Being Creative

Creative Christmas: Incredible Edibles

I imagine food comes high on most people's list of priorities at Christmas. In fact the tradition of a mid-winter feast - at around the time of the winter solstice - can be traced back to pagan times in Europe and is therefore one of the oldest of Christmas rituals. However, as I said in my last post, if turkey with all the trimmings is beyond your means this year or your family are simply not fans of traditional Christmas fare, there is absolutely nothing wrong with substituting ideas of your own. My only word of caution, if you are planning to do this, is to let any guests know in advance. You never know, they may offer to bring part of the meal as their contribution but in any case I'm sure most guests would be happy to share in something cheaper and plentiful than to feel they are depriving their hosts of a decent portion of something small and expensive by accepting their invitation. If you do have guests coming for Christmas lunch, you could buy several chickens for the price of even a small turkey and they won't take nearly as long to cook, either. Clearly you need to take into account dietary needs and preferences but that would be the same however much you have to spend. It really is a good idea to find out beforehand if any guests are vegetarian or if there are foods they cannot eat on health grounds; it helps to save embarassment on the day for all parties and makes the guest concerned feel that you are interested in their welfare.

This brings me nicely round to thinking about not only what guests will like for their Christmas dinner but what they like and what interests them full stop. This is always my starting point not just for meals but for the giving of gifts. I have overheard people say in shops before now that such-and-such a present will DO for a particular relative or friend. How will you feel when that person throws away your gift or gives it to a charity shop because Uncle John has always loathed coffee or because your best friend is allergic to lanolin? How insulting will it have been for them that you didn't know or remember this? If there is anyone on your carefully constructed list whose likes and dislikes you are unsure of then for goodness sake FIND OUT NOW! Either that or take them off your list. If you don't know them well enough to know what they like or dislike then why are you bothering to send them a present at all? Just a thought . . .

One of the most popular sections on this blog are the recipes, so I thought I would add a few more here that you could either make as gifts, enjoy at home, or both. I have tried to be cost-conscious with all of them. Some are cheap to make, others are cheap depending on where you source your ingredients. (Markets and reduction counters in supermarkets being the cheapest, usually). Some use up ingredients left over from other recipes that might otherwise go to waste and then there are recipes that are so much cheaper to make than if you buy the finished product in a shop. Homemade edible presents are great because they often don't hang around for long. Your biscuits won't have to sit on a shop shelf for 3 weeks before you buy them and therefore won't need to be loaded up with preservatives either because you will be baking them a day or two before giving them. You can also select quality ingredients and bake them with the care and attention that definitely puts them in the 'artisan' bracket that you would normally pay top whack for.

Another positive about creating you own food gifts is that the making of them is such a rewarding and therapeutic process. The Peppermint Creams recipe is ideal for involving children, certainly at the cutting out stage. So what if they are a bit wonky? Surely that's what handmade is all about! It's one of the things that distinguishes them from the visually perfect type churned out in identical boxes from production lines. Then there is the taste. I made a batch of peppermint creams to take to my last Chrissy B show. Everyone who tasted them loved them and I came away with an empty box. Getting kids of any age involved in making gifts teaches them some valuable things. They develop confidence by succesfully mastering a new set of skills and they also learn that actively giving something that someone will really enjoy - instead of just waiting passively to receive gifts - can be a rewarding experience in itself. Even if you don't have children to cook with or for, home baking can be a wonderful antidote to stress at this time of year. Just knowing that you are ensconced in your kitchen cooking away instead of battling it out in the shops for a more expensive, inferior-quality version of the same thing is enough to bring your blood pressure down! I am hoping that my daughter, Caz, has had just such a lovely time on her day off baking delights for the Herne Hill Christmas Fair tomorrow. Entirely self taught, she tackles everything from Key Lime Pie to Danish Pastries and loves every minute of it as downtime from her demanding job. We all have the same 24 hours a day. Nothing says 'You're worth it' more than giving others the gift of your time in making something they'll love. No, not even L'Oreal! 

