With the final countdown to Christmas now well on the way the weather might not be the most seasonal ever but we will certainly be setting to scene at Craigie’s today.
We have the Kirkliston Choir coming to sing Christmas Carols this afternoon, lots and lots of tastings going on and of course you can pick up the ideal Christmas gift for that loved one that has everything – LOCAL FOOD!!
The closing date for meat orders for Christmas and New Year is Thursday 18th December. Our opening hours over the festive period are as follows –
Christmas hours
Tuesday 23rd –8am-6pm Christmas Eve –Open 8am until 3pm
Christmas Day - CLOSED Boxing Day - CLOSED
Saturday 27th – Open as normal Sunday 28th – Open as normal Monday 29th – Open as normal Tuesday 30th – Open as normal Wednesday 31st – Open 9am until 3pm
New Years Day - CLOSED Friday 2nd – CLOSED Saturday 3rd - CLOSED Sunday 4th – CLOSED
Monday 5th – Open as normal
Unlike last year our Cafe will be open right up until 2pm on Christmas Eve.
If you have a Christmas order placed but do not have a time slot allocated we will be phoning you this week, however if you want to email me with your preferred time you will get first choice of time slots.
The time slots are as follows – anytime on Monday 22nd, Tuesday 23rd – 8-10am, 10-12, 1-3pm and 3-6pm, Wednesday 24th – 8-10am, 10-12 and 12-3pm.
Please include your surname and telephone number on your email so that we can trace your order.
Last night will go down in my book as a major high point. I was extremely honoured to collect the Glenfiddich Food Award for Craigie’s.
I considered it great honour just being one of the four nominees for this award having just been opened for 17 months. I am very proud of the great team we have at Craigie’s, they have all worked very hard since we opened and this would not have been possible without them, well done guys!!
Thank you also to everyone that voted for us. The whole awards will be on STV at 10.45pm this Sunday.
Sorry to bring it up, but it is now less than a month until Christmas now!! The turkey orders are coming in at a great rate of knots, I would think that in another week or so we will be sold out of some of the weight ranges. So do not hang around pop in or call us to discuss your Christmas order. Remember to add the chipolatas, stuffing’s, veggies, puddings, cheese to your order form. Our own made soups, chicken liver, salmon and mackerel pates are proving to be a really popular choice on the order forms this year. If you are not having turkey this year why not have a goose, a haunch of wild venison, a leg of lamb, a local ham or a rib roast of beef? We can guarantee the best of quality whatever you choose!
For a link to our online order form please go to the home page.
We are also taking meat orders for New Year as well, if you want a good cut of Scottish beef it needs to hang for 3 weeks!
The charity ploughing event went very well, I think all enjoyed themselves and we raised over £645 (still awaiting one sponsorship) for the RSABI. It might take a bit of time to level the field out in the spring though!!
Nice to see some sunny weather even if it is a bit cold, the tables on the deck were even full on Sunday!!
If you have not voted for Craigie’s in the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award you have until Friday 7th Nov at noon to get your votes placed!! Text SCOTA1016 to 81800 or vote on line from the link on our home page. The STV cameras are coming on the 17th November to do some filming for the Awards program (broadcast on the 30th November), hope it’s nice and sunny!
I think my kids are more excited about the awards dinner Kirsteen and I are invited to on the 27th – “Will you get Chris Hoy’s and Andy Murray’s autographs for us?”. I wonder if Sir Alex Ferguson is getting pestered by his kids – “Will you get that chap from Craigie’s autograph?” I doubt it somehow!!
Our on line Christmas order form is now live on our web site and orders are flying in.
If you are in the shop/cafe we would be happy to discuss your Christmas order with you.
The cold weather has really slowed down our strawberries now, I think this will be the last week of strawberries now until mid May! They still taste really sweet and good!
