After the awful weather of November/December what a gift this Easter was.

We have never enjoyed such wonderful weather over Easter since we opened Vallum Farm Tea Room and Ice Cream Parlour in 2005.

Children have made the most of the play area and paddock, parents and walkers have loved sitting out on the deck and Ken and Tracy Holland are steaming ahead with their vegetable growing, with over 40 tomato plants safely ensconced in one of the poly tunnels in the pond field and thousands, upon thousands of seedlings planted out in the field.  I dont know how they do it .. they and their family are all looking very brown at the moment!

Bernard Lynch from Bywell Smokery is located in unit 1 at Vallum.  He said it has been an early summer 'phenomenon' with orders for his produce through the roof and we have seen that reflected with demand through the Tea Room.  The Bywell Sampling Slate and the rest of our Bywell inspired dishes have gone a storm. 

The staff have worked their socks of and so have I.  It has been useful being back in the 'hot seat' preparing lunches, if a little difficult to keep up at times, sometimes everyone just comes in at once!  Seeing your business from the inside out helps identify glitches in systems and enables you to work with your team to try and streamline the way you run a kitchen / ice cream parlour / service.  Everyone needs to be able to do every job and they have really given their all over the last month or so.

Our team are now looking forward to their holidays, they take it in turns to have a break between now and the end of June. 

Me?  I am off to the beach for the weekend.  I need a break!  And might nip up to my favourite patisserie Cabosse in Warkworth.