Closed for the Summer

I've been so busy setting up the Juniper and Rose Kitchen Garden School this year I've hardly paused for breath. Looking back over the year so far I'm really pleased how far things have come. The garden has provided all the herbs, salads, flowers and fruit I've needed for the school,  the extra's I've relied on my local Green Grocer and my local butcher, Sauls of Spratton, and I've sourced as much produce as possible directly from my local flour millers and farmers.  If there has been a fairtrade option on any of the ingredients we use then we've chosen Fairtrade and we've had lots of students through the doors learning to bake sourdough bread, make jam, create their own artisan cheeses and bake...all whilst using ethical and sustainable ingredients. 

Now after what seems like an eternity of rain and cold there is some sun shine.  It's glorious, and I've time to stop and really think about where we are and everything else that needs to be done.  The builders are in full swing, turning the two bedrooms in the coach house into bed and breakfast and we'll have guest bedrooms ready for students in September. 

Early Autumn will see the How to Keep Chickens course ready to run again and as chickens have laid all the eggs we've used as well as  successfully hatching out two small clutches of Lavender Pekins, we'll some spare Pekins for sale. 

I've started learning about bee keeping on Sunday morning.  A wild honey bee colony have moved in above the sitting room. We'll move them into a hive and hopefully have our own honey next year too.  

If you go to France of Italy in the summer months you will see that the French and the Italians have no problem shutting up shop, whilst for some reason we English seem to plough on despite that fact that half the country is on holiday and the other half are just too hot to be bothered to do anything. 

I know I'm working on new projects over the next couple of months, but for now the Mediterranean in me wins as the summer holidays are upon us.  My children are growing up so fast and these next six weeks are precious days.  Sometimes you just have to forget technology, switch the computer off, abandon the housework and enjoy the sunshine, so we are closed for the summer. 

See you all in September. 

Inspiration

The Kitchen Garden is looking beautiful at the moment. 

I've just popped a dozen chocolate and lavender pekin eggs under a broody .. so watch this space because in 21 days we will have some more chicks.  

This week has gone in a flash. I love teaching especially when it involves Fairtrade products combined with local seasonal food.  It is perhaps my favourite thing to do.  On Tuesday a lady simply hugged me because she was so thrilled as we took her sourdough out of the oven and it was the best feeling in the world. 

I suppose I value my quiet time more then ever when I am busy.  The time to reflect is in my garden and even though the weeds are giving me a real run for my money ... and the cutting garden is a month or more behind I love it. The truth is that the garden is always slightly out of control .. but oh how time disappears when I am phone free and alone.  I never thought I'd say that I actually enjoy pulling weeds.

At heart I am a cook who gardens rather than the other way around.  I plant with my stomach in mind, and do my absolute best to plant and grow things that minimise our impact on the environment, herbs and salad being my first priority but fruit and vegetables are never far behind.  I grow my food,  talk about food, write about food, photograph food and teach other people to make delicious food.. so on the odd occasion I get totally fed up of food.  So where do I go when I am looking for inspiration?  I always end up in the same place.  I sit at my kitchen table with Nigel Slaters Tender I a cook in his vegetable patch.  It is my absolute favourite book because the recipes are delicious, practical and always get me back in the mood to cook.  

Thank you Nigel.  Your books are wonderful.  

No good turn goes unpunished

Made with 100% Fairtrade & British ingredients and it was as delicious as it looks. 

I was bitten by a mouse this evening trying to help it get away from the cat in the garden. It was a cute little thing and I went out of my way to help it out. I picked it up, much to the cat's disgust.  As I was about to pop it out of harms way the bloody thing bit me.  I don't suppose that it meant to hurt me, but it was a really deep nip that drew blood.  I dropped it and squealed.

Now I really wasn't expecting the mouse to stop and say thank you ...  but I wasn't expecting to get a nip either.  I washed my finger in hot water and sterilised it thoroughly and felt somewhat foolish. I had to remind myself that the mouse didn't know any better, but it's certainly the last time I ever help a mouse. By the time I got back from tending my wound I think that the cat had eaten it.

Silly mouse.

In the meantime I had a wonderful weekend with Lynn Hill from the Clandestine cake club.  It was lovely to finally meet her after so long of just chatting on the phone and online. It's really late and I have a class tomorrow so I will leave you with a photo of the Strawberry and Vanilla layer cake that we made and the audio we recorded.

listen to ‘Lynn Hill Clandestine Cake Club on how the club started ’ on Audioboo

Night all. 

x

Lulu Sturdy of Ndali Vanilla

Today is international Women's Day.

I have written a piece about a woman who has inspired me .. but I want to sleep on it before I post.  So if you can bear with me for a day  I will tell you all about the most incredible person who founded the Ndali Vanilla cooperative.

I've seen Lulu's amazing ability to empower the people around her to change their lives. 

Wednesday 13th March 2012 

Oh It's been full on for a few days now. It has taken me a a while to get back to my computer. 

