June / July 2010

June is a special month for HomeCook. It's the month where we can always say ' We've now been in business for ** years'. So here goes. We've been in business for ONE year!  In these troubled times of recession, austerity and general monetary nastiness, we're proud to be going strong and long may the orders continue - we've sold 4,600 meals since we started. We had a special offer of free wine for every local delivery which was popular to the people of Fife, but rather annoying to those who ordered from Wales and Somerset (but they got free delivery instead!)

 

Kathy and I decided to have a wee break after mashing spuds and chopping peppers for the past year. We closed up for a week and ran off to the Yorkshire Dales for a canal boat holiday with the family - including Joss the dog. You know that feeling about going away, thinking you've done everything, and it's all fine? We had that until we arrived home and found a desperate customer requiring 350 meals pronto!  So it's been a busy week of chop chop, stir stir, seal seal, label! We were lucky to even get Wundachef Mairi along to help us out.

Mairi is our youngest and keenest member of staff in the kitchen. Absolutely nothing phases her. She has a passion for all aspects of catering and now that she's a vegetarian it gives me the excuse to taste the Moroccan Lamb (my favourite!)  Mairi has her mind set on becoming a vet and she helps out in all things animal whenever possible. A busy Easter was spent lambing at a local farm & she helps the local Riding For The Disabled every Saturday.

Mairi Hill - Wundachef !

Another stockist of our frozen meals to announce! Food For Thought has just opened in the centre of Burntisland, Fife. They are a great business who have combined a cafe, deli and Fair Trade & eco-friendly products. They were especially interested in our local production and ingredients - as well as the taste, of course! Bruce and Sarah only opened a week ago and are already doing well. Kathy and I wish them all the best in the future with this smashing place. We'll be back soon for a coffee in the near future!

Sarah & Bruce of Food For Thought

As Summer is when everyone goes on holiday, including us, it's not so busy. Apart from restocking a lot of places and finding more outlets - more info to follow - we popped along to Culross Farmers Market and had a great time. It was nice that this year so many people had heard of us and said lovely things about us. The BBQs in the market only sold meat, so we had a lot of vegetarians huddled around us. Note for next year: Sell the tasting session portions, don't give them away! I'm toying with the idea of mashed potato with a carrot in a cone - a veggie '99', but Kathy thinks it's silly...! Here's a picture of our top Sales girl, Rachel holding the fort whilst a group of clever people came over to see what HomeCook was all about!

 

May 2010

It's May already! It's been non stop over the past month, and to make things a little more thrilling for you, I have LOADS of pictures to put up. A picture tells a thousand words, so here goes...

We've been busy making HomeCook a little more memorable by jazzing up the POS (Point Of Sale) stuff. This means putting a large Saltire on the packaging and using, where we have space, our new HomeCook picture. We decided to go for the 'group in the field waving spoons' classic look. It works! The space on the right is for us to put information regarding us and the food. It was a smashing day for a photo and luckily my self timer behaved or it might have had me falling over whilst running back into place!

The HomeCook Squad

Our new mega freezers

We also bought a couple of big freezers for the kitchen store area as we are needing to store more and more before the big deliveries need to go out. A nice chap from South Queensferry was our supplier and despite the fact that they were almost to big to fit in the doorway, they're just the ticket and fit in the room just fine.

Aucherarder Farmers Market was our next venture. It was a glorious day and quite a few turned out. This Farmers Market is quite a new one and is getting more and more popular each month. We had great fun with the locals and the other stallholders too. Lucklaw Pork had a stall there, and they had great sausages - look them up if you can! I then popped to Crieff to load up with more Summer Harvest Rapeseed Oil. Maggie had the order waiting for us, and I even met her mum - see the picture below!

Some nice Auchterarderians and me

Me with Summer Harvest Oil's roadshow  in Crieff

Next!  We had a tasting session at our first Baxters retail outlet down in Selkirk. It's a great place and Lynne and her staff were really eager to meet us as they'd been advertising our arrival all week. The kitchen staff were super too as we took a box of carrier bags with us to heat the tasting session food instead of a gas hob!! I had made a double sided 5ft display board to go between our two freezers, so it gave us a good identity for the customers to remember. This month we also went to the Kelty Baxters and filled up their freezer. Another home designed info board was made, and it's in place by the freezer as we speak. We're doing the product launch on Sat 5th June.

Lynne and the girls with Kathy at Baxters Selkirk

Our Display at Baxters Kelty - Check out the sign!

