24 April 2009
Steenbergs newsletter
Spring offers from Steenbergs - the organic and Fairtrade specialists
May brings special offers on post and packaging, barbeque seasonings and ideas for credit crunch cooking.
Steenbergs online shop is no longer only organic spices and seasonings - we've a whole range of organic bakery ingredients, bath products including shampoo and soap, and vitamins and supplements, as well as organic chutneys, sauces, jams and marmalade - you can even buy your own instant organic herb garden - just buy the voucher and send it off and a whole herb garden will appear!
Free post and packing on all UK orders over £10.00
From now until mid-May Steenbergs is offering free post and packing on all UK orders over £10.00. So if you haven't looked at all the other things we now offer - now's the time - from the delicious organic chutneys, mustards, jams and sauces to organic baking ingredients to organic bakery accessories to vitamins and supplements.
There's lots on offer at Steenbergs as well as our core range of organic, some Fairtrade, spices, herbs, seasonings, chais and blended teas.
This offer will last until Friday 15th May - 7am.
Steenbergs English breakfast loose leaf tea - organic and fairtrade - is back
For the many converts we have for this tea - we apologise for the delay - which was caused due to a sudden upsurge in demand between harvests- we've been awaiting one last vital ingredient of our delicious blend - it's now in stock and blended. So for those of you who need a cup of Steenbergs English breakfast tea to start the day - you no longer need worry and we've managed to secure sufficient supplies for forward sales.
Two other favourites return
Za'atar and organic dukkah - both middle-eastern spice blends have also made a reappearance due to popular demand. Za'atar is a delicious blend of thyme, sumach and toasted sesame seeds and works well on bread, chicken or in a whole variety of dishes, very moreish flavour. Dukkah is a mixture of toasted seeds and spices and also works well on bread with oil but is also good in a whole variety of Middle Eastern dishes including salads and as a crust.
Summer is around the corner - barbecues are back on the menuOn the grounds that we, as in the Brits, are never sure how long our summer is going to last, the first sign of sun quite rightly brings out the bbqs. Steenbergs has a whole range of organic BBQ rubs to help you create delicious BBQ flavours. The rubs also work on grilled or roasting meat - including kebabs cooked in the oven.
Steenbergs also stock a whole range of sauces to inspire any BBQ from Glenroyd's organic sweet chilli jam to a whole host of organic mustards, chutneys, even organic tomato ketchup and organic mayonnaise.
We've even got the recycled aluminium foil to create parcels of steamed vegetables or steamed fish. Add Steenbergs organic Mediterranean rub for a delicious herby flavour or Steenbergs all purpose organic one-derful rub for a more spicy flavour.
Credit crunch cooking and recipes
With the current credit crunch about more people are cooking at home and looking for interesting ways with left overs. There's always something to do to jazz up a meal - whether it's stir frying with Steenbergs organic chinese 5 spice or for a spicier version try our organic nasi goreng, with its heat of hot chillies? Noodle soup is always a winner at home and can be a way of using up a left overs as well as cost effective way - Steenbergs organic Chinese 5 spice is frequently used in ours.
Alternatively curries have long been a traditional way of using up left overs. For mild tastes try our organic korma blend of spices and add organic ground almonds and coconut milk. A very traditional curry, and our most popular, is the Steenbergs organic Madras curry works very well. One of our favourite curries at the moment is organic chana masala - a chickpea curry (don't forget to soak them overnight before cooking!). Sophie is currently a particular fan of Steenbergs organic Sri Lankan masala which works well with some fried onion, coconut milk and fish or vegetables - it's very easy and quick to create a tasty curry.
Alternatively we have lots of different sauces from organic soy sauce and organic Worcestershire sauce to organic chutneys.
Steenbergs offers a whole range of recipes to help inspire you - if you would like to add your favourite recipe just email sophie@steenbergs.co.uk with the recipe and we'll publish it with acknowledgement to you.
Focus - Axel and Sophie Steenberg
Steenbergs was founded in late 2003 to offer quality organic spices, packed with flavour, aroma and provenance. It was founded by Sophie and Axel Steenberg, husband and wife who met each other at Edinburgh University where Axel studied microbiology - very useful with all the microanalysis we undertake with the spices - and Sophie studied environmental and African politics. They moved to Yorkshire 13 years ago. Axel comes originally from Northumberland and Sophie was born in London, brought up in Gloucestershire. They have two small children (well 6 and 7) - both of whom have found themselves tasting all sorts of blends over the years - the flavoured sugars have been most popular, but they have also enjoyed helping make sausages to test out the blends. Axel is chief creater of blends - which is no mean feat as we now offer over 200 of them, Axel also does the majority of imports and liaising with our partners around the world.
Sophie tends to concentrate more on the human resources and public relations side of the business. The biggest challenge now is to not look at the computer and website every 5 minutes at home! Biggest challenge in 2003 was to get started - there was just so much to do and think of including getting organic certification in our then unit, all with a 1 and 2 year old at home, I think we took the key to our first unit on our daughter's first birthday. Biggest success - becoming the UK's first Fairtrade spice company.
Since we began we now employ 7 members of staff (many of whom are part-time) and most of whom have been with us for several years now - with their roles developing along with the growth of the business.
Functions and feedback
We've been working with our web designers to improve the look and ease of use for the website in recent months. These range from interlinking the recipes and products more to helping you move around the site. Watch out for our new blog which will be up and running shortly.
We would love to hear from you about a) what you would like us to improve on the website b) what products or product area you would like us to add to the web shop c) what you would like us to include in future newsletters/ blogs.
We will try and incorporate as many of the ideas as practically possible.
Stockist news
Don't forget that we keep a list of your local stockist on the web - just tap in your postcode and your nearest stockist should come up. Booths supermarkets also stock us and we have a number of distributors particularly for our popular organic Fairtrade vanilla extract, organic rose water and organic peppermint extract - as well as several stockists in Scotland, Ireland and Finland. Oxfam also continue to stock our organic Fairtrade bagged teas - peace tea (our blended black tea) and green tea.
