With much of the west of Scotland being in fairly strict lockdown we decided to go east for a spin in the car. We ended up in Dalmeny, a place we had never been before. The reason for that soon became apparent … there’s a school and a station and that’s about it. We left and quickly ended up amongst a plethora of wee roads with high hedgerows on either side. We were completely lost … no idea where we were.  Every junction seemed to be bereft of signage. And then, as if by magic, we suddenly came on a sign “farm shop, coffee, cakes”. And so we came to Craigie’s Farm Café or Craigie’s Farm Deli and Café to give it its full title. We still had no idea where we were but we were relieved to come across what we guessed was a certain scone stop.

Busy, busy

Judging by the car park, lots of other people did know where they were … either that or they were all lost, like us. When we put Craigies Farm Café into our phones we discovered that we were almost in Edinburgh’s outskirts. That probably explained why it was so busy.

Craigie’s farm has been in the Sinclair family for four generations and they are all involved in what is a large and thriving business. A busy building site next to the café turned out to be a new shop complex to double the existing facities. No shortage of confidence here.

We were quickly ushered to a seat in one of the three restaurant areas attached to the shop. The business began in a small shed back in 1995 but now it employs more than sixty staff. They still grow all their own fruit and vegetables, make all their own jams and cakes. How come we’ve never heard of this place before?

Cosy?

Anyway, after an absolutely delicious lunch we opted to share a fruit scone with our tea and coffee. It came with little pots of jam and cream and it was just as we like our scones, crunchy on the outside and nice and soft in the middle. It wasn’t too hard to decide that it was worthy of a topscone. We like everything about Craigie’s. It could never be described as ‘cosy’ but then none of these places ever fall within that category. It was obviously very popular and with all the development going on outside they were obviously trying to cater for ever increasing demand. Brilliant in these times when making business decisions like that is so tricky. The Sinclairs could probably teach Trump a thing or two about how business should be conducted.

The crown

Uncertain times have obviously shaken President Trump’s normal blustering confidence. Lying in his hospital bed with time to think, doubts must have started creeping in. He obviously thought that he might be losing his crown as the World’s Biggest Idiot so decided to go on a motor cavalcade outside the hospital to wave to his adoring fans. Thus he endangered everyone around him in an act which his own doctor called “insanity”. It was all completely unnecessary. There are a few candidates for that crown but we can’t see any of them wrestling it away from him any time soon.

Before we left we bought some stuff from the deli shop. The highlights were some buffalo sausages and some Minger cheese. When we asked why it was called Minger, the girl, held it towards us, and said “Take a sniff!” Okay, okay we understand! You will be delighted to hear that after leaving Craigie’s we negotiated our way home without getting lost once.

EH30 9AR       tel: 0131 319 1048        Craigie’s Farm Deli and Café

///keen.tell.runner