Following the success of Grosvenor’s fundraising bake sale last year, the team on Wrexham Road in Belgrave has once again marked National Baking Week (17th – 23rd October) by donning their aprons and raising their rolling pins for Claire House Children’s Hospice, the Garden Centre’s adopted charity for 2011.

With goodies ranging from muffins to cheese and ham pinwheels to rocky roads, cookies to doughnuts – each item was sold in the staff room for a nominal donation, raising a grand total of £65 raised during National Baking Week.

And Grosvenor’s Cafe joined in too by creating a special Claire House cupcake with all proceeds from each sale donated to the children’s hospice in Bebington.

The team bake sale and the special creation in the Cafe are the latest in a series of fundraising activities undertaken by Grosvenor in support of Claire House this year - all embarked on and supported by staff at Grosvenor.

“The enthusiasm for the week’s sale was fantastic with members of the team kindly donating their time and home baked cakes and savouries towards the cause.  And our grateful thanks also go to everyone who supported the initiative in the Cafe - the Claire House cupcake was a particular favourite during National Baking Week,” said Jenny Carr, customer services supervisor and organiser of Grosvenor’s bake sale.
 
“We would like to thank the Garden Centre and all the staff for their continued support and dedication to our wonderful children’s Hospice.

At Claire House, we all really appreciate the way in which everyone at Grosvenor are so positive and motivated to help us towards raising the £2.5million we need each year to provide the specialist quality and care to our children and their families, both at the Hospice and within their own homes.

The public are generally not aware that nearly 20% of our children come from the Cheshire area so it is especially important to us to have been chosen as the Grosvenor Garden Centre’s Charity,” commented Abi Smith, area fundraising manager, Claire House Children’s Hospice.

We are once again supporting National Vegetarian Week this week (23rd – 29th May) by celebrating and promoting the benefits of a meat-free diet.

Grosvenor celebrates National Vegetarian Week with Cafe Manager, Helen Eastop and Chef, Craig Hunter.

The Café specialises in fresh, seasonal and locally sourced ingredients all year round and National Vegetarian Week has presented Chefs, Eddie Currie and Craig Hunter and the kitchen team at Grosvenor, with the perfect opportunity to source delicious new ingredients to encourage visitors to try their meat-free selection.

A member of the Taste Cheshire accreditation scheme, the Cafe has created a range of vegetarian dishes including Sweet and Sour Stir Fried Noodles with Sesame Seed and Coriander and Roasted Red Pepper Lasagne with Courgettes, Spinach and Pesto together with Roasted Portabello Mushroom stuffed with Ratatouille and topped with Parmesan Herb Crumble. 

“Our menu is constantly updated and refreshed to incorporate the seasonality of our ingredients and our vegetarian dishes always prove highly popular.  We are therefore pleased to once again support National Vegetarian Week by creating a range of speciality meat-free dishes using wholesome ingredients such as aubergine, sweet potato and a varied selection of herbs for everyone to enjoy meat-free this week,” commented Helen Eastop, Café Manager.

“The benefits of a vegetarian diet are renowned – both from an environmental and health aspect - and by adding tasty meat-free alternatives to our menu, we are able to raise awareness of a meat-free lifestyle,” Helen continued.

This week we are celebrating British Sandwich Week (15th – 21st May) with fantastic new sandwich fillings!

From shredded barbecue chicken to smoked duck with cashews and horseradish, we are enjoying tucking into delicious new flavours every day this week.

Here in the Café at Grosvenor, we find that our succulent Gloucester Old Spot ham is our best seller, cooked with bay leaf, thyme and a hint of rosemary.  Mmmmm!  We have also seen traditional sandwich fillings such as cheese, egg and ham surge in popularity over the last few months too.  All sandwiches are served on their own or with seasonal salad leaves and our best selling chutney, Tracklements’ Garden chutney or Piccalilli - both are available to try in our Café and buy in our food department.

Freshly made here on the premises every day, we create tasty sandwiches for you to enjoy in the Café or take away.  Made using only the freshest, locally sourced ingredients we can find, you can also choose your own filling and we will make it for you there and then at our sandwich bar.  And if there are any particular sandwich flavours you would like to see added to our regular selection, please just let us know!

Either way, help us to celebrate British Sandwich Week this week here in the Café and, at the end of the month, you can also join us for National Vegetarian Week too (23rd – 29th May) when we will have even more delicious vegetarian options available throughout the week!

Members of the team at Grosvenor Garden Centre have marked National Baking Week (18^th – 24^th October) with a ‘bake and share’ sale to raise money for Claire House Children’s Hospice, the garden centre’s adopted charity for 2010.

The sale offered goodies ranging from cupcakes to fruit loaf, roly poly to sausage rolls - all of which were sold for a nominal donation with a total of more than £140 raised through the week.  

The ‘bake and share’ sale is the latest in a series of fundraising activities undertaken by Grosvenor in support of Claire House this year and follows abseils, coastal walks and the approaching Snowdonia Marathon – all embarked on and supported by staff at Grosvenor.

