Sad news this week for Yorkshire foodies with the announcement that Butterbees, Britain’s first butter boutique that specialised in churned and hand-rolled butter using Yorkshire cream has closed down. After a quiet autumn in the shop, the decision was made that the traditionally quiet winter months would make life even harder for the owners, and so Butterbees is no more.
The news is a real blow for those who like to support local businesses, and a step back for Malton’s bid to make itself the foodie capital of Yorkshire. Butterbees was so special because it was an independent producer of an essential food item; you can’t exactly pop into Aldi and ask them to roll your butter in some cardamon because you fancy mixing things up a bit on your crumpets. At Butterbees, you could do exactly that, and you’d get a friendly chat and a smile out of it at the same time.
With prices driven ever lower by the battle of the supermarkets, especially at this most competitive time of year, it is so tempting to stick with the big names when it comes to weekly shops, but we must all do our bit to help support and protect local businesses in Yorkshire before they die away, even if it costs us a few more pennies in the process.
We’d have loved to have taken our little girl back to Malton next summer for the Malton Food Festival and shown her the butter being churned and rolled by hand, because it was an amazing spectacle (plus, she loves butter and would probably by that age be demanding her own flavours!), but now we won’t be able to do that, and there’s something a little bit sad about that.
In Yorkshire, we are blessed to have some of the most interesting, unique, and talented independent food companies right on our doorstep. We just have to sometimes step out of our comfort zone in order to do our bit to show them how much we appreciate what they do.