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...

19 April 2010

Steenbergs Listed in Rose Prince's Latest Book

Rose Prince has been really lovely and kind and listed us twice in her new book - The Good Food Producers Guide 2010 - under Drinks and under Delis and Specialists.  We always feel flattered - and a bit embarassed - when someone so influential likes ...

16 April 2010

Sanity Check On Global Warming Numbers

As I have explained in several of my last few blogs, I have been looking more closely at the detail of the case for global warming.  I have analysed global average temperatures as provided by NASA that uses information from the Hadley Centre in the U...

13 April 2010

Steenbergs As Recommended On Delia Online

Steenbergs Home Bakery range has been recommended on Delia Online as a Good Buy today which is pretty nice really:

13 April 2010

Environmental Policies from Key Parties - Part 1

I have purposely started by reviewing key environmental areas and international development other than climate change first, as they are just as (if not more) important than global warming.  In particular, I have looked at the following key areas - w...

11 April 2010

Pale Blue Dot

Sometimes you read something that says things so much more clearly and beautifully than one could ever hope to do oneself.  And I have recently read one of those - it comes from Richard Dawkins' brilliant anthology of science writing called "The Oxfo...

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. 

04 April 2010

Global warming - reworking out the actual changes

As already discussed, I have become sanguine about the global warming information that I have been reading and hearing from the media - lots of noise and jumping up & down by all sorts of people.  And perhaps, I have taken too much on trust and s...

31 March 2010

New Penja Pepper from the Cameroon in Western Africa

I’ve got some new peppers and as usual I am bit over-giddy about it.  These ones are classic Piper nigrum – the traditional pepper plant for normal black, white and green pepper.   Usually, we get our black pepper from India and Sri Lanka, but these...

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...

14 March 2010

Recipe for Simnel Cake

Today is Mother's Day and what a glorious sunny, Spring day it has been.  We gave Sophie a gorgeous bouquet of flowers - white roses, lilies and greenery - and went to church for a Mothers' Day Service, a bit of a rarity for me.  I liked the sentimen...

09 March 2010

Tasting Japanese Green Tea

At Steenbergs, we are undergoing some changes to our loose leaf specialist teas.  Last year, we redesigned the labels to be bespoke for each tea type and with better descriptions on making tea, as well as being bright and fun looking.  Next week, we...

09 March 2010

Two Media Mentions In The Guardian

Steenbergs was mentioned two articles this weekend in The Guardian which was most kind of the two authors - Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Yotam Ottolenghi - so thank you both. 

07 March 2010

Beautiful Early Spring Day In Northumberland

Today, we were visiting with my parents, who live on the Roman Wall near Hexham in glorious Northumberland. 

05 March 2010

Recipe For Granny Salad Or Cucumber Salad

Following on from the recipe for Yorkshire Salad, my mum makes a wonderfully refreshing cucumber salad, which has a similar sweet and sour flavour.  It's lovely in the summer for al fresco dining and great with fish all your around.