Our Daily Bread

Apologies for the infrequency of our blog posts - the price we pay for living in the beautiful Malvern Hills is that our Internet connection has been very temperamental of late and rather than spending hours trying to upload and write our blog, the precious times the connection is live orders and website updates take priority!
It may be due to the excessive wet weather, although that seems to have worked wonders in the garden, although we need some sun to bring out our cut flower garden in time for our next photo shoot.
We are in the throws of adding a new colour to the Ochre And Ocre range for Autumn, and as ever it involves lots of planning, analysis of order quantities, and brochure pagination and copy. I do love doing the photo shoots, as Rachel Spivey is such fun to work with, and as a self confessed lover of ceramics, it is the perfect excuse to pick up some lovely new/new preloved),  bits to use in the shoot. Our office is becoming a bit crowded at the moment!

Challah (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As a break from all the planning, I am really getting into bread making at the moment. The Aga is as close to a real bread oven you can get, and it gives you a really tasty loaf. One of my latest creations was goats cheese and sun dried tomato, and next on the list is a blackened chorizo. I was lucky enough to get along to one of the Aga demonstations recently, and picked up a few new tips, although I've yet to be brave enough to prove the bread overnight in the fridge.
I really only get chance to get kneading at the weekend, but the results never seem to last into the week.
If the wet weather lets up the vegetable patch will also need some attention, and it is looking very wild at the moment, but my new venture this year of fennel seems to be doing really well, unlike the peas, where the rabbits have been on a wild rampage.
We seem to be over run with rabbits at the moment, and whilst it is nice to sit and watch the baby bunnies frolicking on the lawn, serious vengeance is required after a visit to the garden where holes and dug up plants are everywhere. Baby Ochre particularly loves them, as his favourite soft toy is Peter Rabbit, so I'm not sure how he would feel if his Mummy started pest control patrols!

Illustration of Peter Rabbit from The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Rain Rain Go Away....

I know we needed the rain, but since it's started it hardly seems to have eased up. Fingers crossed it is just April showers as we have to plant up our veg plot. Last years effort was a bit half hearted, due to the early arrival of Baby Ochre, but this year we have good intentions of using all the raised beds as well as the greenhouse. We (that being the Royal we) have managed to plant a few rows of potatoes, but so far that's it! 

Our new lawn mowers have arrived for the Spring / Summer season; 3 sheep and 6 lambs. They have already settled in well, exploring our orchard and the lambs bouncing and skipping around. Puppy Ochre is particularly taken with them, and takes any opportunity to slip out of the office to sit and watch them through the gate.

On the business side for Ochre And Ocre our latest wholesale customer is the very lovely Webbs of Wychbold, and Ryton, the Organic Garden Centre. Both excellent days out, if you are near either we thoroughly recommend popping in.

With no shows this year, it is nice not having to load and unload stock and props, and it does give us more time to forward plan; we have decided on our new Autumn colourway. Weather permitting it would be great to get some shots in the garden, instead of the week before Christmas like we usually do! I just hope we can tear Rachel Spivey away from her summer weddings for a trip to the Malvern Hills one ( hopefully fine) day!

Business as usual

Time has flown by over the last few weeks and we have been really busy since the new brochures have gone out. Our wholesale side has also been busy and as well as some good repeats from customers like RHS, and The Hen House, we are thrilled to have got into some new accounts like Fenwicks in Tunbridge Wells and Rossiters in Bath. Both proper, department stores, offering a wide choice as well as good service. A novelty in some high street stores.
We have had some more press coverage in The English Home magazine, this time it was our new puppy who had a starring role, accessorised with some Organic Cotton textiles! Another mention in the Sunday Express magazine, all helping to give our brand some credibility.
Time to forward plan is in short supply but knowing the leadtimes our thoughts are already turning to new introductions, and it would be really nice to have a summer photoshoot instead of the week before Christmas! (Although the weather may not be any better!)
Outside it really does feel like Summer is on it's way, the Spring blossom is everywhere. We have so many apple trees in our area looking out of the office window it can almost look like a covering of snow some mornings.

Why I Love my Aga

We were thrilled to get some tabloid press coverage this week, with a lovely mention in the Daily Mail.

