‘Let them eat kale’ as veg shop evolution continues

Beanie barista Esther Hyde looked surprised.

“Lots of people are doing cauliflower steaks and wings now,” she said. Chris nodded. “Cauliflowers took off when people finally realised you didn’t just have to boil them,” he said.

After 33 years, Sheffield’s award winning food retailer Beanies Wholefoods have finally closed their doors at 205 Crookes Valley Road…and moved 100 yards up the hill to the former GP surgery and chemist at the corner of Barber and Crookesmoor Road. (Henceforth ‘Beanies Corner,’ it was said at the new shop opening last Saturday.)

“We’d been thinking about moving for years,” said Chris, noting he’d been a member of the Beanies cooperative since 1997. New co-op member Esther chortled.

“I was two in 1997,” she said. “But perhaps being a Beanies member has always been my destiny.”

Decision making in a cooperative doesn’t happen overnight, which is no bad thing, said Chris.

“Taking your time makes you think carefully about the decisions you make,” he said.

So the members discussed the pros and cons of moving to a new building after spotting the ‘To Let’ sign a year ago, and decided to take the risk.

The new shop has more floor space, bike racks and a small car park, an expanded bulk buy section, and now a cafe next door, long desired by loyal customers needing a direct trade coffee or herbal tea after selecting their weekly tomato and lentil supplies.

“There are a lot of memories in a business that’s so old, so we’ve got to do a good job,” said Esther. “There’s a big weight of responsibility to make people proud of what we’ve created.”

The time was right, it was felt.

After paring back after the financial crash, people are now more comfortable about spending more on local and organic food, said Chris. Beanies uses several local growers to supply the shop’s seasonal fruit and veg, and provides both organic and non-organic fare.

Packaging is changing too, with worries about plastic waste leading to Sheffield’s wholesalers helping shops like Beanies provide more fruit and veg in bags and cardboard punnets.

And personalised or bulk buying of food or household cleaning supplies is encouraged.

“We have our bulk bins, which are popular with all the students in the area,” said Esther.

“It’s often cheaper to buy that way, and reusing containers has a lower impact. It’s a kind of shopping that’s coming back into style I think. I find it therapeutic.”

“I’ve just sold someone 16 pence worth of lentils,” said Chris proudly. “You can’t do that at a supermarket.”

The shop and cafe have a close to zero waste policy, with local food charities making use of surplus stock, and anything wilting going to coop member Matt West’s compost bins at his Moss Valley smallholding, ready for a new crop of Beanies veg.

Beanies cafe is starting cautiously with Wednesday to Sunday opening from 9-4 at present, initially serving cakes, sandwiches, tea and coffee, with soup made from shop supplies coming soon.

The proximity to Kelham’s foodie quarter has had little impact on Beanies, said Chris, but he thinks more and more Sheffielders are taking an interest in food provenance, and experimenting with new ingredients.

“There’s a greater awareness of local food, and people are asking where things come from, or simply ‘What do I do with this vegetable?’”

Figures on their opening Saturday confirmed Sheffield’s vegetable cravings, with 2,500 people calling in at Beanies Corner to snap up the latest crops.

Squash are big at the moment, said Chris, with all sizes of multicoloured gourds decorating the shop and cafe.

Sweet potatoes are more popular than regular spuds now, said Chris, while local Italians are delighted to find Sheffield grown Cime di rapa to add to their pasta dishes.

And like cauliflower, kale is flying off the shelves.

“Ten years ago, kale was cattle food,” said Chris. “But now people love it.”

Cafe barista Annie Vohra was listening in among the crowds.

“Let them eat kale!” she cried.