A Catch Up!
Hi Everyone!
When we first opened our farm shop back in March 2021, we said - let's write a blog post at least once a month to keep everyone up to date with what is going on!
Well.. nearly 2 years on and we definitely didn't stick to that but we're looking at the positive side of it - its been pretty crazy and manic since we have opened and a blog post always seems to be a low priority in the world of owning and running a cafe and farm shop.
In March 2022 we will celebrated our 1 year anniversary! I don't know if it's cheating however as we opened the farm shop only in March and then the sit-in cafe in May. Maybe we can have two celebrations just for the fun of it!
We like to be open and honest - ultimately we are just a young family who want to contribute to the local community and build a wee business. However building a business, especially during the mid to tail-end of a global pandemic has been interesting. We are still in survival mode really and our first big goal will be the 2 year mark, which will be March 2023. If we can make it until then, we feel confident we can bash on after laying a solid foundation.
As you can imagine, a lot has happened since our last blog post - which was March 7th last year. Some of the highlights for us have been our events - Art Shows, Pumpkin Carving, Santa's Grotto, Burns Night and of course the infamous Quiz Night during storm Arwen when 30+ customers all got stuck in the pantry until the early hours. Christmas and New Years was crazy with grazing boards galore - we finally took a breath on the 3rd of January and felt like we needed a month to recuperate, never mind make new years resolutions! So many memories created and were looking forward to doing it all again this year!
One thing that we have been very blessed with is super staff! The staff we have here are like a family and they have all jumped on the pantry bandwagon and been a major reason for the success here. Essentially there would be no Polly's Pantry without them - so thank you to all of our staff, we love you!
As we look forward into 2023 we are starting to feel a little more settled, like we are finding a little bit of a rhythm. In saying that - it is impossible to judge how busy it will be on any given day - you folks are so hard to predict! I guess that is part and parcel of the food industry and we will continue to learn and adjust! If you have caught us on one of those days where we were a little understaffed, you now understand that was a learning curve for us! Also, sorry!
We would love it if we could get into a position this year to enhance our event catering offering. We love events and helping people enjoy themselves and see us taking a focus on that direction going forward when looking at growth. We have already done a number of catering opportunities and its something that we want to explore further in due course.
Another goal is to continue to hold events here - our quiz night, tapas, comedy and burns night were a success and we have more ideas lined up - ladies night, psychic night, cheese & wine tasting etc. Let us know your event ideas!?
Anyway, we're not sure we can call this a blog post, it's more of brain dump and catch up with everything that has just happened in the last year! Life can be a whirlwind at times and that has been the case for us since we opened. We cannot count how many wonderful people we have met and got to know. We always say it but we cannot stress enough how thankful we are for each and every customer that comes to visit us.
Thank You
Polly & Michael