ange dews's blog

Today at the shop.... people are spreading the word on our behalf. Thankyou Graham Porter at the Weekend Huddersfield Examiner for featuring us in the Gardening section and highlighting our British and local food.

It's difficult at this time of year and in such a cold winter, but we do currently have a range of fruit and vegetables, some organic, that have been grown in the UK (in addition to some imported 'staples'). We have had apples from Lincolnshire since the summer, as well as potatoes, roots and brassicas; beetroot and spring greens from near Wakefield; and right now, as we have mentioned once or twice but in case you missed it... premium forced rhubarb from Westwood's in the Yorkshire Rhubarb Triangle (now with designated protected status, so you can be sure it is actually the real thing).

It'll be a little while before we can source 'summer' crops such as soft fruit and tomatoes, but rest assured we'll be hunting them down as soon as they're available, to get the very freshest produce for our customers and minimise our food miles.

Read Graham's article here: www.examiner.co.uk/leisure-and-entertainment/gardening-tips/2010/02/27/graham-porter-s-gardening-back-british-fruit-and-vegetables-86081-25923906/

To help identify the different produce we stock, we have started to signify 'local' food (grown or produced within 30 miles) with green/yellow labels, UK-grown with blue labels and imported produce with country of origin written on the signs.

Today at the shop.... it was very, very cold. No, that doesn't do it justice, it was mind-numbingly freezing. But some nice things cheered us up:

We arrived first thing to a wonderfully refurbished 'store room' (back shed!) - insulated, with a proper ceiling and brand new wooden shelving - it's amazing, you can actually find things in there! Even the little things like limes and root ginger. Thanks Simon for a great job and making our work easier.

Mid-morning Dee arrived with more 'goodies', the blueberry crumble muffins are really excellent and not too sweet. Then the elusive Margaret arrived with a new batch of her home-made jams - raspberry, damson and red gooseberry - but escaped before we had chance to photograph her. For those who have been asking recently, they're here now!

And this afternoon, the Co-op Enterprise Hub people, who helped us with advice when we set up the Green Valley Grocer as a co-operative, came back to shoot some footage of us for their website. They've already featured us in a case study and now they're adding photos and video clips. Graham and Helen (the media stars of Slawit) faced the cameras and showcased the 'public face' of your Green Valley Grocer.  We thank our customers for being especially patient whilst shopping was suspended for this media attention. You can access the Enterprise Hub's website at www.co-operative.coop/Enterprisehub/ and see us under 'case studies'.

Margaret's jams, Caroline's marmalades and Country Markets chutneys

Last Saturday (30^th Jan), the Green Valley Grocer and the Handmade Bakery were featured in the centre pages of the Yorkshire Post Country Week magazine. We thank Fiona Russell for this excellent coverage and publicity. As a result we have seen this week’s sales increase significantly. We would like to thank our regular customers for their continued support and welcome new ones who have visited us after reading about the shop and bakery in the paper. If you missed the edition of the YP, you can read the article here.

As the Green Valley Grocer is a community-owned enterprise we’d like to keep you informed about the weekly goings-on in the shop and also make it easy for you to send us your comments, feedback and queries. Of course, we’re always in the shop for a chat face-to-face but if the web is your medium, sign in to the website to join our discussion forums and catch up with our blog, ‘Today at the Shop’.

We welcome your comments and posts.

Today at the shop... our attention was all centred round the 'Big Fridge'. Jostling for position were all five varieties of the Good Soup Company's homemade soup.

This is another local business which started in owner Mike's kitchen in Emley and has now moved into a commercial kitchen in Dewsbury (we think Dewsbury is local enough and it's where I was born). We are anticipating a rush on these soups, as word has got out that, not only are they gluten-free (apart from the Ham Hock one with pearl barley in it), but also some carry ZERO SINS! Carol is inspired now to 'sin up' other items that we stock.

For the uninitiated, to 'sin up' (vb) means to calculate the calorific value of an item of food/drink and convert it into SlimmingWorld currency ('sins'). So, we welcome everyone at the GVG, sinners or otherwise, but if you're looking for great tasting, healthy and warming soups that are 'sin-less', the Good Soup Company soups are here...

And this week's special, the carrot and linseed baguettes, warm from the HandMade Bakery's ovens are perfect with the soup (not yet 'sinned up' though).