Although they were a bit late we ended up with a great crop of pumpkins. For the rest of the week we have a pumpkin sale on - all pumpkins only £1.50 each - whatever the size!! Remember to pick up Sue Lawrence’s great free recipe for Pumpkin Cake. Have you tried making Pumpkin Soup?
We still have some places left for our cheese and wine evening on Wednesday 19th November 7pm. We have a wine expert coming along with a selection of wines suitable for the festive season and we also have a cheese expert coming along to talk about our great selection of Scottish cheeses. There will also be a buffet comprising of a lot of the produce we sell and produce on the farm. We will be giving you lots of tips on how to make that festive entertaining a breeze! Numbers are limited to first come basis, tickets are £10 per person (includes wine and food) email me know to book your place!!
We got the potatoes harvested last week, we made a bit of a mess in the field and on the road, sorry. Anyway they are lifted and now in storage to protect them from the frost over in Fife.
The last of our Bulgarian students return home to Bulgaria on Wednesday morning, we have had a great team this year with everyone working really hard. Hopefully we will see a lot of the same ones back again next year.
Hope to see you up at the farm soon.
2 Items this month
This one is hot of the press!!
Have you ever wanted to have a go at trying your hand ploughing a field? Well here is your chance!
The RSABI (The Royal Scottish Agricultural Benevolent Institution) is running a ploughing challenge to plough a field of 12 to 15 acres in each of the 33 old Scottish Counties, commencing at the Scottish National Ploughing Championships on 25/OCT/08.
On Monday 17th November and on the morning of Tuesday 18th November the tractor and plough will be ploughing at West Craigie Farm. To raise funds for the charity we are selling one hour slots to our customers to have the opportunity to try their hand at driving a tractor and ploughing. For the first half hour you will get to sit beside the pro and see how it is done, for the next half hour you will get to have a shot at the controls of the tractor. We are asking you for a donation of a minimum of £25, this will include a coffee and a cake in our cafe before or after your shot. We only have nine one hour slots so it will be strictly on a first come basis, so do not hang around email me back as soon as possible to book your place!!
I will be watching to make sure you keep the ploughing nice and straight!!
October Diary
The October holidays are now on the go, with different areas off at different times. Our Nature Trail is always a big hit at this time of the year, I was round the other day with P2 and 3 from St Margaret’s School, it was great to see so many Yellow Hammers and other wee birds feasting of the field edges and the hedge row berries. We are currently in talks with the RSPB and we are hoping to organise a number of exciting events with their members and you, our customers, I will keep you updated. Remember the Nature Trail is free to all.
Speaking of events we are organising a cheese and wine evening on Wednesday 19th November. We have a wine expert coming along with a selection of wines suitable for the festive season and we also have a cheese expert coming along to talk about our great selection of Scottish cheeses. There will also be a buffet comprising of a lot of the produce we sell and produce on the farm. We will be giving you lots of tips on how to make that festive entertaining a breeze! Numbers are limited to first come basis, tickets are £10 per person (includes wine and food) and will be on sale in the shop from the end of October. If you want to ‘jump’ the queue email me and reserve your tickets. I can guarantee it will be a fun and social evening.
We are working hard on our Christmas order forms adding lots of our homemade products to the order form. They will be ready and emailed out soon.
Our Christmas tasting weekend is going to be on the weekend of the 15th and 16th November, we will also be running a special Christmas menu in the cafe that weekend. I will give you more info nearer the time just get the date in your diary!
The special offer on all of our frozen meat, 15% discount, will continue until the end of this month. Get your freezer stocked up with some great buys.
Some of our staff have been away visiting a couple of our suppliers this week, they are now experts in making ice cream (and eating it), milking cows and goats, cheese making and feeding calves. Make sure you ask them about their visits and new found talents! A big thank you to all at Stewart Towers (Ice Cream) and Clerklands Dairy (Dunlop Cheese). A lot of our staff are also going to be visiting Stewart Brewery in the next couple of weeks, could be a couple of sore heads the next day!
