S3 Ep6 - Building Daughter of a Shepherd, Ringtons tea van visits to your door & an ode to sheep with Rachel Atkinson

Our final guest of Season 3 is the fantastic Rachel Atkinson, the founder of & actually a Daughter of a Shepherd. I hope you enjoy this warm & festive episode as much as I enjoyed recording it (you can expect quite a lot of laughter! 

Rachel shares the story behind her wool company Daughter of a Shepherd where she creates limited edition yarns. She focuses on natural colours of British fleece grown, gathered, and spun with 100% traceability (It’s celebrating its 10th anniversary this year 🥳). She grew up in Yorkshire where her Dad took on Shepherding as a hobby. Having always had a love for knitting & after her Dad received a 94p cheque from the British Wool Board for 450 fleeces, Rachel wanted to showcase wool’s provenance - bringing renewed value to it and shining a light on all of its qualities 🐑🧶.

When building Daughter of Shepherd at its core was supporting local manufacturing in the process, including scourers in Keighley & mills in Yorkshire/Devon. We talk about how important these crafts are & how supporting them is critical to ensure those skills are passed on.

Featured is Rachel’s beloved terrier, DeeDee. We also have a very special guest Bryan who will always bring Rachel a sheep themed mug with tea at work, alongside learning that there is a company doing tea rounds to your house (Ringtons Round) that visits towns/villages in Yorkshire & up North (and yes you can request it to visit your house!) with their tea van filled with choice - THE STUFF OF DREAMS ☁️✨

Here are the mugs talked about, if you’d like to follow along and see: 

1. The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) sheep mug - ‘look at this absolute unit’
2. Emma Bridgewater Bettys x Fat Rascal mug collaboration
3. Pip Hartle mug (for coffee!)
4. Russell Kingston mug (+ a bonus espresso mug)
5. Terry’s Chocolate mug from charity shop

Some of her quick fire favourites:

☕️Yellow bourbon coffee roasters, Ringtons tea

☕️🍪 Tea Pairings: plain digestives, chocolate hobnob, Tunnocks caramel wafer 

🩰 Ballets: Swan Lake, Song of the Earth, Wolf Works 

🧶🐏 Her favourite wool: Heritage DK - natural black 

🏝️Desert Island people: Nick Offerman, Seamus Heaney, Jemma (Harding) Wilkinson

🐾 Dee Dees favourite things: sausages 🌭 & the warmth 🔥

We always love to hear what you think so please let us know ☕️💗

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Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 2:47 The story behind Daughter of a Shepherd
• 15:03 Mug #1 -The Museum of English Rural Life (MERL) sheep mug 'look at this absolute unit'
• 16:07 Bryan the tea-maker star!
• 21:51 The break down of the wool industry in the UK & the importance of keeping those skills to pass on
• 23:57 Mug #2 Emma Bridgewater & Bettys Fat Rascal collaboration
• 29:39 Ringtons tea & their tea round visiting your house!!
• 32:16 Mug #3 Pip Hartle mug (for coffee!)
• 32:57 Supporting artisans & hand-crafted artists
• 34:59 How we can support small businesses
• 36:49 Mug #4 Russell Kingston (& a bonus little mug)
• 41:50 Mug #5 Terry's chocolate mug (charity shop)
• 44:40 What's next for Daughter of a Shepherd? - 10th Anniversary celebrations, renewal & limited editions!
• 48:27 Rachel's Quick Fire Favourites