A POPULAR community farm shop has begun offering a home delivery service to those who are self-isolating during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bistre Farm Shop, which has been in the Buckley Precinct since 1993, started making deliveries on Wednesday (March 25), and is expected to continue doing so for at least 12 weeks for those who are self-isolating.

However, the business was forced to stop taking orders by around midday in order to work through the backlog that had built up.

Bistre Farm Shop introduced the delivery service after numerous requests were made over the past week.

But with most of the population now observing the three week lockdown that Prime Minister Boris Johnson called for on Monday, the store has been “inundated” with calls.

A social media post from the store, which employs over 20 members of staff, said: “There has been a lot of requests for delivery the last seven days.

“As you have all seen or imagined the shop has been exceptionally busy to the point we could not manage any extra work.

“This service is designed to help vulnerable people and whole families that are self-isolating, and as expected, the demand for our packs has been exceptional.

“We are experiencing high demand and we are inundated with calls. The staff are doing their best and sadly we only have one phone.

“Please only order when and if you need. We are in this for a long time. So please don’t think if you don’t order right away you can’t in the future.

“We will offer this service until the end of this problem. Please trust us and we will be able to operate this in an orderly way.”

Bistre Farm Shop is currently offering people who are self-isolating a range of three packs to order over the phone for home delivery.

The first pack consists of 400g of minced steak, 400g of back bacon, 400g of pork sausages, eight chicken portions, and four pork loin steaks for £15.

A second option costs £25 and offers 400g of minced steak, 400g of diced steak, an 800g pork loin joint, 400g of back bacon, 400g of pork sausages, eight chicken portions, and four pork loin steaks.

The final choice offers the same amount of minced steak, diced steak, back bacon, sausages, pork loin steaks and chicken portions as the previous option. But this £40 package also provides customers with an 800g roasting beef joint, four chicken fillets, and four handmade beef burgers.

The shop is also not accepting any requests for items to be swapped in the packages in order to continue producing the packs at speed.

Due to the popular demand, Bistre Farm Shop is currently unable to provide customers with a delivery time.