Out on the farm we are still picking strawberries and they are as tasty as they have been all season. We should have our own strawberries for another three weeks or so yet. The guys have been busy taking covers off tunnels and preparing the plants for the winter. We still have potatoes to harvest, the wet weather has been making the going difficult for the harvesting crew. Hopefully they will get harvested in the next few weeks. A lot of people forget that this is the traditional time of year for harvesting potatoes, the October school holidays used to be the time when school kids got their holidays so that they could help with the potato harvest. Can you imagine how many kids would get up at 5am to get to the field to spend a back breaking fortnight picking potatoes for a few quid! Thank goodness for potato harvesters!
We have 5kg and 25kg (from this weekend) bags of potatoes for sale in the shop. More varieties will be on sale by the end of the month.
On Friday we are getting a delivery of freshly picked English apples, no less than nine varieties! Feel free to mix and match and try them all out.
Hope to see you up at the farm soon.
That’s more like it, a few dry days strung together – what a difference!! All of the wheat harvest has now been cut at West Craigie, however my staff have been getting a bit of relief from me as I have been helping a friend out with his harvest. Sorry guys I will be back to pester you on Sunday!!
Our Macmillan Coffee morning has started off well, the kitchen have been busy with the home baking! The 20p coffee/tea and scones go on all day so feel free to pop up this afternoon (Friday).
We have some new pork pies in today from Burbush’s, this was a couple we met at the food fair in London. They make great pork pies, lots of different ones for you to try!!
We got a real surprise the other day, we got a call to say that we have been nominated for a Glenfiddich Spirit Of Scotland Award (Food)! I was really touched by this and really proud of all of the hard work put in by the staff over the past 14 months. Make sure you get a Scotsman on Saturday and vote for us!!
See you soon.
I am not sure if it has stopped raining since my last blog. In my last blog I started off with a bit of wishful thinking that summer was about to start, how wrong could I have been, this time it is as good as certain, the odd shower tomorrow then the sun is going to shine for the next four days!! I should stop digging holes for myself!
The combine has made a little progress, our spring barley has been cut but we are getting desperate for a dry spell to get the wheat cut. Our wheat harvest is now a couple of weeks past the normal harvest date and with all of the wet weather the grains will soon start to grow on the straw resulting in a very poor quality product. This has the result of pushing the feed price of wheat down and if anyone has good quality grain for bread making they will get a good price unfortunately resulting in an increase in the bread price on the shelf.
We have just started picking our late crop of strawberries and they still taste very good even with the lack of sunshine. PYO is all but finished with the exception of a few rasps and brambles.
The sunflowers are in full bloom at the moment, adding a bit of sunshine to a couple of corners of the farm. They are available ready picked and pick your own.
We started digging at the side of the shop today, no Anne it is not your kitchen extension! We have just got a big map of the farm made up with a black board alongside it, this will enable us to put up what is happening on the farm on a daily basis. Have a look at it the next time you are up and let me know what you think of it.
The biggest coffee morning is taking place on Friday 26th September. As usual we will be getting involved, all coffees and teas will be charged at just 20p per cup and our scones and jam will also only be 20p. BUT Murray (our in house coffee making expert) will be watching to make sure that you put a generous donation into the Macmillan charity box!! We will also have a lot of tasting on the go as well.
If you have been in lately you will have noticed that we have another meat supplier to compliment our other suppliers. Angus Organics not only have a great range of organic and non organic meats they are also supplying us with venison and other game, give it a try. They deliver to us on a Tuesday and a Friday, just let me know if you want a special cut.
Kirsteen and I were down in London at a big food fair last week so you will see a lot of new products hitting our shelves over the next few weeks, we are enjoying all the samples at the moment!!
We will be starting our winter (sorry I did not want to use that word(by the way we have logs on sale just now!!) hours as of Monday 22nd September, still seven days a week and opening a 9am every day just we will be closing at 5pm.