We Britains come in for a lot of stick - probably deservedly so - for wasting food. The campaign Love Food Hate Waste says that for every 3 shopping bags of food we buy, one will end up being thrown away. So in thinking of my recipes here I was mindful that over the festive period food - particularly in the fridge - tends to get overlooked and spoil. One of my own guiltiest products in this department is fresh cream so I am including a couple of new recipes and also some suggestions for using it up. I tend to buy double cream as I seem to come across it most frequently in recipes. I think it is also the most expensive and therefore a double waste if it goes off. So say you were thinking of trying several of my recipes using cream and you decided to buy a large 600ml pot. The Rich Chocolate Truffle recipe uses 200ml and the Florentine recipe requires 4 tablespoonfuls; if you were just making these two you could probably get away with a 300ml pot with a little left over to serve in coffee. But if you had already bought the big pot you could either use the rest to make Ginger and Syrup Ice Cream or whip it up to sandwich some pairs of meringues together that you'd made from the Basic Meringue Recipe (use the yolks to make custard or a custard-based ice cream). The Florentine recipe needs a few glace cherries but the 200g pots are more cost effective to buy. You can use the rest of the cherries (and mixed peel) in the mincemeat recipe, using up odds and ends of other dried fruit to make up the overall weight for dried fruit in the recipe. Once you start thinking about it you can become very creative indeed AND create fabulous things to eat along the way!

Once you have created your homemade comestibles how should you present them? The Florentines above need something airtight to stop them from going soft so this retro tin - bought at a charity shop for under a pound - is ideal. (Always line old tins with greaseproof paper or tinfoil first).The tin could be re-used for storing other things afterwards or the recipient might like to let you have it back once the Florentines are eaten in the hope of a future refill! My hairdresser gives back the big jar that I fill with fudge for her and my in-laws return their empty jam jars. The red and white Melaware cup and saucer further above makes a lovely container for Peppermint Creams and could be used for retro style picnics later on. We buy Douwe Egberts coffee and the empty jars are useful for holding all kinds of biscuits and sweets as well as other gifts. With a nice piece of ribbon tied round the top - like I've used on the mincemeat jar nearer the top of this post - you can save yourself from having to pay through the nose for something similar in kitchen shops. The plastic boxes you get from takeaways are a good size for sweets. Having washed them well you can fill them with bicarbonate of soda dissolved in water to get rid of any smell first. Ice cream tubs can be used for biscuits. With some fancy wrapping paper on the outside and tasty treats on the inside, no-one will care that Walls made the container. Besides, you are recycling, right? Bon appetit, class, and please do let me know through the comments section how your homemade presents are received. Other ideas for gifts will be the subject of my next post and will include some suggestions for presents that cost just a pound or less!

The pictures in this post also illustrate newly added recipes for Ginger and Syrup Ice Cream, Homemade Mincemeat and Grapefruit and Cranberry Marmalade

Creative Christmas: Financing the Fun

Here we are again in the run up to Christmas and this year I am determined to publish some posts on getting through the festive season without breaking the bank. If you are a regular reader you will gather by now that I don't just pontificate about the subjects I blog about. Everything I write stems from my own personal experiences - what worked for me and what didn't - and I share them here in the hope that they are of benefit to other people who also have a limited income or for those who would prefer to get a grip on their spending now.The annual dilemma I face is that I actually need to prepare things and photograph them before I can write the post. Then I actually write the post itself. This would be fine if I wasn't also trying to get things ready for my own family's Christmas. This year, though, I have had a metaphorical push by appearing on telly twice and having to produce 'props' for each show at short notice. Since I've then been able to photograph these props, I have effectively killed two birds with one stone, as it were! So add this page to your Favourites if you want to keep coming back to read more in the Creative Christmas series; posts will include making your own gifts and how to buy gifts for less, decorating your house in a budget/planet friendly way and cutting the cost of what to wear.

