food & drink
SPOTTY DOG FARM SHOP IS OPEN!
After a bumpy start due to COVID-19, Spotty Dog Farm Shop in Rowde is now open for business!
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fter 18 months of intensive planning and a barn conversion, Spotty Dog Farm Shop opened its doors on Saturday 21 March… and closed again 3 days later as the UK went into lockdown. The timing couldn’t have been worse, but circumstances weren’t about to get the best of them as owner Kerry Davies explains, “Having invested so much time, energy and money into our project, I wasn’t about to give up everything we had worked so hard for, so instead we decided to adapt our business.
treats including our now legendary doughnuts and cakes.
“The new farm shop is based at Lower Farm, Rowde, already home to Rowdey Cow Café & Ice Cream Parlour. We knew we could serve our community by offering home deliveries of food, but we also needed to ensure our staff were safe. We decided to keep our doors shut to the public and moved the shop around so we could fit in additional chilled food storage and everything we would need to be able to change from being a traditional shop to a busy food distribution centre. Next we set up a Safe Zone outside for customers who wanted to shop as part of their daily exercise and collect their orders from us. Everything happened so quickly – it amazes me now when I look back at what we managed to achieve. Within the first couple of weeks we built an online ordering system so people could choose what they wanted to have delivered and we added in some
Take a step inside Spotty Dog and you’ll notice it’s a farm shop with a twist. They have a butchery, bakery (and separate cakery), fresh fruit & veg, deli, chilled & dairy items, general
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groceries plus artisan chocolates and confectionery (chocolate pizza anyone?!). However, Spotty Dog’s “The farm shop re-opened to huge point of difference is that it visitors fully in May but we have is also home to their Little Nippers continued to offer home deliveries Children’s Shop, a natural pampering and collections from the Safe Zone range, thoughtful eco gifting ideas, outside the shop. Although we know stationery and greetings cards and the virus will be with us for a while artwork from specially selected artists. yet, we are fully confident our farm Kerry continues, “Our range is jam shop can operate safely in normal packed with great quality products times, full lockdown and every from smaller businesses, some of scenario in between so we can crack whom are local. We like things that on with growing our business with are natural and sustainable as far as confidence.” possible.” Open 7 days a week you are welcome to pop in anytime, or you can take a look at their online shop! • spottydogfarmshop.co.uk Spotty Dog has all your farm shop favourites and a whole lot more!
