Molly’s Pantry – A bit of our story so far

Welcome to Molly’s Pantry, what a whirlwind it has been over the last month or so! We thought that we better make use of the blog aspect of the website and fill some of you into the whys, how’s and where’s it all goings. There have been a few “test” blog posts here based from our Facebook page, but this is the first proper one, so get a cuppa and buckle in…

Planning the Pantry

This whole business was in its planning phase before the pandemic happened, we were ironing out exactly what we wanted to achieve and exactly how we were going to deliver this. This was happening at a leisurely pace with no distinct urgency, we wanted to supply local everything with good conscience and a personal service.

Hello Covid-19, what a spanner in everyone’s works. We found ourselves in a position of having zero income as we watched the creative industries collapse, we watched people suddenly struggle for basics and people we know lose the ones that they love. After a brief period of very intense, life effecting, enormous stress; we decided to bring the pantry forward, fast.

We had always considered that it would be called Molly’s Pantry, named after Molly Thomas who has a love of fresh food and has an actual old-fashioned pantry (Molly’s Pantry) in her kitchen. Molly loves making and exploring all things food ranging from; traditional cheese making, home brewing, veganising the unveganisable, foraging and growing all of the things. The name fits what we wanted to base our business around.

The pandemic left a lot of people in a stuck situation relating to food, also the start of spring meant that we were in the farming hunger gap- this relates to the growing season. Local is less easy to source, we couldn’t travel to the places we had planned to source flours and oils from. We had to do what we could with what we could get in the initial stages. We decided to bring The Pantry forwards and just go for it launching on Facebook in order to look after our friends and family- despite not selling products that we really wanted to instead, stocking things on a catering scale; this won’t be forever we promise!

Around us we could see a lot of pop ups opening to make a quick buck, over charging and under valuing their customers. We wanted to build something to last so spent a long time agonising over maintaining fair pricing in the face of interrupted supply chains and costs that at one point were rising daily.

The Molly’s Pantry pup

This is where our dog comes in to our adventure- initially we created a “place holder” Facebook page whilst we were working everything out logistically, Princess Leia Skywalker (our rescue Collie/Lab) nudged my phone- mid set up- out of my hand and her nudging ended up swipe inviting lots of people. In truth this was more than we were ready for, but we had no choice but to run with it.

So, here we are! The long-awaited website exists, we are running around feeling slightly less like we are on fire than we were in the first few weeks and we are looking to the future post pandemic. We have spent a lot of time engaging with our customers on Facebook, due to the socially distance nature of our deliveries. This is the sort of business that would usually involve doorstep chats and markets. But, it is such a bizarre world right now and we really do want to get to know you all; we are not a faceless, soulless machine who doesn’t care. Our not so good waste, e.g. the bruised bits or the slightly too squishy bits, have been going to two pig keepers locally- who apparently squeal with delight when they are given it. The pigs not the keepers.

Moving forwards with The Pantry

Although the website takes away the personalised, lovely, chatty order taking process that we were able to initially able to provide; we are still here to exchange recipes, explain exactly how to use your rhubarb or work out delivering to your elderly parent when you live in another town- please don’t ever stop reaching out, that is the bit we love the most; you have kept our spirits up when things have been very hard.

Moving further forwards, Strawberries, cherries, new potatoes, additional quantities of veg and apple juice will all be available to order as additional items very soon.

Take care and look after each other,

Love, all at Molly’s Pantry x

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