Business booms for a Norfolk pub after it encourages credit crunch hit customers to trade home grown produce for pints of beer.
Credit crunch pinched residents of one Norfolk village have been taking advantage of an inventive means to save the pennies without cutting back on nights out. Thanks to the resourcefulness of their local pub, 'The Pigs', they can now barter fresh produce in return for pints of beer.
The pub, in Edgefield near Holt, is one of the few to see business boom since the start of the credit crunch as it encourages locals to trade their home grown produce in return for alcohol.
The sign outside the pub reads: 'If you grow, breed, shoot or steal anything that may look at home on our menu, then bring it in and let's do a deal.' True to their word they'll negotiate on anything, agreeing a barter price based on the size, quantity and quality of the produce presented.
Green fingered residents have been trading fruit and vegetables for pub meals and drinks, while others have swapped freshly laid eggs and fish or meat they've caught themselves for a pint.
Pub manager and brain child of the popular scheme, Cloe Wasey, enthused "We find the home-grown stuff is often much better than what we can get from the suppliers. When we get the good stuff, and it gets on to the specials board, it's brilliant."
Continuing: "We've been doing it for almost two years now but the success of it has only just recently started to boom with the credit crunch setting in. People need to find different ways to go out and this helps."
So far the pub have traded pints in return for locally shot rabbit, pheasants and pigeons as well as fruit grown on local trees and potatoes freshly dug from punters' gardens. They’ve also honored some more unusual requests with one customer bringing in eight pairs of pigs testicles to trade.
Taking this traditional approach to business has been hugely beneficial for both the owners of The Pigs pub and the residents of Edgefield. However, as consumers continue to tighten their belts without wanting to compromise on their way of life, only time will tell whether other establishments follow their lead and return to a more rustic way of doing business.
