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. 

Fairs and Filing

There seems to be a never ending pile of admin at Ochre HQ at the moment - orders to be logged and stock updated, bills to be paid and filed, and what feels like piles and piles of paper. Although we strive to be green in all aspects of our business, we recycle, shred and reuse, and try to do as much as possible online, we still seem to end up with a desk covered in stuff.
We have occasional purges where afterwards we feel very self righteous and Monica like, then we go back into the spiral of mounting piles of stuff.
With the big Spring Fair approaching at the Nec next month, we have extra piles dotted around - piles of samples requiring ironing and labelling, paperwork that needs to be taken(more paper!), and random props - a few mannequins dotted around and a ladder!
Going from working all day in the beautiful Malverns, with stunning views and the ability to get up and stretch your legs in fresh air when ever the want takes you, to spending a very long 6 days in the NEC, with no daylight and recycled air is not something we are looking forward to - but it will be the first chance we will get to get a reaction to our new design and feedback from existing retailers of the Ochre And Ocre brand, so we are weirdly excited.
Right better get on with reducing the next pile....it's nearly the weekend!

Happy New Year - finally!!

Why finally you ask?? Because I have been woefully tardy on updating our blog, but I do have good intentions of keeping it more up to date this year! (New Year resolutions and all that!)
We have already had a busy start to the year at Ochre HQ - the Clearance sale has been going great guns, and it is great to start seeing some empty space on the store shelves. Just in time as our new addition to our British Collection, Katie is arriving shortly. We had a great photo shoot with our photographer pal Rachel Spivey just before Christmas.(a sneaky peak at one of the new images below). It was a lovely clear day, which gave our images a beautiful winter light. We have been laying out our new brochure, and trying a few new things in there to give it a revamp.
We are also working on giving our newsletter a fresh look and have a new feature that we are very excited about starting in February. More on that in a later blog.
Our annual trip to the Spring fair is only a few weeks away as well - and we have been updating our stand ready for the wholesale crowd. So as you can read, although we've been quiet we certainly haven't been putting our feet up, it's full steam ahead here ready for an exciting year at Ochre And Ocre!

Christmas Fair

Due to the extra family members this Autumn Ochre And Ocre are not attending the usual Christmas Fairs and shows. I have to say it has been nice not to have been a travelling salesperson and packing up all of our stock into my tardis like car. (It never seems to fit when I repack after a show!I once travelled home from the Country Living Fair with a plastic stool around my neck, and boxes on my lap - as a passenger I must add!)

I obviously felt like I was missing out so I came up with the idea of doing a mini fair at Ochre HQ(aka as our family home!). It will be a chance to raise money for my two favourite charities, our local Hospice and Cancer Research). Also to help promote my business more locally and meet the natives....I do hope they are friendly!
However this has resulted in us having to finish off the last few jobs in the kitchen, resulting in long weekends and late nights. I know it will be worth it when it's done, but once again as D day approaches I do wonder why I add extra stress to my life, on top of the website and brochure, oh and a baby and a puppy!.
Luckily two of our good friends will be in supporting roles with their wares - the very lovely Emma and her Little Soap Company, and the talented Jo Verity with her beautiful decoupage. We are very fortunate to live in such beautiful surroundings so if nothing else visitors can enjoy the views!
If you are intersted in coming along this Friday and Saturday do drop us an email to our customer service address and we can send you the details and a map, (essential!)