The Crianlarich Crazy Goose Lady Cakes and Bakes honesty box is now officially reopened – but with a padlock.
The honesty box closed early last month because too many people were taking cakes without paying.
Since last summer, the cake stand had been a popular pitstop for hungry motorists on the busy A82 Inverness to Glasgow road.
Today it reopens, the delicious home baking now kept behind a padlock. And a doorbell is firmly in place.
Owner Mary Hood, who bakes cakes using eggs from her pet geese Gertrude and Glenda, is back in business. There are three geese in total, but obviously George the Gander is not responsible for the egg output.
She said: “I closed it at the beginning of January. I was going to open back up a week later, but my husband and I came down with flu. It floored the both of us.
New opening times
“I’m a lot better now. So we will be open 10am – 4pm Saturday and Sunday and 10am – 6pm Monday to Friday.
“It was getting silly. It was an honesty box and you accept that not everybody will pay the full amount. But it was getting to the point I was wasting my time.
“I spend a lot of time making these cakes and packaging and labelling them.
“Now we have a wireless doorbell. When the visitor comes they will ring the bell. I will hear it in the kitchen and can put my coat on and run out. There is a padlock on it, so it’s not an honesty box any more, which is a little bit disappointing, because it has taken away some of the magic.
“But that’s life, not everybody is honest.
“We will see how it goes with the bell. I’ve put a note on it saying, ‘please ring the bell for assistance’. Fingers crossed that works.”
Crazy Goose Lady will be putting coloured flags up so that people can see the cake stand from the road.
Where to find her
She can be found at the end of a lane on the left-hand side of the first Crianlarich roundabout, if you are coming from Tyndrum.
Sweet treats on offer include millionaire shortbread, mint Aero slice, Malteser slice, gingerbread, golden syrup sponge cakes and chocolate cakes.
Geese eggs are three times the size of hens’ eggs. They contain healthy fats and are perfect for home baking.
And geese are known to make perfect “guard dogs”. They are very noisy, quite territorial and were famously used for that very purpose at a distillery in Dumbarton for years.
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