Finally, come out next week, order one of our breakfasts and tea/coffee and we will top up your coffee/tea free of charge, up as many times as you need right up until 12 noon (valid Monday 22nd, Tuesday 23rd, Wednesday 24th and Thursday 25th September) just mention this email.
Hope to see you out soon.
Two dry days (not nights) in a row, is this the start of our summer?! Let’s hope we get some decent weather, we are due it.
Pick your own fruit is still on the go but the fruit is getting pretty hard to find. Raspberries are your best bet in the tunnels half way down the track, you will still get some PYO black and redcurrants, the strawberries have had a fair old battering from the rain but if you are keen you should still be able to fill a punnet! Brambles are pretty good at the moment and the sunflowers should be starting in about a week, that is if the sun comes out at bit more!!
We will have ready picked strawberries right through until November from the tunnels. I often get asked why we do not let customers into PYO strawberries from the table tops? We have to train our own pickers carefully because if you pick the fruit wrongly it will damage the feed supply to the fruit that has still to ripen. If we let untrained pickers into the strawberry tunnels we would lose up to 70% of our crop!!
We have a new supplier of meat in our shop to complement our other suppliers. Angus meats are supplying us with beef, pork and venison (other game when it comes in season). We have had a tough job sampling it all over the past couple of weeks and I can assure you the quality of their meat is great, make sure you try a pack and let me know what you think. With a combination of different delivery dates we should have a good stock of meat all through the week now.
The UKTV cameras are coming to film us next week!! They are going around the top five finalists from each region, the series will be televised around November. So if you want to be on telly make sure you are up for breakfast during the first half of the week!!
Our own veg is really coming on stream now, peas, beans, mange touts, lots of yummy salad leaves, courgettes and lots more are all freshly picked every day for our shelves. Delivered to the shop via a wheel barrow keeps the food miles to a minimum! See if you can taste the difference.
Fortunately our grain is not ready for harvest yet, hopefully it will dry up so that we do not need to spend a fortune on diesel to dry it. The contractor that combines our grain must have known it was going to be a wet harvest, he went out and bought a combine harvester on crawler tracks back in the spring. It must be great to have foresight like that, or is it just a fact that we get more wet harvests than dry ones these days?!!
Hope to see you up at the shop soon, remember to brush your hair and smarten up before you come up, the makeup girl from UKTV will be too busy working on me to worry about anyone else!!
We got some great news yesterday, we made it to the top five (from about 700 nominations in Scotland!) from Scotland for the UKTV Food Hero award!! The cameras are coming in late August and we will ‘battle’ it out with the other four ‘heros’ to decide who will go forward to represent Scotland in the UK final.
Follow this link to see who else has got through http://uktv.co.uk/food/stepbystep/aid/604592
Thank you to everyone that voted for us and especially those that wrote such kind comments about us, it provides all of the staff, Kirsteen and me with the energy we need to keep going. All of my staff have done a great job over the past year, especially over the past month when we have been extremely busy.
We still have a lot of PYO (and ready picked) fruit on the go – strawberries (move down the field to the later planted variety, they are so tasty!!), raspberries (again walk down to the ones in the bottom field), gooseberries (nice and sweet now), redcurrants and blackcurrants(later variety just getting going now).
David has been busy with the veggies, we now have our own courgettes, radish and a great variety of mixed salad leaves which taste great with our fruit vinegar drizzled over it. The salad leaves are picked fresh every day and is used in our cafe as well as being sold in the shop. Once you have tasted the wonderful mix of flavours you will never touch a bagged salad from the supermarket again. Peas will be on the go from the middle of next week.
I am heading south next week to have a look at some big PYO farms around London, hopefully I will get a lot of great ideas to help improve our offering at Craigie’s for next year.
Hope you can make it out to ‘PYO’ this weekend, the sun is going to shine all weekend!!?