Yesterday I was making banana muffins and chatting to the people on the sourdough course about the importance of buying fairtrade bananas whilst showing them how to use the new Fairtrade Ndali vanilla powder.

I went to bed late and dreamed of smoke mingling with the heady smell of vanilla and I can hear the voices of the Ugandan farmers and their children laughing.  Now I am awake.

Right now it’s 5 am.  I can’t go back to sleep despite my eyeballs hurting. I am so tired but I can never sleep well until I have done what I set out to do.  It has always been this way.  At times I have considered it a dammed curse, and you would think that I would stop setting myself things that I must do, but it doesn’t work like that.  A task will set itself in my mind and I must finish it, and I set to telling a story on international woman’s day about a person who has changed not just my life, but hundreds of lives.  She is one of the most extraordinary people I have ever met. It is now five days later and I must finish writing about Lulu Sturdy of NdaliVanilla or my words will stay in my head and stop me from sleeping.

I was writing the Vanilla chapter two years ago for my recipe book Prepped when I contacted Lulu and I asked if she might send me a bundle of Vanilla to use for the recipes and I would send back the photographs in return.   The vanilla that arrived was exquisite. Dark plump sweet and rich, this wasn’t like any kind of vanilla I’d seem before.  It is the most intense vanilla I had ever had with complex notes of liquorish, caramel and a whisper of smokiness.

I was thrilled that she sent such a lovely bundle. I had changed direction and returned to food as a career, with three young children and started at the bottom of the heap again. I‘d been remindedthat I was an unknown in no uncertain terms and a kindness to someone setting out on a journey is never forgotten.

Green Vanilla Beans are a cash crop. 

Over time I discovered that Lulu had turned to vanilla as a product that grew well on the rich loamy soil of the plantation she inherited unexpectedly in her late twenties. I mentioned if I could ever help with anything to ask.  Then in May last year Lulu asked for some advice on social media and invited me to visit her in Uganda when the vanilla was being harvested. I’m not sure that many husbands who come home from work at night and sit down for supper expect to be asked if he can stay at home and look after the three little ones whilst the wife flies off to West Uganda to harvest vanilla, but I am married to a man who is happy for me to be who I am.  Luckily I married a man who understands me and so in June I found myself on my way to Uganda.

I was so nervous about getting on a plane to going on my own.  I had very little confidence travelling alone.  I’m not sure where I left if but somewhere between getting married and having children I had simply lost me.  But from the moment I landed it was as though I could feel another heartbeat.  Uganda is alive.  I’ve heard others tell of this feeling in Africa.

The thing that stuck me the most when I first saw Lulu was that she has the most intense blue eyes. I knew she had had a huge challenge as a young furniture maker finding herself with such an inheritance, but she calls is Serendipity, and to keep the estate she started the Ndali Fairtrade Vanilla Company.  Easy words to read but I hadn’t really processed what starting to grow vanilla from scratch in Uganda actually involved, let alone managing to get it back to the UK and for wale in the supermarkets.  I found out just what an amazing person she as I spent the next week with Lulu meeting the farmers finding out more about the processing.

It was in that week that I got to understand how our momentary decisions affect the lives of others, and I saw how farmers not only become custodians of the land they farm through sustainable practices, but I also the reality of peoples lives being changed though being paid a fair price.   It is Lulu, who has facilitated this.  It is the actions of Lulu that has literally empowered the people.

You see in the UK most business men and women have first and foremost a commercial aspect to them. But somehow Ndali is much more than this.  It is not a cold-hearted capitalist business.  Yes Ndali buys fairtrade vanilla and processes it, but Ndali is a family.  Lulu runs the business like a mother.  She nurturing, loving and fair and she has an instinct, not to do things for people, but to facilitate them and so enabling them to be doing the best for themselves. She is strict sometimes and seriously fun other times.   The commercial aspect of actually selling these beautiful pods is simply what enables Lulu to do this. Things have not always been straightforward for Lulu.  Many of the challenges that she has faced over the past 12 years would have sent most people scurrying back to the safely of the UK, but Lulu is an extraordinary person. It’s difficult to describe Lulu’s attitude to life in words but she has an understanding and acceptance of herself and the world that seems to give her a quiet strength, far beyond anyone else’s that I have ever met.

When the new machine to grind the very best Vanilla pods into fine crystals arrived everyone was really excited.  You see there was more than one reason to celebrate this machine.  The powder is a new process …  but more than that one of the reasons that the vanilla is so exquisite is that the farmers now have the confidence to leave the pods to take longer to ripen, through being part of the cooperative.  Before the cooperative the famers cash crop of vanilla was an easy target for gangs to rob, and so they would harvest the barely ripe vanilla early  to secure their crop.

Now the Vanillin crystals literally explode out of the pod, and so Lulu invented the Ndali Vanilla powder, which uses the whole of the pod.  She started off grinding them using a coffee grinder in her kitchen to produce what can only be described as the champagne and truffle equivalent of vanilla. It’s now available in Waitrose priced at £5:99.  One tsp is the equivalent on one pod.  Which brings me back to my muffins.

