More Than a Product: Meet the Makers Behind The Village Larder
Good things grow here.
The Village Larder was created to give local producers a place to share what they do with the community around them and to highlight the issues and joy of producing food. I mean...it took us weeks and many pounds to get our chickens to start laying, and they are considered easy!
There's the person who gets up early to collect the eggs. The years spent learning a craft. The family traditions, the happy accidents, the hard work and the reasons someone decided to give something a go in the first place.
That's the bit we're interested in.
We're here to celebrate the people behind the produce just as much as the produce itself. We want to help customers discover not only what they're buying, but who made it, where it comes from and why it matters.
A little different from your usual shop
The Village Larder is a small, community-focused shop built around local producers and the stories that connect us to them. There are no staff; purchases are completed online and orders collected.
We know that small-scale production isn't always straightforward. Things run out, seasons change, and sometimes you simply can't make more until you have the time, materials or right conditions. We understand that, and we'd rather celebrate the reality of producing locally than pretend every shelf can be full all year round.
We're not looking for big operations or polished marketing. We're interested in people doing good things, in their own way, right here in our local area. We would really be happy with someone selling one sack of homegrown carrots just once a year with us!
Whether you're growing, making, baking, keeping bees or producing something a little different, we'd love to hear what you're doing.
Meet the Maker: your story belongs here
When you bring a product to The Village Larder, we don't just want to take the product and put it on a shelf. We want to give people a chance to get to know the person behind it.
Our Meet the Maker features are a big part of that. They're an opportunity to share your story, your background and the journey that brought you to what you do today.
We might ask how it all started, what a typical day looks like, what you've learnt along the way, or what you wish more people understood about your work. There isn't a right answer, and you don't need to be a natural storyteller. We're interested in the real story, not a polished sales pitch.
And we want to share those stories in different ways.
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Your story: a short introduction to you, your background and what you do.
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Your face: a simple Polaroid-style photograph to help customers put a face to the name.
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Your voice: audio snippets where customers can hear directly from you, in your own words.
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Your produce: the useful product information customers need, alongside the little details that make it special.
We want customers to feel that they're getting to know the people behind the things they buy. Over time, we hope those little introductions build familiarity, trust and a stronger connection between local producers and the community.
No big paperwork exercise
We know you're busy doing the actual work, so we want getting involved to be straightforward.
You don't need a professionally written biography, a collection of perfect photographs or an answer to every question we could ask. We'll help you pull the story together, and you can share as much or as little as you're comfortable with.
There are just a few basics we need to get started: a photograph of you, the essential information about your product, and a little bit about who you are and what you do.
From there, we can build something.
Could you be part of The Village Larder?
If you're a local producer with something you'd like to share, we'd love to hear from you - contact us.
Tell us what you make or grow, how you got started, or simply what you're working on at the moment. You don't need to have everything figured out before getting in touch.
We're building something rooted in local people, local produce and the stories that make our community what it is. We'd love to discover yours.
Got something growing, brewing, baking or being made? Get in touch and tell us about it.