Someone once told me that it's always wise to 'tackle the worst first' so I'm going to start with a post on setting a budget. You might be inclined to say that this is a bit late for the current year but I know there are many people out there who just don't have the funds to support the spendfest society now expects at Christmas and who will still be worrying about how they will manage. This post is for them. The word 'budget'  - like 'thrifty' and 'frugal' often conjures up images of doing without and hardship. It need not do. Think of a budget - customised to your own circumstances - as a friend. By working one out you know for sure what you can and cannot afford. Even if you cannot afford very much at all at least you will be aware of that and be able to plan accordingly rather than crossing your fingers and worrying yourself silly in the meantime about what you've spent. And yes, reader, I have been there and you HATE yourself for it afterwards! The Boy Scout motto 'Be prepared' has never been more pertinent. After The Chrissy B Show on Monday evening, the crew, fellow guests and myself were discussing how we felt the show went. We three guests had barely had time to introduce ourselves to one another as we arrived, before we were whisked off to prepare our particular sections, let alone collaborate on what we would say. Yet we each marvelled in turn as each guest gave out the same core message: DO NOT FEEL PRESSURED INTO SPENDING WHAT YOU CANNOT AFFORD! Not by the advertisers, not by the shops, not by your children and not by your peers. If you put all your Christmas shopping (or even part of it) on a credit card you cannot afford to repay or by using money that should be for your essential living costs it will be YOUR problem, not theirs. In case you need a little more convincing please have a look at the following:

GOOD REASONS NOT TO OVERSPEND ON CHRISTMAS (OR ANY OTHER TIME)

1. If you spend the money for your gas bill on Christmas stuff you are going to be very cold in the New Year when the gas company cut you off just as temperatures really start to tumble. Ditto your mortgage, loan payments for your car,etc,etc. If you thought you felt bad about not giving the gifts you'd like, just think how you would feel if the bailiffs came for the telly as a result of your overspending
2. Money spent on your credit card has to be paid back and it has to be paid back WITH INTEREST. So that means you haven't resolved anything, only put it off, and when you really do need your card for emergencies - like having the washer mended - you will be stuffed
3. If you give your children something you cannot afford you will teach them that overspending is perfectly acceptable and they will go on to replicate it in their own adult lives. Oh, and then they will come to you to bail them out. So set a good example. If you are worried that they will lose face amongst their peers I suspect that many people will be in the same boat this year. More on this later.
4. If you spend money you cannot pay back you will ruin your credit rating. If you apply for any loans at a later date you may be seen as a bad risk and refused or charged an exhorbitant rate of interest. You might need that loan for a car to get you to work every day. Think about it.

So now I've done the scary bit. My sincere apologies to any reader who is already experiencing the trauma of the above. But I think you'll agree that letting anyone else get into the same mess is not going to help your situation one jot. Now I'm going to explain how I do my budget for Christmas.

