SUPPORTING OUR INDEPENDENTS BY POST
Many of our independent producers have adopted postal delivery services to allow customers who live a little further afield to buy their marvellous produce direct. We anonymously sampled the ‘shop by post’ experience from Ampersand Butter, Wiltshire Truffle, Ribblesdale Cheese, The Noble Bee, Fresh Flour and Pimhill Farm. Here are a few observations.
PIMHILL FARM
Without a doubt, Pimhill Farm has perfected sending their wonderful muesli, oats and oat biscuits by mail. Fantastic communication and extremely fast delivery – 48 hours end-to-end coupled with everything packed in card, so easily recycled. And Pimhill muesli is light and wonderfully flavoursome. Breakfast has always been a favourite meal, but even more so now!!!
AMPERSAND BUTTER
This delicious butter is made in batches, so you need to plan ahead and order well in advance of when you need it. But it is well worth it, as the butter arrives very carefully packed and travels well. We did of course pop the butter in the fridge as soon as it arrived! All in all, a good experience.
WILTSHIRE TRUFFLES
Truffles, by their nature expect to be treated with respect and Wiltshire Truffles have truly refined the art of packaging and shipping truffles using environmentally friendly packaging. Our Black Summer truffle arrived in a card box surrounded by sheep wool packaging to keep it cool. It was so beautifully packaged that we took a video. Inside, the truffle had travelled beautifully and was utterly delicious in our chicken truffle pies (see previous blog). This was a ‘premium’ experience!
RIBBLESDALE CHEESE
Very friendly, fast and no-nonsense describes Ribblesdale. Our taster selection of scrumptious goat and sheep cheeses arrived within just a couple of days of our order. Simply packaged as this cheese does not need significant protection, it travelled extremely well and was devoured within an instant.
THE NOBLE BEE
Our Noble Bee honey order arrived beautifully packed in a sturdy small box cushioned by brown paper, so we were able to recycle everything – no plastic in sight. Enclosed was also a charming note from Simon Noble himself explaining that he had run out of large jars so had sent us two small instead. Such a thoughtful touch. Our honey arrived quickly and great communication so we knew our order had arrived safely and would be on its way. Nobel Bee honey on toast, with or without lashings of local butter is simply ‘delicious’!!
FRESH FLOUR
Our pasta and crackers from Fresh Flour arrived within a week and indeed before their confirmation email! Again, packaged in card so easily recyclable both items arrived totally unblemished from their journey. The crackers were very addictive! and the pasta, whilst it looks like it may be rather ‘heavy’ was in fact extremely light and delicious.
If you have shopped by post from an independent producer we’d love to hear your experiences – was it as positive as all ours? Email us or Instagram DM @shopnearhome