It’s easy to forget that we all have the ability to make a difference in the world. Life can take over and it’s easy to loose what is essentially a really child like belief that things should be fair in life.  But what I really love in the end is that now I am home again Lulu carries on empowering people, because by using her vanilla this empowers me to change the world every time I bake a cake too, and I am part of the movement to change the world one bite at a time.

Ndali Vanilla Powder is available at Waitrose.  

The Big Fair Bake

Fairtrade Sugar

Today is the Vanilla gift swap  .. we are all taking part in The Big Fair Bake  and I am nervous  .. about 40 bloggers are taking part.   I was on  LBC Radio at 7am this morning to talk about it and a survey from the Fairtrade foundation that came up with some fascinating information about Cookbooks having their place and the start of The Big Fair Bake. There wan't much chance to talk about it in any details so I've added in some of the information here. 

The statistics show that when it comes to baking, mum is still the best teacher. The results are from a survey commissioned by the Fairtrade Foundation in partnership with AllRecipes.com, and it says that more than half of us say that we learnt our baking skills from our mothers, with 33% claiming that their favourite tried-and- tested baking recipes were handed down from their mother or grandmother .. so I am wondering today which of the recipe will be family recipes?

The Survey shows that more than half of people stick exactly to their mum’s recipe, especially in the North (67%), and they are generally proud to tell people that it is a family recipe (Scotland 70%) although there are also many adventurous cooks who adapt old recipes and give them a modern twist. People in the South, Midlands and Wales are the happiest to adapt.

It seems that using Fairtrade ingredients when they bake is also really important to many people. Some 62% say they choose Fairtrade products sometimes, and 14% say they choose Fairtrade products whenever they can.  Both men and women are as likely to always try to buy Fairtrade, with people at the younger and older ends of the age scale more likely to choose Fairtrade than those in the middle.

There is such allot of baking ingredients that can be used in baking sugar, cocoa, vanilla, cardamom, raisins, brazil nuts, almonds and many more. I’ve seen first hand how Fairtrade offers farmers a minimum price .. and a sustainable livelihood,  and how that additional Fairtrade Premium for investment in community adds to education, clean water, healthcare and housing .. it’s an amazing thing too see first hand..

So if you want to make a delicious difference join in The Big Fair Bake today click here and maybe cook one of your family favorites.

This isn’t just the kind of chocolate I want to eat - It’s the kind I want to be seen eating.

If there were one food that most women say they couldn’t live without it would be chocolate. I can be included in this group. About five years ago I was introduced to Rococo chocolate in London. If you don’t know them then please allow me to introduce you because Rococo represent everything about the way in which chocolate, and it’s production should be, setting a realistic workable and superb example of style, taste and philosophy.

Rococo is chocolate with out compromise. It is fair trade. The plantation where the cocoa beans are grown in Grenada supports the workers giving them a fair shot at life, whilst we here enjoy seriously delicious chocolate that has probably the most stylish presentation and wrappers ever designed, Chantal makes sure the people behind the scenes are treated as they should be.

As I been writing Prepped! I have noticed that around some seriously minded people you sometimes encounter elitist holier than thou attitudes. The sort of thing you see when this is all marketing guff, but with Chantal Coady and the Rococo team that couldn’t be further from the truth. This is the real thing through and through.

Yesterday I met up with Chantal, as she has been kind enough to provide the chocolate for the Prepped! I had a super meeting then popped downstairs to the kitchen to catch up with the fabulous chocolate master Laurent Couchaux. As Chantal left for an appointment I stayed to snap the chocolates bars on the counter .. with my camera .. (of course .) A chap walked in and waited at the counter. He was a big issue seller, and I watched. What happened was not what I expected, and I shall review my own prejudices in private later. The lady behind the counter smiled and asked what flavor he fancied today. He asked her to choose for him and she popped a chocolate in a bag. He smiled …..and I just had to take a photo. This is Kevin. He is the big issue seller on the street, and Seraphina explained that he pops in every now and again- and a little kindness goes a long way.

This is how chocolate should be. This is what makes life taste good. Right there in front of my eyes the sweetest chocolate in the world is that which is made and given with consideration. Rococo philosophy of what tastes good, and what is right and proper in the world goes hand in hand. This isn’t just the kind of chocolate I want to eat - It’s the kind I want to be seen eating.

This weekend Bring your best chocolate cake to the Motcomb St branch (Rococo Chocolates, 5 Motcomb Street, SW1X 8JU) between 10am and 12:00 this Saturday (16th October) for their chocolate cake competition*.

At midday every entry will be tasted by our founder, Chantal Coady, and Laurent Couchaux, head chocolatier and Prof du Choc at Rococo’s Chocolate School. The winner will have their entry posted on our blog and will receive a voucher for a chocolate tasting at Motcomb St.