Your planet
Your Planet
Us and the environment
Here at ‘The Dorset Handmade Food Company’ we take the environment and our footprint very seriously.
Everything we use has traceability and provenance.
When we started The Dorset Hand Made Food Company we wanted to gather together the best local and ethical produce from the best farmers and artisan producers in the Dorset region to complement our own ethos. The result is a wonderful collaboration. A combination of truly hand made, local and ethical. It is something we are really proud of.
Allow us to elaborate- after all, the proof is in the eating??
Scones
Let us start with our scones. We use Matthews Artisan flour from the Cotswolds, a company we have used for a number of years. Matthews has been Family-run for eight generations since 1912 and produces sustainable organic, stoneground & British flour.
We care about the quality and consistency of our scones and this is why we use their flour. It is simply the finest available in the country and just happens to be on our doorstep, which reduces food miles.
Buttermilk
Also, in our scones we use buttermilk. The milk to make it comes from local Red Tractor assured farms that are within 30 miles of Shaftesbury in Dorset, where Blackmore Vale Dairy make what we consider to be the best buttermilk by far.
Just another jam?
In our jam we use strawberries from New Forest fruit. Only an hour from the farm, they produce strawberries most of the year, which means we can consistently use their fruit in the jam we make here in our kitchen all year round- we love that as their strawberries are so sweet and juicy!
The glass jars we use for our jam of course can be recycled or reused.
Clotted Cream
A cream tea could not be a Dorset cream tea without the clotted cream being made here in Dorset could it?
Our clotted cream is sourced from Craigs Farm Dairy in Osmington, right by the Dorset Jurassic coast- what could be better?
The pots can be reused or recycled.
Coffee and Tea
We have been fans of Reads Coffee Roasters for many years now. They are just 10 minutes from us in Sherborne. They roast their coffee in a converted farm building, the loveliest of settings. They are as proud of their coffee and tea as we are of our scones and jam and this is why we use their products. We also love the fact the decaf coffee is treated naturally by the Swiss water process not with chemicals.
Local Dorset Honey
Our Dorset Honey is truly local. Handmade…by bees! We source our totally natural honey from a network of local artisan beekeepers. The taste and colour of the honey changes all the time. Not just because we source the honey from different beekeepers, but because the bees feed on different flowers within their foraging zone. It’s a bit like going for a curry…you know its going to be great tasting, but every Curry restaurant has their own particular Kurma, Korma…you see what we mean?
Our lovely glass jars can be reused or recycled.
Our Hamper Boxes
When we started out, we wanted to use local companies as far as possible. Our delightful gift boxes were hand made here in Dorset and screenprinted by hand, the old fashioned way!
We think our boxes are way too lovely to recycle. You can, of course, but they make really great containers for any manner of storage for your home!
Wood Wool
Even the nitty gritty is important, so the woodwool we use is kiln dried and from timber sourced from sustainable British woodlands. Of course you can compost it, use it again as kindling for your fire or as padding for a precious item to ship…just like us!
Pouches
The brown pouches we send the cream in may look like just plastic lined envelopes but they are environmentally sourced. The clear inner layer is biodegradable and the brown paper outer layer is made with 45-60% renewable wood pulp starch. You can also reuse them!
Ice Packs
You won’t find any nasty chemicals inside our locally sourced ice packs, just ionised water. They can be washed, refrozen and used in any number of situations again and again, like to cool drinks or to keep food chilled when you go for a picnic!
Scone Bags
You possibly already thought it- “why have they used plastic bags to keep their scones fresh?” Well we haven’t. The bags we pack the scones in are made of cellulose and they are biodegradable. We also use them for our Droste Belgian Chocolate Digestives.
Labels and Brochures
Much care and thought even went into the production of our labels and pamphlets. Our labels are printed on pure ECF (Elemental Chlorine Free) white paper with water based adhesive.
Our pamphlets are printed on environmentally certified paper stock from sustainable sources and are printed using superior quality vegetable based inks.