| NEWS ITEMS 2006 |

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Minehead Farmers Market goes weekly and moves to the town centre

Our local Farmers' Market has moved to the centre of Minehead and is now weekly! Great news for producers and the town as a whole. See more details on the market's web site. Below are a few pictures taken in a chilly and wet December, the launch month!

We plan to be there twice a month, other commitments permitting. We will publish our dates on the Markets and Shows page as usual.

Lucky visitors to Nutcombe Chocolates!

A visit to Cotford St Luke Primary School's Summer Fete in July resulted in a day to remember for Cotford St Luke resident Bridget Edwards.

She made a bid in a silent auction organised by the school's Parent Teachers Association for a prize that particularly interested her. It was the opportunity to spend the day at the Nutcombe Chocolates factory in Minehead. Having been a customer of Nutcombe Chocolates at both Cotford St Luke and Taunton Farmers' Markets Bridget was very interested to see behind the scenes and was particularly keen to have a go herself.

The long-awaited day arrived this week and on Tuesday Bridget and her friend Yvonne Smith, who also lives in Cotford St Luke, arrived at the factory in Mart Road ready to immerse themselves in all things chocolate. After an introduction by Lorna Robbins of Nutcombe Chocolates, Bridget and Yvonne rolled up their sleeves and helped the Nutcombe Chocolates team make some of their popular traditional English chocolates, Florentines, lollies and hollow Christmas figures.

"It is a busy time for us at the moment, with the Exmoor Food Festival coming up, followed by a number of Christmas fairs and shows. Bridget and Yvonne quickly mastered the chocolate making techniques and certainly made a useful contribution to our stock levels!"

The newly-trained chocolatiers left with a selection of the chocolates they had made during the day. All in all a very enjoyable way to contribute to PTA funds!

West Somerset Railway Steam Rally & Vintage Vehicle Show August 2006

The hot weather continued last weekend as we set up our marquee in the trade area of this popular local show. We laboured under the hot sun and tempted a number of visitors to enjoy the fruits of our chocolate fountain. Sadly it was again too hot to take our chocolates along - good job we didn't as our chocolate samples melted before us!

"Look what you've done to my grandson!". Children of all ages enjoyed the chocolate dipped fruit, marshmallows and doughnuts, but the prize for the show this year must go to this young man who show much promise as a potential chocolate fanatic. Click on pictures for bigger versions

The Tavistock Food Festival 2006

This was our first visit to the Tavistock Food Festival which has built up a great reputation after only 2 years in existence. For the third festival the organisers had lined up approaching 100 producers and the stands stretched as far as the eye could see once you got into the marquee(s). We only took our chocolate fountain as we felt it had been a bit too hot to risk our chocolates.

We were blessed with a cooler day on the Saturday but unfortunately it was accompanied by all of the rain we had been missing over the past few months! Wet feet and inevitably patchy visitor numbers but there were still plenty of people about and judging by the conversations we had all were impressed by the range of produce available.

Some happy customers... (click on picture for a larger version) If any of these belong to you please email us if you would like a copy of the full sized photo.

Sunday was drier once all of the condensation had dripped off the inside of the marquee roof. All in all a great show which we hope to be at again next year - if the weather is more favourable we may try to bring some of our chocolate range to tempt the population of Devon.

If you are visiting Tavistock we can thoroughly recommend the B&B at which we rested our weary bones on Friday and Saturday night. Acorn Cottage is at Heathfield, a few miles/minutes from the town and is extremely comfortable. The breakfasts, prepared using local produce, set us up perfectly for the day ahead. Contact Kate & John by telephone on 01822 810920 or visit their web site at http://www.acorncottagebandb.com.

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Dunster Fair - too hot!

We thought it was hot at the Mid Devon Show.... Dunster set new records for us as it was roasting in our marquee but we were determined to be there and the picture (right) from the local press shows that we were a popular stand, as usual! Click on the picture to see a bigger version.

The 2006 Mid Devon Show was a resounding success

In the middle of a heatwave, we had our doubts about the desire of people to visit the show and get frazzled. Totally unfounded! It seems that numbers were well up on last year and our chocolate fountain proved to be very popular - we were kept very busy from about 10am. The number of visitors took us a little by surprise and we did run out of strawberries and doughnuts by late afternoon. We carried on with marshmallows until the end.

Our strawberries came from a farm shop about a mile away from the showground and they were lovely! We thoroughly recommend Halberton Court Farm Shop, High St, Halberton, Tiverton, Devon EX16 7AW [map]. Telephone 01884 821458. They picked ours so we could collect them, before the show but they do pick your own as well. Nice farm shop and cafe too.

