BEST OF BRITISH Organic Delicatessen

We are back open tomorrow 2nd July after our short summer holiday. Business as usual, in terms of the shop, our deliveries of lunches and sandwiches around Bath and also our Hamper delivery service too!

We hope our break hasn't inconvenienced anyone too much - after all, absence makes the heart grow fonder!

We will be closed from Monday 22nd June until the 2nd July for a short break!
Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. See you on our return!!

This last fortnight has seen a marked increase in sales of our organic hampers, to the point that we are currently out of stock of the smallest size - so until wednesday 27th may, when we take delivery of more hamper basketware, you'll either have to be a little more generous or just patient!!

Its a good season right now with plenty of good locally grown veg about. Asparagus still going strong, Broad Beans & Spinach aplenty.
So look out for some nice homemade goodies involving what is best at the moment....coming out of our kitchen today will be Broad Bean, Pea & Bacon soup - yum!!

It must also be the season for office lunch deliveries as we have beed delivering our sandwich lunches all over Bath in record numbers this month!!

We're always on the look out for new recipes and ideas to use in the shop but there are some things that we just dont want to change - when there is something that is "just right", well you wouldn't want to change it. Bread pudding is a good case in point - made with Hobbs House Organic white bread, raisins, Seville orange marmalade and well, the rest is a secret...

After three weeks out of action, we are pleased to say that our delivery scooter is back in action! This means that our range for delivering our fantastic business lunches across Bath is increased again, as is the speed of our delivery!

The last three weeks have however greatly increased my fitness levels as the sandwich delivery bicycle nobly stepped up to the cause!!

Those who may be upset that Simnel Cake has been and gone may be interested to learn that today Laura is working on a new recipe for Apple & Cinnamon Cake...

Well, we are still making soup from time to time for customers to take home but we are no longer making soup everyday for lunchtime service. After 6 months of continual daily soup making it is nice to concentrate on more "summery" food!

Two favourite quiches have made a return to the counter this week - Quiche Lorraine and Ham & Asparagus Quiche. for the vegetarian amongst us there is still the choice of Spinach & Feta Quiche as well as Vintage Cheddar & Red Onion Quiche.

Other new Summer things in the shop include a great range of Organic Salad Dressings from Hampshire makers Pollen Organics - it wont be long before we'll all be dining alfresco with a barbeque close to hand!!

forgot that Laura's Simnel Cake is a twice baked cake, so its actually back in the oven as we speak and will be out from this lunch time!

Today is the day - Simnel Cake is in the oven as this is being typed.....

The Balf Half Marathon weekend was a great success with many thousands running for many worthy causes. Laura's run was in support of our nominated charity Dorothy House and the total raised including "Gift Aid" was in excess of £1000 and a very respectable time of 2 Hours and 4 minutes!

"Team Dotty" before the start

Laura before the finishing straight

The Bath Half Marathon is this Sunday - as mentioned before, Laura is running in aid of Dorothy House Hospice Care.

If you are not familiar with what they do, "google-them", have a read and then hopefully you will feel like donating to the cause. You can donate online by visiting www.justgiving.com/laurastapleton or by coming into our shop.

So far our generous customers have raised in excess of £500 and we are hoping to get closer or even past the £1000 mark!

New things this week....

Quiche Lorraine, well our version of it anyway! Our usual crispy light pastry with Godminster Organic Cheddar, sauteed onion and free-range lardons...

Orchard Pig Ciders and Juices - relaxing our rules on being 100% organic has meant that we are now able to stock these fantastic juices and ciders from fantastic LOCAL producers, Orchard Pig.

These should be a permanent feature in our chiller, so heres looking forward to those warm summer evenings!

Regular clients of our office lunch delivery service will know that actually we can offer a lot more than is listed on the website - this is because we are very flexibe and also very keen to please our customers!

Recent deliveries in Bath have included an early morning Bacon Sandwich Feast and a Chilled Champagne delivery (well, British Methode Champagnoise) for an impromptu celebration.

