We thought our Almond Moon was quite nice and we were absolutely delighted to win a gold for it and our Scrumdiddleyumptious at this year’s foodie Oscars- The Great Taste Awards. Our Almond Moon then went on to win Best South West Speciality, Reserve Best British Speciality and Reserve Best English Speciality.

This resulted in quite a lot of bubbly being drunk and we are just getting back to normal after all the excitement.

We will be popping Great Taste Gold Award labels onto the Almond Moon and Scrumdiddleyumptious starting this September. Thank you so much to our team, our customers and the Guild of Fine Food. 

Baking CoursesWe had a terrific response to our course this year and the groups were all lovely. Here are just a couple of the comments:“Thank you for the most enjoyable cooking day. It was very well organised, great fun, with delicious results!” “Many thanks to you all at Honeybuns for a really enjoyable  day - inspirational too! Hopefully there may be a part 2 next year?” We are cautious about running full days next year as we think we might be kept quite busy in 2007 with our new savoury range. We are considering hosting half day taster mornings instead and will make a decision in time for January 2007. All details will appear on our website or alternatively you can ask to be popped on to our mailing list.

Lab Testing

We promised we’d keep you updated on our lab report findings for our dairy free lines (Carrot, Mooosh , Amondi and Scrumdiddleyumptious) and we are delighted that no detectable traces of dairy were found at all. Current tests go down to less than 2 parts per million so we really are very reassured.

We love using nut “flours”

which we make by toasting almonds and hazelnuts and grinding them up to a fine consistency. We are now turning our attention to toasted seed “flours” like pumpkin and linseed. They do cost quite a lot but they taste really good and create really lush flavour combinations so watch this space on more developments.

Our 2 new savoury lines, 1 gluten free and 1 gluten and dairy free will be ready to be nibbled this coming January. We are currently tweaking them and asking some of our trade customers to try them out for us. So far so good and people have generally said “mmmm very yummy” which is hugely encouraging. We are working with Emily Davies of Dorset Blue Soup Company. Em has developed a bespoke spicy tomato chutney for us which we will be using in one of these products.
Our Scrumdiddleyumptious Cookie was launched back in 2005 at Olympia but we never really helped it along. Now, after winning Gold at this year’s Great Taste Awards, we thought we’d dust down this little gem of a treat and try to encourage our café and deli customers to stock it. Please do look out for it. It’s round, crisp on the outside, gooey in the middle tastes of almond, lemon & ginger & is ... well ... rather yummy!

Other Nice Things Besides Cake

Matt and Em went off camping to South West France and came back with pressies for the team as modelled by Diesel, Peggers and Honeybunch. They also came back with lots of inspiration for the Bee Shack (hence the furry pink parasols!). Em was also inspired by the robust flavours of the Basque region. Eating fennel seed flavoured tortilla for breakfast was a real treat and will inspire our savoury lines to be launched in the new year.

Sam, our old hunter, and Joan our beloved donkey are still headover heels in love and totally inseparable. Considering their combined age of 66 we think they look utterly fit, healthy and fabulous.

We will be hosting food tastings as part of Dorset Food Week, www.Dorsetforyou.com. Cakes and drinks will be on sale and complimentary samples of selected gluten free cakes will be available to try. Opening times are Monday 23rd October to Friday 27th October 11am – 4pm. These open days will be held in our Bee Shack Cafe. Unfortunately the bakery will be in full operational swing and is not open to the public on this occasion.

Work is starting on our little nature reserve this autumn. Nick, who used to farm here before us, is going to help us with creating the raised culinary herb beds. We are going to recycle the old railway sleepers from the old silage clamp to make the beds.

Our goldfinch sightings are still going strong and we will create a second set aside strip for thistle heads and other valuable food sources this autumn.

We are planning an eco friendly swim pond for next summer too. This will be filtered by reed beds and will have a gravely bottom and very clear water. Our Honeybuns team will then be able to dive in and cool down after work. They may have to share this facility with the healthy population of frogs in the front field…

Our Bee Shack Café  is now kitted out with a proppa kitchen and furry pink parasols which are worth a visit in their own right. Opening times have now changed to a more sociable 11am – 5pm on the first Saturday of each month. Left: Gwen and Trish who normally work in the Honeybuns office were on hand to greet visitors to our 1st Birthday party on Saturday September 2nd.

Forthcoming Events

The Great Britsh Cheese Festival
30th September - 1st October
Cheltenham

Dorset Food Week
Monday 23rd October - Friday 27th October 11am - 4pm
in The Bee Shack
Tea and cake - free cake samplings

The Bee Shack Saturdays
7th October, 4th November, 2nd December and 23rd December 11am - 5pm
Light lunches available but booking is essential