As we look forward to a family Christmas and our only real day off in the year, we are also very busy putting together food orders for our customers. Those who are not able to come out due to icy weather will find that their purchases are delivered by neighbours. Local village Christmas cards are being delivered by the children while they raise funds for the Youth club and sheep can be seen huddled on the frosty hills.
Since we bought the shop our lives have been busy focused on bringing our values and beliefs to the fore and reaching out to the next level from self, family to community. Personally I would have liked to share more of the journey to this point but with limited energy my writing has often found itself in the background. I also found it difficult to write about voluntary simplicity while many in the world seemed to have to change their way of living in a drastic way.
We have introduced a variety of local produce in the shop and some wholefood ingredients as well as having some variety for those who are on wheat free, gluten free and dairy free diets. We continue to seek out local producers whether they be very small, small, medium or large in a bid to create food relationships that serve us all. That means touring the local farmers markets, trying the products at home and getting an opinion from every age range. As we receive feedback, we provide the producers with feedback, whether it be good or a growth point for them to take on board but as where communication is often lacking from wholesalers, we want to know why the person decided to create that particular product for the marketplace, what their passion is and how we can help them with growing their business.
Besides my posts about the garden, the shop and my personal reflections I will from time to time highlight a small company whose product we carry to take the circle one step further.
What remains is for me to thank every one of you for reading my blog thus far and for all your comments which have changed a monologue into a dialogue.
The words by Ghandi
‘ Be the change you want to see in the world’have been a guiding light to me and 2010 may well be the year where you feel the call to be the change you want to see in the world as together, with small actions, we can indeed make a difference.
