Hallo,

Well we survived our week at Glastonbury. The sunbeams were beautiful & our little mobile Bee Shack Cafe offered shaded sanctuary for weary revellers. We ran low on stocks of iced fruit cordial- we just managed to eke out stocks til Sunday. Popular cakes were Almond Moon, Amondi & the Honeyed Apple Cookies. Sadly the Brownies & Triple Chocolate Tinkers resembled chocolate soup quite quickly!

The Bee Shack Cafe, Glastonbury Festival

It was lovely to see so many regulars- our offer of squidgy cushions, proper china mugs, tea & cake does seem to hit the spot – it truly is a luxury just to be able to have a nice sit down…..it’s amazing how tired you get just mooching around the festival site.

The food this year was awesome. We sampled fare from the Halls Dorset Smokery, The Dorset Blue Soup Company & Queen Deliah’s super salad mixes. The Goan Fish Curry Company is still my fave though- the Fish Caldine- all delicate lime/coriander & coconut milk with what looked like pollock or whiting was just scrum-a-dum. We ran out of time to sample a cream tea from the Cream tea shed but the chocolate cake from the Hurly Burly Cafe was divine.

It’s such a novelty not to be hosing down the infamous mud from all of our kit. True- the chairs/tables etc are looking a little dusty but we’ll get them all spruced back up ready for the Bee Shack Cafe Saturday this weekend. Do come by for tea, Honeybuns cakes and/or luncheon- we’d love to see you. We’ll have some Glastonbury pics on display too.

The garden is looking wonderful- just outside our office window we can see amazing roses, lavender & foxgloves & the view across the nature reserve field is idyllic- all the grass seed heads are waving in the breeze….making concentrating on the old computer screen a tad difficult! The honey bees are enjoying all the buddleia, lavender & other friendly plants around the site.

Thank you for everyone’s patience regarding our little savoury tarts too- they’re now finally online www.honeybuns.co.uk/shop. We have more items to follow & the website will be revamped for next year. We’re aware that the shop section is a bit “clunky” but all will be revamped for your shopping pleasure for 2011!

Vicky is now sending out a monthly brand new email version of our Bee Newsletter- this is far more eco friendly than printing them & we can also update more regularly. If you’d like to subscribe please head for www.honeybuns.co.uk/thebee

Hope to see you at the Bee Shack this Saturday,

Em xx

Hallo,

It’s been especially busy in our little Honeybuns Hive of activity over the last few weeks.

Barry & Graham, who work in the bakery & packing teams respectively, have also put together an exhibition in our Bee Shack Cafe- it’s all happening at the same time as Dorset Art Weeks www.dorsetartweeks.co.uk. Both are talented artists in their own right- both have worked as childrens’ book illustrators too.

To celebrate their work we’re holding a little launch party this Saturday in the Bee Shack-2-5 pm for nibbles & drinkies. Everyone welcome so do pop in and join us.

The Bee Shack will also be open for normal for lunches this Saturday too- hope to see you there- we’ll be serving the first harvest of our very own Bee Shack grown salads www.honeybuns.co.uk/beeshack. These will be served alongside our very moreish little savoury tarts. The hold up on getting these savouries up online is that we need to add more shelves to our online shop- this sounds straightforward but it’s quite techy- as soon as this is done we’ll be able to sell these gorgeous things directly to you.

We’re also getting ready for Glastonbury- we trundle down the lanes to Somerset in just a vouple of weeks to start setting up camp & getting the mobile Bee Shack Cafe prepped. One of my favourite bits of the Glasto annual  pilgrimage are the trips to & from the site- you get to have banter with fellow traders & hard core travellers who set up camp for a good week before the festival offically opens. It’s also a proper treat to be in the English countryside at such a gorgeous point in the year.

Please do look out for our fluffy pink parasols if you’re there this year. Comfy chairs, cushions & proper china mugs await you!

This weekend we’ve teamed up with our very good pals at HiHo Silver who are holding teaparties in each of their jewellery/homeware stores .  If you go to www.hihosilver.co.uk & locate their shops- whuy not pop in this Saturday?They have uttterly gorgeous jewellery & by quoting this ref- “Hihoteap” you’ll get a free HBuns cake & a 10% discount.What’s not to love?

In addition we’re in the process of launching another three new minis- ideal if you’re a bit worried about the old calorie count of our regular slices. We believe firmly that our cakes are good honest indulgent treats. We can’t dress them up in anyway as a health kick. The best we can do is offer smaller portions-

Personally I still need to run & walk to be able to indulge my passion for proper cake made with the good stuff- butter & our very local free range eggs.I’d rather that than eat anything  ”diety”….but then I’m a proper cake geek.