April 2010

When I wrote in March that I would be announcing some new places that we would be selling our great frozen food, I wasn't joking. We've been pestering all and sundry why it makes sense to sell our HomeCook meals at their stores rather than get pallet loads from the depths of England. Scotland's larder is well known - why not use it? Some of these places insist you buy over £1,000 worth of their stock each time, so apart from trying to sell it, you need the space to store it. We're a slow burner, but I think that the Scottish farmshops are understanding that if it's local, it better for everyone!

One new place we're at is Ruryk Fare, which quite near Dundee - you really must look on our outlets page for their website. Ruryk have the advantage of being an antique shop, a gift shop and a foodhall - all in one building!  It's a very popular place, and with all those things under one roof, it's well worth a visit.

Ruryk Fare - What a BIG place!

Our other new outlet, or should I say outlets, is/are Baxters Farmshops. They were fed up selling English produce especially as they are a thoroughly Scottish firm who want to do nothing but promote Scottish produce. I like that! We're going to initially stock Kelty, Selkirk and (flagship) store in Fochabers. This is really great news for us and we hope that Baxters & our other farmshops will turn the tide against these English imports!

This month we did Stirling farmers market which went down a storm. Exactly the same people bought exactly the same amount of food as they did during our record sell last October! We came home in rather a light vehicle and panicked that we had nothing for our own dinner! We restocked Milton Haugh farm shops' freezers  yesterday and stayed for lunch too - it's well worth going to as they have a good range of everything!

Milton Haugh on the inside!

We've added to our meal range too. The Coq-Au-Vin has been super-popular, but we felt that the British free range chicken was being sold short. This is where Chicken Paprikash became the new choice to add to the range. Made in a creme fraiche, tomato and smoked paprika sauce, this meal is low in fat, and high in goodness. It's a delicate flavour that is selling really well. The picture below really doesn't do it justice!

Chicken Paprikash

So, quite a month for us. Again, it's all nice news and we're not even a year old yet! Our next venture is Auchterarder farmers market on May 8th, which we're quite excited about. My oldest daughter, Rachel, will be coming with me to meet the people and hand out leaflets so Kathy can get the freezers stocked up. Do pop in if you're around!

 

 

March 2010

Again, it's been non stop over the past month. Thank goodness the weather has got better, and now the crocus, snowdrop & daffodil bulbs are showing off where they were planted! It's been busy at HomeCook, and it hopefully won't be long until we can announce some more places to sell our great produce!

One venue that we're at is Reuben's Deli, 10-12, New Row, Dunfermline. We've been there for quite some time, and the food they serve is going down a storm! Lunchtimes always seem packed in this place. So if you want our food for lunch whilst you're out shopping, get in there! The Moroccan Vegetable & Chickpea Stew is a favourite with the table crowd!

Reuben's Deli 10-12 New Row, Dunfermline

We were pretty busy with tasting sessions this month too. We don't just deliver the food, we tell people how nice it is and give them a flavour to savour! We popped into our lovely chums at Knowes Farm Shop in East Linton the other week. Hilary had advertised us in the local press, and had put up signs outside the shop for a week before. It was a little like being actors straight out of Emmerdale! What a great response! We sold a lot of food in the two hours we were there, and everyone was so nice about us and our products. Hooray for Knowes!

C'mon Ladies, buy some of our meals and I'll let you out of the shop!!

We also went back to our first farm shop, the Famous Craigie's near South Queensferry to do a tasting session. If you live in Edinburgh, go there. If you don't live near, go anyway! They have a huge extension that has a huge butchery, and the restaurant has just been altered so that service is quicker and easier. We popped in and had a smashing time. It was busy to say the least!  Craigie's has now given us a huge freezer area so we can show off our full range to the lucky customers, and this has helped when it comes to seeing what's on show. All Craigies need is a traffic warden, the place is SO busy!

One full car park, and one full freezer!

Kathy was interviewed by the local newspaper ' The Dunfermline Press' about The Fife Diet. The Fife Diet is the new scheme (started in Fife) where the aim is to eat food made as locally as possible, to save food miles, and also so show people what good food was on their own doorstep. Luckily for us, we tick both boxes!

The other news is something that we've been thinking of for some time. To save packaging, and to save money, we decided to come out with the 'For Two' range of meals. It's only initially being launched for six of our most popular dishes, but we should be doing some more in the future. Ordering is easy, go to the home page and click on 'Meals For Two' on the left hand side.

