A manager who was made redundant from Minsterley Creamery alongside 500 other workers last summer has launched Shropshire’s first county-wide online farm shop.
Duncan Ellson has set up Shropshire’s Own, a one-stop shop for a broad range of award-winning Shropshire food producers, hand delivering to customers across the county.
The business is a showcase for fresh farm produce and artisan-made foods, ranging from meat and poultry, fruit and veg to Shropshire cheeses, eggs, bread and quality grocery items such as relishes, sauces and cakes. It is currently inviting Christmas orders for the festive table, from Kelly Bronze turkey and goose to traditional Shropshire-made Christmas pudding and cake.
Mr Ellson, 38, of Longden, near Shrewsbury, also supplies eggs from his own flock of 100 chickens and grows his own heritage variety vegetables on a 10-acre smallholding.
He was logistics manager for the former Uniq Creamery when he and 500
others were made redundant in a devastating round of job losses in June.
“I’ve worked in the food industry for over 15 years and in that time noticed how supermarket food was getting cheaper and cheaper in quality. In the meantime, in Shropshire, we were surrounded by so many wonderful food producers,” said Mr Ellson.
“My wife, Sarah, and I liked to shop in farm shops but we’d often be frustrated because we couldn’t buy everything we wanted in one place.
“We’d shop online with one of the supermarkets and have the order delivered so we thought why not provide the same delivery service for an online Shropshire farm shop.”
Mr Ellson grew up with a love of home-grown food. His father has always been a keen vegetable grower and his grandfather, great-grandfather and great-great grandfather before him were all professional gardeners.
“It must be in the blood. I’m now a fifth generation gardener which is apt because many of the farmers we work with are fifth-generation farmers,” he said.
Shropshire’s Own suppliers include sausages, bacon and hams from Wenlock Edge Farm and Maynards; beef, pork and poultry from Hough and Sons, Church Stretton; Kelly Bronze turkey from Home Farm, Condover, Bronze turkey and goose from Brisbourne Geese, Nesscliffe; handmade cheese by Mr Moyden’s, Newport; milk from Mawley Farm, Cleobury Mortimer; bread from Mr Bun The Baker, Church Stretton, flour from Pimhill Farm and Bacheldre Mill, Coopers Gourment Sausage Rolls, Jammy Cow jams and relish, Great Ness Oils and Plealey-based My Cottage Kitchen which, last year, was named by a national newspaper as producer of the best classic Christmas cake in the UK.
The website address is www.shropshiresown.com or ring 07800 797808 for more information. Printed order forms are also available.
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