First you will need several blank pieces of paper and a pen. I like to have some coloured pens because you are going to be re-doing your numbers, so they help to show where you are up to, I find. Now you need a list of every single regular outgoing you have from your bank account/pay packet every month and when they need paying or are direct debited from your account. Remember that if you get paid mid-month, some of these payments will not go out until after Christmas Day but they will need paying nonetheless BEFORE you get paid again. There might even be some irregular payments in December that you must put money aside for. Ours is for our dogs' booster jabs. It just happens to coincide with the time of year we got our dogs and their insurance is not valid if they don't have them. Include everything. Mortgage, council tax, petrol or travel to work costs, various insurance policies, water charges, gas/electric. This list is not exhaustive and some things will be individual to you. Don't forget food! If you buy a coffee everyday on the way to work, include that. Now add it all up. Have a think. Is there anything essential you've forgotten? Sites like Money Saving Expert have got good articles on budget setting. You could check with those to see if you have missed anything obvious. Ask your partner, too. Add in an amount for emergencies if you can. If no emergency occurs you will have money left to spend in the sales later and if something does crop up you will be so glad you put that money asaide. When you are happy you've included absolutely everything add it up again. This is your MONEY OUT amount. Now take it away from your MONEY IN amount which is what you get paid - be it wages or benefits - or a mixture of both. What you have left is what you have to spend on Christmas this year. Even from here I can see the shock on your faces.( I am assuming for the purpose of this post that you do have something left, however small. If your MONEY OUT column is greater than your MONEY IN you don't need me to tell you that you have a financial problem. I am not qualified in debt management; I only have experience of making small amounts of money go further, so I would refer you to your local Citizens Advice Bureau for expert assistance as soon as possible. Waiting till after Christmas will not make it better).If you do have money left but you are horrified by the small amount you can start by looking at your regular outgoings and deciding if there's anything you could cut down on. Obviously you cannot neglect essentials like keeping up your mortgage repayments or saving for your winter gas bill. But what about those 'wants'. Take that cup of coffee on the way to work. Buy a vacuum mug/flask and take coffee with you from home. Or think of a quick simple evening meal instead of that takeaway. If anyone in your household complains, tell them you are saving that money for Christmas. That they can have it then or now but you can't afford both. If you have already done that trimming in the past you will have to work with what you have. This is the time to get everyone in your household on board.

First give yourself a mental shake. You do know as an adult, don't you, that the perfect world of advertising is a big con. The immaculate home, the eager smiling family and perfect Christmas dinner are paid for in December alone by 3 billion pounds of marketing department money. All that cash expended on trying to make us feel inadequate so that we will buy lots of things, regardless of whether we can afford it or not. (Thank you to Justin Basini, my fellow Chrissy B Show guest and marketing expert for that horrifying figure). Your children, if you have them, are even more susceptible to the marketing campaigns as to them it all seems real and even achievable. Talk to them and encourage them to think of some ideas of their own towards making Christmas special on less money. Any child who is old enough to have pocket money is old enough to understand simple budgeting. They know that if they spend it all the day they get it that there is none for another week (unless you keep subbing them in which case giving them pocket money teaches them nothing). You can explain it, if you need to, like the portions of a cake and what that money secures for them rather than on what the payment is for, i.e. a home for them to live in rather than just 'mortgage payment'. If too big a slice of the cake is taken for one thing then there is not enough cake to go around. Teenagers are particularly susceptible to both brand advertising and also peer pressure. If they have set their heart on something you could club together with family and friends to buy it, you could get it after Christmas when it will probably be cheaper or you could save up for it for their birthday which is - hopefully - at another time of year. At the end of the day if you cannot afford it in any of these ways you will have to say that you're sorry, but the answer is no. Explain why. If you thought they would feel bad by not having present X on Christmas morning, think how they will feel in front of their peers who all know that the bailiffs came to take the car/telly/unaffordable present away in front of all their friends and neighbours. After you've broached it with your immediate household, tell anyone you share Christmas/ exchange presents with that you are spending less this year. If they want to carry on as they are then at least you had the good grace to brief them in advance. To keep things in proper perspective remember always that Christmas is just one day a year.