That’s the first year just under our belt and what a year! Just before we were a year old we opened our second shop (ok it was closed four days later!). We were given the opportunity to set up a replica of our shop at the Highland Show by the company that built our shop, Algo. The position was A1, right at the side of the main ring with the likes of M&S, Sainsbury’s and Tesco!!! We had a pretty manic week the week before but the staff all came up trumps and we got through it.
June has turned out to be a very busy month, the open weekend at the start was a great success and it has just been nonstop since. We also got a great write up in the Herald a couple of weeks ago which was a great boost to our staff and myself.
We are now approaching the PYO (pick your own) season. Just to give you a rough idea of the season (weather dependant) see below –
Strawberries 28th June until mid August £3.00/kg
Raspberries 5th July until late September £3.50/kg
Gooseberries 28th June until early August £3.50/kg
Black and red currants mid July until early August £3.50/kg
Coming later – Tayberries, brambles, Victoria Plums, sun flowers and some vegetables.
I will keep you updated via my e-blog.
We are starting our summer hours as of this weekend (28th June) we will be open seven days a week from 9am until 6pm. Last food orders and entry to the PYO fields at 5pm.
David has been busy growing vegetables in the tunnels and field, the salad leaves are just about ready, why not pop down the veg tunnel the next time you are in and see what is growing.
We are expecting the arrival of another 50 chooks next week, their new hut is in place awaiting them. It will take them a few weeks to start laying but we should soon have a better supply of our own fresh eggs.
Thank you to whoever it was that nominated us as a local food hero! Please vote for us at www.uktvfood.co.uk voting closes on the 14th July.
Hope to see you up soon.
PS Amber our lab had a litter of pups just under three weeks ago now. She had 3 yellow bitches and 5 black dogs, let me know if you are interested in one.
It certainly felt a bit more like summer today, it must be the first time we have not had that cold easterly wind for a while, just hope the warmer weather lasts!
We are busy getting ready for our Open Farm Weekend, we had a trial run on Wednesday night to see how things would go so fingers crossed all goes well! The guided walks and ‘experts’ will all be happening between 11am and 3pm on this Saturday and Sunday. Events detailed below, (you will get the map on the day!) There is no entry charge and no charge for any of the events. We will be testing you to see if you have been paying attention, if you have been you could win £50.
We will not have our normal menu running this weekend we have a special barbeque and lots of great salads on the go, (Anne and her kitchen staff will be busy tomorrow). Breakfast will be as normal up until 11.30 on both days.
Judith (Shop Manageress) has managed to get lots of samples from our suppliers so you will be able to taste and sample a lot more that usual! We also have a few of our suppliers coming along to meet you at various times over the weekend.
The strawberries are not quite ready yet, hopefully we will have our own ones in the shop from next weekend (7th/8th June), pick your own fruit will not start until the end of June.
Sorry if I am keeping the blog a bit short tonight but I must get prepared for a busy weekend.
Hope to see you up at the farm, we are really looking forward to showing you around the farm.
Hi, I am John the farmer at Craigie’s. I would like to welcome you here today and I hope you have a great time. This is our first Open Farm event, so you comments will be appreciated!
This is a working farm so please, please keep your children under control at all times, do not enter roped off areas.
We have the following activities for you to take part in:
In the shop we have lots of tasting of our fine produce, pop in and have a chat with our staff.
Our normal menu has been replaced this weekend by a special barbeque option. £6.95 (£3.50 for kids) gets you a plate heaped with our salads and with a choice of barbecued meats (vegetarian option available).
Do not forget to enter our quiz; you could win a voucher worth £50!
Just a short blog this week.
We have started harvesting our asparagus, it has now been in the ground for two years so we can harvest around 25% of the crop this year. We plan to pick up until the middle of the month, by this time the Scottish asparagus from Angus will be in full flow.
Asparagus is one of the few crops that still has a really short season so you have to make the most of it whilst it is available. (OK you can get asparagus from Chile all year round but it just does not taste the same!)
We will be picking the asparagus every morning so make sure you are in early to get the best pick!