That’s all for now.

Wishing everyone a super weekend coming up. We’ve heard a rumour that it’s going to be deliciousl

Our Beautiful Tart

y sunny….

Em x

After a cold week last week, the sun has now decided to reappear and we are all loving the warmer weather.  The polytunnel is coming on a treat too!

The Blooming Great Tea Party was fabulous, and enjoyed by all.  My nephew, Alfie, especially enjoyed it – I think he is taking the Bee Green project very seriously indeed! 

Worm anyone?

We raised £118.87 for Marie Currie www.MarieCurie.org.uk , gained them a new volunteer, booked two more tea parties and had loads of fun.  The afternoon seemed to get louder as more bubbly bottles were opened!

Em and I had a meeting with Karen from Honeypot last week - www.honeypot.co.uk .  They are a children’s charity who supply respite for young carers and disadvantaged children.  We were both really impressed and hope that some of the children can come to our picnic on the 29th July. 

Charlotte and Graham held a ‘Safari’ this weekend – which was thoroughly enjoyed!  A great big thanks need to go to Clipper Teas who provided us with lots and lots of peppermint tea bags!  www.clipper-teas.com

Enjoy the sunshine and why not pop out into the garden with a book and a Honeyed Apple Cookie!  Utter bliss!  V x

Hallo,

it was lovely to see so many of you at our Blooming Great Tea party-thank you for your support. We had a productive morning blowing up balloons, doing some last minute painting & basically getting the shack up and together. Vicky will be posting pics a bit later on.Vicky was in fact the star of the tea party gathering- this lady knows everyone! Vicky also has that rare talent of making everyone feel warm & totally at ease as soon as they stepped inside the door.

We’ll hear later how much was raised but Marie Curie were ecstatic to have signed up some new volunteers on the day- this all helps with Marie Curie awareness & ongoing fundraising.

www.mariecurie.org.uk

This week we’re working hard on getting our re-tweaked online shop ready for business- we always seem to be tweaking it!! There are lots of improvements we’d like to make & new products to get online including our little savoury tarts plus new minis range- it’s all happening this month.

We’re also gearing up for Dorset art weeks www.dorsetartweeks.co.uk – Barry & Graham from the HBuns team are exhibiting their work in the Bee Shack & we’re running a casual pop into the Cafe- honesty box type of system during these dates- 29th May- 13th June. Would be lovely to see you there.

In time for Art Weeks we’re also planning the arrival of Posh & Pecks are two new little baby bantams. We would like them to be scratching underneath the apple trees by mid May.They’re arriving courtesy of Somerset & Dorset Animal Rescue. Do call Sam on T07971 079 249 for rescue feathered info.

So please do pop by during Arts Week to admire Graham & Barry’s handiwork, to make friends with the bantams & enjoy a slice of cake & diggerbucket of divine coffee- from Reads- down the road in Sherborne- they roast it onthe farm & it is DIVINE! T 01935 389615 for coffee info.

See you soon, Em x

More Tea Vicar?

SPRING FEVER!

Firstly, let me introduce myself as the newest member of the Honeybuns team.  My name is Vicky, and I will be working with Emma to continue to give all our customers VIP treatment!

I have loads of ideas and am really looking forward to working with Charlotte on her various garden and eco projects.  We are going to be trialling a comfrey and nettle recipe I found last year for homemade fertilizer – if it works as well as it smells we should be in for bumper crops!  Have a look at our gardening and eco projects at www.honeybuns.co.uk/beegreen

Gorgeous Graham and I held a ‘tasting session’ at John Lewis at Home in Poole last week for our new savoury tarts.  They proved a huge hit and we have had loads of positive feedback.  A big thank you to all the staff at John Lewis – especially Lucy – they were fantastic and so welcoming.  Have a look at the store at www.johnlewis.com/poole

Gorgeous Graham in action!

Keep an eye on the following websites: Dorset Cereals (www.dorsetcereals.co.uk/win-lovely-things) and Fabulous Places (www.fabulousplaces.co.uk) as we are soon going to be running competitions with them to win a super-duper Honeybuns’ hessian goody bag full of yummy treats!

Should you be attending Badminton this weekend don’t forget to pop over to the Hi Ho Silver stand (check them out at www.hihosilver.co.uk).  They are giving away Honeybuns’ cakes while stocks last.

