Questionnaire for Restaurants and Independent Delis and Retailers
We are asking local restaurants, independent food retailers and caterers their views on the
potential take up of our supply service. You could help us enormously by answering some
questions about our new service.
Below is a short introduction to give some context to our questions.
1. Introduction
Edible Eastside (www.edibleeastside.net) is merging with Kitchen School CIC
(www.kitchenschool.co.uk) to create an innovative and exciting new social enterprise, which
will supply fresh produce, food products, and a job-training facility in sustainable food, based
in Digbeth Birmingham. The business will offer Birmingham a unique farm to fork experience
with a food-growing garden, cookery school and a dining room on one site.
With our very local food supply service, we aim to offer local restaurants a fresh delivery
service so they too can offer their customers local and unique produce grown by us.
Edible Eastside is a sustainable food project that has been open for three years. In that time it
has created a unique food project and a brand known for locally grown food with integrity and
authenticity. This not for profit operation receives over 1,000 visitors a year who come to
experience the unique space created for people to learn and enjoy home grown food.
The newly merged businesses will be launched in May / June 2015. Supplies will be available
in late summer onwards.
The company will have three business units:
1. EE: Supply – growing high value herbs, veg and flowers for local restaurants and
retailers.
2. EE: Kitchen– A commercial kitchen and cookery school, teaching cookery and food
skills at all levels with a range of short courses in gardening, foraging, cookery,
artisan food skills and nutrition. The school will also run apprenticeships, offer
foraging modules to undergraduate food & hospitality students & CPD for Chefs.
3. EE: Community – A unique urban food garden open to the public and for hire. The
garden runs a summer programme of events, art projects and is available for hire for
private functions. It will continue to run a community food programme.
If you have the time, please could you fill this form in then save as (your restaurant
name), attach it to your reply email and send it to me. Thank you for your help.
1. Do you buy any of the following on a regular basis? Would you consider buying
regularly and using them on your menu if we could guarantee a regular supply?
1. Edible Flowers see diagram below:
Yes/No
2. Foraged herbs and plants
Yes/No
Which ones?
Others?
Chickweed
Perslane
Hedge Garlic
Wild Garlic
Wild Asparagus
Wild fennel
Wild Plantain
Elderflower
Sloes
Medlars
others
3. Micro Herbs
Yes/No
Anything specific?
4. Baby salad leaves
Yes/No
Anything specific?
2. Would you consider a flower box membership scheme where you sign up to receive a
carton of edible flowers and or herbs regularly (see diagram)?
Would you prefer to order what you needed
as you needed it?
Yes /
No?
How often?
Yes/No
How often?
3. Would you consider taking a commercial veg box scheme – where you received a regular
box of vegetables but you may not know what’s in the box?
Would you prefer to order what you needed as you
needed it?
Yes/No
How often?
Would you consider a veg box scheme not knowing
what’s on the box?
4. What are the benefits of a city centre supplier for you like us - please rank them?
benefit
Contribution to local economy
Yes ?
1= low 5=high
Contribution to social aims of the business (supporting
communities with food skills programmes)
Freshness of produce
Quality of the produce
Regular / reliable delivery
A Birmingham Product
5. Once established we plan to develop a Culinary Horticulture module for professional and
student chefs. This would be a short course (2-3 days over a term) introducing foraging,
nutrition and basic food production to chefs. Would you be interested in offering this to your
staff?
Yes
No
6. What other supplies and services would be interested in that we haven’t mentioned?
______________________________________________________________________
Thank you so much!