We are preparing for a Farm Open weekend on the 31st May and 1st June, so if you have ever wanted to see what we get up to on the farm this will be the ideal time. We are planning tractor and trailer rides, guided walks, animal talks, big shinny new machinery (we will have the biggest combine harvester made here!) and a selection of vintage machinery from the past. Not forgetting the shop and cafe, we will have a lot of suppliers in letting you sample their products and talking about them along with a special food offering from our own kitchen!
Just hope this weather keeps up!!
Well it is getting a little warmer, just. It was nice to see the deck area just about full on Sunday, hopefully we will get more days like that over the summer!
Mango and Chutney (the pigs) are now outdoors, you should have seen them when they first got out, they were running, ducking, rolling all over the place. You could say that they are as happy as pigs in s**t! We are still waiting to hear back from the SSPCA about a suitable date to hand over their cheque and present the name the pig prize.
We now have an fab new ice cream counter packed with some of the most popular flavours from Stewart Tower Farm Dairy. The ice cream is so fresh it was still grass a couple of days ago!! We are expecting this counter to be a big hit, so be patient with the staff until they get in to full scooping mode. Neil and Linsey from Stewart Towers are going to be taking some of our fruit in the summer to put in the ice-cream and they are also going to make us dairy free fruit ices. Our joiner is going to make us up a nice counter for the corner where the counter is.
The first of the Scottish tomatoes will be in on Saturday. As per usual we will be getting a fresh delivery every week from Jim and Liz Craig who grow tomatoes in their Carluke glasshouse.
Our strawberries are coming on now, the first of the flowers are just appearing so we should have our first fruit in about a month or so, depending on the weather! To help pollinate the flowers we have brought in hives of bumble bees in to each of the tunnels, this helps give us nicely shaped big strawberries. Over the next few weeks Iain will be busy planting plants for our later harvest.
The big bags of Tyrrells Potato Crisps are on offer at the moment, two bags for only £2.50.
Our cafe is now an internet cafe! We have wireless broadband available for our customers, free of charge. The password is ‘coffee99’
We were pleased to welcome a new member of staff onto our team today, Lee has started in the kitchen and he brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the kitchen. Most recently Lee was the Chef at Marynka’s in Linlithgow!
By the way, the road is open again!! I cannot guarantee for how long?!
Hope to see you soon.
I am getting better, my ‘monthly’ blog is back to being monthly!!
We have finished judging the ‘name the piglets’ competition, the winning names are ‘Chutney’ and ‘Mango’ ( I promise they will never be served with!). Well done James McAlpine (aged 4), I will be in touch over the next couple of days to arrange the handing over of your prize, a piggy hamper (no, there is no bacon in it). We also raised £175 for the SSPCA!
If you have been in this month you will probably have noticed a new face, Judith started at the beginning of April and is our new shop manageress. She has been proving a great hit with our customers (and staff) already, I hope you make her feel welcome and say ‘hi’ the next time you are up. Judith, like Kirsteen and I, want to hear your comments (good and bad).
The road is open!! Eventually Burnshot Road is now open all nicely tarred (except for the bits that are breaking up already!!). We have even been promised that the farm road will get repaired in the next week (we are not getting a white line down the middle of the road yet!). At least you should not have a big long detour via Dalmeny or have to dodge barriers to get to us.
On the farm, all of the spring barley has now been sown, we are waiting for things to dry up before getting on with planting the spuds. Eventually we got the poly tunnels covered, we have been trying to cover them for the past 6 weeks. Hopefully we will get some nice warm spring weather and the plants might catch up.
Hope to see you up soon.
Yet again I must start with an apology! My monthly blog is turning into a bi monthly blog, sorry.
I can assure you that I have not been idle. We have had a really good February and start to March, Mothers day was our busiest day in the café since we opened. Hopefully when we get to Easter we will get some decent weather and get the use of the deck area.
