Heathers of Horncastle is bloomin’ marvelous

Heathers of Horncastle has been bringing local produce to the people of Horncastle for the last 25 years.

The small greengrocers is run by Heather who started working there when she was at school, within five years she had taken over the business and has since turned the greengrocers into a hub for local produce.

Heather is keen to stock as much local produce as possible, given the arable nature of the county. “We’re just coming into the local season so we are starting to get in local asparagus, all our local greens, local cauliflowers have just started, obviously leeks and all your winter vegetables are still coming in locally, then we buy the rest from Norfolk.

“We have a gentleman that comes from Norfolk with a lot of produce from there and then we obviously have to get it from the  wholesalers for all the different things that are imported. To get the full range we have we have to go to a wholesalers, and they currently come from Derbyshire so we order at 4.30pm this evening then by 7am it’s all here in the shop again which keeps it all fresh.”

“If we could get everything local we would, we are just a vegetable growing county, we do during the summer months get all our local tomatoes and the such like but you don’t really get that much fruit grown in Lincolnshire so a lot of it does have to come from Norfolk. We just try and be as British and local as we can be and that’s the way forward for us. That’s what people know about my shop and that’s how I work.”

Competing with the supermarkets is the main problem that greengrocers encounter. “It’s not the produce that’s the problem, it’s the convenience that people like going and doing it all under the one roof so they don’t know what they’re paying, or the  quality an flavour difference, we are lucky in Horncastle, I’ve been here a few years so I do have a good following from people that know what we’re about”.

Heather does realise the challenges she faces. “There’s very few [greengrocers], there’s more closing than there is opening that is a certainty. We’ve just gotta get the message across that local is best and it’s just getting people for the convenience and I don’t know how you do that, its just laziness isn’t it but there’s not a lot we can do about that one.”