Now you need to decide how you will divide up what you had left to spend on Christmas. Your priorities will probably depend on whether you are single, partnered or have children of your own. Families may decide to spend the larger portion on presents whereas a couple may spend it on entertaining. Put some ball park figures on squares of paper that leaves plenty of room for crossings out. I have done it above for presents. The idea is that you keep re-thinking the figures until they balance up. The whole idea of this budget is only to spend what you have and no more. If the doll's clothes for Topsy, that we picked up at the school Christmas Fair, cost less than the fiver we were proposing we can add the amount saved to another part of the budget. As long as you have some money for your Christmas budget you can often surprise yourself as to just how far you can make it go. Make it your mission to hit - or come in under - your budget targets. Take it from me that you will be more delighted with yourself if you manage it then ever you were when you went round spending money willy nilly. Both Justin and Chris Browne - a motivational speaker and self development expert with a regular slot on The Chrissy B Show - suggested standing back and thinking about what Christmas really means to you. The emphasis of the day does not necessarily need to be on presents. Equally, you do not have to go along with family traditions that no longer suit your lifestyle and/or budget but it's only courteous to let others, who will be affected by the change, know in advance. You may want to begin new traditions of your own that are more sustainable and place less reliance on money. Chris also said that Christmas should be the time for team, for being proactive instead of passive. Everyone should have a part to play in making Christmas Day special, be it anything from setting the table to taking the dog out. For my part I would say that pulling together got us through a world war so it must certainly make things easier for weathering economic recession. Sharing your Christmas Day with friends and family also means that you can share the cost, with each guest contributing according to his or her financial position. If everyone does what they can - even if it's just the washing up - then nobody feels left out or guilty of free loading. So now you need to write your shopping lists. Even if you are baking all your presents this year you will still need to buy ingredients within your budget.Your present list might only say things like  'Present for Auntie Jane' and an amount next to it that you must not exceed. The challenge is in finding something to fit the bill! In my next couple of posts I hope to give you some ideas for thrifty gift giving.

Feeling Good!

The Chrissy B Show - Christmas on a Shoestring - Sky 203, 9.30p.m. tonight

The lovely people at The Chrissy B Show have asked me back tonight to take part in a show entitled 'Christmas on a shoestring'. Just at the moment I am their very woman for the job! I'm surrounded by so many bits and pieces that I am getting ready to write blog posts about, there's hardly room to put my cup of tea down. For those of you who are waiting for my promised thrifty Christmas tips I will be back tomorrow. The upside is that with the impetus of a tv show I've got all the more ideas to share with you. Watch this space!

Being Creative about Christmas!

A warm welcome to you

if you are visiting this blog for the first time after watching The Chrissy B Show on Sky 203. The post below this one (please scroll down to view) describes my experience of being on TV for the first time and it also has a link to the Rich Chocolate Truffle recipe, the one I used to make the truffles that we 'sampled' on the programme! This is the first of several tried-and-tested recipes that I will be adding to encourage you to make your own for Christmas. I will also be featuring some posts about how to ensure that your Christmas will still be special without being so costly. Forthcoming posts include planning your Christmas budget, being a thrifty gift giver and decorations that are both purse and planet friendly. If you want to keep up to date with these posts, as and when they are published, you can subscribe to this blog's feed or you can add us to the favourites section on your browser to find us again easily. And if you like what you see -  or find it useful -  please be sure to leave a comment for others to read. It does involve verifying who you are but that's just to keep the spam-bots at bay!!! Feel free to have a browse through my earlier posts in the Archives section and discover just how achievable it is to live well on less.

OMG . . . I'm on TV!

 

Here I am on The Chrissy B Show with Piper Terrett (centre) and Chrissy B (right). Catch up with this episode on Friday 23rd November at 9.30p.m. on Sky 203 (My Channel).

 

