Spring brings much to celebrate!

There are celebrations from start to finish this month.

1 March St David’s Day, 10 March Mothering Sunday, 17 March St Patrick’s Day, 20 March Spring begins, 31 March Easter and the clocks spring forward an hour!

Mothering Sunday is a lovely occasion to embrace Spring. The flower shop has an abundance of spring flowers, bowls of planted bulbs, vessels and vases for the perfect gift.

Easter is so readily associated with chocolate, but we can also enjoy new fresh produce round the dining table with friends and family relaxing over the long Easter weekend. Enjoy the first Jersey Royal new potatoes, garnished with the first sprigs of mint from the garden or wild garlic.  If we are fortunate to have good weather then it’s a great opportunity to get out in the garden. We have stock of peat free composts, seeds, seasonal plants and pots to get you going.

The farm shop has a new freezer! Perhaps not the most exciting piece of news to share, but with it’s new bright lights to show off the products, it’s a good time to remind you of what you can find.  We’ve fantastic ready meals from Fieldgoods, tasty vegan dishes for children and adults from Wildly Tasty, pots of healthy, ready to go meals from Indios, Anita’s homemade tarts and roulades and some truly delicious flavours of Gelato made locally at Polesden Lacey.

Date for your diary Surrey Day May 11 2024, for those have been before this is a fun family day out… It’s a great day to meet our producers and suppliers and book a Watercress Tour. We have real cause for celebration this year, growing watercress for 170 years. 

Stay tuned for further details!

Wild Garlic and Bulbs!

Pop 11th May 2024 in your diary

We are really looking forward to Surrey Day on Saturday, 11 May. There is lots going on all over the county. Visit Surrey lists all the events taking place.

We are throwing an extra celebration into the mix as we celebrate 170 years of growing watercress. Come and join us…lots of fun things planned…all to be revealed in April’s monthly post!

Sending love & thanks with flowers…

We would be delighted to help you surprise your mum on Sunday 10 March. Spring flowers make such a truly wonderful gift. If it’s not cut flowers then perhaps a planter or pot of spring bulbs, primroses, hyacinths and muscari. You can browse our range of bouquets and hampers on our online shop or pop in and talk through your needs with one of the Flower Shop team.

We will be taking orders for bouquets online until Friday 8 March and over the phone until Saturday 9 March. We offer a delivery service and collection service on Mothering Sunday morning from 10am - 2pm. To avoid disappointment, please place your orders sooner rather than later.

We have put together some of our favourites below as a little taster, including the gift that keeps on giving… A Flower Subscription!

Norbury Blue Artisan Cheesemaker

Norbury Blue is very much part of our small business community right here in the Surrey Hills. Michaela loves talking cheese and we are very happy to share her story with you.

“So the name of our our business comes from my father’s farm where we started at Norbury Park Farm, Mickleham, Dorking. Norbury Blue, our flagship cheese is named after a minton wall tile of a dairy maid on an old buttery wall at the farm. This is our logo and was my inspiration to make a blue cheese.

22 years ago, my father was struggling with milk prices, then 18p a litre. It inspired me to create a job on the farm for myself. A family friend who was a cheese wholesaler advised me that there was not an artisan cheese maker in Surrey. He thought there would be a great demand for a Surrey artisan cheese. First of all I visited lots of other cheese makers in the British Isles, picking up tips for my recipe. The cheese making world is very small and they are a friendly bunch!

Kingfisher was one of our first outlets, and have been selling our cheese since 2002. We would meet many of their loyal customers at local farmers markets which we attended. They recommended we approach Kingfisher to sell our cheese.

We are no longer at the family farm but are now based in Ockley, and make cheese at home in a small micro dairy. We buy milk from local dairy farmers, and at present we source our milk from about 8 miles away.  We always pay a premium for the milk as we are passionate about supporting the dairy industry. 

We have struggled a lot since Covid.  We lost all our wholesale trade in London overnight and this hasn’t returned.  We supplied cheeseboards for local vineyard tours which were quite profitable but these have also ceased.  Our plan is to stay small and local to our loyal customers of 20 odd years.  We would never want to deal with a supermarket only independent retailers such as Kingfisher.

Plans for the coming year are to produce some more of our cheddar style cheese, the Dorking Cock (named after the famous Dorking Chicken) and supply just a few exclusive retailers, Kingfisher being one these. This sits alongside our other cheeses Norbury blue and Dirty Vicar (a Brie Camembert outer with a crumbly Caerphilly centre) named after the local vicar, who loves the fact he has a cheese named after him that is a little bit of tongue in cheek! This year we are looking into installing solar panels to power our new electric vat and refrigeration.

Our collection of cheeses make a great Surrey cheeseboard. The Norbury Blue and Dirty Vicar melt beautifully too, so great for steaks, burgers or if you are vegetarian a giant field mushroom absolutely gorgeous!  All 3 cheeses are vegetarian and made with raw milk entirely by hand and a generous measure of love!”

Life is always busy for Michaela and Neil who also run a quirky farmers market on the first Sunday of every month in Ockley.  Their passion for feeding their local community and supporting other small businesses is to be greatly admired.

Thank you, Michaela and Neil for all you do in this pocket of the Surrey Hills.

Drum Roll ….The Results are in……

2024, the tenth annual Fanny’s Marmalade Competition with 40 jars of marmalade. We were so impressed by the entries from the little Kingfishers in the under 14’s. It is lovely to receive enthusiasm from the next generation of marmalade makers!

Judging was by no means easy and Debbie (our local marmalade expert and supplier), Joanna (Queen of Two Many Cooks) and Nellie (Fanny’s daughter) spent several hours tasting all of your marmalades. Appearance, taste, texture and aroma, all the key aspects of a great marmalade were taken into account.

Fanny’s Marmalade Competition certainly brings a bit of colour to the tail end of winter.

Photography Credit: @chloe.hardwick & henrycatling.com @henry.catling