Monday 3rd to Monday 10th May 2010.
Monday being a bank holiday I was allowed a fry-up for breakfast. I do mine lazy style by frying sliced potatoes in oil, adding bacon when the spuds are brown, then adding egg(s) on top of the bacon and serving on a large slice of toast on a hot plate.
There might be mushrooms or beans or tomatoes on the side but however it turns out its always yummy, until today.
Something about the thin egg shells and washed-out yolks made me check the markings and I was shocked to find these eggs, although in a Free Range box, were stamped 3UK12345.
According to the marks these eggs were from caged birds of UK origin and from farm number 12345. We bought them from a farm shop very close to a pub in Foxton village. It pays to check the eggs rather than the box.
Change of subject – some dogs hate the water but some just cant get enough. This one ran across the fields to the canal, jumped in, swam around, crawled out and ran down the towpath into the distance. No owner in sight. Arent they funny.
Stopped at Hartshill BW Depot looking for someone to sell me lecky cards (dont ask) but its not that sort of place is it.
Back on the boat we motored on through Atherstones shops and locks and rested up at Bradley Green for a couple of days.
V got picked up and taken to Bristol for aunts funeral while I accepted an invitation to a day out at RAF Cosford with Graham (G8LUV). Fabulous day, loads of free stuff to look at and it was nice to be out from under the wives feet. Must recommend it if youre ex RAF or ex anything but interested in looking up inside the guts of Valiant, Victor and Vulcan.
Back on the water I was quite taken with this little boat on the way up the Coventry Canal. Its called the Little Boat Shoppe and sells provisions like tea, coffee, milk, sweets, pop, etc only today it wasnt, it was shut. Dont blame them, it was so cold with that easterly wind.
Fazeley was its usual useful self on a Sunday, services open but offices closed. Theres something to keep kids busy while the water tank is being filled, it looks like a hand wound crane but unfortunately it cant handle over 15 cwt. Thats a no-no for grown-ups like V Im afraid.
Bumped into Chas, Ann, Terry and Myra on Moore to Life just after that awfully busy bit at Hopwas on the Coventry. Fortunately there was space for two (or three, can you believe it) and we pulled over after lots of waving and boaty greetings and got stuck into hot drinks, it being far too early for the other sort.
Nice to meet T&M after hearing their names mentioned once or twice (always favourably) and learning about their new (future) boat.
Bumped into Chris and Stell on nb.Belle just up the road at Fradley. Spent a couple of hours chatting over pizza and red wine but completely forgot to take a photograph of them on their splendid boat. If ever there was a flagship for the Sandhills line then theirs is it.
Thanks for the wireless router Chris, Ive spent two evenings already getting to know it and still not managed to fire up the T-Mobile modem. Itll come, Im sure it will, I dont give up easily.
Wood End Lock looked so pretty that I just had to take a piccy. Even on a grey day it makes you realise how picturesque the canals can be.
Nature is doing its best to impress, bluebells all over the place, even on the towpath. Tree blossom is hanging on until were past which I thank it for but flies, biguns with dangly legs, are making their way into the boat yuk.
Rugeley leads to Great Haywood and from there we follow the hire-boat circuit to the Shroppy. A right turn and north again should see us back into sunshine in time to meet up with Mike and Jo (Sarah-Kate) somewhere before the Middlewich branch. Plans are to go down the Anderton Lift and explore the River Weaver before tacking Beatle Land, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Balmaha - Narrowboat Journal 
Hello Narrowboat Balmaha, Susan here from Foxton Farm Shop, in the Skittle Alley at the Black Horse Foxton.
Another customer sent us the link to your blog as they were concerned about “egg-gate”. We were closed on bank holiday Monday so i guess you bought your eggs on the Saturday or Sunday from us.
Sorry to hear you are unhappy with your eggs if you are ever unhappy with anything else oving forward my mobile is 0794 1342 794 per our website just give me a call and we will sort anything out for you.
Regarding eggs we are restricted how we sell them. The directive we have from Trading Standards is we either buy PRE BOXED from a registered EGG supplier or ON TRAYS from local suppliers who are registered to supply eggs. [ Since the 90’s the trading standard on eggs has become very very strict and for good reasons.]