URGENT – NOT TO BE MISSED …

You are warmly invited to come along to this Saturday’s Blooming Great Tea Party (in aid of Marie Curie Cancer Care) here at The Bee Shack from 3 – 5 pm.  With lovely food, drink and company, there is no nicer way to spend a Saturday afternoon!  Just give us a ring if you are coming – we would love to see you.

Please come and join us!

Hallooo,

We’re delighted that the Bee Shack Cafe is now officially out of hibernation.We close each year after Christmas to then re open on the first Saturday of March.We shake ourselves free of winter leaves and stumble out into the daylight rubbing our eyes…..

It’s then straight into the task of plumping up the cushions, polishing the windows & straightening the bunting in preparation for our customers.

Thankyou to everyone who has visited and left us with such warm and helpful feedback. The little savoury tarts we’re now serving have gone down a treat and the locally sourced West Country tapas plates are also a bit of a win.

The Little Savoury Tarts will be available on our online shop as soon as I get round to sorting the packaging- probably another a couple of weeks from now.

From the summer we’re hoping to gain a little more room in the Bee Shack for a couple of extra tables & a safe childs play area.

All monies taken on Bee Shack days  are given over to the extremely prudent Charlotte who invests wisely in all things green. If you do come to visit on the first Saturday- next Bee shack day is Saturday May, 1st you’ll see the new little polytunnel & raised beds which were financed this way.

We’re now able to grow veggies & salads for the Bee shack as well as bringing on young hedge cuttings, trees & meadow flowers for later planting.

As this year is hurtling along at such a pace we’re also beginning our annual preparations to visit Glastonbury Festival with our mini Cafe. We love meeting customers new & old over tea and cake & we’ll be wearing interpretations of Alice in Wonderland this year for your added amusement! Deckchairs, cushions & pink fluffy parasols will be reporting for dutyas per usual.

Wishing everyone lots more of this beautiful sunshine,

New Mini poly tunnel

Our Stand at the Food and Drink Expo, NEC March 2010

Em x

Hallo,

Jenny Wren is on the piste as we speak- lucky thing.

Meanwhile we’re working away like true busy bees-we’re all doing extended hours to tide us over whilst we get a new oven fitted.We’ve been surprised by a strong demand for our cakes-at a time in the year when we’re traditionally quiet. This has meant we’ve been “All hands on deck”. The new oven will also help alleviate a bottle neck and recruiting will definitely help. In the meantime we’re surviving on posh coffee from Reads the coffee Roasters plus chocolate brioche courtesy of Sainsburys in Sherborne.

This weekend Matt & I are en route to the NEC Food & Drink Expo- it’s a big trade fair held every couple of years.It should be a good opportunity to meet with old customers.As ever, our stand will be bijou but packed to bursting with goodies.I think I’ll decorate the table with fresh daffs too- if they’re out by then….

We’re looking forward to running alongside the refurbished canalside in the mornings before entering the suited & booted corporate world of the show.Last time we did this I just really missed the dogs- feels weird not running together in our little canine-humanoid pack.

The Bee Shack reopening went really well- thanks to eeryone who came along. The monies s ever are given to the BeeGreen fund & the last record lot of takings have enabled us to buy a team polytunnel. We can now start growing veggies for team lunches & Bee Shack days- everyone’s a winner.

Looking forward to the Easter Bee Shak now.www.honeybuns.co.uk/beeshack.

pls see Matt’s pic- whilst completing the awesomely tough Grizzly race down in Devon.He earnt a couple of choccy Tinkers after that escapade.

See you soon,

Em x

Jenny Wren’s  -Bird’s eye view- Hello I’m the newey person to the team, replacing the lovely Victoria, who I had the pleasure of meeting before she left to her new career of teaching.

I’m in my third week now and learning and experiencing new things every day. It’s certainly the first time  I’ve stroked a donkey on a coffee break at work or sprinkled cake crumbs out for the birds.

I still have alot to learn in the paperworky side but Emma is a good teacher and is trying not to overload me. I am trying not to overload myself with cake tasting -  well I do need to know the products!

The dark handsome one on the top

My fave so far is the Heathcliffe Brownie, he’s  so georgeous !

What a  multi-talented team here, everyone appears to have a special Skill! – Not the ability to see through solid object s or be invisible, (although- maybe !) but

there’s certainly  a baker who is a superb artist, a packing lady who is a talented sewist (good at dressmaking and has made beautifull dotty aprons, a couple of hedhgelayers just to name a few.

