The Store News
South Africa 2010
What better way to watch the football than with a Boerewors. What is a Boerewors I hear you ask? Translated it means "Farmers Sausage" rather apt. Full of meat with a blend of beef ad lamb with a whole host of fantastic flavours including cloves, nutmeg and corriander. Enjoyed with wholegrain and creme fraiche dip alongside a beer of course. Best done on the BBQ
That's a Large Sausage!
Taste of Grampian 2010
What a great day, this was The Store's 10th year at the event and it just keeps on getting bigger. From the tonne of sausages we made the most popular had to be Steak and Cracked Black Pepper. People were obviously going home for a BBQ as all the burgers were sold out by the end of the day also.
Congratulations to Foveran school for coming 1st in the primary school competition judged by celebrity chef James Tanner. They also came away best researched project.
Look forward to seeing you all next year.
Help for Heroes
The Store Farm Shop will be auctioning a 5 Rib Roast in aid of “Help For Heroes” at this weekend’s Taste of Grampian event. In keeping with the chosen charity this cut is of the highest rank - Aberdeen Angus, matured for 28 days - grass fed and naturally is the best in the world much like our soldiers.
Andrew Booth from the Store said.” We are very excited to be supporting Help For Heroes these guys do a fantastic job and to honour them with the best of our beef is rather fitting. We are hoping to raise a great deal of money for a worthy cause.”
Silent auction bids will be taken for this magnificent roast. The Rib Roast will be on display on The Store stand in the concourse at Taste of Grampian. Bids can also be taken by emailing heroes@thestorecompany.co.uk closing date 6th June 2010 the winner will be announced on Monday 7th June 2010. Check out the website for the lucky winner at www.thestorecompany.co.uk
Butchery Courses
We are keen to teach our skills to others. If you would like to learn how to do some butchery, carve a joint correctly and sharpen your knife sign up now. Be a butcher for a day will also show you how to make your own sausages from start to finish.
The Tasty Cow
The Store in conjunction with Devenick Dairy plan to take The Tasty Cow to local events during the summer. These include T in The Park, Wizard, Aboyne Games, and more to be confirmed.
What’s happening inside The Store ?
There is change at The Store. Some of you may know that Anna after 5 years is leaving us for pastures new. We wish her all the very best and I am sure she will be frequenting The Store for a coffee soon.
Replacing the void will be Joanna, the new face to be seen at The Store. A farmers daughter from the Blackisle with a background in farm shops and hospitality I know she will fit right into this madhouse so let yourself known to her the next time you visit or phone. Joining Joanna in the shop is Denise. Denise as you will find out is full of personality and a real foodie.
The Scotch Egg Renaissance
We have been successful again this year in making the final few at the Grampian Food Forum Innovation Awards. Beating off stiff local competition The Stores range of Handmade Scotch Eggs will compete against the best of the rest on Thursday 18th March 2010 at The Marcliffe Hotel & Spa. Judges Dave Reid of Tesco, Lady Claire McDonald and Mal Maison's Andy Rodger will decide how good they are.
With a range including 1886 (Pork & Sage) Wild Scotch Egg (Venison & Cranberry) and our favourite Black Magic (Black Pudding wrapping a quails egg) we hope we are in with a good chance. We will keep you posted
Dobbies
Dobbies New store in Aberdeen is stocking a range of our frozen meals (Storeables) as well as our Trust The Cook Range. everything from Cottage Pies to Stick Toffee pudding can be found in the freezer cabinet.
Launch of our 2009 Christmas Brochure
Download it now Christmas Brochure 2009
Closure of Comely Bank Store
We have taken the difficult decision to close The Store in Comely Bank Edinburgh. With a change in circumstances and the pressure of the current economic climate we have decided to concentrate on the Farm Shop in Aberdeenshire and the farm itself.
You can appreciate this decision was not taken lightly. We would like to thank each and every one of you for you for you continued support over the past 5 years.
The Store will continue producing the finest Aberdeen Angus Beef, Lamb and Chef prepared Meals in Aberdeenshire for our farm shop and farmers markets so if you cannot live without us shop online at www.thestorecompany.co.uk.
We wish to exclusively offer you free delivery for any orders over �50 placed online. This can be delivered to you door or place of work.
The Store at Glen Tanar
September was the venue for Grampian Food Forum Dining Club, which will be held in spectacular surroundings of Glen Tanar Ballroom, near Aboyne
Situated in a beautiful glen at the heart of Royal Deeside just 4 miles from Aboyne and within the spectacular Cairngorms National Park, Glen Tanar Estate boasts some of Scotland's most stunning scenery.
We met The Queen!
I had the privelage and honour to meet the Queen at The Royal Highland Show. She visited our stand on her tour round the foodhall where the best of Aberdeenshires food producers were on show. She spent several minutes with us discussing the different cuts and varities of sausages. During our conversation she mentioned they had a farm shop, to which I replied I knew as I had visited it at Windsor as one has to check out the competition!
I then offered to sell her some of the finest Aberdeen Angus beef available for her shop. You can see that was obviously quite amusing!!
We also presented The Queen with our Award Winning Home Coming Sausage.
