Provisions · packed to order · Kendal
A small shop of things worth wrapping: farm cheese, orchard preserves, honey from four miles up the valley. Everything on our shelves has a maker we can name and a paper bag with its story stamped on it.
The idea
Every jar here displaced ten we said no to. We taste everything, visit every maker at least once, and stock one excellent version of a thing rather than six adequate ones — one marmalade, one mustard, one honey per season.
It makes us a terrible supermarket and a very good shop.
The shelves
The stock turns with the seasons. These are the shelves as of this week's stamping.
Hampers
Packed to order on the counter, wrapped in kraft and twine, labelled by hand. Tell us who it's for and we'll lean the contents their way.
£28 packed to order
A thinking-of-you parcel: the honey, a preserve, the oat biscuits, a bar of the good chocolate.
£56 packed to order
Cheese from two farms, the sourdough crackers, chutney, honey, and a bottle of the pressed apple juice.
£120 packed to order
The shop in miniature — twelve of our current favourites, chosen the morning it's packed.
The ledger
If we can't name the maker, it doesn't get a shelf.
The makers
Behind the counter there's a board with every maker's name and the month we last visited. The cheese is aged in a barn we've stood in. The honey comes from hives we've been stung near.
When something is out of season or the maker had a bad year, the shelf sits empty with a note saying why. Empty and honest beats full and vague.
Word of mouth
Sent The Weekend to my brother in London. He rang to ask what the cheese was, then drove up the following Saturday. The shop is a trap and I love it.
They took the marmalade off the shelf for two months because the oranges weren't right. That's when I started trusting every other jar in the place.
Asked for a hamper for my mum who 'doesn't like fancy things'. They packed it accordingly. She liked every single fancy thing.
The shop
Order hampers by phone or email a day ahead — we pack them on the counter in the morning quiet before opening. Collection from ten, or we post within the valley.