Three weeks since the last update and our coffee machine is now up and running! It uses freshly ground fair trade beans and dispenses all the favourites – Americano, espresso, latte, cappuccino and hot chocolate. Each cup retails at £1, so do feel free to pop in for a caffeine fix if you’re passing.
Demand for our home cooked products has soared, so much so that we have decided to buy in Brampton pies, which are hand made in Huntingdon, and are very good indeed. They are packed with chunks of meat and just enough delicious gravy, encased in very light pastry. Available in individual, medium and large sizes, flavours include steak and cheddar, steak and onion, steak and stilton, chicken and mushroom, chicken ham and leek and you certainly get a lot of pie for your money!
We’ll continue to make on-site our sausage rolls, quiches, ratatouille, seasonal soups and salads, pasties and hummus, as well as trying out some new products to see whether they are popular or not. Always feel free to place a special order for any of these products.
Our turkey is supplied by A P Burlton (Black Barn Turkeys) who are located within 5 miles of our shop. At a highly competitive price, the turkeys are reared on the same farm as the turkeys which were previously sold by Knibbs. Turkey is a great meat, low in cholesterol and much lower in saturated fats than other meats. It certainly isn’t just for Xmas….. try turkey instead of chicken in your recipes for a healthier and more economical option!
Recipe in a bag makes a reappearance this week with a turkey, chorizo, sundried tomatoes and courgette wholemeal pasta dish accompanied by cheesy pasta sauce. We’ve done all the heavy lifting on this for you – you just have to assemble the ingredients for a delicious, freshly prepared 10 minute meal to feed 4 people and costing £8. Add a bottle of our ‘bin end’ wine for £5.50, and / or 4 wonderful chocolicious tray-bakes for pudding (£3.40).
Special offers this week include wonderful multi-coloured Jubilee Tomatoes (back by popular demand!), local strawberries (of course!) as well as a selection of cheeses. Later on in the week we’ll have raspberries and blackberries, as well as prepared pizza bases / popcorn and some wines on special offer (watch the blackboard for details). Also Broadland Hams pork and apple sausages while stocks last.
We continue to refine our products, our branding and presentation, as well as researching options for ‘value for money’ products. Two of our co-op members are vegetarian, so there’s always a good selection of ready- made vegetarian dishes on offer. We love your feedback, and appreciate hearing about whether you enjoyed the home-made food or not. We have new scales and till, so things are starting to smarten up! Also means we will hopefully be quicker on the till, so thanks for bearing us while we settle in… The shop feels buzzy and fun, especially on a busy day. We very much rely on your support and custom to keep it that way. Thanks for all the support and encouragement to date.
Hope you like the enclosed photo of the rather special classic car parked on our forecourt, owned by a customer living North of Cambridge who was very pleased to track down our shop.
Last, but definitely not least, some price comparisons – we’ve taken a selection of our basic products (none of which is on special offer) and carried out a price comparison with products of similar quality online to check that we’re offering a value-for money service. Here’s how we compare as on 14 June 2013 :
| Country Kitchen | Waitrose | Tesco |
| Oak smoked ham (Broadland Ham) £10.72 / kg | Waitrose British dry cured oak smoked ham £25 / kg | Tesco Finest British Applewood Ham £25.70 / kg |
| Unsmoked dry-cured bacon (Broadland Ham) £10.69 / kg | Essential Waitrose unsmoked bacon back rashers £9.50/kgDenhay dry cured unsmoked back bacon £15.75 / kg | Tesco Finest Wiltshire Cure Back Bacon £12.46 / kg (£2.99 for 240g but a 2 for £5 offer) |
| Carron Lodge Mature Cheddar £5.70/kg | Cathedral City mature cheddar twin pack £10.70 / kg. Single Pack £12.86 / kg | Cathedral City Mature cheddar £12.86/kg but special offer of £6.35/kg for a family pack) |
| Turkey escalopes (Black Barn turkeys) £7.70 / kg | Essential Waitrose British turkey breast escalopes £11.96/kg | Tesco Healthy Eating Turkey Breast Diced £9.00 / kg |
| Chicken breast fillets (Barkers – Shelford) £9.99/kg | Essential Waitrose British chicken breast fillets £12.99 / kg | Tesco Willow Farm British skinless chicken fillets £14 / kg |
| Pork & apple sausages (Broadland Ham) £6.82 / kg | Waitrose 6 British pork sausages with bramley apple £7.50 / kg | Tesco Finest pork & apple sausages £6.06 / kg |
| Free range eggs £1.45 for 6 | Waitrose essential 9 free range eggs £1.99Columbian Blacktail free range eggs £1.96 for 6 | Tesco large free range eggs £1.68 for 6 |
| Cherry vine tomatoes (market supplier) £5.10 / kg | Cherry vine tomatoes £8.12 / kg | Tesco finest piccolo tomatoes £6.67 / kg |
| Jubilee tomatoes (market supplier) £6 / kg | Not available | Not available |
| Royal Gala apples £2.55 / kg = £1.33 for 4 (av price is 33p per apple) | Essential royal gala apples 33.2p eachRoyal Gala apples 4s – 50p each | Tesco selection royal gala – 50p each |
| Cucumbers (market supplier) £1.10 each | Essential cucumbers – 80pEssential large cucumbers – £1.30 | 65p each |
| Dried Organic Penne Pasta (Suma) – 99p for 500g | Essential waitrose penne – 95pSeeds of Change Organic penne £2.00 | Tesco penne pasta quills – 95p for 500g |
| Mary Berry Basil and pesto salad dressing £1.99 for 250g | Not available | Not available |
Country Kitchen
Address: 21 Church Street, Haslingfield, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, CB23 1JE
Tel: 07954 669874
Web: www.ckhaslingfield.com Twitter: #ckhaslingfield
Opening hours: 9am – 6pm Monday to Friday 9am-4pm Saturday closed Sunday