Some of our single portions being overshadowed by our new Meals For Two range

We'll be off to Stirling and Auchterarder Farmers Markets in April - so we might see you then - Do check the HomeCook Home page for dates! Until then, bon appetite!

February 2010

I had hoped that the weather would have got slightly better, but as we speak, Auchterarder is free of electricity and traffic, and is rather full of snow. Although the snow has come and gone, and come back again, it's not made much of a dent in sales with our lovely farm shops. On the other hand some of them, such as Craigie's and Loch Leven's Larder, have been ordering in larger amounts than normal. A wider range? Yes. Extra amounts? Yes. Good for us, good for the shop and, most importantly, good for you, the customer! Kathy has been busy developing two portion meals. This will be better for those who want to eat the same meal together but want to reduce the packaging. As a bonus, the two portion meals will be cheaper than purchasing two one portion meals!

We've got another farm shop! Milton Haugh Farm is North of Carnoustie and Arbroath, and is nearer to Dundee than you think. We popped in on our way up to Inverurie about a month ago, and were really impressed with what they have. Lesley and Stuart Gray have made great efforts to bring good food to the local community. They also run the Corn Kist Coffee House, which have a wide selection of dishes as well as fabulous home baked cakes. I wasn't free to make the first delivery of HomeCook meals, but hopefully I can 'test' a few of the tray bakes the next time. Only for research purposes, you'll understand!

Note the people running towards the cakes!

We're not at the point of our wee business to put 120 second long adverts on Channel 4, but we still are trying to get our name known in Scotland. The best advertising is word of mouth. Even better when it's from friend to a friend. Can you trust adverts on the TV and in the press these days? One of the reasons that we do tasting sessions is so that the food doesn't have to wave to customers! We did a tasting session yesterday at Loch Leven's Larder, which went well, and next Saturday (6th March) we're off to Craigie's near Dalmeny between 12-14:00 to do the same. It's great to meet people and tell them what we have.

Last week, Willie Rennie, the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Dunfermline and West Fife popped in to see us. He is interested not only in local businesses, but also on the poor diet that many Scottish people have. He mentioned us on his Facebook page and already our HomeCook Page has more fans!

Willie Rennie MP, Kathy and Willie's dinner

One slight problem that has come in is that the price of food has gone up dramatically over the past four months (e.g. lamb is up by 40%). It affects us especially because we insist on free range chicken, outdoor bred pork, grass fed lamb & beef. The weather has played havoc with our local farms, so we haven't been able to get the usual vegetables from them. This means that we have to put our prices up between 10-15%. It's not that bad, but it's still annoying for us to have to do this . We hope that this won't put you off our meals. Remember that quality is never cheap! The price increase will begin on April 1st, so it would be  canny idea to fill up your freezers now to save money...

 

January 2010

We hope that 2010 is a year of promise, hope and health to you all. It's also going to be an important year for us. We hope to start the production of two portion meals, starters and, with our lovely chums at The Cookroom, desserts too. All this is possible because of you.  We believe that HomeCook is not just about profit. It's all about natural flavour, local ingredients, no nasty preservatives and the smallest eco-footprint we can make. You obviously agree with us because so far we have sold over 2,350 meals, so thank you!

We've been busy since the start of the year and it gave Kathy a golden opportunity to show off what kind of thing we do when Kilgraston School sent two girls & their teacher, Mrs Clarke, to see the food production method and environment procedures. This was part of their Higher Home Economics Course for the Fifth Year. It also gave them a chance to wear a couple of smashing hats!

Hats on and....Clasp!

We've got another member of staff on board too. Annie Nally, or SuperGrannyAnnie as she is more commonly called, has the fastest chopper in the business. Annie is the Salford Queen of the Kitchen who is used to catering. Her hobbies include running, dancing to Northern Soul classics on a talcumed lino floor, and driving ex-Army tanks through deserted forestry. Annie is massive boon to our kitchen and loves both a 'laff' and calling me 'chook!'

Annie Nally

We went back up to Millars of Midmar, by Inverurie last Saturday to see how their freezer was getting on. They have our full range of meals, and they seem very popular. We did a tasting session there, which went well, despite the weather! We didn't choose the weather too well, it had been heavy snow for the previous three days. Luckily there was only 15 miles of non gritted snow to drive on, and the HomeCook Speedwagon coped admirably! Allez!

Just arrived loaded up with food...and a chef's hat!                        The way North - beautiful!

