A Perthshire tearoom has reopened its doors to baking enthusiasts as it sells its surplus flour to keep up with the home baking craze.
Clare Pinchbeck, of Hettie’s Tearoom in Pitlochry, had a significant amount of flour in stock when the coronavirus pandemic forced businesses to close or adapt their means of operation.
She and her 15-year-old daughter Hettie, after which the tearoom is named, have put the flour into smaller bags to sell to the public. They also made scones and sold bags of pasta they had in stock.
They then opened the tearoom’s doors on Friday for the day.
Clare said: “We are only looking at opening the tearoom a couple of days a week.
“On Friday, my daughter and I were saying ‘I hope people will come’ but they were queued outside.
“We sold 70kg of flour on that day. We also sold 108 packs of pasta and made 97 scones, which all went.”
Clare believes there a various reasons why more people are taking to baking during the lockdown.
She said: “People are watching the pennies and it is cheaper to make things yourself.
“Kids are off school and this gives them something to do and lets them test something at the end of it. It uses up time.”
Claire employs 18 members of staff who have all had to go onto furlough.
She said: “I have an open Zoom call every day at nine o’clock when we can chat.
“A lot of them are far from home and we are like a family at Hettie’s.
“They are a really, really cracking bunch.”
