The weather at the moment definitely has the feel of Britain about it. Sunny and glorious one minute, raining cats, dogs & hail stones the next. The old saying that April roars in like a lion and leaves like a lamb isn’t hugely accurate this year. My mum always swears that it snowed on the day I was born so I’m always prepared for anything in April!
Those of you who have received our newsletters for a while will know that I am a runner at heart and my morning runs have been warm, cold, freezing, damp, soaked…you name it I’ve run in it this month. But nothing puts me off my morning exercise so I’ve been out everyday plodding around my 10+km route. I love being out and about before most of the neighbourhood has stirred and it’s a great feeling to have done my daily activity before breakfast and work.
But enough about running, let’s talk cheese! We’ve had a smattering of guest cheeses in store over the last few weeks. The Mothais sur Feuille was a great success in some of our monthly cheese club boxes. It’s a goat’s cheese with a soft, runny texture that becomes dense as it ages and the unique combination of earthy, lemony and mould flavours from the leaf wrapping become more intense as the cheese matures. We’ve also had great feedback with regards to our St Félicien – so much so that I have now added it on to our website as it has made the grade from guest to permanent in our counter! You can see it on our website here. We often have guest cheeses in that aren’t published on our website and we can also source other cheeses if there’s something in particular you are looking for. Do get in touch with us if we can help in any way.
Someone asked me last week if I was having a good day and I replied that every day in the cheese shop is a good day. This might should glib but it’s true. I absolutely love my job and all that goes with it. Tomorrow I am off to the Farm Shop & Deli Show at the NEC. This is a big trade event with lots of cheese suppliers attending as well as suppliers of other produce. They also announce the winner of the Farm Shop & Deli Awards where we’ve been shortlisted in the cheesemonger category. I’m not expecting anything to come from it as there are a lot of great finalists but I’ll go and see how we get on. We won the Best Family-Run Specialist Cheese Shop 2023 at the UK Enterprise Awards last week which was a complete and utter shock and I feel totally humbled that our shop gets such recognition. Pangbourne is a great place to work, I love it here and I love everything about our shop, it’s nice to know that others feel the same way!
If you are planning on visiting us during May please do take note of our updated opening hours. We’ve tried to navigate through the glut of Bank Holidays and each weekend is slightly different!
