The Earth Heart Kitchen Pops Up at Dragons!

Well, it feels like time has absolutely flown since my update just over a fortnight ago after the launch of the new Earth Heart Kitchen at our roadside honesty box! After the busyness of preparing all that was needed to open (and a working trip to London with Nik's company Feature Greens immediately afterwards!) it was good to allow ourselves a gentle few days, so whilst there was indeed fresh baking in the honesty box last Friday there were much smaller batches and only one variety of cookie! Interestingly enough, the rhubarb and loganberry flapjack, which was the shining star of the launch week and absolutely flew off the shelf down to the very last slice, didn't receive so much attention but I was glad that the gluten free offering (banana loaf) and the peanut butter cookies still made sales from passing trade.

It would be easy enough to sink into a routine of flapjacks, cookies and banana loaf in our honesty box every week but it felt like a good plan to see how we might make a few more sales. Yes, we eat what we don't sell... There's never any waste. But a triple batch of baking every week that goes to the additional effort of following all the necessary systems for legal hygiene standards and takes care to cater for a dietary restriction that neither of us have is quite a bit of work. Not to mention that if we regularly ate that many sweet treats between us I'd almost certainly need to start wearing a size up, even if Nik's healthy appetite managed to metabolise it all without incident! Anyway, who wouldn't want to give the best possible chance of the widest possible audience to the lovingly crafted products of the tentative new business that they've been pouring their heart and soul into? Especially when those products carry a use by date! And that's how I arrived at the idea of the pop up bakery...

I've been enjoying my involvement at the Dragons Craft Collective down the hill in Llanrhaeadr-ym-Mochnant village since March and volunteering weekly shifts to support and promote the community of local crafts people who also sell their wares there. Fresh, home made produce that is kitchen not factory packed doesn't have the same shelf life as crafts or poetry books so it wouldn't be appropriate for me to leave a batch of cookies to fend for themselves next to my painted jars all weekend but there's no reason why I couldn't make all kinds of baking available for sale whilst I'm anyway in the shop, hence the 'pop up' nature of the venture!

This Saturday, I signed myself up for a double shift so I'd have a bit more time to make the most of the summer tourists to the waterfall and made sure I'd baked enough for a decent stock back at home in the honesty box as well as for a little table on the corner outside the shop. I was grateful to my fellow crafters for being game to let me experiment from Dragons but I was also encouraged by the enthusiastic support of the Dragons housing co-op next door to the shop and other local residents in the village, to whom I'd mentioned the idea.

Nik and I rocked up a little early on Saturday and spent some time having a bit of a sweep and sort out of the cobbled space in front of the shop. It's a lovely space anyway, with an abundant, leafy grapevine... But it's amazing what a vase of flowers, a bit of bunting and a gingham table cloth can do!
I'd barely even got the cakes out on the table before I had a customer and sold my first beetroot and cacao brownie; a new recipe and one I was keen to share. That was a pretty encouraging start to the day and it continued happily in that vein. I was certainly pleased with the amount of cake I didn't have to take back home with me! Having said that, I wasn't ever so busy that there weren't plenty of opportunities to spend some time chatting with locals and visitors alike. I've said before, the Earth Heart project, be it glamping, baking or anything else that it may unfurl itself into, is ultimately about fostering connection. The first Earth Heart Kitchen pop up bakery at Dragons did much to demonstrate its potential to do just that!

​Back up the hill at the trusty old honesty box, we also made sales and enjoyed some further opportunities for connection with passers by tourists, some of whom return to the area regularly. It's still small steps at this stage but each chat about organic growing, every conversation about the joys of home crafting or reasons for choosing vegan options help encourage us and keep us motivated on the track of building and sharing the Earth Heart vision.

Aside from keeping the honesty box topped up, and abundant, the next Earth Heart Kitchen adventure will be to the Llanfyllin Food Fair on the 8th of September at the Workhouse! Maybe see you there!