Three weeks ago a producer from a TV company left a comment on my blog. At first - for reasons that deserve a post of their own - I thought it was a hoax. So I checked out the links. It was genuine. My initial suspicion then gave way to abject terror. My husband, Si', took one look at me and asked if something awful had happened. I told him that yes, it had, and that someone wanted me to be on the telly - a live show at that - in three days time. His face broke into the most radiant smile and he said that he thought it was an amazing opportunity. By now I was quaking like a jelly and he was full of concern. He tried again; was I not thrilled to be asked and what was I afraid of? I was, I replied, but PEOPLE WILL LOOK AT ME! In case this sounds like the ramblings of a mad woman I need to put this in perspective. I started my blog almost five years ago to record the progress of my personal challenge of living well on less. Initially, I wrote it just for me and knew I would be more motivated to keep it up if I included photos. Readers started leaving positive comments and I began to write more with an audience in mind. The blog has worked its way up the Google rankings - a real source of pride to my offspring - but never once have I envisaged it going any further than that. Certainly not that anyone would want to interview me about it. Unless the blog is a promotional one - say, for a business or career purpose - most bloggers are pretty much invisible. It is what they say, rather than what they themselves look like, that is key. Mostly I write my posts first thing in the morning sitting in my dressing gown with a cup of tea and a biscuit. Today I am fully dressed but have a hot water bottle on my lap because it seems a waste to heat the whole house just for one (the dogs have their fur coats). If you spend your days as I do - messy activities like making jam and digging allotments and also writing in the company of two large dogs - then you do not need to look glamorous. What would I would I wear? Certainly not my dressing gown!!! I rang my daughter Caz, who lives in London, to ask her opinion. She, too, was all in favour; she also said she had a day off that Friday and that since it was an evening show I could sleep on her sofa. I tried voicing my reticence: what if I couldn't think what to say? She paused and said, "Mum, when have you ever been short of something to say"! So I emailed my acceptance and I am so glad I did. I was still terribly nervous. The show was to be about living thriftily and things you could make or do to save yourself money. Looking back through my early posts to refresh my memory was a bit like revising for an exam. Then I had to find examples of things I had handmade. This was more difficult as, rather than filling my house with my handiwork, I tend to make things with the purpose of giving them as gifts. So there was quite a bit of raking through cupboards. I took jam and I also made some truffles (more on those in a moment).

I travelled down to London on the Friday afternoon, laden down with my 'props'. I had tea with Carrie and then she very sweetly volunteered to accompany me to the studio in Finsbury Park. This was especially kind since she would miss the big fireworks do in her local park. As we waited to be buzzed into the building we met Piper Terrett, financial journalist and author of The Frugal Life, who was to be the other guest on the show. As we chatted in the green room I discovered that, like me, Piper has had a range of different jobs but hers have mostly been in the finance sphere. So what Piper doesn't know about saving yourself a pound or two is probably not worth knowing! (The picture above shows Chrissy B, the host of the show, on the right, Piper in the centre and I am on the left). Then Joanna, the producer, came in and we ran through which props would be needed for the show followed by Chrissy herself, to go over the questions she would be asking. As a complete television novice I had nothing to compare it to but Joanna, Chrissy and the others in the team could not have been more lovely and reassuring. Even before we went through to the studio it was like catching up with a group of friends who are exactly on the same wavelength and I'm sure Piper and Caz felt just the same. As I sat with Chrissy in the studio and she pointed out which camera focussed where and the countdown began, I found that I was completely relaxed. Not to give too much away, I went on first, then Piper and then Chrissy spoke to us both together. Altogether I was in the studio for 35 minutes but the time just whizzed by. I left the jam behind as a thank you gift and there were hugs all round as we walked back with Piper to the tube station. The following morning I caught the bus with Caz to Covent Garden where she works, treated myself to a slice of gateau as a reward from Patisserie Valerie to eat on the train home and spent a happy hour in Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road. Not only do they have huge craft and comprehensive gardening sections but they also have one dedicated to sustainability. I could have stayed all day!!! And just to prove the point that fortune favours the brave, I happened quite by chance to have the most inspiring conversation I think I've ever had on public transport on the way home. Maria was sitting across the aisle from me initially on the coach leg of our Mega Bus journey but moved to let a couple sit together. We had so much making, baking and school experience in common that it was an absolute joy to be in her company as we swapped ideas and recommendations. By this time all the truffles had been left in London -  some were eaten on the show and the rest left with Caz and her partner, Matt - but I promised Maria that I would put the recipe on my blog for her to try for herself. Sorry Maria for my tardiness. I have been trying to concentrate on getting lots of thrifty Christmas ideas together for forthcoming posts but you can find the recipe here.

A few days afterwards I had an email to say that there had been an issue with the Sky satellite signal on the channel, of which the production team were unaware, and that the programme had not gone out live after all. Instead, this installment of the Chrissy B Show is to be shown on Sky 203 (My Channel) at 9.30p.m. this Friday, November 23rd. Please do lend your support by watching if you can. We all had such a good time making the show so I sincerely hope you enjoy seeing it and picking up some of our combined thrifty tips. You might even be interested to hear the story behind what I chose to wear. Thank you, once again, to all those above who helped to make my weekend wonderful. And Si' was quite right; it really did turn out to be an amazing opportunity!

