Cocoa vanilla biscuits - yum.
If you read yesterdays post you will know that I am starting to bake again after a very quiet time baking wise recently – self inflicted I must say.
One of the things that has prompted me to get going again is a flurry of enquires from potential new outlets. My website has been up and running all this time and I think this has helped with the enquiries.
The first thing I need when talking to a potential new trade customer who may not have tasted my biscuits before is samples of those biscuits. This is so that they can not only see what the biscuits look like ‘in the flesh’ but also see what they taste like. I am a firm believer in knowing what the things that you are selling taste like so that you can give a customer an informed opinion. If you like the product your enthusiasm will shine through to the customer.
I am sidetracking myself here. The point I was making was that I need samples. In order to make the samples I need ingredients. During my quiet months I received notification that the supplier I get my eggs from (they are also a trade customer of mine) had ceased to trade, so I lost a supplier and a trade customer in one foul swoop. I do use eggs in my recipes so I had a decide what to do about it.
I felt that I had two choices 1) redesign the recipes taking all the eggs out, 2) find a new egg supplier.
I really like my recipes the way that they are and I think it would be a lot of hassle to come up with new ones in time for the orders I have. They would also probably look and taste different which is not acceptable to my customers as they would in effect be getting something they had not ordered. It would be much easier to find a new egg supplier.
A phone call, on unrelated business mind you, to the lovely ladies at Produced In Kent resulted in a conversation that led me to someone who had contacted me as a potential new trade customer. I didn’t even know that they sold eggs or that they were ok to use in a food business (eggs and their producers have to pass certain criteria in order to be used for making food stuffs for sale to the public – maybe I should do a post on this at some point).
One call and a visit to them later and I have a new egg supplier and they have a new local biscuit supplier for their brand new farm shop – Marsh Produce Ltd – which opens for business this Saturday 29th May in Rectory Road, Brookland, Kent. If you’re in the area pop in and have a look at what they’re selling its all incredibly local.
