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.