The Offical Launch of Homecoming Sausage
We launched the Homecoming Sausage offically at The Royal highland Show and who better to do it than the First Minister. It is now outselling our previous best seller (Steak & Cracked Black Pepper) by 2 to 1. The First Minister said "The combination of Aberdeen Angus steak, haggis and blackpudding just says Scotland, they are a favoutite of mine when I am at home in Aberdeenshire"
Please take a minute and completeThe Store Questionnaire. And have a chance of winning a free hamper.
WE ARE WINNERS - AGAIN
The Store was successful again in 2009 at the prestigious Grampian Food Forum Awards with their awards winning Home Coming Sausage which is made from Aberdeen Angus Beef, Haggis and Black Pudding. The awards were gained in 2 categories both retail and food service for under 25 employees.
News from events we have been at or hosted over the past few months:
Taste of Grampian
Saturday 6th June Thainstone Inverurie
This was again "Bigger than last year". What a great 10th anniversary show. Phil vickery and Jean Christophe Noveli entertained the crowds. As well as supplying the Celeb chefs with there ingredients during the demos Patsy got her usal kiss from Phil.
Congratulations to Foveran Primary who were succesful again at the Pack Lunch competition.
Open Farm Sunday 7th June
OFS Website
Open Farm Sunday was we funnily enough for The Store. We had great fun with young and old climbing over the combine and seeing "the tractor that drives itself"! As well as the sheep and cattle in the paddocks. Special thanks go to Betty and Ian who took there 4 day old chicks along for the day also.
Taste Edinburgh
29th-31st May at Inverleith Park
(Taste Of Edinburgh Website)
We again supported this 3 day food event. It was a great idea for the organisers to move to Inverleith Park, The sun shone and there was a great party atmosphere.
Sausage Making @ The Store
To support Farmhouse Breakfast Week held sausage making lessons at The Store on the farm
The Store @ Holyrood
We attended a very successful Taste of Grampian event hosted by Nanette Milne MSP at Holyrood. The Store alongside 15 other Grampian food prducers promoted and sampled the huge range of products.
On the Store stand Steak and Cracked Black Pepper sausages were popular but the winner was the 28 day matured Rump Roast which was carved by our butcher Steven Cusack at the table.
Photo Of The Stores Cross Party Consumers
(l-r)Chloe Black (The Store Edinburgh) Alex Salmond (First Minister) Steven Cusack (The Store Butcher) Nanette Milne (MSP) Andrew Booth (The Store)
As well as organising tastings, talks and participating in food events, we also try to do as much as we can to support our surrounding communities, and work with other local businesses. Check out our What's On section for up and coming events.
Our farm is supported by Leaf and we work closely with Quality Meat Scotland, SQC, and are affiliated to Grampian Food Forum, Scottish Food and Drink, Slow Food Scotland, Scottish Food Guide and FARMA.
Store News
We are delighted that our passion for well produced, good food has been noticed across the country, presenting us with the following awards:
UKTV Food Local Food Heroes 2006 - 2nd place, Scotland
Scottish Butcher of the Year 2006 - 2nd Place finalist
SQC Farmhouse Breakfast Award 05/06 - Winner
Grampian Food Forum - Product Innovation award, silver
FARMA rural retailer of the year 2006
We have been fortunate to feature in The List and Olive magazine as a destination for food shopping and are again to be listed in the Guardian and Telegraph supplements on Scotland's food stores.
Here's what the chef's say about our Aberdeen Angus beef:
'...Beautiful texture and intense depth of flavour...'Gary Rhodes, UKTV Food Heroes Judge
'Good flavour, cooked perfectly'Anthony Worrall Thompson, Taste of Edinburgh
'...Keep up the good work!'Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, Taste of Edinburgh
The Store are happy to participate in food / farming related events and discussions.
For press information and images please contact:
Sara Cunningham
The Store, Edinburgh
0131 315 0030 or sara@thestorecompany.co.uk
To download our recent press cuttings,images or releases, please click on the downloads link.
Farmers News
Grain Price Increase
It has been well documented in the media of the ever increasing commodity prices of wheat and barley. This will undoubtely have a knock on effect to you the consumer and your shopping basket. Grain prices in the UK are not only effected by local flooding and poor summers, situations in other parts of the world will have a greater effect. Mainly the use of wheat as a bienthanol fuel in the USA and a dry Spring in the Baltic states.
What I would like to say is the last time my father sold grain at the price it is today was 25 years ago. Since then input costs such as seeds have doubled, fuel has trebbled and the cost of machinery has increased four fold. It will hopefully level out so everyone in this country makes a living, instead of importing cheaper produce, to keep our shopping baskets at its current price level.
Foot & Mouth
Thankfully Foot & Mouth came and went without too much disruption to the industry. My thoughts go out to those were directly affected. What we have to remember is we are a Island and these types of diseases have to come from other sources. Granted, this time it came from a Lab either Government run or Private, but we have to be more vigilant in the product we source from other countries. For example, certain areas of Brazil have F&M where another area is free of F&M. The area that is free of F&M is allowed to export beef. This is like saying Fife has F&M but Perth & Kinross does not therefore Perth & Kinross can export. An absurd situation, I'm sure you will agree. As consumers, it is important we are aware of these facts.
