22 February 2023

Summary: A History Of Y Hen Ogledd

A very rough and speculative summary of the history of the Old North, covering 540s - 660s.

22 February 2023

Summary: Geography Of The Old North

Summary of the suggested place names for the poems of Taliesin, Aneirin and Nennius' battles of Arthur, giving new settings for Rheged and Goddeu.

21 February 2023

King Arthur Was A Northerner - Of Course He Was!

Having already gone where only fools fear to tread, I have read Nennius' accounts of the battles of Arthur and have managed to unpick the secret in the text. Really, I have.

21 February 2023

Yorkshire Really Is God’s Own Country

Aneirin's lament for the fallen soldiers at the battle of Catraeth rings through the ages. Based on my previous blog, I analyse the poems in the new geographic landscape to explain where I think Gododdin really is to be found.

20 February 2023

The Mystery Of The Lost Kingdom of Rheged

Reading Taliesin's Heroic Poems unlocked a new way of seeing the space around here. Through them, I have come up with a possible landscape for the Old North, Rheged and the realm where Urien lived in the sixth and seventh centuries.

20 February 2023

The First British Poem About Trees – ‘The Battle of the Trees’

'The Battle of the Trees' is an old Welsh poem that is about a magical battle where the magician, Gwydion, brings trees to life to help the Britons beat the Picts. This is my take on the poem.

09 January 2023

The HBD Cookbook & Q&A with Petronella Ravenshear

Petronella Ravenshear is a huge advocator of organic produce, a lover of herbs and spices and the author of The HBD Cookbook, a collection of delicious, healthy recipes, based on her popular Human Being Diet. As author and nutritionist to t...

30 November 2022

Festive mulling spices – not just for wine!

Here at Steenbergs we are well known for our sustainable, ethically sourced spices that are hand blended in our eco factory in North Yorkshire. At this time of year, attention often turns to the warm, fragrant spices such as cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg...

17 November 2022

The Leaning Poplar – Is It A Hybrid Or A Native Black Poplar?

There's a poplar trees leaning over from our boundary hedge onto a neighbour's land and it needs to come down for safety. We were concerned it could be a black poplar, so ran some DNA tests to determine whether it was. It is a hybrid poplar.

10 November 2022

Discover More Than Yorkshire puddings in Elaine Lemm's new cookbook

Esteemed food writer and former chef Elaine Lemm originally hails from Yorkshire and following a career that has seen her running cookery schools in France, Yorkshire and Tuscany, she returns to her roots with her new cookbook, More Than Yorkshire Pu...

07 November 2022

A chat with author & wellness consultant Mira Manek

Mira Manek is an author and wellness consultant with her own Café in London. To celebrate Diwali, we were delighted that she shared her delicious Rose Falooda Bites recipe with us - a sweet milky dessert flavoured with rose and served sprin...

03 November 2022

Axel and Sophie's Visit To Allerton Park Waste Recovery Park - 2022

Axel and Sophie visited the Allerton Park Waste Recovery Site to start our journey to understanding what happens to our rubbish - at Steenbergs and at home. The plant diverts almost all local waste from landfill (93%) through energy recovery.

01 November 2022

Sharmini's Cookery School win awards

One of the ways in which we bring our spices to life here at Steenbergs is to collaborate with chefs and cooks from a wide variety of cuisines and cultures. They kindly agree to share their knowledge and recipes with us so that our customers have mor...

27 October 2022

Axel and Sophie's Visit to Yorwaste's Harewood Whin Waste Transfer Facility - 2022

Axel and Sophie visited the recycling and general waste sorting site at Harewood Whin for Steenbergs' mapping of its recycling and waste. It was great to see how the raw recyclate was sorted into corrugated, metals, plastics, and compost.

24 October 2022

Orlando Murrin's new cookbook Two's Company: SIMPLE

Following on from the success of Orlando Murrin's last cookbook Two's Company, we were keen to catch up with him and find out more about his new book Two's Company: Simple, which contains 75 new recipes encompassing everything from week-night qu...

18 October 2022

Community House Ripon: Waste Not Wednesdays

Ripon Community House, based in Ripon, North Yorkshire, runs a fabulous community scheme called Waste Not Wednesdays and we chatted to Caroline Bentham to find out more about it…

26 September 2022

Meet the Team: Kasia

Meet our lovely team member Kasia

17 September 2022

The End of Summer Signals Acorns and Berries in the Wood

As autumn begins to set in, Axel has come across lots of berries and nuts on the trees and thorns in the wood.