Unbought Delicacies: 05/01/2014

Friday, 10 January 2014

Local champion my arse................

I volunteer for a few hours a week in our community shop here in the village. yesterday, I learned that the bakery in the next village but one, a distance of maybe 2.....3 miles will no longer bring bread supplies to our village shop as it couldn't always meet the minimum order value. This bakery has been in business for 100 + years, and I should think that the good people of this village have gone some way to keeping it so over the decades. I was told it is not financially viable to continue small deliveries like ours. I feel this is a real slap I the face to both the extremely hard working manager (who has lived in the environs all of her life) and the village in general. I have told them not to expect me to champion any aspect of their 'local' supplier/business, and that unless this decision is reversed I will not buy any of their goods, or recommend their company to others. They can still find the time and make the effort to go as far afield as Wimborne, Blandford, Sherborne and Canford Cliffs, but cannot go the 2/3 miles up the road? I feel very strongly about this one, if it wasn't for the smaller orders and local people, this business would not be where it is today, am fairly certain of that. They seem to be concentrating now on building up their more 'artisan' bread boxes and selling courses (don't start me on 'courses'!!). Bite the hand that feeds you, why not? PPhhhhtttt. Glad I bake my own a lot of the time.

http://www.oxfordsbakery.co.uk/

Everything does indeed come to those who wait

I've been wanting a fish kettle for about 5 years now, and one appeared at the tip today. Looks unused, still with labels and things on. 60p. :)

Thursday, 9 January 2014

Tipple no more

In 1627, John White of Stourton Caundle was sentenced to three days in Dorchester gaol and fined 20 shillings for selling ale without a licence that resulted in folk being so drunk that rowdy behaviour ensued. He was made to promise to tipple no more.

Dorset 1/4 Sessions, 16325 - 1628

Diary

I have treated myself to a lovely new diary, hoping to get to grips with using it properly; not so much of a record/journal type diary, but for what is up and coming and so I don't miss things. All part of my grand plan to Get Properly Organised. It's from Earth Pathways, is beautifully illustrated on the outside and on the inside, with handwritten dates on the pages, inspirational quotes, beautiful illustrations - all in all a book of pure gorgeousness which will be a pleasure to use and read over the coming year. Do you use/keep a diary?

Wednesday, 8 January 2014

Lamb tagine

I made this last night for a change, it was really good. I found the recipe online here http://www.simplybeefandlamb.co.uk/recipes/minced-lamb-tagine

I used my own bottled apricots instead of dried, and served it with hot tabbouleh, which was really good. I'll be making this again - quick, easy and fairly cheap to do

Sunday, 5 January 2014

Thankful

I have found such joy

I have found such joy in simple things;
A plain, clean room, a nut-brown loaf of bread,
A cup of milk, a kettle as it sings,
The shelter of a roof above my head,
And in a leaf-laced square along the floor,
Where yellow sunlight glimmers through the door.
I have found such joy in things that fill
My quiet days: a curtain's blowing grace,
A potted plant upon my window sill,
A rose, fresh-cut and placed within a vase;
A table cleared, a lamp beside a chair,
And books I long have loved beside me there.
Oh, I have found such joys I wish I might
Tell every woman who goes seeking far
For some elusive, feverish delight,
That very close to home the great joys are:
The elemental things- old as the race,
Yet never, through the ages, commonplace.

~ Grace Noll Crowell

Ideas for handmade gifts

Small knitteds - gloves, scarves, hot water bottle covers, hats, tea cosies, phone covers, little toys,,cushion covers, bags. Some of these can be felted/fulled for extra interest.
Edibles - chutneys and jams, pickles, nice teas in a vintage/retro tin, sweeties, toffees, mustard, home made wine and liqueurs, home dried fruits, ketchups.
For the home - trimmed tea towels, handknitted dishcloths, quilted wallhangings, small samplers, restored picture frames, pot pourri, lavender bags, covered coathangers, little scented bags for hanging on handles, framed photos of family,etc you've taken yourself, pincushion,needle book, scissor keeper, book of promises (eg babysitting, 1 hour's housework, the ironing, etc)
Bathtime - homemade soap, bath oils, bath salts, knitted washcloths, herbal bags for the bath, hand sewn toilet bags, trimmed hand towels, homemade lotions and potions packed in pretty jars and bottles.
For the garden - home saved seed in handmade decorated packets; homemade handcream, exfoliating soap, wheat bag for those digger's aches and pains!

Handmade books, personalised printed notepaper and envelopes.
Hamper of bits and bobs from the above lists, packed in a pretty lined basket.

I'll add some more as and when I think of them; These can be used all year round and easily tailored to the recipient - everyone loves a homemade gift. :)

Inspiring thoughts.............

I saw a man, an old Cilician, who occupied an acre or two of land that no one wanted.
A patch not worth the ploughing, unrewarding for flocks, unfit for vineyards;
he, however, by planting here and there among the scrub cabbages or white lilies and verbena and flimsy poppies, fancied himself a king in wealth, and coming home late in the evening, loaded his board with unbought delicacies.
Virgil

I had no theories to prove. I merely wanted to try living by my own hands, independently as far as possible from a system of division of labour in which the participant loses most of the pleasure of making and growing things for himself. I wanted to bring in my own fuel and smell its sweet smell as it burned in the hearth I had made. I wanted to grow my own food, or forage after it. In short I wanted to do as much as I could for myself, because I had already realised from partial experience the inexpressible joy of doing so.

Harlan Hubbard, Shantyboat: A River Way of Life

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