01 February 2010

Trying To Build A Better Spices Business

When Sophie and I set up Steenbergs, we were very clear in our own minds about what Steenbergs as a business wanted to offer as products - the widest and most exotic range of great spices, herbs, seasonings and teas from around the world that are gro...

30 January 2010

Reflections On Le Credit Crunch

I think I am now pretty much up to looking back on 2007 - 2009, and thinking about 2010 and forwards.  Le credit crunch and le recession have been a roller coaster, like surfing a bad set of hairy, tumbling roiling waves, but it's been a truly cathar...

06 January 2010

The Three Wise Men Give Gold, Frankincense And Myrrh

We went to the pantomine at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle last weekend, and as usual it was fantastic with good songs, amazing costumes and some great contraptions - a flying pegasus that pulled Cinderella's coach was a highlight.  Then there were t...

21 December 2009

UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen

The UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is the perfect example for the phrase "a damp squib".  Squibs are small explosives that are used for special effects and in the past for clearing away coal in the mines when they were sold as "Miners' Sa...

05 December 2009

Recipe For Marzipan For Christmas Cake

I love marzipan, which is often called in a highly industrial way almond paste (an honest but bland name). 

22 November 2009

A Christmas Traditional Craft - Making A Pomander

Today we’ve had a ago at making pomanders.  Pomanders were used in England from the medieval period until the 18th century as a way of perfuming the air.

19 November 2009

Antony Gormley And 2 Modern Icons (Or Maybe It's 4)

I have just been for a short family visit to Corbridge which is from where I hail.  I am born and bred in Northumberland and have Northumberland, the Tyne and the North coursing through my veins and deeply embedded in my psyche.  I love the North and...

07 November 2009

Give A Christmas Present Today

It's the end of the ancient British year as we move from the bright, warm summer period into the winter period.  It's a time to reflect on where we are.  As we move into the colder, winter months, it is a time to be thankful for what we have got and...

01 November 2009

Recipe For Pumpkin Pie

What to do with all that lovely pumpkin that you've got after scooping out your pumpkin, or just because they are such good value discounted in those shops that have overstocked.  This year we've made a classic pumpkin pie - which was deliciously ind...

31 October 2009

For Halloween let's enjoy Calan Gaeaf

It’s Fright Night which seems to be the name that Halloween is now being marketed under.  This is not its first branding makeover as All Saint’s Day was shifted from 13 May to 1 November, and so All Hallows’ Even to 31 October, to hijack and repress...

29 October 2009

Recipe For Homemade mincemeat - Countdown To Christmas

Mincemeat is delicious and really easy to make.  The aroma and flavour of homemade mincemeat is fantastic, making the shop-bought commercial stuff pale into insignificance – a travesty of taste, lacking in depth, rich or any booziness.

25 October 2009

Stir It Up - Recipe For Christmas cake

It’s time for the Christmas countdown and preparations have now begun in earnest – it’s getting darker and the kids are now on half term. 

24 October 2009

Exotic Pepper From Around The World

I’ve been hunting for some specialist peppers in recent months.  That’s what some of the thrill of being a spice merchant is all about – hunting for the exotic, tracking it down and then getting it in.

11 October 2009

Recipe for Roast Pork With Apple Sauce

It's that harvesting time of the year, with the trees turning a golden brown and the fruit fulsome on the trees.  I picked an armful of windfalls from our garden and took them inside to make apple sauce to have a with a delicious joint of pork that w...

25 September 2009

Organic...What's In A Name?

What’s in a name?  Everything according to branding consultants. 

14 September 2009

Summer's Over

Saturday was hot, a really glorious day.  However, the swallows have gone so the blue sky felt empty without their energetic dance swooping and soaring the catch insects.  They must have left while I was in London last weekend and into last week.  An...

13 September 2009

Turner's Rain, Steam, Speed - The Great Western Railway

Last weekend, we spent in London at The Speciality & Fine Food Fair 2009, where we had a stand displaying our wares to UK trade buyers.  It was a good show, with numbers slightly down, but the quality was there; the froth has gone out of the mark...

06 September 2009

Footprints in the sand

Earlier this year, anthropologists announced the find of ancient fossilised footprints in Kenya dating back about 1.5 million years.  That's 1.7 million years after our major prehistorical ancestor, Lucy or Australopithecus afarensis, whose skelton h...