You can’t beat a good food fair. The human interaction. The banter with your fellow traders (he’ll probably never read this but if he does, the chap selling pork scratchings in Thame, you know who you are!). The buzz of getting good feedback. The things you learn from negative feedback. The delicious food you get to sample and buy from other stalls. The chance to catch up with customers and the folk you meet from all walks of life. Food is such a personal topic that everyone has an opinion, from the ‘yuk, I hate curry’ ers to the ‘I make all my own’ ers. Everyone has their story to tell and that’s what makes food fairs so much fun.
We’d been trading for just over a year when the pandemic struck. We’d returned from our Christmas break genuinely full of excitement, with a calendar full of food fairs and shows and lots of plans and ideas for new products. Then lockdown began and like so many other small food producers, we suddenly found ourselves with lots of free weekends but a gaping hole in customer contact and orders.
Adapting to lockdown
As a new business trying to get our brand and products out to customers, the past few months haven’t been easy, but we’ve been trying to make the best use of the time. We’ve been developing new products, including a range of cooking pastes and sauces. We’ve increased the number of products we offer to include new spice mixes and our own black garlic. We have, or at least we think we have, perfected the art of black garlic making, although we should probably apologise to our neighbours who must despair of the additional strange smells now wafting up the street! We’ve also been able to carry on testing new products at our local laboratory so when we do get back out there properly, we’ll be able to offer an even longer shelf-life and a bigger menu!
Our online shop has remained open for business throughout, although we’ve tried to cut down our trips to the post office depot as much as we can. We’ve also made some changes to our packaging to make products such as our spice rubs and refill packs cheaper to post and easier to fit through the letterbox. So, we’ve certainly not been without things to do but the biggest loss by far has been the shows.
Food fairs but not as we know them
For obvious reasons, there have been no large-scale gatherings since early March, but smaller markets are slowly but surely starting to reopen. We were absolutely delighted to take part in the Malvern Food and Drink Feast last weekend and loved being back out talking to customers.
We also recently took part in our First Virtual Food Festival, where Pete made his cinematic debut (the video is still online if you want to take a look) and we’re signed up for another virtual festival next month. There is definitely something to be said for being able to browse at your own leisure, to dip in and out, to watch what you’ve missed earlier in the day from the comfort of your own home (especially when the weather isn’t playing ball). Virtual fairs most definitely have their place – they won’t replace live face-to-face events but without doubt, they complement them.
We’ll keep our events page updated with details of where you can find us next so please do come and say hello, in person or by messenger!
We’re hugely grateful to our existing customers for keeping us going through these challenging times but we can’t wait until the shows all start up properly again. Writing compliments slips just isn’t the same!