19/02/2025

Helen visits Celia Sparrow about the milk deal with trepidation. Their last encounter was when Helen deliberately gave Celia’s cheese a low score at a food fair. Now Helen hopes for a fair price for their waste Montbeliardes milk. Celia makes Helen sample her cheeses, so that she can taste how the milk will be used. One of them is the Cordwell Cream that Helen marked down in the competition. Helen has to agree it’s excellent. Using this as leverage, Celia offers way below the recommended rate for the Bridge Farm milk. Helen pushes for more but has no luck and they agree on a disappointing price. Later, Helen and Tom reflect on the deal. Helen recognises that her previous behaviour has cost them dearly. Tom reassures her; it’s a short term deal and better than nothing. They both agree they need to come up with something big to get business back in the shop and Tearoom. Tom’s sure they’ll think of something.

At The Bull, Tracy and Fallon discuss Wayne’s valuable skills, and fear customers will go elsewhere when they discover he’s to be sacked. They ambush Jolene with a plan: a soufflé Pancake Day promotion. Wayne would be the perfect person to cook this difficult style. Jolene reluctantly agrees that he would – adding that she’d been hasty in her decision to fire him on his return. Still excited by the promotion, Jolene receives a text from Wayne. She’s furious as she reports to Fallon he’s not coming home – after all they’ve done for him!