A perfect pear

According to the self sufficiency guru, the late John Seymour,"There is one day in the life of every pear when it is perfect, and with pears, perfect is perfect". He advocates picking them a little before they are ripe, taking "exaggerated precautions not to bruise them" and waiting for them to ripen at room temperature. If you have trees of your own - or access to some - this allows you to stagger your picking. Unlike apples (especially cookers), many pears will not keep for long and once they are fully ripe will quickly start to rot if not eaten. In previous years, when we have been overwhelmed with fruit, we have taken them to the local car boot sale in an effort to 're-distribute' them before they reached that perfect moment. You get to do a lot of people watching whilst standing at car boots and at first I was affronted - and later amused - by shoppers who would march up to the pear baskets with great authority, pick up the fruit to assess it and pronounce to anyone with them that they were "too hard and no good!"  The implication being that we were a pair of numpties who did not know when to pick their crop and who were selling fruit that would not ripen to an unsuspecting public. In short, ripping people off!

After this had happened two or three times my annoyance got the better of me. I asked the very next detractor how they expected to get their pears home in first class condition if I sold them to them when they were soft? I added that that particular variety took 7 to 10 days to be ready to eat and that at that point they would be dripping with juice. They overcame their scepticism and bought some, as did many others. They were among the many who came back to the same car boot the following year and said that they were so pleased that we were there again and could they have twice as many because the previous year's purchases had developed just as we described and were the best pears they had ever tasted! Sadly, I read later that pears that are transported out of season to Britain from the other side of the world are picked at a very unripe stage in order to travel without bruising. Many of these never ripen and just pass from rock hard to rotten. This was presumably why I was getting the initial response at the car boots. Personally, I would rather eat pears in their proper season when I can enjoy them at their best but there is a modern day myth that supermarkets can furnish you with any fruit at any time of year. Arguably they can, but it will be pricey out of season (those air miles are costly in more ways than one) and they only need to look good for us to buy them. Whether you can get your teeth into them or they taste of anything is another matter entirely!

We have four pear trees; two in the orchard and two on our first allotment. These are made up of three different varieties and we had them identified along with our orchard and allotment apples at Apple Days attended by the East of England Apples and Orchards Project. (If you live in the eastern counties they still have identification events for this coming weekend - October 20th/21st - first item, right hand column on their website). In recent years there has been much in the news about the declining number of apple varieties from the 1000 plus types bred by the Victorians but what is less well known is that during the 19th century an even greater number of pears were bred, especially in France. The names of the pears are no less impressive than their apple cousins: ours are Emile D'Heyst, Pitmaston Duchess and Doyenne du Comice. When we first took the lease on the orchard I came across a book in my mum's shop called The Fruit Manual by Robert Hogg. She very kindly gave it to me as the cover of the book is quite worn and but it makes fascinating reading. Robert Hogg was the  Pomological Director (how's that for a job title?) of the Royal Horticultural Society and the edition I have was published in 1875. Having written a description for each of the hundreds of pears he mentions, our own three varieties are amongst his personal creme de la creme at the end of the section. He describes our pear, Emile D'Heyst, pictured on the tree and ripe in a bowl (both above), as "A most delicious pear . . . tender, very rich, buttery and melting, juicy, exceedingly sugary, sprightly and with a fine rose-water fragrance". This is the pear that normally crops so prolifically that we stop counting at 1000! Now you will understand why we take some of our 'surplus' to the car boot. When we were picking samples to send for identification we were told to choose specimens of typical shape. But this tree had two typical shapes so we sent one of each. EEAOP's identification was confirmed by Hogg's line drawings of typical fruit shapes at the back of the book. The photo below shows his drawing with matching examples alongside.

