Pack up and Celebrate National Picnic Week

A celebration of the perfect British pack-up!

The 11^th of June marks the beginning of Picnic Week and given the last couple of weeks, who knows what the weather has in store for us! But there’s no denying us Brits love a good picnic – indoors or out as the climate allows.

Did you know, the English word ‘picnic’ dates back to 1794, exactly 100 years after ‘pique-nique’ was first seen in French? Certainly, in the Victorian era, picnics were very grand affairs with tables and chairs, linen, crystal, servants, and only the finest food and drink.

You may not be planning on bringing out your fine china, but fine food and drink we can certainly help with! Wherever you’re planning on picnicking, we’re on hand to ensure your basket boasts an array of the best treats.

At Hunters we carry all of the components of the classic British picnic. If you’re a foodie looking for some new flavours, you’ll be spoilt for choice.

What picnic would be complete without a bit of cheese? Our selection ranges from smooth and creamy Wensleydales to bold Yorkshire Blues. Or why not choose the unusual charcoal cheese – from personal experience, we can say it’s quite addictive.

If pastry will please the whole family, why not try our lovely pies? Our range includes both classic sweet treats and savouries including the timeless Pork Pie. We also offer diverse and interesting delicacies with our exclusive Slow Roast Pork and Ampleforth Abbey Cider pie being a particular favourite! The recipe comprises of pork shoulder marinated in fennel, thyme, sage and garlic and a sauce of sautéed onions, cream, gherkins, capers, mustard and the all-important cider – delicious! We also have a new range of mouth-watering gluten free pastries which can be cooked at home and are perfect for a picnic.

Nothing sums up picnic food better than the ever-popular sandwich. Here at Hunters we take our rolls, baps, butties (whatever you like to call them) very seriously! We may even consider ourselves to be experts in the field after making upwards of 50,000 every single year. Should you choose to make your own delights, we also stock various breads, all baked fresh at a local bakery each day and an abundance of delicious fillings sourced from nearby suppliers.

So, it’s time to pull the blanket from the back of the cupboard, find an al-fresco spot and pop in-store to choose from our array of goodies. Let’s just hope the sun comes out!

New Gluten Free Range Now Available in Store

We’re delighted to now be working with a brand new supplier of gluten free products – which we have to say are absolutely AMAZING!


Sutton on the Forest based Vida Villi will now be supplying us with a fully certified range of gluten free frozen savouries and fresh cakes.

9th May saw the start of Coeliac Awareness Week, and it seemed like a great time to introduce a brand new range of gluten free goodies in store.

Coeliac disease is a lifelong autoimmune disease caused by a reaction to gluten. One in 100 people have the condition, and many more believe themselves to have some level of intolerance to gluten. It is believed that up to 45 per cent of people in the UK could have some element of food sensitivities.

Vida Villi makes its food with fresh and locally sourced produce, where available. The savouries available in store include Roasted Mediterranean Vegetable Quiche; Brie, Cranberry & Caramelised Onion Quiche; Harrogate Blue & Red Onion Quiche; Cheddar Cheese & Spring Onion Pie; and Curried Potato & Spinach Pie.  For those with a sweet tooth, we will also stock the company’s Millionaire’s Shortbread, Chocolate Brownie, Bakewell Tart and Yorkshire Parkin. *mouth waters*

All of the items will retail between £1.95 and £2.50.

Why not come and try them for yourself – we’re holding a special tasting event on Friday 13th May from 1pm. Whether you usually buy gluten free or not, you definitely won’t be disappointed!

Try a Yorkshire Tipple for English Wine Week

In celebration of English Wine Week (28th May – 5th June) we’ve organised for our favourite local vineyard to come along to the store to host tastings of some of its most popular wines.


Some people still seem to have hesitations about English wine, but we’re confident these tastings will win over anyone who has never tried one before!

Ryedale Vineyards is England’s most northerly commercial vineyard, and, following the planting of the vines a decade ago, has been producing award-winning wine since 2009.

The family run business has 10 acres of vineyards based near Westow, North Yorkshire and it supplies a variety of our top selling white, red, rose and sparkling wines.


We’ll have two amazing summer wines available for tasting on Bank Holiday Monday (30th) from 12 until 3pm.  We’ll also be offering some tasty nibbles alongside them, to show you the kinds of foods they pair well with.

• The Yorkshire Lass wine is an aromatic, off dry white, with peach flavours and a hint of grapefruit. The wine works well with mild flavours, and will be paired with artisan pate.
   
• Yorkshire Sunset is a silver medal winning dry rose, with soft strawberry flavours and a hint of spice. It’s a good match with salmon and mild cheeses – particularly Yorkshire Blue.
  

Did you know, there are around 470 vineyards now operating in England, producing over 3.15 million bottles a year! We are extremely lucky to have one of the best on our doorstep – so come along and give it a try.

As the famous saying goes – life is too short to drink bad wine!

 

Prosecco - Top of the Pops

It was a drink very few of us here in the UK had even heard about until a few years ago. But now it’s everywhere...


