What’s new?

How are you all doing?

Hard to believe that we’ve been open for 9 months now and we have learnt so much. Our little business has been continually evolving and developing. The team has turned into quite an effective and efficient working group and we thought you might like to see a photo of all of us who have a part to play in Wivenhoe Kitchen. There’s only Janice missing but to be honest, she deserves a blog of her own!

This is us on an early morning dog walk and from l-r is Charlotte (flapjack queen), Bev (general worker), Carol (Saturday girl), Jim (Saturday boy), Julie (kitchen dynamo). Woody (the dog) is sadly not allowed to work with us in the kitchen, but he’s enthusiastic about our dog biscuits!

So from our original idea of offering vegan salads to deliver to people for lunch in their offices (obviously not such a great idea once lockdown hit us), we now sell quite a range of plant based meals that are frozen once cooked and available to pre order or collect from the unit on Saturday mornings. We still offer a free delivery service to anyone who lives in the CO7 postcode and we’re also happy to be working with Lee Pugh from the Colchester e-cargo bike delivery service. Lee collects from us and delivers to a 4.5 mile delivery radius of Colchester High Street.

In addition to the main dishes, we’re selling savoury pastries, soup (which we’ve renamed Steve’s soup of the week in homage to our best soup buying customer), vegan naan breads and sweet treats (hence Charlotte‘s contribution as her mixed fruit and nut flapjacks are legendary).

In the last couple of weeks, and at the request of a customer, we’ve started making plant based burgers which have been very well received. We sell them in buns that are supplied by the lovely Norwegian bakers, add garnish and a choice of sauce and all for just £4! They’re available from 11.30-13.00 every Saturday.

Here's a picture of our tasty spicy chickpea burger.

We have also added fresh salads to the menu and these are available as either a main course or as a smaller salad pot. At the moment we’re making two new salads each week but if there’s something you’d like us to make, just let us know.

These are the cucumber, pasta and dill and the Mediterranean couscous salads in their little pots.

Finally, as always, we wanted to thank you all again for your on-going support and custom. As with most small retailers, we've noticed that since lockdown eased, business has got a little slower as people have more more options available to them in terms of where they buy from and where they can go to eat. It is true to say that when you buy from a small local business, we really do engage in a little dance of joy! Not that you'd really want to see that......or hear our singing for that matter.

Take care and best wishes

Bev & Julie