Artisan food businesses rise to the challenge

Jul 28 2009 by Karen Dent, The Journal

NORTHUMBERLAND artisan food businesses proved a big hit north of the border at the two-day Border Union Show over the weekend.

Alnwick-based This Little Farmer Went to Market marked its first anniversary at the event in Kelso, where owner Trish Charlton launched the business last year.

The home-based baking enterprise is now growing too big for Mrs Charlton’s kitchen and she is viewing premises in Alnwick this week to expand the business to keep up with demand.

She said: “If I can get something that’s local, that would be great. After a year, I never thought I’d be where I am now. I’m going to have to go down the employment route. I want locals – it’s for local people, it’s a local company and I want to keep it local.”

Demand from shops and mail order for her cakes – many of which are made from her great-great grandmother’s recipes – has forced her into frequent overnight baking sessions to keep up with their requirements.

“Shops never came into the context when I launched. You just don’t think about it,” said Mrs Charlton. “Eventually, I would like to work Monday to Friday and do the odd show, and have some normality back in my life!”

The Great Northumberland Bread Company also did roaring trade at the event, selling hand-baked bread made with Northumberland-produced flour.

The business, based at Cornhill-on- Tweed near Ford and Etal, was started by Matthew Rawlings in an old shipping container and now employs four people full time and one part-time member of staff.

Mr Rawling’s brother John was running the stall at the Kelso show and says that business is booming.

“We cover all the Borders, all the farm shops as far as Newcastle – Alnwick, Berwick, Hawick, Kelso and Melrose.

“Everything is baked in wood-fired ovens. We use surplus wood from the Ford and Etal estate. We are being as green as we can, because it’s the right way of baking bread with no additives and no preservatives. It’s the way bread used to taste.

“The whole purpose is to produce food so people are getting something different.

“Demand is greater than supply – we could go corporate but the policy of the product is that it is made on an artisan basis. The quality is the thing.”

The policy of the product is that it is made on an artisan basis. The quality is the thing.