The kind people at Taste of Staffordshire awarded us with another two certificates (ooooohh and a decanter and a bottle of fizzy stuff) last night at the presentation evening. We were warned that we had been short listed but beyond that knew nothing else.

Out of the hat came the 2nd place in Brasserie of the year, which we had attained for the 3rd year in a row. The competition was much harder this year as they had introduced an accreditation scheme to get into their guide, which gave zero cost entry into the awards. This meant many other venues entering the fray. We got beaten by another place, the Three Horseshoes, a brasserie in the Staffordshire Moorlands, who had beaten us two years prior.

Next came a 1st in the NFU Local Food Champion Award. This was great news as it put a tick against our commitment to buy from enthusiastic local suppliers. We have always believed that when you know the product and the person behind it, you will have a consistent ingredient and a strong relationship with the supplier. So it was almost a mirror, the National Farmers Union giving us an award.

A nice surprise landing through the letter box today. The Good Food Guide, who are 60 years old in 2011, have honoured us with a listing for the second year running. To get listed, happy guests recommend us to the Guide and then to make sure there is no fiddling going on, they secretly check the place out.

So a big thank you again for telling the Good Food Guide about us. We can’t wait to see the paper copy

A few weeks ago we decided that it would be great to enter our village scarecrow contest. The neighbourhood we live in has a very strong sense of community that is totally contagious, so we just couldn’t resist. My lovely wife put her creative skills together and with the aid of cushions, straw, scrap wood and a few bit of chef wear, we came up with the following:

I came up with the blackbirds from old sock, yellow golf tees, straw and garden wire. At 10 o’clock on the Sunday  morning, the assembled scarecrow was installed on the end of our drive. Hundreds of on-lookers came past and took photo’s of “Marco” and we did pretty much the same by playing village tourists for the day.

Sometime later in the day, we got a text message from some friends to congratulate us on our winning entry. The judges had stealthed in, put a 1st Place rosette on Marco for first place in Traditional Scarecrow, Business category.

Thank you, a great day and it certainly put a smile on our faces to get a prize.