11 September 2010

Should We Encourage People From Countryside To Cities?

...Self doubt gets you thinking.  I am still thinking through my concerns about Fairtrade and I wonder whether I've got it arse over tip. 

19 August 2010

Axel's Raspberry Cheesecake Recipe

My sister and her family came to visit at the weekend, so I was scrabbling around trying to come up with a summery pudding to create, while the rain was gushing down outside in torrents.  I decided that roast chicken with all the trimmings, followed...

30 July 2010

Biodegradable Tea Bags

It was brought to our attention recently that some tea bags are not really biodegradable as they use polypropylene glues to seal the edges of the tea bags.  This is only the case for tea bags that are heat sealed in the tea bagging process.  The tea...

09 July 2010

Pierre Hermé’s Recipe For Raspberry And Chocolate Tart

Pierre Hermé continues to inspire me. 

21 June 2010

Recipe - Sweet Barbecue Style Chicken Legs

We are always looking for ways to liven up chicken to feed the kids - simple, tasty and quick & easy family food.  This recipe is something I devised for Sweet Barbecue Style Chicken Legs is so quick to make that our children both love to help to...

21 May 2010

Recipe for Indulgent Coffee Cup Cakes

There's lots of fuss and carry on about cup cakes and how wonderful they are, so I felt I better try and make some.  I was, also, unsure what the actual difference between a cup cake is and a good, old fashioned fairy cake.

28 April 2010

Fairtrade Flowers And The Volcano - An Update

This is the response I got from Sainsbury's on Fairtrade Flowers:

20 April 2010

Fairtrade Flowers And The Volcano

One of the consequences of the volcanic ash is that food and flowers from the developing world is not being flown in.  Now I don't buy vegetables out of season nor do I buy flowers out of season, but I worry about the impact this flying ban is having...

07 April 2010

Recipe - Sweet Tart Dough or Sweet Pastry

I am not very good at making pastry.  Some people say that you need cold hands to make pastry and dough, but I have warm hands as I seem always to be burning away all that food - perhaps I just never sit still or my metabolism runs too fast. 

27 March 2010

Recipe - Hot Cross Buns

I have always bought our hot cross buns from the baker or the supermarket, which just seems a bit too lazy really, so I thought I would have a bash at making them myself this year.

21 March 2010

Review of Green Ideas in General Election

The UK's General Election will be held soon - the weight of money is for it to coincide with the Council elections slated for 6 May 2010 but these could probably be shifted to coincide with a later General Election which must be latest of 3 June 2010...

16 March 2010

Steenbergs Fairtrade Vanilla - Some Background

I tried to post a response online at The Times in relation to their article but they wouldn't post it - perhaps it was too long or too partisan.  In any case here are some further details on Steenbergs vanilla. 

15 March 2010

Child Labour and Vanilla

There was a pretty damning article in The Times yesterday about child labour and low prices paid for vanilla from Madagascar - see http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article7060962.ece, however rest assured our vanilla beans are not c...

05 February 2010

Steenbergs Launches New Design For Spice Tins

At Steenbergs, we have been doing a lot of work trying to refresh parts of our organic spices and seasonings range.  Now we have relaunched our spice tins into a bright new label and an elegant rolled tin.

29 January 2010

Development thoughts about vanilla from the Congo

I like the vanilla beans from the Congo because of their story.  I like the idea that the vanilla beans are grown in the Democratic Republic of Congo in the Virunga National Park.  I, also, like the fact that this is a fair trade story, where local p...

24 January 2010

Recipe - Baking Chocolate Brownies For Haiti

Our children's school council have decided to run a cake stall tomorrow to raise money for Haiti.  I feel especially moved by Haiti as my grandmother was born next door in the Dominican Republic, which has escaped the horrors of their neighbours.  Th...

08 January 2010

Recipes - Oranges And Lemons For Really Great Homemade Biscuits

While snowed in in the cold countryside of Northumberland, we enjoyed some warming chai as well as delicious mulled wine using our organic Fairtrade mulling wine spices.  I also concocted a couple of citrus based biscuits, with one of them coming fro...

01 January 2010

Recipe For Luxuriant Chocolate Chai Latte

The snow is still here and it's a white and cold Christmas and New Year period.  We've travelled to Northumberland, my home county, where we have observed the traditional first footing in a harshly, cold and rural climate - I love it.