TRACY GOAD tells us about joining her husband’s family business – making fudge the traditional way, in North Cornwall. Interview Gabrielle Jaffe.
When I first met David at university in Cardiff, he caught my attention by telling me his family made fudge. We’d visit them at weekends and when it was time to leave, I never wanted to. Although we moved to London after graduating, we always knew that we would move back to Cornwall to take on the family business.
Five years ago my husband’s parents retired. We leapt at the chance to take over Buttermilk. Fudge has been made in Buttermilk’s shop in Padstow for 50 years. We are still making it the same way to ensure quality: small batches in open copper pans. We’re lucky to be in a place where the dairy culture is so good. Cornwall is where farming meets the coast, and the food scene is incredible.
Our other shop in Port Isaac is a location in the TV series Doc Martin. If you found an old photo of the village, you’d see nothing much has changed – it’s still a pretty little place with cliffs and fishing boats. We’ve become the unofficial tourist information point for the village since a number of our staff have been extras in Doc Martin and Poldark. It’s amazing how popular those programmes are; they’ve brought people here from all over the world.
You can understand why so much filming is done here. It’s a beautiful location – you have your pick of beaches. We’re at the beach every weekend, having barbecues or walking. My four-year-old is already into body-boarding and he loves fishing with his grandfather. Our boys are having the idyllic childhood you read about in Swallows and Amazons, running wild on the coast. We really count ourselves lucky that we’ve found a way to live here.
For more information, visit buttermilkconfections.co.uk.
"We’re lucky to be in a place where the dairy culture is so good. Cornwall is where farming meets the coast, and the food scene is incredible."