“The enthusiasm for this week’s sale was unbelievable with more than 30 members of staff kindly donating their time and home baked cakes and savouries towards the cause.  I think everyone enjoyed themselves both baking and eating and it is certainly an initiative that we will continue to adopt again in the future for charity,” said Jenny Carr, Customer Services Supervisor and organiser of Grosvenor’s ‘bake and share’ sale.

“Every year we choose a charity to adopt for a 12 month period and I have been delighted to see so many members of the team here at Grosvenor embrace the worthwhile cause of Claire House.  The ‘bake and share’ sale has been particularly well received in the staff room!” said Iain Wylie, Managing Director.

“What a great idea!  We are always extremely grateful for any donation to Claire House but we have been overwhelmed with the response from staff at Grosvenor by their generosity and ideas to raise funds.  The need for the service we provide will unfortunately never go away and it is with much appreciation that their support just keeps growing!” said Laura Irving, Area Fundraiser, Claire House. 

Grosvenor will be celebrating British Food Fortnight with a special menu offering a selection of the most popular dishes here in Great Britain - all made from fresh, local, seasonal and British ingredients in line with Grosvenor’s philosophy of supporting the local community wherever possible.

Available every day in the Café at Grosvenor between Saturday 18th September and Sunday 3rd October, visitors can choose from steak and kidney pie; classic lamb hot pot and fish, chips and mushy peas amongst others with British Food Fortnight the perfect chance to sample traditional foods and the finest ingredients from the region.

Fresh, seasonal, local and British is also Grosvenor’s ethos when it comes to sourcing ingredients for its Café and food department with seasonal fruit and vegetables providing a significant benefit to health with the added advantage of reducing carbon footprint and food miles. 

Grosvenor’s sourcing policy in both its Café and food department works towards supporting local farmers and producers to offer the finest foods.  The fortnight will also present many opportunities to sample popular foods and ranges in Grosvenor’s food department where many of the ingredients used in the Café are available to buy for visitors to enjoy at home.

“Our efforts to provide visitors with good quality ingredients are well known and it is beneficial to both the national initiative behind British Food Fortnight and to our Café to raise awareness of the excellent produce available locally and from within Great Britain,” commented Scott Whitelam, Café Manager.

“British Food Fortnight is the perfect opportunity to encourage children in particular to eat more fruit and vegetables and to try the Best of British here at Grosvenor,” Scott concluded. 

We had a fantastic Garden Party last weekend with an unprecedented response to our cartoon and circus skills workshops in particular.  With face painting, balloon modelling and magic tricks, nature activities and stiltwalking  – there was even a delicious barbecue and cream teas in the Café.  And the weather was kind to us too!

Grosvenor Garden Centre’s Real Food Festival held last weekend was a great success with many stallholders selling out fast!

Marking a celebration of the tastiest, freshest produce from the region with producers including Elwy Valley lamb, Rowlands Red Poll beef, Jamie Ward’s free range pork and newly launched Cheshire Chips who re-stocked three times on Saturday alone, Grosvenor’s Real Food Festival was a continuation of its support of local, artisan producers.

“Whatever we sell today (Sunday) is a bonus,” said Alison from Alison’s Homemade Treats,

“We really did not expect to sell so many jams and cheeses yesterday and we will definitely be back next year!” Alison continued.

This sentiment was echoed across the 26 stalls with many expressing interest for the third Real Food Festival at Grosvenor next summer.

“With queuing visitors and selling out of burgers and sausages on the barbecue, we would not have believed it could be possible for our second Festival to outshine last year’s inaugural event by a country mile!” said Iain Wylie, managing director.

By offering the chance to meet each producer and taste their goods before buying to enjoy at home, visitors to Grosvenor’s Real Food Festival arrived in their hundreds and kept coming all weekend despite the weather!

Visitors could choose from hearty, homebaked pies and pasties, cakes and handmade chocolates, cider, jams and chutneys, fresh fruit and ice cream – all naturally made, reared and picked locally.

“We have been thrilled at the response to our celebration of local produce here at Grosvenor Garden Centre. Our support of producers from Cheshire and North Wales is just another step forward in our efforts to work closely with the community and boost small, artisan producers.  By hosting a Real Food Festival, we can help visitors to Grosvenor in turn support these producers too and this work continues all year long in our Food department and by sourcing local ingredients in our Café,” commented Iain Wylie, managing director.

“It has been a fantastic weekend here in the food department with many of our new lines seeing much interest from the visitors to our Real Food Festival,” said Dave Maguire, Food Department Manager,

“Seeing customers old and new and explaining the provenance of our goods here in the food department has ensured that people who came here looking for real food got what they wanted with a real emphasis on ‘local’,”Dave concluded.

“Our Real Food Festival will be back next year and thank you to the success of this year’s Festival, we will be able to expand the show to be even bigger and better,” said Events Co-ordinator, Claire Binns.