December 2009

It makes you wonder if you need to turn your freezer on when we have the  present weather conditions! We were just as busy this month as normal, and sold quite a few of our innovative alternative Christmas presents - gift vouchers. We're waiting for the gift-getters to call but, if they're anything like me, they're still finishing off the Christmas leftovers. At least they'll have our great meals to choose from rather than which new socks they should wear!

A wintery looking HomeCook

We went to the  Christmas Farmers Market  Stall in Stirling that went well. Despite people buying Wii, socks and other presents, they were also thinking of 'Do I want to spend this holiday looking at my kitchen walls?' Or ' What's a vegetarian option instead of Nut Cutlet?' It was around -3 degrees during our stint, and at one stage I was considering standing in our freezer to keep warm! Kathy bought me a Santa Hat which made me look more ridiculous than normal, and the photo shows me standing like a choirboy. Great!

Stirling Farmers Market Stall with icicles and fairylights

Time to show off another member of the HomeCook Team. This one isn't in all the time, she's the holiday-cover-fill-in-as-it's-busy girl, Susie Hill-Haimes. Susie is a unbelievable chatter and singer of bad 1980s music, but is also a great cook. She has a private plane on 24hr standby at Bristol International Airport, and is ready to drop child & husband at a moment's notice to slice peppers or stir food with us. Susie is an asset to HomeCook as she is passionate about making good healthy food, and is always fun to work with. Her vegetable chopping has improved so much that she doesn't count her fingers before leaving the kitchen anymore!

Susie Hill-Haimes

One of our suppliers is Bankhead Farm, near Crombie, Fife. As we have always said, we want to make delicious food with a low carbon footprint, as well as Scottish ingredients, and with Nancy's Farm under 6 miles away, you can't get better than that!  Most of her products are produced in her surrounding fields (they don't grow pineapples in Fife yet!), and you buy it not long after it's dug up, which makes it taste better!

Bankhead Farm on a wintery day                    Kathy haggling with Nancy over the price of Neeps!

Next month I hope to report on some other places that will be stocking our locally sourced and prepared meals. Lookout Edinburgh!

 

November 2009

Time for some figures! As at the end of November, HomeCook is pleased to announce that they have now sold over 1,600 meals, and are in the freezers of 5 farmshops. We've also got 9 HealthyLiving Awards. Not bad after only 6 months of trading!  Kathy and I would like to take this moment to thank all of our lovely friends & customers for helping us to get where we are today. If you believe in what we believe in, then it just makes it work better for everyone!

Once again we have had a busy month, and it started off by getting one of the best Farmshops off the A1! Knowes Farmshop, run by the legendary Hilary, now stocks HomeCook. Hilary is always looking for healthy, Scottish made products, and when we called to tell her what we had, she wasted no time in getting us along for a tasting session. She has regular customers who trust her choices and this was proved to us at our initial tasting session when we met them. They're a loyal band of followers! East Linton should be proud of this venue - the staff are great! Here's their website. It's full of info. www.knowesfarmshop.co.uk.

Knowes Farmshop   East Linton                     The goodies await you inside!

Our last purchaser of the day - from London!              Linda with a customer.  Watch out for frostbite!

We went North a couple of Saturdays ago to our newest Farmshop, The Millers near Inverurie. Brenda had contacted us as she wanted to sell the good people of Aberdeen and Inverurie something delicious, healthy and made in Scotland. After a few minutes of thinking, Kathy and I both thought... 'HomeCook!' And the deal was done. We were given a HUGE freezer and, after emblazing our name on it, we set to work filling it up! I spied that there was just one table free at the busy restaurant and Kathy & I stayed for a fabulous lunch. The baked potatoes were as large as my head - Kathy said the filling was probably similar too! The Millers is a hidden jewel in the Aberdeen countryside that is well worth a visit. Do visit them if you're in the area - you won't be disappointed. www.millersmidmar.co.uk.

HomeCook ready to deliver                                These shelves groan with super products

Kathy meets the Team (Brenda is 2nd on the right)       A temporary home - until they're bought by you!