I will be sporting one of the fabulous pinnies for the first time at the foodshow in Cornwall www.expowestexhibitions.com/ with one of  our wholesalers.

My previous gardening experience may well come in useful, Im a good little weeder, and am looking forward to the new raised veggie beds being finished.

I’m especially glad to see they are going to be filled with topsoil  instead of the thick clay soil we have here. It would probably take three people to pull a carrot out of that.

Our cosy training/team room is looking wonderful, with the pretty blue  and white check table cloths and little vases of bright springy flowers, We’ve glammed it up a bit in readiness for two visitors from Japan and  for our Beeshack opening  on the 6th march www.honeybuns.co.uk/beeshack/index.htm

Do come along for tea, coffee and cakes or why not book for lunch -  bring your mums for an early Mothers day treat - If my mum stops calling herself the “Duchess of Wedmore”, (She isn’t, but it amuses her to say it ) - I may bring her or  treat her to one of the  little enamel  Honeybuns tins full of cakes. They’re also available from our online shop - beautifully wrapped for mother’s day www.honeybuns.co.uk/

Hallo,

The birds are a- chit- chattering away in the hedgerows surrounding the bakery & our old farm buildings.We’ve seen some nest site “recce” activity going on on nest box cam www.honeybuns.c.uk/joaneycam. A couple of sparrows have been in there checking it out for size. Again this year we’ve seen lots of goldfinches feeding on the set aside strips where we let nature run riot. The thistle heads provide tasty snacks for these lovely little birds.

There’s a feeling of Spring just around the corner now. We reckon that there might be still a few icy blasts to come but the thaw is not far away now.

Nick has been busy creating our long awaited raised veggie beds in the Bee Shack garden. He has recycled the old railway sleepers that used to form the walls of the silage lamp here on the farm. Waste not want not. The team are then able to have a veggie patch/mini allotment or there is a kitty- if you don”t fancy the gardening but do rather fancy the fresh courgettes, salads, beetroots etc then a donation to the kitty secures a weekly selection of veggies.

Much as I’d like to get my hands in soil I think I’ll have to go for the kitty option. Time seems a bit scarcer than normal at the moment. We’ve been much busier than is usual for the time of year & we also have quite a lot of plans to implement with regard to the online shop & prettification of the site plus all our BeeGreen things. I try not to fall back into the panic pit & instead just keep calmly wading through the to do list 7 picking off all the mega urgent things first.

We’re getting our feedback on the little savoury tarts this Friday & hopefully we’ll soon be able to get these onto the website mail order shop. We just need to figure out how best they can be kept chilled in transit.We rather liked the idea of Honeybuns branded mini coolbags….

So much to do- must keep calm & carry on.

em xx

Hallo,

We’re busy getting our show diary finalised for this year.

Our great pals at Reads Coffee Roasters, www.readscoffee.co.uk, are organising a fundraiser for the Haiti Disaster- “Hearts for Haiti”. It promises to be a foodie extravaganza with lots of local artisan producers selling their goodies. It’s on Saturday, 13th February, 10am -3 pm & held in the Theare at Sherborne boys school.

It would be lovely if as many people as possible could come along-the aim is to celebrate gorgeous, hand-crafted local foods & to raise lots of cash for such a pressing cause. For info pls call Charlotte t Reads-01935 389615.We’ll e there with lots of samples to taste too. No obligation to buy- but e are after your money- we’re on a mission to raise lots!

This next week we will be exhibiting with our wholesaler at the Devon Expo West trade show-if you are going- please do pop by and say hello. We’ll have goody bags to give away…as long as they last!

It’s always tricksy judging how many shows to do in a year.We had aimed to cut down in 2010, but somehow the number keeps creeping up again.They do soak up resources but also I think it’s very important to keep on promoting the brand…as soon as we set a limit we’re then sent details of another how & it’s all so tempting to”give it a go”.

Note to Self- don’t get carried away with too many shows- we need to watch the pennies in order to be able to spend on all the fun stuff! We’d love more trees, hedging, nature cams & various bits & bobs for the new Bee Shack garden..so we need to start saying no to some of the bigger,costlier events.

Speaking of all things green, Charlotte & Graham have now started their hedgelaying & it looks terrific. One of the many benefits is that a laid hedge offers improved nesting opportunities for our precious wild birds. Have a lookie on www.honeybuns.co.uk/blogbeegreen & you’ll find Charlotte is a very busy greenbee!

Righteyho- that’s all for now.Keep cosy,

Winter view of Bakery 2010

Em x