Mrs Darlington’s at The Vale Royal Food and Garden Festival

TWO family businesses are celebrating their recipe for success, after working together for more than 20 years, at a food festival being held to celebrate a ‘Taste of Cheshire’.

 

Mrs Darlington’s jams and preserves, at Lancaster Fields at Crewe, has been working with The Hollies Farm Shop, at Little Budworth, for more than two decades, during which the two family-run businesses have seen their success as food retailers grow.

 

Mrs Darlington’s is run by the Darlington family’s first and second generation and The Hollies is now in the hands of the third generation of the Cowap family.

 

To celebrate the success of Cheshire’s outstanding food producers the two businesses, along with more than 50 other regional food producers, will be giving visitors a taste of their success at the Vale Royal Food and Garden Festival.

 

The Vale Royal Food and Garden Festival is being held at The Hollies Farm Shop, in partnership with Vale Royal Borough Council, on Saturday and Sunday, October 18 and 19, from 10am to 5pm.

 

Wendy Darlington, whose mother Marianne the original ‘Mrs Darlington’ is still at the helm of the business, said: “We don’t normally attend food festivals as we have such a hectic workload. But we have worked with The Hollies for so many years it will be a great celebration of our relationship to attend the Vale Royal Food and Garden Festival.

 

“Over the years Cheshire’s food production has grown massively and there are some extremely high quality delicacies produced in the county, which are not only famed regionally but also nationally.”

 

Director of The Hollies Phil Cowap remembers collecting stock from Mrs Darlington’s kitchen in his 20’s and has seen the business’ production grow over the years and expand into a nationally acclaimed product line.

 

Phil said: “We are delighted to celebrate 20 years of working with Mrs Darlington’s. They were one of the first products we started selling in the farm shop and it has been exciting seeing the two businesses grow side by side.

 

“It is quite a coup to have Mrs Darlington her self attending the food festival as her recipes are so popular with a lot of our customers. We are looking forward to seeing the businesses develop over the next 40 years.”

 

For more information on the Vale Royal Food and Garden Festival visit www.theholliesfarmshop.co.uk and click on the food festival logo.

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Brewery is pure gold for food festival

 

A CHAMPION brewery is raising a glass to celebrate the ‘Taste of Cheshire’ with the launch of brand new bottled brew.

 

The Coach House Brewing Company, based at Warrington, will unveil the bottled version of its popular Cheshire Gold beer to mark the opening of the Vale Royal Food and Garden Festival, on Saturday and Sunday, October 18 and 19.

 

The free event, held at The Hollies Farm Shop, at Little Budworth, will be a showcase of the region’s finest produce, from delicious meats, pates and cheese to tasty beers and wines.

 

The Coach House Brewing Company is amongst Cheshire’s finest beer makers, having taken home countless awards for their prize winning brews over the past 17 years.

 

The cask version of Cheshire Gold has been a regular at free houses across the county for the past 18 months, with bosses at the brewery seeing the festival at The Hollies as the ideal chance to launch the bottled brand.

 

The Coach House Brewing Company sales nmanager Greg Bolton said: “As a brewery which prides itself on its Cheshire heritage we are delighted to be able to team up with The Hollies Farm Shop for what will be an amazing celebration of the finest local produce.

 

“We have worked hard to create a beer that we think captures the very best the county has to offer, so we could think of no better location than The Hollies to give the bottled version of Cheshire Gold its first outing.”

 

Nicknamed the ‘Harrods Food Hall of the North’, The Hollies Farm Shop is famed for offering the finest delicacies and local produce, having landed the Visit Chester and Cheshire’s Best Food Retailer award for the past three years.

 

The shop is organising the Food and Garden Festival along with Vale Royal Borough Council.

 

Director of The Hollies Ed Cowap said: “We are proud to welcome The Coach House Brewing Company to the Food and Garden Festival.

 

“The brewery has an incredible reputation across Cheshire for producing fantastic beers and ales. It is tremendous to have a brewery like The Coach House Brewing Company on our doorsteps, and we look forward to them showing off Cheshire Gold.”

 

Cheshire Gold will be The Coach House Brewing Company’s second ever bottled beer, and will be sold at The Hollies Farm Shops in Little Budworth and Lower Stretton following the festival.

 

The brewery has developed strong ties with The Hollies over the past year, with the shops being the first to stock their last bottled brew Blueberry Classic Bitter, which has proved to be a popular tipple amongst customers.

 

For more information visit www.theholliesfarmshop.co.uk

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The Hollies Pumpkins are being harvested

Richard, Cyril and Mick have been in the field since this morning cutting the pumpkins ready to be loaded onto the trailers to bring back to the farm shops.  The Hollies Little Budworth will have a pumpkin paradise by the end of next week, which is Cyril’s forte, having created the spooktaculars of the last few years at The Hollies.

Tomorrow, thousands of gourds will be cut in our fields and will be on display in the shops by the end of the week.  The gourd and pumpkin seeds were sown in May and have proved to be far more successful than the little green pumpkin I have grown from seed in a pot!

Don’t forget that there is a pumpkin carving competition at the Vale Royal Food and Garden Festival on Sunday 19th October.  If you haven’t grown your own then  you can buy a home-grown pumpkin from The Hollies.

If you get the chance go to our Pumpkin Club group on Facebook, a guy from the States has uploaded his pumpkin harvest pictures - they are huge pumpkins!  http://www.new.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8848232555

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Cheshire Life’s Cheshire Food Heroes 2008/2009

Cheshire Food Heroes 2008/2009

The judges who visited The Hollies Farm Shop unanimously agreed that we are a worthy winner of the Cheshire Life award for Cheshire Food Heroes.

We are delighted to win such a fantastic award and can’t wait to the awards ceremony in October.  We were judged anonmiously; therefore, yet again the accolade can be attributed to the great team we have working with us, thank you.

Watch out for the picutres in December’s issue of Cheshire Life!

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