We have been hitting the press again, and they have not been telling ‘porky pies’! If you get the Evening News you may have been following the story of some Kune Kune crossed Potbelly piglets that were rescued by the SSPCA. The long and short of it is that we have re house two of the piglets and to raise some money for the SSPCA we are running a wee competition to name the two boys. Entry forms are in the shop and we ask for a donation of a pound. So bring the kids along and meet the two porkers and help us get them named. (If they have a name our kitchen will not be allowed to use them for breakfast!!)
I really wish Hugh (double barrelled surname) would speak to the free range poultry farmers before he starts knocking intensive poultry production! Roger and Sue have been struggling to supply us with their wonderful free range chicken to sell. This is the first week since the TV programs that I have got my complete order from Gartmorn, so hopefully we should have some chicken on the shelf for our Sunday customers this weekend!
We have added a new cheese to our counter. Jim and Annie Shanks are dairy farmers near Minto (in the Borders), they have just started producing a Scottish Brie. I think it is really good but why believe me, come in and sample it yourself. They do a large ‘Borders Brie’ that we cut for you and they do a small pre packed ‘Roxburgh Roondie’.
We have been adding a lot of new lines in our shop over the past month – Chocolate Tree Chocolate from Gifford, lots more olives, Curry sauces, tasty snacks, venison salamis, the list goes on.
What’s happening on the farm? Not as much as I would like!! The winds have really been holding us up getting tunnels covered. We need a dead calm morning (usually 4am is the best time), ten able bodies and a lot of cursing and shouting. When we get all these ingredients we can cover the tunnels without too many problems. We have one early block of strawberries covered so we should be picking them by the end of May. We need to get another block of strawberries covered and a block of raspberries covered as well, if not we will not get them picked in time to replant them with a late crop.
We are also waiting for the ground to dry up so that we can get some barley sown.
Clarence filled in some of the pot holes on our road yesterday!! I measured one of the pot holes and it was 12” deep, 2ft wide by 3ft long!!
Hope to see you up soon.
I hope you have all recovered from ‘Blue Monday’! I was feeling all right until Mum came in and told me that it was the most depressing day of the year, combined with the horrible sleety rain and the arrival of my Christmas Visa bill!
Still I soon forgot about all that when I realised what all is going on this week. We are launching our breakfast menu this week, after all it is Farm House Breakfast Week. On Wednesday and Thursday we have some pupils from Kirkliston Primary School coming up to gather eggs then prepare some scrambled eggs and fresh bread in the kitchen. Richard Lochhead (Scottish Rural Minister) popping in on Thursday to lend a hand and sample the kids cooking.
We are now serving breakfast every morning from 9am until 11.30am, hope you can pop in to sample it soon (comments welcome!)
Do not forget that Friday is Burns Night, we have a good supply of really tasty haggis coming in from Reivers on Thursday. There are also the haggis pies from Simple Simon (they are just so good).
Free range chicken and eggs have been getting a lot of press at the moment, we have certainly noticed a big increase in our egg sales. Unfortunately, Roger and Sue from Gartmorn (our poultry suppliers) clean the farm right out every year after Christmas and stock up with a new batch of chicks which will not be ready until mid February ish. Still good things are worth waiting for!
There is not a lot happening out on the farm at the moment, Stefan is working away between showers lacing the raspberry canes up, during the showers he is on painting jobs inside. Iain my fruit manager is away recharging his batteries for a month in sunny climates, I feel that something is wrong here as Kirsteen, the kids and I are off to Peebles for a couple of nights in the midterm! Who said the boss got it easy!!
On Monday 28th January we have a special offer on, get a free tray bake with every tea or coffee purchased.
Our kitchen are turning out a lot more home baking, bread, quiches etc for take a way, if you want anything made specially drop me an email or speak to Anne Baird the next time you are in. If you are entertaining she will even prepare you something in your own dish so you can pass it off as your ‘home made’! Honest I will not tell.
Hope to see you up for breakfast.