The mini write up had mentioned how our Aga pads were the writers favourite, and this has led to an out pouring of Aga love on the phones. I have spoken to people who have had their Aga's for 20 years and want to give them a face lift with some fresh new textiles, and to people who aspire to own one and are choosing the textiles first!
I grew up with a Range cooker, not as posh as an Aga but it was oil fired none the less. My mum used it daily, from boiling the kettle, to slow cooking casseroles, making lovely smelling welsh cakes, and there was always washing hanging up above drying. The range cooker came into it's own at lambing time, and I will never forget the look on my husband, (then boyfriends) face when the warming oven door swung open when he was staying for breakfast and a poorly lamb let out a pitiful bleat as he pushed the door. Needless to say lamb casserole was never on the menu during lambing time, far too insensitive.
Now as a working mum, juggling baby, business and puppy, my Aga really is worth it's weight in gold. It starts in the morning boiling water for the babies bottles. I often pop in something at breakfast time to slow cook through the day so it doesn't matter what time we finally sit down for supper.
Our washing is beautifully aired on the warming plate, babies bib is repeatedly washed and dries quickly before it's next use on the front bar. The fire kindling dries out well in the warming oven, and the puppy after a long day chewing up the packaging boxes and playing with the baby and his toys will recline next to it's warmth whilst I sort out supper. I love the background heat it provides to the kitchen, and when I am feeling really lazy it cooks ready made pizza's as well as a pizza oven! Bakoglide is the best invention ever, and I have found so many things you can cook without oil on the top plate, from oil free fried eggs, to aubergine slices and cheese toasties.
We do have a standard electric cooker, affectionately known as the ornament, as I think I've used it twice, when the Aga was waiting for it's service. I know the Aga was a big investment but it is more than just a cooker, it is like an extra pair of hands in the kitchen.

Free Postage

Image via WikipediaAfter much debate, mini surveys and quite a lot of number crunching we have decided to offer FREE POSTAGE for all UK standard deliveries on our Ochre And Ocre website. We know ourselves there is nothing more annoying than wanting something and paying more in postage than the item is worth.

We will be sending out all our parcels by Royal Mail second class instead of first class, but we do turn around our parcels usually within 24 hours so you will still receive your order between 3 - 5 days.

Heavier items we will send by our courier APC who offer a really excellent next day service.

You can get full details of our delivery rates here.

February Spring Fair

We've had a busy few weeks at Ochre And Ocre HQ this month, with a lot of time and effort put into taking part in the Spring Fair trade show at the NEC. It is essentially like setting up a pop up shop for 1 week - you have to be able to carry everything in and out of the halls on your own, and be pretty handy with a cordless drill and a staple gun!
Every year I look enviously at the "big guys" who have there own teams  who do all the set up and pack down, often you don't even see the owners behind the bigger brands. Although being a little bit of a control freak, (I had better say it before my friends do!), I do like being there to set it all up, so you know exactly what to expect on day one when the doors open for the public.
We had a great reaction from the trade to our stand and our Organic Cotton kitchen textiles.
There is always a lot of follow up from the show, and we have finally ticked off all our replies, sent out the first few orders, and tried to catch up on the rest of our jobs. As a small business, unfortunately a week out of the office means that there is no one left to do your role whilst you are out.
Next we are looking forward to our new Katie Organic Cotton collection arriving, so we will be busy checking off the stock, loading the new lines onto the website and sending out our shiny new brochures. Then it really will be Spring!

New Newsletter and yummy recipe.

Our new revamped newsletter has just gone out and we are really pleased we have already had a record number of opens. We've tried to give it a fresh look and there is also a new feature, a monthly recipe slot featuring seasonal, local food from our favourite local haunt, The Inn at Welland.

Their first recipe is a rather yummy Pan fried pigeon breast, with wild mushroom fricassee, and garlic croutons.

Ingredients:-
1 x wood pigeon breast
75g woodland mushrooms
1 clove garlic - finely chopped
15g unsalted butter
50ml chicken stock
1 pinch chopped parsley
Salt & pepper
Truffle oil - few drops
Slice of ciabatta bread
Watercress to garnish

Method
1.Rub the garlic clove over the bread, lightly oil & grill until golden, reserve & keep warm until needed.
2.Sear the pigeon breast in very hot pan in vegetable oil (45 seconds eachside)
3.Take out to rest.
4.Add mushrooms, chopped garlic & butter, sauté for 30 minutes
5.Add chicken stock, cook until reduced & thickened
6.Season with salt & pepper, a few drops of truffle oil & parsley
7.Place the ciabatta in a warm bowl, add the mushrooms and the pigeon breast, coat with the sauce and garnish with watercress

We would love to hear how the recipe turns out for you and look forward to sharing another recipe with you next month in our Ochre And Ocre March newsletter.