The shop would be half empty without the neighbours. These four makers share our shelves, and everything of theirs we stock is something we would happily set out on our own table.
Cultured butter and the Oak-Smoked Valley Cheese
A small herd a few fields down the valley, milked twice a day and never rushed. The creamery cultures its cream overnight the old way, which is where the tang comes from, and matures its cheese in a converted stone byre. We smoke the wedges here over oak from the howe.
On our shelves:
Stoneground flour for our bakery
A stone mill and bakehouse that still buys its wheat from farms it can name. Their stoneground flour is why our sourdough tastes of something and why the bakery shelf empties before lunch.
The amber ale in our Apple and Ale Chutney
Brewers of a small, stubborn range of Cumbrian ales. Their amber ale went into a chutney experiment one wet October and never came back out. A few bottles usually make it onto the shop shelf; they rarely stay there long.
Heather honey from fell-edge hives
Hives kept where the walls give up and the heather takes over. The honey is raw, unpasteurised and entirely dependent on the weather, which in Cumbria makes every jar a small act of optimism.
On our shelves: