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Welcome to our new blog page.  Here we will keep you up to date with events behind the scenes - in the kitchen, at past events, people we have met - anything we think you may find interesting about the recent past and what we have been up to..

Back in the groove.

As heralded in my last blog post we were back in Shaftesbury behind a table of goods.  It was a two day event - Friday 13th March and Saturday 14th.

It was a good week-end weatherwise and, therefore, good for footfall.  It was great to see those regulars that we have not seen for nearly 3 months. 

There are two types of visitor for the two different days.  Fridays are for locals whereas Saturdays are more tourists and families walking their dogs (dogs are allowed in the hall) and tend to get a lot of attention.  It's a little frustrating that we have to pack away on Friday nights and unpack again on Saturdays as the hall is used for line dancing on Friday night.  At least we don't have to remove it all from the hall.

It was a good weekend for sales (better than this time last year).   

Interesting conversation with one lady who purchased a jar of our (new line of) quails eggs.  She cannot get them in her usual shops.  We were getting similar comments over ordinary pickled eggs last year.   Obviously egg lovers need to come to us.  The curry eggs and mustard eggs are now ready too.

Another trip to Pritchetts in Salisbury.  This time to deliver shallots in balsamic vinegar.  

As a sign of how busy we have been in the kitchen you will see that our shop has been updated to reflect the addition of Raspberry jam and Strawberry jam as well as Red Onion Chutney, Date & Ginger chutney, Picallili and Spicy Tomato chutney. 

Shaftesbury is coming....

So we are getting closer to that time of year when we brave the outdoors and hope the gazebo does not blow away or leak. 

Soon, we will add an events page to this site so you know which events we will be attending and when. 

In the meantime, on Friday 13 and Saturday 14 March, we will be at the Air Ambulance supporting indoor market at Shaftesbury Town Hall (shown in the photo on the right), at the top of the high street, next to St Peter's church.  Having attended this market for some years, it is nice that so many customers keep coming back to us.  It is one thing to sell our goods, but far more important to us that buyers keep coming back, endorsing the taste and quality of our product.

Of course there are samples of our wares to try, and tempt you to buy.

More about the event next week, when we tell you how it went.  

 

Another 96kg of shallots have been peeled.  Those who love our shallots in balsamic vinegar will be glad to know that, after a short hiatus, we have a new batch ready for devouring.  These will be available at Shaftesbury this week.  We will also be taking some to Pritchetts Butcher in Salisbury next week.

Additionally, we have been pickling eggs.  This time for eggs with mustard and curry eggs.  They will not be ready for Shaftesbury, but will be ready in a couple of weeks.

And finally, for this instalment, we took delivery of two new banners.  One for the back of the gazebo and one to be pinned to the front of our table.  The two that we had were starting to look a little tired and worn.  No doubt we will keep the old ones....just in case.

 

Shelley 

 

 

First event of the year

After being postponed due to flooding, the 'farmers market' took place on Saturday, 21 February.   The road outside the hall was still flooded halfway across.  If you wanted to attend on foot, you would have needed wellies, although people could have been dropped off in the hall car park and not have to wade in.   The people of Winterbourne Stickland are a resolute bunch, so there was still a high footfall for the event, and we did a good amount of trade.  The pictures were taken early in the day.

We had to take a different route there due to the a road being closed.  This did mean we got to see a "Pony Poo" sign.  It amused me.  Not compost or manure... just poo.  I guess it's a good job they didn't use another word.

As our first event of the year, it was good (for us) that it was a short day.  Just 10.00 am to 1.00 pm, and we were able to find out what we had forgotten to pack after winter.   It was a bit of a trial run for longer days ahead.

Just taken delivery of another 96kg of shallots, which we will start peeling on Saturday.   Currently pickling eggs.  In addition to our usual free-range chicken eggs, we have 30 dozen quail eggs that we will be selling.   

 

Shallots, shallots and more shallots.

15 Feb 2026 15:55

Our shallots are forever popular.  We provide original shallots, shallots in balsamic vinegar, with garlic and with chillies.  And we sell loads of them.  This means we are forever peeling them.  We order them in batches of 96kg and have virtually finished peeling the latest order—twelve kg to go.  We will have a short break as grandparent duties take over during the school half-term.   And at the end of half-term, we will be ordering more....another 96kg.  We peel at least 8 kg per day.

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