Our Produce, supplying Staffordshire with great value local food

Have just taken down all the Christmas cards and cut them up to make labels for next year’s presents. Also bought crackers in the sales…

This is a really local do that I thought I’d just tell you about because it was good last year and promises to be bigger and better this year.

It’s from 10.00 till 16.00 next Sunday at the Eland Lodge equestrian centre which is situated near the end of the long Hollybush Rd out of Newborough heading up towards Six Lane Ends at the top of Draycott bank (post code DE6 5HD). Santa is arriving by horsedrawn sleigh at midday and will be there until 3.00pm.

There’s loads of parking and it’s a great opportunity to pick up some unusual Christmas pressies and goodies from a wide range of local suppliers. Our Produce will be there with a stand, so do come and say hello!

Hope to see you there.

I had to laugh at myself today (well..I do most day’s actually)..but I was pretty stressed trying to sort out orders, get my bits ready for a big fundraising do for my daughter’s school tonight and photograph all the new Christmas things I’ve got coming in to put on the site. Bert, my three legged, one-eyed cat (it’s  a long story, for another time), was getting under my feet, asking to be fed (in his mind meal number 3 is due at 10 o clock) and generally getting the sharp end of my tongue because, well, there was no one else..

Anyway, I thought I’d get a bit creative..you can tell the level of my creativity if you’ve seen the site- and set up the shots looking out of the window over my autumnal garden with a holly wreath providing a nice bit of colour and suggestion of Christmas..you get the picture. I carefully placed my jar of marmalade with Glenfiddich by the wreath and got ready to take my snap when up jumps Bert and plonks himself right in the window. Feeling as unloved as he was (he isn’t) I didn’t have the heart to tell him off again but nether did I have time to waste- so if you look closely at the Christmas Special preserves you might just be able to spot a bit of fur…

Like many of you I can’t bear to see food go to waste and when I dreamt up Our Produce, part of the idea of the name was that it was truly ‘our’ produce because we would match people who had excess supplies of something up with someone somewhere who would want them. This has come to fruitition a number of times and there was a great example this week when a customer with an abundance of Jerusalem articokes, offered them to Our Produce. The great thing was I actually passed most of them on to Richard the market gardener because they are something he doesn’t grow, but knows he could sell at a forthcoming farmer’s market this weekend. Great, eh?

This is fantastic! Customers have started telling me what they have for tea whether it’s burgers and chips or salmon and roasted vegetables. I love to hear from them so why don’t you write a message on the blog and share with us all what you’ve really enjoyed cooking and eating today!

I have just prepared tonight’s tea and I can’t blieve what a feast we’re having, when I just didn’t think I had that much ‘in’.  The samples of yellow courgette and Summer squash Richard gave me last week from the market garden, have been sitting on the kitchen table looking at me, and to be honest I didn’t really know what to do with them. Stupid, I know, but these are alien vegetables to me. Richard told me to roast them…so now I have..together with some onions, peppers, tomatoes, garlic and herbs out of the garden. The vegetables will go on top of some cous cous with a bit a feta cheese crumbled over and then I’ve taken some lovely salmon steaks out of the freezer, which I’ll score the skin of and then pan fry so the skin goes crispy and then pop in the oven with the veg for the last 10 minutes.

Wanna come over for tea? All this can be yours..almost every ingredient is from Our Produce…