I had a threatening email from a Manchester mate recently
She told me she would stop looking at the blog unless I started getting some shots up of Steve's food. Fair point well made; she isn't the first to ask.
She visited Stacky more than once & enjoyed his steak pies so knows what she's missing; pictures - I guess - are the next best thing!
Here's how a morning goes: once Steve's finished baking , everything has to be left to cool before packing; as all we sell has to be packed when sold to the shops , this can take a little while.
The pic above was taken from outside the back door of Burravoe Hall looking into the storerooms. Our freezers on the right are stacked with pies & pasties cooling in the breeze!
Shetland Lamb Pasty's - he simply can't make enough of them !
Both beef and pork sausage rolls are going very well, they're liking his melt in the mouth pastry
Once cool - Da Kitchen Bakery production line continues on the next stage - packing.
We use a machine called an "L" Sealer
very similar to the one here.
The roll of cellophane on the right
is folded into an envelope already,
so you just slip your product into
the "envelope", lower the
heated frame down onto the
plastic, which then melts it &
seals it into an airtight package .
The machine we bought ( yes, you guessed it, from eBay!) was made in Burnley about 7 miles from where we lived in Stacksteads; you can see it in the background behind Steve, it's about the same age as the baker too & working perfectly ! Talking of a perfectly working baker ....here he is
I do love the cheeky chappie look - his bakers cap set at a jaunty angle :-). These photos show just what a brilliant facility we have to use.
He's also loving not having a shop (how dare those rude customers rudely interrupt him to buy things !!!) .... but the odd visitor is great for a good chinwag
The perfect little packages are then labelled, priced and a "use by" date added
Traditional Victoria Sponge cakes are always popular.He also makes a lemon version plus a Triple Choc sandwich, all selling extremely well.
Whether the WI would approve of a "triple decker" sandwich is highly unlikely, however he does use traditional raspberry jam so I'm sure the ladies won't mind too much. Although of course ...being the WI , this Calendar Girl may need considerably bigger buns!
~
He was hoping to get a clear morning in the bakery yesterday to do some preparation for Monday. But after a couple of (welcome) phone calls later he'd half filled the van with good for the shops ~ as you can see below!
Some of the goods he made yesterday was for the Mid Yell public hall where they were holding its own version of Family Fortunes. Steve was lucky enough to be asked to supply 100 sausage rolls for the event.
A great opportunity to get people tasting his goods ~ they seem to be enjoying having a baker on the island again after 50 years !
So , that was the morning ....
Yesterday was the Yell Annual Sheep Auctions
Crofters bring their sheep down from the hills and "parks" (fields or pastures) to one of 6 places around Yell where the auctions take place. I took the 2 pictures below at the Cullivoe mart, this the northern-most auction on Yell.
The group of people in the pens are the auctioneer and the buyers, and hands there to mark the sheep when sold . Buyers include those from mainland Scotland who come over each year to buy Shetland lamb to take back to Scotland & UK.
Each pen is sorted into size of sheep and whether they're this years lambs or older , all this affects the price per head. They're usually sold in lots of roughly 8 or 10. Mostly cross-breeds but there were some lovely lots of coloured Shetlands. Today wasn't the right time for us to buy, we're going to the Lerwick auctions in a month instead.
One of the things we like about Yell is there's always someone to see or something to do & tonight its the Monthly Quiz ! yay !
S , S & D xxx
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