We’ve been amazingly busy with the shop over the last few weeks. So busy, we’ve not had time to post a blog update! We’ve still got a lot of work to do on the shop to get it how we want it, but our customers have been amazingly positive and encouraging about it so far so we’re really pleased! Running a shop is a lot of work - getting stock, employing staff, serving customers and keeping everything looking good. On top of all this we have our opening party this Thursday - 6:30pm to 8:30pm with lots of food and drink and an oportunity to look around the shop and have a chat with us and various local VIPs (we hope)!

Anyway, we’ve had a great time running the shop so far and everyone’s positive reactions and input have been very much appreciated. If you haven’t had a chance to visit, pop in some time and have a look around! I’ll make a more detailed post soon about some of our produce and where it comes from, as many of the products have some interesting stories and people behind them!

Edwin

Today has been a busy day at our shop. With the opening on Monday, we’ve had a lot to do. We’ve had our sign painted on the shop’s front - we think it looks great!

We’ve also had much of our stock delivered today as a lot of it is coming from farmers from Notting Hill Farmers’ Market and Borough Market. We’ll have more delivered tomorrow and on Monday morning. We’ve got some great looking teas from Ceylon1; eggs from Rookery Farm Eggs and cream, yoghurts and smoothies from Hurdlebrook and tomatoes from The Tomato Stall. The last three you may know from Notting Hill Farmers’ Market and Ceylon1 you may have seen at Borough. We’ve got some amazing crisps from Pipers Crisps (which you won’t find in the Supermarket!). We tried them today and we loved them - their Sea Salt and Somerset Cider Vinegar crisps are particularily good. Like us, Pipers support small producers, with the seasoning of each crisp variety coming from a named producer. We’ve also got some delicious looking cakes, salad leaves, vegetables, plants (that look great!) and flowers all ready to go.

We’ve been very pleased with the response from everyone we’ve talked to. We’ve had many people knock on the door while we’ve been in there to give us their support and an amazing number of people stopping to just have a look through the window. We look forward to seeing everyone at the shop soon!

With only three days to go until we open the shop, there’s a lot of work to do. We’ve had our cracked front window replaced today which took a lot of work. First we had to have the internal security shutter removed as it blocked the glass, then the old glass had to be removed by 12(!) men and the new glass put in, followed by the shutter being put up again. All it all, a lot of effort on a very tight deadline. We’ve still got to have our front fascia sign put up - this should be done over the weekend, and we’ve got to do some more internal painting and rearranging.

The first stock arrived today - some delicious ice cream, cheeses and asparagus. The ice cream is particularly special - it’s from Taywell Ice Creams, which you may have seen on The Apprentice on BBC1 a few weeks back. They produce a wide range of ice creams from traditional varieties such as Strawberry to Rhubarb and Ginger and White Malteser. They also have a range of diabetic friendly ice creams. The cheeses come from Lincolnshire Poacher who some of our Farmers’ Market customers may already know. Of course, we also have our own juices here waiting to be put up on the shelves. We’ll be having a lot more stock arriving over the weekend and on Monday morning. I’ll try to find a moment to update the blog as they arrive.

We look forward (with some trepidation!) to seeing everyone when we open at 8am Monday morning!

Good progress has been made with the shop - we’ve got most of it painted and fitted out. We’re now focusing on sourcing stock and arranging all that area. We’ve now got a date we’re pretty sure we can meet - 2nd of June - only a bit over a week from now!

We’ll have some special opening offers so if you’re nearby pop in and see us - we’d love to know what you think!

If you’ve got any suggestions for products you think we should stock, get in touch!

Just a quick note to say we’re opening our very first shop in a few weeks time, on Notting Hill Gate. We’ll be stocking all our apple juices, mixed fruit juices and fruit (apples, pears, strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrants etc!) as well as a wide range of produce from other farms - vegetables, milk, bread etc. We’re currently very busy getting everything ready - decorating and fitting out the shop, and we’re working on a new website that will let you order all the produce from the shop for delivery anywhere in London.