Well, it's not all farmshops and new dishes etc. You have to look into what goes into the food too, you know. We are in the method of reducing the carbon footprint as well as getting the best local ingredients. That's why we get our lamb, chicken and beef from  Hendersons in Glenrothes, and some vegetables from Bankhead farm, near our house. Even the apples for our Pork Normandy come from our garden! This month I'd like to aim the spotlight at our lovely friends at Summer Harvest Oils, in Madderty. Ferneyfold Farm are a family run business who specialise in making cold pressed rapeseed oil. After meeting Maggie at Ardardan, and tasting the fabulous oil, we decided that it would be an excellent Scottish addition to some of our recipes. Go to the website and see how good this oil is - it's nothing but good! They have a wide range of stockists, and you can buy it online too! Find them at www.summerharvestoils.co.uk

Maggie & Mark in a field with awards                      Maggie promoting goodness at Ardardan

Phew. We've run out of space...Still so much we've done. You'll have to wait until the end of December. At least it'll be more interesting than the New Year Eastenders, or re-reading the Radio Times!

PS. See you at Stirling Farmers Market on December 12th!

October 2009

Autumn is well with us now, with slightly lighter mornings but damp and dark evenings arriving all too early. Now is the time where being out late can be tiresome and the usual trip home seems to take longer & longer. Don't get upset about this miserable time of  year as you can bring a bit of sunshine into your house with the HomeCook range of food. After one of our meals - and remember we have added to our range - you will feel better about EVERYTHING - Promise!

October has been an important time for us and we're in negotiations with even more Farm Shops to stock our great meals. We're spreading further afield each month so we've now added a new page to our website. It's called ' Our Stockists', and will show where else you can find us. There's a link to each Shop's website and that will give you all the details you'll need.

We had another successful Farmers' Market in Stirling earlier in the month. We sold the same amount as the month before, and had repeat customers - which must prove that we're good! One lovely couple obviously realised that the locally sourced ingredients twinned with delicious recipes were too good to miss. They bought so much we decided to photograph the evidence!

After they left we nearly had to get security to put up crush barriers to stem the flow of keen customers, worried that we would be sold out before they were served...

Only joking - but it looks good!

Kathy was sent her framed award from those nice healthyliving people. It's a real boost to our image and to you, the customers, to get this award, as it shows how we are striving (successfully) to make healthy food tasty and easy to prepare. Here's Kathy outside HomeCook showing it off!

Here at HomeCook we don't want to be just a faceless producer of frozen food. We're good people who like bring happiness! We thought it was about time to show off some of our staff, so you don't think that it's just all Kathy and me running the whole show. Each month we'll spotlight a member of staff so you can see behind the label.

Lois Bell

Lois is a real asset to our small business. If she's not chopping onions or garlic, peeling spuds or stirring the contents of large saucepans, she keeps herself busy making dresses, cushions, curtains or handbags at home. If she's not busy with a spoon or needle, she's found dancing at the local roller-disco or riding wild donkeys on the beach at Elie. Lois' excellent catering skills and work commitment help HomeCook make a quality product. Hurrah for Lois!

September 2009

It's been non-stop since the last newsletter with one thing or another, so here's a wee catch up. We've had the busiest time since August, and the food is really selling itself. We've been out on tasting sessions over the past few Saturdays, and we've had nothing but good feedback, so thanks to everyone who continues to support our business. I think the tide is turning, and those who try us are realising that good food doesn't cost the earth, and it' s quality, not quantity, that counts...

First things first, we had confirmation that six (SIX!!) of our meals have been given a healthyliving Award. It's all in August's newsletter below what it's all about, but the meals that get the green apple logo are 3 Bean Vegetable Chilli, Beef Chilli, Italian Style Meatballs, Spicy Lamb Meatballs, Traditional Shepherd's Pie and our fabulous Bothy Pie. All these meals are low in salt, sugar and fat. No guilt there then!!  We've put the little green apple logo onto the product details of the food so you can easily see which has the award.

So, where have we been? Kathy and I went to the Coeliac Society Food Fair in Polmont to promote our range of gluten-free meals. We were surrounded by cakes and bread, but we still sold a few! Our new chums at Glebe Farm made the day whizz by, and we promised them a name check! If you're gluten free sort of person, do check on the link...

http://www.glebe-flour.co.uk

Here's a picture of Kathy wearing the silly hat for a change...

We were at Stirling Farmers' Market the following Saturday. This is a well organised occasion, and is in the centre of town (it goes indoors after November). We did a cracking day's business, convincing people that good food didn't have to be pricey, and extolling the facts that locally sourced meat as well as free range chicken is what it's all about. We'll be returning there on Oct 10th - Be there!