Also our Organic Hamper delivery service has seen customers recently tailoring their own delicious hampers from the range of goodies that we have here, both our lovely homemade treats as well as more traditional hamper-fare.

So if you can't see what you are looking for on the website, it is well worthwhile talking to us to see if we can provide what you are after - we aim to please!

We'd like to say a big thankyou to our Business Lunch clients - the last few weeks we have been really busy with our lunchtime office deliveries around Bath.

The feedback that we have been recieving in recent weeks has also been very encouraging. Our clients reflect the diverse and energetic nature of a lot of businesses in Bath and whilst we would love to name them here together with their recommendations, better to remain discreet!

We are glad to provide a service that you truly appreciate - there are few things as satisfying as feeding people well!

We are currently making some changes to the shop........

Whilst we have operated for the last 26 months using and selling 100% organic produce, we will soon be using some non-organic ingredients in the food we produce and sell.

We will still be using the best quality ingredients, and all of the meat we use will still be Free-Range. We will be clearly indicating what is Organic and what is not, just so there is no confusion....

The reasons for these changes - well, it will give us greater flexibility to make the food we want to make and enable us to keep costs reasonable. It will also allow us to focus more strongly on sourcing local produce which in our opinion is perhaps of greater importance than being Organic.

We will also continue to use organic ingredients that we love such as Cheese from Bath Soft Cheese Company & Godminster, bread from Hobbs House and Barrington Park Organic Eggs.....

We hope that you, our customers will understand these changes and continue in your support!

It might not seem that there is much to look forward to at the moment - cold weather, dark evenings etc. However, Easter is just around the corner and that means just one thing....
mmmmmmmmmm!
......Laura's Homemade Simnel Cake!! Available soon in the shop to buy by the slice (or apostle) or if you are having a family gathering, why not have a whole cake made to order. Orders being taken now for whole cakes for the easter week, book early to avoid disappointment!

Dorothy House Hospice Care is our nominated charity. They do fantastic work - if you are not familiar with Dorothy House, you should be, have a look at their website www.dorothyhouse.co.uk

Laura is running in the Bath Half Marathon this March and in doing so is raising funds for Dorothy House. You can sponsor Laura online at www.justgiving.com/laurastapleton or in person at our shop!

The services that Dorothy House provide require a lot of funding to maintain - so any donation, however small will be a big help

We are big fans of Godminster Organic Cheddar here - primarily because in our opinion its the best Vintage Cheddar there is. Secondly, located in Bruton they are just some 20 odd miles from here.

We sell this fantastic cheddar in two sizes of truckle, 400g & 1kg, smartly wrapped in its blood-red wax.

We also use Godminster in our delicious quiches, there's nothing like it for adding that depth of flavour and creaminess - for the full on hit of cheddar try our "Vintage Cheddar & Red Onion Quiche" or find it more subtly in our "Spinach & Feta Quiche".

Lastly we find that Godminster Cheddar makes the most glorious of sandwiches, especially when put together with Pollen Organics Red Onion Marmalade - sweet, tangy, creamy, cheddar heaven mmmmmmmm - that might explain why it is our most popular sandwich!

A lot of customers have been asking us lately how the "credit crunch" has been affecting business. Well, quite well as it happens - as a lot of businesses are either feeling the pinch or at least being more modest with their spending habits, our business lunch delivery service seems to be getting busier & busier.

If you have clients to entertain over the lunch period and are finding the cost of lunching at a restaurant too much, fear not as we have the perfect solution. In this current financial climate, clients will also appreciate your savvy as at the end of the day, it is their bills that pay for the corporate lunch.

Now that you have decided to "do lunch" at the office, there are obviously a multitude of caterers that could provide you with the food - but realistically there is only one sensible option, thats us!! City center, orders over £25 are still delivered free and either on foot, by bicycle or by scooter.