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.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 30th, 2008 at 5:19 pm and is filed under Events at The Hollies. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.