Visit the Chegworth Farm Shop website for more information and to sign up to get invited to the opening. If you’ve got any produce or products you think we should sell, contact us and let us know!

Here’s the leaflet we’ve been giving out at markets. Note that the opening date may change, depending if we get everything ready in time!

Edwin

We start with the picking of apples and importantly this is a very crucial part of making a good juice. If the apples are not ripe the the juice has less flavour and less particles and thats where the healthy bit is.

So we begin with ripe apples and these are picked using labour coming from all round the world, which makes the farm a very cosmopolitan place in the picking season, it is hard work and the pickers are paid by the bin so there is a good incentive for them to work long hours.

Each bin of fruit is brought to the yard by tractors, the bins are marked so we know who the picker is and are also dated and logged so we can record the field yields.

In the yard Peter loads a bin of apples into the bin tipper which lifts the bin up and gently the apples roll out onto an inspection table where Peter and Marko inspect every apple as it goes past them, there are rollers under the apples which turn each apple to make this easy.

The apples then go into a bath of water to rinse off and are carried by a screw drive up into the mill leaving any water behind. The mill is a kind of grill with holes in it and the apples are forced through the grill by the apples following after them.

From the mill the pomace (cut apples) continue their journey towards two belts and as they pass the belts are forced together and roll around a series of rollers thus flattening the pomice and forcing out the juice into a stainless steel tray underneath and it is here that vitamin C or abscorbic acid is added.

The remaining pulp continues out of the juice pressing room by a conveyor into a trailer and is tipped back onto the land.

The apple juice is pumped from the tray into the next room where we pasteurise the juice taking care that it is not too hot to cook, but hot enough to give the juice a 2 year shelf life.

When we are making one of our special mixed juices, like apple and raspberry we use only fresh fruit and because we are totally taste driven that means if there is not enough taste of raspberries, then more are picked to get the absolutely best taste.

The juice is then bottled and labelled and dated ready for sale at farmers markets and sold direct to shops, dellis, bars, clubs, and caterers all over the country.

I hope you enjoy our juice, we have a lot of fun making it and are very passionate about getting it right,

regards David

Pruning on the farm is well under way and with over 40,000 trees to do, we find that it needs a good fast pruning team to make any headway. If you put 6 pruners into different fields, it appears that none of them are getting anywhere, but if they are all in one orchard they seem to fly along – so that’s they way we like to do it!

Our new cold store project is progressing with the building to house all the stores now erected and the roof and walls all fully clad. Now the concrete floor is set and we are using a specialist company to come in and do this. As the building is over 5000 square feet, once the concrete is laid, it has to power floated to give a smooth finish. This is then left for 28 days to get the strongest floor possible.

We’ve just made a new juice – Pear and Raspberry. This is the first time we’ve made a blend containing Pear juice – based on how fast it is selling; our customers seem to love it!

We just had our organic audit and inspection last week – a stressful time! Thankfully, we passed and we’ve achieved our organic status for the next year.

Don’t forget to get your Christmas orders in as soon as possible. A case of juice makes a great present – we can delivery anywhere in the mainland UK and include a message if you wish. You can order directly from us online over the phone on 01622 859272.

Well here we are once again back to adding our regular blog about what is going on at the farm.

This winter we have a large project to get through. There has been a constant lack of cold storage space so now is the time to put up a new 5000sq ft. building to house 4 new stores in half of the area and looking forward to next year a further 4 stores in the other half of the building. The shell of the building is up but not yet clad and we are levelling the ground in preparation for the reinforced concrete floor and hopefully this will be done in the next week or two.

Meanwhile a separate gang are commencing pruning and today they had a lesson to brush up their thoughts on this. Right now is the time when we are flat out trying to juice as much fruit as we can to free up more space within the cold stores so that we can squeeze in the last of the picked apples and pears. It has been a very busy picking season but it is now all finished and our pickers from all over the world have started to go home, the last 3 Bulgarians didn’t want to leave and were crying for most of the last day, it was very sad to see them go.

More next week!

Regards David.