MEET the mum-of-one serving African and Caribbean takeaway to hungry shoppers and traders at Birkenhead Market.

Janet Rach, 52, opened her shop Ena Pa African & Caribbean Spices and Sauces at the market in November 2018, named after her mum Georgina Yaa Boakyewaa - also known as Eno Yaa, with a vision of selling her homemade spices and sauces.

But Janet says ever since she stepped into her unit, opposite Wards Fish and next door to Tate Aisle Gallery, people kept asking her for food.

Janet, from Egremont, told the Globe: "I am half French and half West African, the shop is called Ena Pa in memory of my mum because my mum passed away last year.

"All her life she didn't use anything else to cook than spices and salt.

"That was how I learnt that you could make good food without adding any chemicals and using just naturally sourced ingredients from what nature gave you.

"There are some influences from my travels and the people I have met plus some little touches from what I know of her. All the sauces and spices are just 100% natural.

"When I found this place I thought, this is perfect - I opened up at the market to have a fixed place as I was working from home and it was getting even more busier in there and I couldn't find space to carry it on, jars and pots everywhere!

"The original idea was for me to come here and sell for two days but as soon as I set foot in the market, people started asking for food!

"I did feel that something was missing here. A lot of people kept asking for food so I first started with soups and then went to vegetarian meals, vegan meals and then meat dishes so now I do a bit of everything.

"It's like a little puzzle and we just put it together.

"I still regularly go to events and makers markets, I need to be in contact with people all the time to keep me going so it is fun going to the markets."

Wirral Globe:

Ena Pa at Birkenhead Market

How Ena Pa works is that there is a takeaway kitchen at the front and shop at the back for Janet to sell her spices and sauces.

Janet has always worked in a kitchen and even used to run a takeaway at the back of Luton market, Bedfordshire and this is where the idea for Ena Pa began.

She added: "It all started years back. I've always been in the kitchen - in all possible positions in the kitchen.

"I used to run a takeaway shop at the back of Luton market to sell a lot of my sauces, customers started buying it and liking it, so they would ask for sauces and spices so they could try their own.

"I had to close down my shop due to illness and then my partner and I moved up here.

"It was around 2014 when I had a major operation, my partner was coming up here and I wasn't well enough to stay on my own so we decided it would be better for me to just come along with him and move up to Wirral.

"So I was out of work for a couple of years but I just wanted to go back and sell my sauces and spices.

"We both ended up staying in Wirral and we love it so much."

Ena Pa will be open from Thursday, July 25 after changing to summer opening hours.

For more information about Ena Pa, based at 4a Henry Tate Aisle, Birkenhead Market, visit

https://www.facebook.com/EnaPaSpices/

or email enapaspices.sauces@gmail.com