What are we talking about? Prosecco of course!


It seems now we have discovered it, there’s no stopping us. In the UK it easily outsells Champagne, with its slightly sweeter and lighter taste (and lower price tag) seemingly preferred by many of us. In its native Italy it is drunk mainly in the Springtime – but we don’t let what time of year it is put us off!


In fact Brits consumed in excess of 40 million litres of the stuff last year. This was a 37 per cent increase from the year before, and equalled a spend of £330 million. We drink eight times more of it now than we did in 2012.


However, there are concerns supplies might be running out – prosecco can only be produced in one small region of Northern Italy, and it can only cope with so much demand!


So if you fancy a bit of sparkle in your life, here’s some options we have here at Hunters:

What Makes the Perfect In-Store Experience?

With the news that Marks and Spencer has decided to stop playing music in store, in a bid to appease some of its customers, it’s got us thinking about the whole in store shopping experience.

Here at Hunters we pride ourselves on creating ‘shopping as it used to be’. We’re obviously only a small shop – not on the scale of M&S – but the personal touch is important. We LOVE being asked for advice, and to help people choose the perfect product. We LOVE telling people about the products we’re passionate about and how to use them. We LOVE helping people to find out more about our beautiful town and the wonderful businesses or attractions they might want to visit. Hidden gems don’t stay hidden for long at Hunters!

But we appreciate not everyone wants a chat (although everyone gets a friendly smile regardless!). Everyone’s ideal shopping experience is different. For every person who hates loud music in a shop, there’ll be others that find it puts them in a good mood, and more likely to head for the tills.

So while we’re not likely to start playing music at Hunters any time soon, here are our tongue-in-cheek top of the pops when it comes to shopping songs...

1. Money, money, money – ABBA
2. Shopping – The Jam
3. Money Can’t Buy me Love – The Beatles
4. The bargain store – Dolly Parton
5. Price Tag – Jessie J
6. Queen of the Supermarket – Bruce Springsteen
7. Shop Around – Smokey Robinson and the Miracles
8. How much is that Doggy in the Window – Patti Page
9. Corner Store – Jonathan Richman
10. No money down – Chuck Berry

Are there any others you can think of to add to our playlist?

World Baking Day – the best thing since sliced bread...

Tuesday May 17^th marks World Baking Day. Our mouths are watering already...

It does seem that baking has never been so popular – and much of that is down to the nation’s unifying love of The Great British Bake Off. Paul Hollywood and Mary Berry must single-handedly be responsible for thousands of us daring to believe we can create a masterpiece in our kitchens on a Wednesday night.  (Don’t worry those of you with withdrawal symptoms – hopefully the next series will be back on our screens in August!)

There’s not many children who don’t jump at the chance to get their hands dirty in the kitchen, whipping up a batch of muffins or cookies (and the eating of them is usually pretty popular too). 

At Hunters we stock a range of baking ingredients, from the basics such as flour, marzipan and dried fruit to more specialist baking ingredients such as vanilla bean paste and peppermint extract.

There is edible glitter and sand in every colour you could want from pink to black, which  always sells well and is great fun. It includes everything you need to decorate the most beautiful cupcakes, sponges or biscuits.

So no matter whether you’re a worthy contestant for next year’s Bake Off, or you’re more likely to whip up a banana loaf than a four tiered pavlova, why not get creative this World Baking Day? Rope in some family or friends to help and make it a social occasion! There’s thousands of recipes out there for every level of talent, so there’s no excuse not to try...

 

All Hail the Humble Sandwich

Sunday 8th May marks the start of British Sandwich Week – one of our favourites!

We love a really good sandwich here at Hunters – and it appears so do our customers given how many we sell. (Note the ‘really good’ bit though – there’s nothing worse than a soggy sarnie.)

We make upwards of 50,000 fresh, deep filled sandwiches every single year. If those were laid end to end it would loop an Olympic sized athletics track almost 19 times!  Although we’ve no plans to test that particular theory, it sounds a bit wasteful. 

 

UK consumers are thought to eat nearly 11.5 billion sandwiches per year, according to the British Sandwich Association (BSA). Chicken is apparently the most popular variety across the country, followed by cheese and then ham. 

Our best sellers here at Hunters are our classic roast beef, closely followed by our roast ham and salad. Both meats are locally sourced and cooked fresh on the premises. Although our very special Hunters Celebration, which we launched last year to mark our 25th anniversary, is still proving so popular we’ve had to make it a permanent addition to the menu! It includes layers of rare home-cooked roast beef, Harrogate blue cheese and Puckett's Pear and Apricot Chutney, served in either a white or wholemeal bread bun. All of the ingredients are locally sourced, with the bread made in Malton, and the chutney produced in York. Is it lunch time yet?? 

And of course, the beauty of where we’re based is there’s no end of spectacular picnic spots to enjoy them at – the castle, the North York Moors National Park, Sutton Bank, or even just sat on the steps of the Feversham Monument outside our store, watching the world go by!