideas and thoughts.


So for 2010 we'll have a go at a weekly blog, a bit like a diary... let us know your thoughts.

January became a bit of a night mare for all of us so lets move on shall we (although an impulsive purchase of a 15 year old 4x4 will surely guarrantee no more snow for at least another year!)

February, week 5 (or as our computer seems to think Week 6, why do we trust these machines so much?) There seems a bit more buoyancy in the market but the announcement that the recession is over has more than surprised most of us, think the road to recovery will be a long one, let me know if you feel differently won't you.

The best news here is that Penny has handed a large chunk of responsibility for the main kitchen over to Sam (who's been fidgeting in the wings for over two years now) all's going very well but poor Penny is the looser in the short term as she's computerising the purchase side of things....buy in cases, stock in kilos use in grammes *!?@+/.. headache or not? although the very early starts are slowly becoming a memory.

Of course when the proverbial dust settles Penny's imaginative juices will be allowed full flow again, who knows what we'll be bringing you soon...

Neil has finally cracked the email marketing program and we're off on a bit of a sales drive to discover some more stockist around the UK, do you know of anyone we could introduce our selves to?

Finally, if you have not already done so please sign up on the website to keep abreast of all things scotch eggy- and join in the monthly draw for a Free six pack of delicious Scotch eggs...

35 out of 50

The 50 Best Food Shops: from traditional village butchers to urban choclatiers, Rhiannon Batten of The Independent offers the experts' guide to where to find the finest meats, freshest fruit and sweetest pastries....

In amongst some very prestigious company you'll find us at Number 35! with such renowned specialist suppliers as Edinburgh's Valvona and Crolla and Gloucestershire's Daylesford Organic.

"this small but lovely company uses carefully sourced materials to produce an award winning range of our picnic favourites..... the range of different varieties of scotch eggs that this family business produces, is staggering!"

As is often the case we get a great thrill of excitement to be in the papers then panic sets in as we look around and think, do we live up to the mark? a few hours later and the shops been spring cleaned (again) a few adjustments to lay out and a pot of paint acquired, off to do a taster evening then back for a rather belated Halloween party for the team at home, so painting will have to wait until tomorrow

We have our fair share of problems to conquer but thank goodness there is such enthusiasm out there makes it all seem worth while.

Foodie Trivia for the festive season

24 days and counting...

As we slowly come around following a frantic BBC Good Food Show at the NEC last weekend (thank you one and all it was very exciting being minor celebs after the drive time broadcast) it appears that December has finally arrived! Penny put out this years advent calender this morning and I discovered all sorts of foodie trivia to report, for example did you know

Stir up Sunday - the Sunday nearest to November 30th (St Andrews Day) is traditionally the day in the UK to make Christmas puddings, so if you are running late dont forget to give the mix a good stir and make a wish.

Hollie has booked tomorrow off for a bit of retail therapy and is threatening to bring a load of decorations in on Thursday, time to make a swift exit, I fear, or she'll have me climbing the walls (for a change !)

Can't find the cable to connect the camera so will have to do pics another time....

Mr Chris Evans and BBC Radio2

Thursday November 12th 2009...

Well what a day, following our interview with BBC Radio Oxford on Wednesday morning it was amazing to get a call from BBC Radio 2- they 'phoned just before mid-day inviting us to the London studio for 5pm and all hell broke loose.... Penny ran off to make a couple of Tickled Pinks, Charlotte and Neil made up leaflet and stockist packs and got the telephones on charge while Hollie got online to search out trains times, Matt prepared the samples we needed and produced a couple of small cool bags to take them in and in just a few minutes we had the car loaded and were off to Birmingham International to catch the fast train to London.

The train was in the station so after a quick word with the guard we boarded the train only to find a short while later that there was a £20 surcharge (each!) for not buying a ticket on the platform..and we wonder why we use the car all the time.

However nothing was going to take the edge off our excitement as we made a list of all the things we really must mention and do when we got 'on air' .... a smooth run with only 2 stops found us in Euston Station by 3pm.. 2 hours go so thought we'd fit in a visit to our stockist Sourced Market at StPancras and then a tube ride to Borough Market to look at potential pitches (there are moves afoot to have a weekly slot - will let you know as and when) getting back to Euston at 4.35pm, 25 mins to go!

It was dark by now and the rain was moving in as we dashed along Euston road (Google map in hand) uncertain how far we had to walk to get to the BBC but no worries we had time to spare as we pitched up at Western House the home of Radio 2 at 4.59pm...

Ben came to reception and took us up to the Radio 2 offices where we were able (in theory) to unload our stuff and gather our thoughts, but a few minutes later Steve Wright pops out of his studio and then the infamous Sally traffic was over to snaffle a Vegetabularian before any one else... we're introducing ourselves and calmly cutting up an egg for her when we hear shouting from down the corridor - seems we were on!

To be honest the next half an hour or so just flew by, we'd done our piece and were getting up to say good bye when Chris has a brain wave... 'we have tasted your eggs so why don't you stay and taste the stake tartare that Nigel Barden was bringing in shortly'

The rest as they say is history, we seemed to be in and out of the studio all the way through the show- a real blast we loved every moment and it was such a privilege to be so welcomed by Chris and to see the true professionalism of this highly motivated team, they genuinely deserve to be at the top. (and yes, all that planning on the train went out the window just as soon as we got chatting)

On returning to the streets of London we turned our 'phones back on and they just didn't stop- thank you, thank you everyone for your messages it really made our day- don't think we've actually returned to normality yet.

On Friday Kevin our Web man sent an email over to let us know that our usual hit rate of 100 or so a day blossomed into nearly 3000 in an hour during the show WOW!

So you will probably have guessed it but Christmas has definitely come early to this quiet corner of Herefordshire

Britains Favourite Pub Snack

Well its really good to know at least someone else agrees with us... although we don't supply many pubs just now so this could be an opportunity to spread the word

Sorry been a bit pre-occupied over the last few weeks, unfortunately the blog has taken a bit of a back seat will give you a bit more detail soon, promise... but a 'phone call this morning found Neil on BBC Radio Oxford chatting Scotch eggs, well he doesn't talk about much else does he!

Many thanks to the tream in Oxford it was a pleasure doing business with you

Will spend a bit more time on the blog soon, just as soon as we have finalised the Christmas range for you