Richard Yarrow at Yarrow Cookery School
Find out how this business collaborated with fellow rural business The Strategy Collective, and how REDS helped facilitate this.
Tell us about your rural business?
We are a cookery school in rural East Lothian, teaching people how to cook with local seasonal produce.
Where in rural Scotland are you based and what do you love about living and working there?
We are based in farmlands near East Linton. We love being surrounded by countryside, fields and hedgerows for foraging and also being so close to East Lothian’s amazing beaches and coastline.
When did you set up your rural business, and what inspired you to start it?
We set up in October 2020, inspired by the amazing local produce and our passion for teaching people how to cook, regardless of their age or experience. We want culinary skills to be accessible to everyone.
What is the biggest challenge you face or have faced running your business in rural Scotland?
Running a cookery school without our own permanent cookery school venue
What’s been your biggest achievement so far?
Selling out almost all our public classes on our website!
Who did you collaborate with and how?
The Strategy Collective — they came on board to help us with our marketing.
How did REDS help you facilitate collaborations and connections?
It was critical for us to select our first marketing agency carefully. We're based in rural East Lothian and our business model is based on local ingredients and local connections. We joined REDS to support the rural economy and make connections with other similar businesses. It made sense to work with an agency listed on the directory if we could find one. After some research we settled on the Strategy Collective.
Having the added connection with REDS and GrowBiz really gave us extra confidence to move forwards with this exciting next step in our growth.
How else have REDS and GrowBiz been able to help you?
Andy Lambert has been helping us since November 2021. His support has being invaluable, including massively helping us fill in a grant application in December 2022, which we were successful in receiving.
Find out more about Yarrow Cookery School at www.yarrowcookeryschool.com
Are you a rural micro businesses interested in what REDS can do for you? Find out how to get your own free listing here. Do it before the 12th of March and you’ll also be entered into our prize draw — one of the four prizes up for grabs is a £25 voucher for Yarrow Cookery School! More details here.