About Us The business was started and is owned by Mike Wood and partner Wendy. At present we still do all the buying, preparation and cooking with some part-time help. We hope to create some further jobs for the local community in the near future. We are now based at a local enterprise centre owned and managed by Kirklees M.C. working from purposebuilt food preparation kitchens designed to help small local businesses get established and develope. Producing in small batch quantities on a weekly basis to ensure freshness and quality, our soups have a chilled shelf life of 18 days from cooking which we monitor and have verified at an accredited testing centre. %201.11.jpg) We promote and retail our ranges at farmers markets, country shows and other food events, have a number of retail stockists (ring for details) and are now able to produce in sufficient quantities to supply trade and larger end-user customers.
| Company history After a career which started in hotel and catering management but ultimately arrived at owning and running a flooring business, we sold up and needed to think seriously about what we wanted to do and to try a different business direction.
At a country show in the Yorkshire Dales enjoying a family picnic with our homemade soups, a passer-by commented on the wonderful aroma and asked which stall the soup had come from! The light went on and within days plans were afoot to cook enough soup to not only feed the family, but also to sell to the public via Farmers Markets.
Autumn 2005 was spent planning, researching, sourcing, costing, buying and dealing with all the food / trading standards obligations, and on a cold November Saturday with our kitchen looking like a bombsite, Penistone Farmers Market saw the first sales of our hot cups and chilled take home pots which then became a weekly sales adventure ranging from Ashton Under Lynne, Hull, Barnsley, and Leeds.
We have worked hard, refined our cooking processes, learned customer preferences, gained useful tips and recipes, found good local growers and suppliers and thoroughly enjoyed the direct customer feedback at the Farmer Markets.
In addition to sales to the general public, we have also been approached by farm shops, cafes, event caterers, wholesalers and delicatessens, who are now purchasing from us in ever increasing numbers.
We are determined to maintain our carefully made and fresh local sourced seasonal produce philosophy – even as we cook larger quantities.
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