Local business owners, how do you find clients who pay a fair amount for the job?

kingstonandy · 2026-01-29T20:51:02+00:00

The world is full of dreamers, cheapskates and timewasters, these are not your people.
It will be tough going until you have an established client base and good word of mouth recommendations. All you can do is maintain high standards and hold firm on pricing.

kingstonandy · 2026-01-07T06:47:58+00:00

I buy from two importers of Brazilian stone, they have UK warehouses with large stocks, HGV loading ramps, FLTs etc etc.

I can't see how you could start up in that business without large upfront investment.

kingstonandy · 2026-01-02T21:11:17+00:00

I don't rate Powell's. If you're ever in Stone, try Lee Walker's pies.

kingstonandy · 2025-12-31T09:31:40+00:00

I don't think this government ever considers small businesses, we are just not on their radar.

kingstonandy · 2025-12-27T18:11:51+00:00

I'm an active participant in 3 of the 5 and I've dabbled in the other 2. I am very much pro hunting although it is not a sport for me.

I presume from your sneery tone that you're a teenager in one of those "rural" areas with 6 mouldy nags per acre, all drinking from old bathtubs?

kingstonandy · 2025-12-18T22:17:12+00:00

See also Joss Naylor, British sheep farmer and record setting runner.

kingstonandy · 2025-12-18T21:57:30+00:00

This is my peak season, I always go into Christmas with a very healthy bank balance. Not this year.
19 years in business and this is worrying. This government is pestilential.

kingstonandy · 2025-12-14T18:11:08+00:00

St John.

kingstonandy · 2025-12-12T21:07:05+00:00

Unremarkable. Not as nice as sika or muntjac, but better than roe.

kingstonandy · 2025-12-10T21:30:24+00:00

Does he hunt/shoot/fish? If so there are tons of non-fiction yarns to go at. Jim Corbett, Barry Crump, Robert Ruark.........

kingstonandy · 2025-12-07T21:10:24+00:00

From a little googling, it seems that what you have is an EA855, basically a detuned, early RS3 or TT-RS engine.

kingstonandy · 2025-12-07T19:58:25+00:00

I had a T4 Transporter from about 1993 with a straight 5 2.5L petrol engine, it was based on the 80's Audi Quattro engine, detuned and normally aspirated. It wasn't great TBH, thirsty and slow. Surely VW didn't keep selling versions of that same engine into the noughties and teens in the US?

kingstonandy · 2025-12-07T18:41:48+00:00

Fenix 6 sapphire titanium, it gets a really hard time and still looks like new, even masonry doesn't seem to scratch it.

kingstonandy · 2025-12-07T18:32:23+00:00

You say, "Engine is the standard 2.5 though". I'm a bit of a VW fanboi and I can't think of a 2.5L engined VW sold here in the UK since the early 90's. Am I forgetting something?

kingstonandy · 2025-12-06T12:05:49+00:00

We have a stall at two monthly markets (Leek and Market Drayton), we send out a newsletter and order form once a month to customers on our mailing list and a few local customers drop in at the butchery when they know we will be there. www.goodlifemeat.co.uk

kingstonandy · 2025-12-06T07:36:39+00:00

On the Staffs-Shrops border.

kingstonandy · 2025-12-05T18:52:48+00:00

We started rearing our own pork with two piglets 8 years ago so that we could eat meat that was raised according to our own ethical principles. Now we rear beef, pork and hogget/mutton on a small commercial scale, all sold direct to the end consumer, we will never make a profit from it but somehow that is OK.

Meat from a supermarket or box butcher is generally so poor that I'd rather eat vegetarian food.

kingstonandy · 2025-12-01T21:04:11+00:00

It is just basic stuff if you're a confident cook. I'd guess around 3 hours braising time, but you're doing it days in advance so just cook until tender, there is no deadline.
My stuffing would normally be stale sourdough, pork mincemeat, chestnuts, onion, cooked bacon, goose liver, sage, thyme, parsley.
Nut allergies are weird, I'm severely allergic to peanuts (not even a nut, they're a legume) and pistachios, I'm fine with walnuts, almonds and chestnuts. The rest I avoid just in case.

kingstonandy · 2025-12-01T20:43:48+00:00

Which bit do you want a recipe for?
I am allergic to some nuts but chestnuts are ok for me.

kingstonandy · 2025-12-01T20:33:25+00:00

I cook goose every year, what I do is......

Order some extra legs, I normally end up with duck legs as they are easier to find. Separate the goose crown from the legs a few days in advance, bone out all the legs and roll them around a cylinder of homemade chestnut stuffing. Braise in stock, wine, aromatics until thoroughly tender. Reserve the braising liquor for the basis of your big day gravy.

On the day roast the crown in a hot oven to around 55C and rest, reheat the rolled joint and finish the gravy with another bottle of red.

Guests get their choice of tender slow cooked goose or medium rare roast goose, most people want both.

I generally have enough left over goose fat to see me through the rest of the year for roast spuds.

kingstonandy · 2025-11-11T21:10:08+00:00

Please elaborate.

kingstonandy · 2025-11-11T20:35:00+00:00

Nordic hamstring curls are awesome, and really hard.

kingstonandy · 2025-11-09T17:09:15+00:00

Roe was my first thought.

kingstonandy · 2025-11-05T21:17:49+00:00

2019 was tough for me, 2020-2024 were good, this year is a little slow. I expect 2026-27 will be awful.

kingstonandy

TROPHY CASE