We buy our eggs on trays from Welland Valley Eggs and display them on the counter. There are 2 types Fresh Farm [which are caged birds with a 3 stamp on grey trays] and Free Range [which are free range organic on blue trays]
The fresh farm are £1.80 for 6 and the free range £2.00 for 6.
By law we are not allowed to pre pack eggs into boxes prior to the customer asking for them from the tray as this makes us an egg packer! and we need licences to do it. So we display our eggs unpacked and when customers ask for half a dozen eggs we put them in a box in front of them and sell the eggs.
Prior to this the sales person should ask if the customer wants free range or caged and if there is only caged they should say we dont have any free range are these caged ones ok.
It would be great for me as a an employer to know if you were offered this choice prior to your eggs being packed in front of you ? If you werent can ou let me know and we will further train staff.
Once the customer has made a choice of egg it goes in a box. Our boxes come from various places , we have a supply from a packing company with free range written on them and a code inside to compare your egg to. But also as a small shop people bring in their old egg boxes to keep costs down.
We used to supply eggs in brown paper bags but people on boats said they break too easily so we bought a box of egg cartons.
I was not there when you purchased your eggs but can confir that at that time we did have on the shelf both grey and blue trays as we had a delivery on saturday the 1st May.
Please can you let us know if you
a] asked for free range and were given fresh farm
b] if you were offered the choice
c] how much you were charged
If you paid 2.00 for 1.80 worth of eggs we will refund the difference for you by way of a free box of eggs next time you come.
As a new shop we take all criticism constructively and try to use customer feedback in a positive manner.
Heres what we are doing as a result of your comments on your blog:
1. Putting clear signage over both trays of eggs to differentiate fresh farm from free range to both customers and staff.
2 Re training our staff on how to sell eggs in accordance withtrading standards including our Saturday girl who is only 14.
3. Sticking a label on our empty egg cartons which says , I am just a container for you to safely carry your eggs home in , i could be donated and my outer does may not reflect my contents.
I rang trading standards after reading your blog and checked we are ok to do that and he says its taken for red in most little shops like us that people donate egg cartons but because we serve people from outside our immediate locality via the narrowboats it would be better to have it spelt out on the box just in case.
I do hope this lays your mind at rest over the matter and i am a little bit sad that we got blogged so publicly rather than you give us a call but i sense you were probably a bit cross at the time of writing as we had spoiled your breakfast.
Im hoping your readers will now see that we arent passing off fresh farm eggs as free range hence why we only use suppliers who print the true source on the eggs.
Its a real shame actually as in Foxton loads of people keep chickens and we arent allowed to sell their eggs as they aren’t registered producers.
Once again sorry your breakfast wasn’t up to expectation and do come in for a cuppa and some FREE FREE range eggs next time you are in Foxton by way of recompense.
:0) :0)
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Hi Susan
Thank you for your prompt response, I will point to this on the next blog so that everyone gets a chance to see your reply.
I wasn’t particularly cross, more disappointed with what appeared to be mis-labelling. On this occasion it was the weekend and no, we weren’t offered a choice and the price was £1.80.
But wasn’t it a coincidence that the farm supplier’s number was 12345 when this was the example number written on the decode instructions inside the box lid.
I guess its up to us to ask or at least check when buying eggs or anything else for that matter.
Thank you for your detailed explanation, it helps us understand the vendor’s position.
Nothing has stopped us shopping at the Foxton Farm Shop.
Regards
Mo
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Thanks Mo
Look forward to seeing you next time you are in town.
I will ensure our weekend staff get an extra dollop of training on eggs.
The 12345 is amazing ! Little research opportunity for me there I think. We bought the boxes from a packaging firm in Devon so really is a coincidence .
Good news to hear you still want to shop with us and really sorry for the disappointment.
No chance of it happening again though promise! By the way thanks for info about not being given a choice we will follow it up in house.
:0) :0)
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Hi there,
How do you want your router; fried or boiled?
If you are still having problems, check your email – I have offered up a few suggestions that should make connecting to the router and 3G network and encrypting a doddle.
Cheers, Chris.
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Thanks Chris, I’ll give it another bash.
M
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