Last Saturday was our two year anniversary here in the shop. It’s been the most amazing couple of years and we have truly loved every minute of it. The shop has evolved since we took over as we’ve slowly made it our own. Some bits have taken longer than others and the re-branding (which has just been completed) was the final piece of the jigsaw. But somethings don’t change and our cheese counters remain at the heart of everything we do. In the last two years we have expanded our cheese selection and we have a cheese counter which rivals that of any retailer. I love it when people come into the shop and are blown away by our selection. We are constantly out scouting for new additions to our counter but we are limited as to what we can stock due to space! I’d love to enlarge the counter and have more cheeses but, for now, I have to settle on the 120+ that we have. Although I do manage to squeeze a new one (or two) in every so often which is why I’m pleased to be able to report that we have the brilliant St Bartholomew back in stock. This is a totally organic, hard cheese made in Nettlebed which is a mere 7 miles from our base camp. I’ve also found a gorgeous young Gouda which is so savoury it’s a delight to nibble on – Bon Repas (which translates as ‘good meal’ in French) is a farmhouse cheese with an exceptionally creamy texture and it complements our other Goudas superbly.

So what’s been happening in beautiful Pangbourne?

We were sent some wonderful cheesy sables which went down a storm with all of us in the shop so an order has been placed and they will soon be gracing our shelves. Every single item in our shop has been tasted by us and our staff, we all have to agree one which new lines to stock so you can be assured that everything we sell goes through a rigorous audition! As well as these fab savoury biscuits we’ve also got some amazing new gin in. Distilled less than 10 miles from Pangbourne, using locally sourced ingredients, Twisting Spirits have only been in production for a few months but they are simply delicious. We’ve even got a bottle of the Kaffir Lime one on taste 🙂 happy days!

Away from the shop I’ve been mostly cutting hedges… We live on a smallholding which is immensely lovely but it does involve a fair amount of work. Luckily we have some wonderful people who rent our fields for their horses so they tend to a lot of our land but there are still plenty of jobs that Ali and I have to manage. We have a couple of hundred metres of laurel hedging which needs tidying up every now and then and now is that time. I do love doing it all but it is pretty back breaking work so I’m always glad when it’s Monday morning and I can go into the shop for a rest!

But that’s about it from me for now. I’m hoping to be able to announce the arrival of our Christmas order forms in the next blog (as well as the arrival of our Vacherin – I just need to make space for it…!)