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2:42 PM 21st October 2020
business

East Yorkshire Farm Shop Pivots In Response To Covid-19

 
Jo and Colin Barnes in the new look cafe Jo and Colin Barnes at The Mile Cafe
Jo and Colin Barnes in the new look cafe Jo and Colin Barnes at The Mile Cafe
A Pocklington farm shop, café and campsite has remodelled its business in response to Covid-19.

The family behind The Mile have invested in a new online shop and have removed its pre-school soft play area to create more space for its café and to showcase local artisan producers.

Jo Barnes owns the long established business with husband, Colin. "This year has been a challenging one, as it has for many small and family owned hospitality and retail businesses like ours.

"When restrictions on indoor soft play were introduced, we had a dilemma - do we wait to see if social distancing is going to be relaxed, or do we diversify? With the most recent escalation of the virus, we made the decision to act quickly to remove the play area to create extra space and a provide a safe environment for our customers to enjoy our home-made meals, snacks and bakes.

"We've had great feedback and we're very grateful to our customers old and new."

The latest move comes on the back of a significant investment in an online shop that evolved out of customer demand for food, drink and animal food supplies during lockdown. The new website, created by Hull based online retail specialists, Spark, features over 500 products, including many Yorkshire artisan food and drink products that are not available in supermarkets. Stockists include Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil, Soanes Poultry, Wold Top Brewery, The Chilli Jam Man, Hooting Owl Distillery, Stringers flour and cereal, Bracken Hill preserves, Ramus Seafood, Lishman's Yorkshire Chorizo, Yorkshire Pizzas, Longley Farm, Wensleydale Creamery, Hooting Owl Distillery and chocolates from Pocklington based chocolatier, Butterflies. The website also features an extensive range of animal feed and accessories in its Feed Barn section.

The Barnes family have also been creative with their marketing and offer Recipe Bundles to inspire customers. Options include a Roast Dinner Box, Yorkshire Jambalaya Bundle, Sticky Chicken Bundle and Bakers' Bundle that include everything you need to create restaurant quality food at home.

Looking ahead, the team has also added a Christmas area on the website which will allow customers to pre-order everything form the Turkey to the Tree and offers a range of pre-made or design your own hampers that can be delivered, collected from The Mile, or shipped nationwide.

The Mile is owned and run by the Barnes family who have farmed in the area for decades. In addition to the café and farm shop, it is also home to a feed shed, a Fuji photo and gift studio and a two-acre Camping & Caravan Club accredited site that is open all year round.

The Mile Farm Shop and Café are open 8am to 3pm Monday to Saturday and 9am to 1pm on Sunday.