Croots news
New arrival at the farm!
The farms third Shire foal of the season was born last night. She has been named Princess Nicole. Both her and her mother (Goldie) are doing fine.
Croots Farm Shop sausages and pies win Robin Hood’s seal of approval
Sausages and pies from Croots Farm Shop in Derbyshire were on target at the 17th Robin Hood Championship – taking three golds and a silver award during the event run by the Nottinghamshire Council of Retail Meat Traders.
The awards are the latest won by the butchery department at the farm shop in Wirksworth Road, Duffield.
Croots’ Tomato and Basil sausages, the shop’s new Derbyshire Sausages – made from mutton, lemon and herbs – and its Huntsman Pie were top class, according to judges while the Traditional Pork Pie came away with a silver award from the event at the Newark and Nottinghamshire County Show.
Shop owner Steve Croot said: “This is fantastic news for our team. It’s great to get confirmation from industry experts that our products are among the best.
“It confirms what our customers already know, that great ingredients and know-how combine to make all these products stand out, and follows the huge success we had earlier this year at a BPEX regional roadshow when Croots scooped a 16-strong haul of awards for our sausages and pies.”
The Nottinghamshire Council of Retail Meat Traders has been holding the Robin Hood Championship for independent butchers since 1985. It now attracts entries from around the country.
Croots Farm Shop launches its Derbyshire sausage
A new mutton sausage to celebrate and support Derbyshire’s sheep farming heritage has been designed by award-winning butchers at Croots Farm Shop.
The mutton, herb and lemon sausage is the first mutton sausage to join the range of bangers created at the farm shop near Duffield.
Mutton is currently enjoying new-found favour after being showcased on the BBC’s Great British Food Revival TV programme recently by Welsh chef Matt Tebbutt. A number of celebrity chefs are backing the meat including Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
Now Croots Farm Shop has come up with its own way of marketing mutton with its special Croots Derbyshire sausage made using the meat.
“I’ve been planning to create a special Derbyshire sausage to add to our popular sausage range for ages now, but couldn’t decide what flavour to go for,” said Steve Croot. “We have dozens of sausages in our repertoire now and I was keen for something that was going to be distinct. After hearing about how mutton is undergoing a bit of a revival it suddenly dawned on me that we should go for a mutton sausage. After all, Derbyshire is known for its sheep!”
Croots customers and staff raise cash for charity
Customers and staff at Croots have raised £450 for local children’s charity Treats over the past 12 months.
Croots adopted the charity during 2010, and raised the cash through a number of initiatives including the sale of Christmas trees, selling carrier bags and the donation of fees given to farm shop owner Steve Croot for talks to local groups.
Customers have also collected around £400 over the past year for the Shire Horse Society, which takes the total raised by Croots for the charity to £1,000 in two and a half years since the shop opened.
Now Croots has announced that it will be supporting both charities again in 2011.
“Our customers and staff are very generous when it comes to supporting these two very different but very worthwhile charities,” said Steve Croot. “I’m delighted that Croots has been able to raise so much over the past year and look forward to helping Treats and the Shire Horse Society again over the coming 12 months.”
Farmhouse Breakfast Week
Croots is celebrating Farmhouse Breakfast Week this month (January) with the launch of a new Breakfast Pie featuring bacon, egg, sausage, beans, mushroom and topped with sliced potatoes.
The pastry-based pie, which has been created and cooked by the team at Croots, will go on sale for the first time during Farmhouse Breakfast Week – the annual campaign to raise awareness of the importance of eating a healthy breakfast.
Running from January 23rd to 29th, Farmhouse Breakfast Week also aims to demonstrate the variety of breakfast ingredients on offer in the UK.
“To celebrate this year’s Farmhouse Breakfast Week we’ve decided to put as many ingredients from a traditional English breakfast as possible into a pie and we’ve cooked up a Croots Breakfast Pie,” said Steve Croot, who runs Croots.
“Last year we unveiled a Croots breakfast banger to mark the occasion, but this year we’ve gone one step further and designed a special pie which is the complete cooked breakfast. It’s absolutely delicious.”
Croots Best UK Independent Food Retailer 2010 runner up
Croots Farm Shop was runner-up in the Best UK Independent Food Retailer 2010 category of the Observer Food Monthly Awards.
Readers of the national newspaper’s monthly food supplement voted for their favourite independent food retailer – and Croots was one of just nine shops in the UK to be named a runner-up.
It was one of only two in the Midlands to be given the accolade. A further five online independent retailers were also named as runners up.
“To be effectively named as one of the top ten independent food shops in the UK is an absolutely amazing tribute to the staff and everyone at Croots Farm Shop & Kitchen,” said owner Steve Croot
Croots named in The Independent’s top 50 best food shops
Last November it was also named in The Independent’s top 50 best food shops, when one of the judges said: “Croots is more than a shop, it’s a destination. It’s the perfect place to buy everything you need for a special dinner and literally cook from plot to plate.”
Magical Harry Potter-themed sausage festival at Croots
Magical Harry Potter-themed sausage festival at Croots, to mark British Sausage Week
Croots is celebrating British Sausage Week with a Harry Potter-themed sausage festival.
There’ll be bangers that are ‘a quid each’ (quidditch), an HP sausage and a fiery Voldemort banger on offer during the festival at the farm shop near Duffield on Saturday November 6th.
Croots is also celebrating winning a silver award for its breakfast sausage in a competition held to mark British Sausage Week, which runs from November 1st to 7th. The award is the latest presented to one of Croots’ sausages and follows a gold Great Taste Award in 2009 given to its black pudding banger.
Vintage car day and beer festival at Croots on bank holiday Saturday
Croots will be staging its first vintage car day and beer festival on Saturday 28th August 2010.
The free event is being held at the farm shop as part of bank holiday weekend celebrations.
West Hallam-based Nutbrook Brewery, which produces Croots’ farmyard range of beers, will be running the beer tent. A number of Croots’ beers will be available on tap, including the award-winning Cow Juice ale which recently scooped a gold award in the 2010 Great Taste Awards.