Ashburton Community College year 11 leaving party

Our chocolate fountain visited Ashburton and helped the year 11s there celebrate the end of their exams and the start of the summer. It was a great evening with fantastic food and it was obvious that everyone had a really nice time. Well done to all those who organised it!

South West Festival of Beekeeping

We were invited to have a stall at the South West Festival of Beekeeping which was held on Saturday 10th June 2006 in a lovely location, a farm called Allercott near Timberscombe. It was a very hot day but fortunately for visitors as we were up on the moor there was a cooling breeze. The breeze was not good news for a number of local craft and food producers who had stalls in a field near the lecture and display area!

Fortunately we were in the display area, a large barn, and so were sheltered from the worst of the wind. This was lucky as we were there with the chocolate fountain and things would have been very messy! It was a lovely day and we met lots of interesting people, beekeeping and otherwise!

It was nice to be at a show with David and Joan Pearce, fellow Exmoor Producers Association members who supply us with the honey we use in our Somerset Honey and Orange chocolate, one of our best sellers. We sold a lot of that as well, not surprisingly! See the local food page for more information about David; as well as producing excellent honey he also makes and supplies a wide range of equipment for bee keepers.

Interesting links: Somerset Bee-Keepers Association

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2006 Royal Bath and West Show

2006 was our third appearance at this prestigious show, the largest one we attend. It is a massive annual event with traditional agricultural stands and animal shows, as well as a large local food area and hundreds (maybe thousands...) of trade stands of all persuasions. [more details of the show]

Our stands in 2004 and 2005 were in a food area called Celebrating Somerset. The stands were subsidised by Somerset County Council and other sponsors and were aimed at new, small producers to allow them to try out the event at a very reasonable cost. After two years you are "on your own" and it's time to decide whether you wish to do attend the show on a full commercial basis. We enjoyed doing the shows those first 2 years and during the 2005 event were wondering how we would (and whether we should) go about getting a stand for 2006. During the last couple of days of the show we spoke to a couple of exhibitors in another food area nearby, called Spirit of the West. Their area was in a large marquee and consisted of 7 producers, a nice mixture of food and drink. What was particularly attractive was the fact that the centre of the marquee was arranged with tables and chairs so customers could relax and enjoy their purchases.

We were invited to join the marquee for 2006 and the show was a great success. The weather was fantastic on all four days (unheard of!) and good attendances translated into lots of visitors to the marquee and lots of food and drink consumed! We met many who we had seen at previous shows as well as a number of our farmers' market customers and hundreds of new chocolate enthusiasts who kept our chocolate fountain very busy indeed!

Our stand at the 2006 show, cider brandy, cider and apple juice to our right and traditional cheddar to our left. Perfect!

We met some new and some familiar food producers in our marquee - visitors could choose from somerset wines, Somerset cider brandy, cider and apple juice, Cheddar strawberries (suppliers of our 60ish kilos of straberries over the four days!), two varieties of cheddar cheese (one organic) and smoked cheese, eel, fish, chicken, garlic. We sampled all of the produce available and can heartily recommend all of the producers. Their details can be found on the Local Food page - please do seek them out if you are in the area. A few photos taken during the event (click for larger images):

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Exmoor Producers Association shop move from Washford Mill to Friday Street in Minehead

We have been members of a craft and art group called the Exmoor Producers Association since soon after we started the business. The association was established to help and to promote local art and crafts, for example by organising craft exhibitions and shows and giving producers a way to sell their wares. In 2000 the EPA formed a co-operative from amongst its members and opened a shop at a place called Washford Mill, between Minehead and Williton.

The mill was converted in 1999 and 2000 by the owners Badcock & Evered with the help of some £600,000 European funding to provide a retail centre and to promote business and develop employment in the area. The EPA was one of the first tenants and the shop, with around 10-12 producer members traded strongly until during 2005. Then news broke that Badcock & Evered had decided that the mill venture was not viable and that they planned instead to apply for planning permission to turn the mill into housing. One way or another this brought about the re-location (out of the area) or demise of a number of small business.

For our part we were able to find a shop in Friday Street in Minehead and with a proven model we were able to move to the larger premises where the shop has gone from strength to strength. Well worth a visit, the products available include honey, preserves and chutneys, painting, prints, cards, pottery, jewellery, wood items (turned and engraved), upholstered gifts, cross stitch, walking CD's and DVD's, photographs..... Not your AVERAGE gift shop!!!

The EPA Shop 11 Friday Street Minehead Just along from the Tourist Information Centre Telephone 01643 702597 [map]

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