It’s late November and I’ve just started back at Aune Valley Meat for the run-up to Christmas. Only been back a couple of days and so far it’s been quite calm and relaxed. I suspect this is the lull before the storm. This is the story of a butcher’s Christmas – probably the busiest time of year for a butcher.
Road closures nearby mean that footfall has been down and the shop has been relatively quiet. This has allowed us to get on with clearing the fridges, tidying up, and getting ready for the incoming Christmas stock.
Disclosure: some of the links on this site are affiliate links. This means that at no additional cost to you I may earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. In addition, as an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
Curing
Salt tanks are prepared. The first of the long dated items are due to arrive shortly. Cured meats are curing. The action plan is written. Christmas orders are steadily coming in. The first of the Christmas songs are playing over the speaker system. Decorations are up. The marquee is up and full of Christmas stock. It’s starting to feel a lot like Christmas. Just need the Christmas hat and the silly tie.
Gammons
Gammons, both green and smoked have arrived, as has the bacon. The bacon has been sorted into vacuum-packed bags. The gammons have been tied and packed. Topsides are rolled and hanging. Beef ribs are also hanging.
There is so much that needs to be done that the whole team is in 7 days a week starting next week right through to Christmas Eve.
A frosty morning
It’s 2 weeks until Christmas and today is my last day off before the big day itself. Woke up this morning to a beautiful, frosty, bright day. Heavy frost on the car and even on the beach. Beautiful sunshine. The sea even appeared to be steaming, weirdly in a very localised area. Never seen it before.
Online Orders Closed
10 days left until the big day and the countdown has really started. The Christmas website has closed and the process of collating all the orders together has begun. Things are really gearing up now and there is a huge amount still to be done.
Everything is really well organised. Things are starting to come together. We seem to be keeping our noses in front. The team is working well together. Everybody still seems to be in a good mood. Let’s hope that continues when the madness really begins.
Salt Beef
The majority of the longer dated stuff is now all packed up and ready to be put together in the orders. Those items in the salt baths have been removed from the brine and packaged up. The beef that was hanging has been cut to size and packed up ready. The lamb and pork have arrived and will be prepared shortly. The turkeys and the rest of the poultry will be arriving over the next few days.
Preparations
Because of the nature of the business, there are quite a few short dated items which will have to be done last minute. That means that things like the poultry, turkeys, sausages and so on we’ll all have to be prepared nearer the big day in a last minute crazy rush.
Don’t forget, of course, that all of this preparation for the Christmas orders is taking place alongside the normal day-to-day running of the butchers. Because of the time of year the butchery is busier than normal.
Sausages
It’s now Christmas week and all the preparation has been done.
I literally spent a weekend making sausages and produced well over a ton of sausages in total. Everything has been packaged up ready. One small last-minute drama – some of the chickens will be a day later arriving so those collecting their orders early may be missing an item or two.
Order Order
Christmas collections and deliveries begin. The first of the orders are ready. The majority of the butchers spent the day putting orders together and the orders for the 20th, 21st and 22nd are all packed and ready to go.
The big day will be Friday the 23rd. Apparently, the 23rd is always the busiest day for the butchery and the farm shop as everybody wants their orders as late as possible but don’t want to leave it till the very last moment. So literally half of our orders are either being collected or delivered on the 23rd.
Putting orders together
A break from making sausages – instead we were putting orders together mainly for the deliveries and collections on the 23rd of December.
I started the day by doing the day book and getting the orders finished for delivery on that day. The routine orders for shops, garages and so on. Then I went on to put together the orders that had been taken subsequent to the Christmas website closing. I then joined everybody else in helping to put together the orders for the 23rd.
That means there were four teams of two people putting together orders all day long. It was crazy. There was just so many to do and in the end we didn’t finish them. I’ve been working on the orders for delivery and by the end of the day they were still over 30 orders left to be put together and a similar amount for collection.
Hard Work
It wasn’t until I started to do this that I appreciated just how much work has been going on behind the scenes with every order. There’s not just the meat which I’ve been involved with along the way and had seen how much preparation had been going on to get everything ready for that. But of course, there were items from the delicatessen plus the kitchen was producing items such as game pies, chicken pies, scotch eggs, pasties, and so on. All of these need to be done at the end because they have a relatively short shelf life.
Proper Preparation
That means that the entire workforce was flat out all day long. Just preparing things, cooking things, getting stuff together, putting orders together. It just amazed me how much work had gone into such a short space of time.
You start to understand now how there’s potential for things to go crazy wrong.
In the event things seem to be going smoothly and tensions not running higher at the moment but that’s down to the amazing organisation. Not just on the day-to-day work, but also all the planning that’s gone on previously in the run up to this.
Nearly there
The manic rush of the 23rd is over.
As it turned out it wasn’t as bad as everyone seemed to think it would be because everything was well organised, with all the orders prepared and in the fridge ready to go so it was relatively straightforward. We were even able to allow a couple of people to finish early.
Just Christmas Eve left to go then we can all have a very well deserved rest and maybe a glass of wine or two.
Christmas done
All orders out. All customers happy. Now it’s time for everyone to enjoy their Christmas.
Happy Christmas everyone.
A big shout out to The Winzer family, Richard, Emily, and Amy, for giving me the opportunity to work there this year. It has been a great place to work. The whole team is fantastic and I have learned a great deal. Thank you for everything.
Now, however, my thoughts are inevitably turning to the next couple of weeks and preparing for our next adventure. I am definitely counting down the days now.
I haven’t gone into great detail about anything in particular in this post, so if you would like me to expand on anything please leave a comment.
Happy motorhoming.
Hope You Enjoy!
Please leave us a comment!