Kathy selling right from the start of Stirling Farmers' Market

On the 19th Sept we went all the way to Cardross to do a tasting session at the farmshop on the Ardardan Estate. May and Grant Montgomery have really got something great going on here. A tea room, with table service, a bakery and fabulous farm shop are twinned with a (flower) nursery and woodland walks. It's all right by the Clyde. 10/10 for effort!!  We heartily recommend a visit there, I've never been anywhere quite like it before....Here's the website - www.ardardan.co.uk. May kindly asked us to supply her with our range of meals, & the freezers are now well stocked. We'd like to thank them for choosing us, and also a special thank you must go to their daughter, Susan, who is possibly the nicest sales & marketing  person we have ever met!!

The way to good things!

Alex with Susan Montgomery in the Farm Shop.

Finally... Our new range of meals are now food tested (rather than road tested). We've been making use of what's local, and you can't get more local than our garden. Apples, apples and more apples! Here's a classic one still hanging on the tree!

It'll be going into the Pork Normandy. We're also making two Morrocan style dishes, one Lamb, the other vegetable. These have a gentle underlying spiciness, and have dates and apricots in them. Our fourth dish is Spicy Broccoli and Cauliflower Cannelloni. Here's a big picture of them all lined up. Try and spot which is which - no prizes!!

Thanks to all our supporters - we really appreciate you supporting our little industry supporting Scotland eating well.

August 2009

Where did the Summer go? I think we had a little sometime ago, but now it looks like the BBQ has now been put back into the garage to rust until next year! We've been listening to our clients, and are in the process of making subtle changes to our range of foods. For example, we now have our Beef Chilli available in 'Feed The Family' size, so now your whole family can enjoy this great meal. New recipies are in the pipeline and nearing completion. These are Normandy Pork, Moroccan Style Lamb and for vegetarians we have Moroccan Style Vegetable.

We've also been nominated for a 'Healthyliving Award'. The healthyliving Award rewards catering establishments for dishing up healthier food and finding ways of helping their customers make better food choices. We'll be putting their green apple logo on the products that tick all their boxes. We're starting to run out of space on our menus as we now have the green apple logo, the vegetarian logo and the gluten free logo - but it's all for the best!

We've been out doing tasting sessions again too. on August 15th we were at the The Limekilns, Charlestown and Pattiesmuir Gala Day. 75 portions of  Mixed Bean Chilli later, and the word was out! We have had quite a few orders from new clients since then, and hopefully there will be more to come.

August 22nd saw us at Loch Levens' Larder. This is a great place, just outside Kinross, with a fabulous shop and restaurant. Fresh vegetables, ice cream, and everything you need, all in one spacious place - brilliant! On top of being a great place, the staff are helpful and friendly, so you know exactly what you're getting. The tasting session was a success, and now the freezers in the shop area are stocked with HomeCook products. Our thanks go to the staff at Loch Leven's Larder for being so welcoming & positive towards us.

HomeCook at The Larder

Ready for the Customers!

Chief Meatball Taster Gemma!

There are still more tasting sessions to come, and a few other places that we hope to visit and stock our great meals... More to come later!

 

 

July 2009

Welcome to HomeCook!  We’d like to thank you for taking the time to look at our website, and also for buying our frozen meals.  We believe that people want food that has nothing extra added in it, and so far, we like to think we’ve been proved correct – Why not give us a go?

Vegetarian? Gluten free diet? Can’t or won’t cook? Want local produce? Want to arrange a dinner party, but haven’t time to prepare it all? Want your meal delivered to you at convenient time? We can provide all the answers to these questions, making your life easier and giving you great food at the same time!

Our kitchen is working hard with new recipes at the moment to try and increase the choice for you, whilst keeping the ingredients as local as possible (it’s not easy with coconut!)

To spread the word, the HomeCook marketing team has been out and about to spread the good word.  Apart from delivering to you directly, we’re now making inroads to farm shops and farmers’ markets. Why these places?  Farm shops specialise in selling good local produce, quirky items and exciting products that you can’t normally purchase at the supermarket in town. All in all a good reason for us to be there.

Several weeks ago we had a tasting session at the popular Craigie’s Farm, near Dalmeny, South Queensferry. Alex & I set up a meatball stall in their delicious shop, and received rave reviews all afternoon!  We’re now stocking in Craigie’s freezer section. Craigie’s is ideal for breakfast or lunch, so do make the effort to pop in – it’s worth it - not only for us!

We were at the inaugrual Culross farmers market as well, and had a great time with a tasting session there as well. We also had fun trying to turn our gazebo back from a  parachute - it really is windy there! The sun came out occasionally, and everyone had a good time. It looks like the farmers' market will be returning again soon, and should be a quarterly event, so do check your diaries!

Where will we be next? Watch this space!