Snippets of Apley Farm Shop news

Cake of the week, Lemon & Elderflower sugar syrup soaked sponge

Octavia picking Octavia raspberries

Combine being fixed by the John Deere engineers

Apley Park tractor & discaerator

We’re limbering up for Pigg’s Playbarn Sports Day – Wed 17 Aug, 10-12noon. It’s free with the usual playbarn admission prices. Francis has lined up the whole family & friends, doing time trials on the lawn, ready for the big day (I came 4th (by 0.56 seconds) rather depressingly!).

Our combine & its accompanying tractors & trailers, have been working very early & very late on these lovely hot & sunny August days, harvesting wheat & barley. They’ve started using the discaerator already, which leaves slits in the soil to begin breaking it up before ploughing).

Bit by bit (tricky, as it has to be done in the evenings, as we’re open 7 days a week, with staff onsite approx 8-6pm) we’ve been smartening up the Apley Farm Shop offices at last – a lick of paint, carpet cleaning, picture hanging … all makes it a more pleasant environment to spend the day in!

Lots of the Apley team wished a very fond farewell to Lora who’s been a fab playbarn manager then farm shop supervisor over the past couple of years. She’s off for a holiday to see Brenda who’s been so helpful at Apley Farm Shop for the last year, but who’s now returned to Spain.

Natasha & I are finalising our next event, the Apley Harvest & Craft Fair, 24-25 Sept, 10-4pm. It’s a free event as usual, with free tasters from Shropshire’s finest producers. Many just love to see what the crafters have been making. Others are more food-orientated, heading for the tasters. It’s always a lovely Autumn event.

I’ve been looking at marketing strategies in each department – what we need no longer do, what we’re not doing which we should be doing, what works well & not quite so well, targets for the next quarter, improving the functionality of our website & preparing for Sept, Oct, Nov & Dec as well as 2017 (it’s just round the corner !)

Meantime, in the farm shop, we have new, branded insulated bags especially for customers shopping on these hotter days. Our branded deli wrap is now in use on the Delicatessen & Butchery counters.

We’ve developed an Afternoon Tea (gets increasingly popular) cheque book. Tea includes sandwiches, scones, Lord Hamilton’s [loose] tea blend & cake of the week, which this week is Lemon & Elderflower sugar syrup soaked sponge.