Has there been a time when you discover something, or someone, so absolutely wonderful that you wonder why you’ve not discovered it before? Well, recently I discovered both, first the place, then the person behind the place, and was amazed at how good both experiences made me feel.

Now before I get carried away, I want to say this experience reminded me of my first iPhone in terms of how it made me feel. You know when you love what it does for you instantly, and the more you investigate, the more you discover just how wonderful it is? It makes you feel like someone has put so much love into something that it overflows out and kind of makes you feel loved too.

Well, welcome to Annabel’s Egg Shed in Cavick House Farm in Wymondham, and the new extension, Annabel’s Tea Shed (which I’ll look at another time). Both of which are well, sheds. Now if I was to say I am about to take you on a tour, you’d be thinking it’s more than a shed. But alas, they really are both sheds but there’s so much in both of them it’s worth a tour!

The Egg Shed Tour

First of all, if you want free range eggs that are wonderfully priced and laid by hens that you know are really loved it’s worth the trip just for that. Importantly, your fried English breakfast will never be the same with their deliciously creamy yolks. But fabulous eggs is funnily enough, just a small part of why I fell in love with the egg shed.

The love began to blossom at the sign on Cavick Rd. It may be a smallish detail, but the fact that the first thing you see is hand made wooden sign, with clear directions, clear text and lovely pictures of the hens tells you whoever created it cares. As you drive/stroll/cycle/skip up the driveway you come to a fork (oh no, which way do I go?) there’s a reassuring other sign, equally as lovingly made saying which way to go so you don’t feel anxious that you could end up in a grumpy Londoner’s mansion by mistake, rather than a farm.

So you’ll see the sheds and it’s clear which one you want to head towards for the Eggs. It’s got a wonderful welded chicken outside it, which I have a sneaking suspicion that Annabel herself was involved in creating.

What’s lovely at this moment is the Egg Shed is in fact, an egg shed. Chickens used to lay eggs in it before Annabel grabbed hold of it and turned it into a retail work of art. So first thing you’ll probably notice is a big yellow egg on a corner table that welcomes you in.

Yet even in this one corner of this one shed there’s some hidden gems that any budding entrepreneur needs to take note of. There’s pictures of lovely chickens, each with the Egg Shed’s details on the back, a metal cup filled with bits of paper with contact details and the web address, lovely, fresh flowers (picked from the farm), painted stones with hens on them, drawing pins (more later), and a wonderful sign that to me represented ‘customer services’ with Annabel’s and Julie’s mobile numbers. (Not sure who Julie is yet, but looking forward to finding out).

So although I didn’t meet Julie, I did indeed meet Molly,who’s a dog, a little terrier that merrily came over for a cuddle wagging her tail. It’s one of those little dogs that knows how good its life is, and just wanted to say hello and let us know it’s her farm.

Meet the Customer Services Department

The drawing pins in the mug are for you to stick your feedback on the walls (advantage of being a wooden shed). The sign behind the yellow chicken tells you who to call should you have any questions (reassuring isn’t it that someone is close at hand and not in a call centre in India?). It’s lovely when you take the time to read what others have said you realise how many others love the egg shed too. Annabel told me that the feedback cards were an accident, she left a pad on the table and people starting writing on it. Genius!

Payment & Product

A sign points to a box where you put your money, and a notepad for you to write what you bought. That’s it. Strange really, it’s the kind of experience that you want to be more than honest and pay a little more whilst enjoying the fact you are telling them what you bought.

I don’t know about you, I feel a little bit anxious when I know there’s different sizes of eggs with different prices, and you’re not clear which size you are getting. As Annabel pointed out, people do like to be told clearly. So, as you can see above, all the eggs are large, with signs telling you they are large! No worries, mate! It goes with the signs elsewhere, everything you see just seems to make you feel better that it is there. Even as you ponder as to where the boxes are, there’s even a sign helping you turn around and see where the chickens used to lay their eggs is now a storage facility for the abundance of eggboxes!

So as you finish the tour and exit the shed, you can’t help feel like you’ve been touched by the abundance of love that has been put into the egg shed. If you just want great eggs, it’s worth the trip to Wymondham for that on its’ own. If you want to see what a wonderful startup business looks like, definitely go. There’s so much to learn from what Annabel has created here that I’d recommend going just to see how someone without any formal ‘marketing’ experience, can get an idea and run with it beautifully.

For More Info

Visit the equally well thought through website: www.annabelseggshed.co.uk where you’ll find all the info you need.

How about part 2 of the shed tour? Visit the Tea Shed now!

-Martin