It was bred in Belgium in the 1840's and is apparently suited to growing in northern areas of Britain. This is also the tree that has benefitted most from having nut feeders suspended in its branches over the winter months. The tit family feed on the nuts and then pick overwintering bugs out of the deep crevices in the tree's bark. Pear's craggy bark makes it much more difficult to apply a grease band, as you can with an apple, and as we grow organically we avoid the use of chemical sprays. Last year the price of bird nuts rose enormously and we stopped putting them out; consequently this year we have more deformed and drilled fruit. I think I will start stockpiling nuts now in readiness!!!  As the picking season approaches, Comma butterflies like to sit and sun themselves on the ripening fruit.

Doyenne du Comice or Comice as it is now more usually known is still a very popular garden pear. I think it must also be a good pollinator as we have one specimen planted next to the Emil D'Heyst on an allotment and another next to the Pitmaston Duchess in the orchard. If there are no strong winds during October/November, the fruit will stay on the tree after all the leaves have dropped. In the late afternoon sunshine it reminds me of the golden pear in the nursery rhyme I had a little nut tree. I use both the Comice and Emile D'Heyst for eating and for cooking with but they are better cooked before they soften or they are inclined to disintegrate in the pan. It's been a while since I added any new recipes on Being Creative so to reward you for your patience I am including two. The first is for Pear and Ginger Cake, which is beautifully moist and only requires mixing by hand and Chunky Pear and Walnut Chutney, the savoury equivalent of my Blackcurrant Jam, in terms of popularity.

Our third variety is Pitmaston Duchess. Hogg describes it as "A very handsome pear of the finest quality . . . exceedingly rich with a sprightly vinous flavour and delicate perfume". Indeed the fruits are very large, averaging about 12 ounces in weight each and in a good season like last year they are apt to snap the branches of the trees. We were not really prepared for this. The first year the orchard was cleared the tree produced nothing. At that point we didn't even know for certain that it was a pear. The second year it produced about half a dozen fruit which fell off before we could pick them. We attributed the large size to the fact that there were so few of them. Last year they set lots of fruit and we presumed they would be smaller so didn't bother to thin them. The growing weight snapped about three branches off high up the tree and the wasps feasted on the fallen fruit. We let them get on with it and they excavated every ounce of flesh leaving only the papery skin and the stalk behind. Having learned their identity since then we had resolved to thin this year's crop and, for good measure, hung a Waspinator in it's boughs to deter any wasps bent on a fruit-fest whilst the pears were still on the tree. Sadly, in a year when our top fruit yields are down significantly overall, there has been nothing to protect! So we hope for better luck next year, though if all eighteen of our trees produced a bumper crop in 2013 we would really have something to worry about. Pitmaston Duchess is a triploid, like a Bramley, which means it needs two other pollinators and EEAOP advise me that triploids tend to produce vigorous trees with large fruits. It was once a popular garden variety at a time when fruit was grown for ornamental growth as well as for fruit. Hogg states that "The tree bears freely and is well adapted for pyramids, bushes and espaliers". Whoever planted our orchard was probably not familiar with Hogg's work; if so they might have heeded the advice "The fruit is too large for it to be grown as a standard". So we'll definitely be doing a spot of thinning next year!

 

Scooping the poop

I'm pretty certain that when Faith No More penned the lyrics "it's a dirty job but someone's gotta do it" they were not talking about cleaning up after their dog. It seems to be something that's deemed impolite to mention; something that we would rather sweep under the carpet, though in a metaphorical, rather than a literal, sense! As you will see elsewhere on this blog, our two canine pals are rather large and naturally what they leave behind them is in proportion to their size. We decided at the outset that we would be responsible dog owners; that we would always carry bags and that we would always clear up after them. Unsurprisingly then, there are pooh bags in just about every pocket we possess, including my dressing gown.(By way of explanation, Zephyr sometimes likes to check out the garden at some ungodly hour now and then and I prefer to clean up after him while I remember). Most responsible dog owners seem to be similarly minded nowadays, especially where we live. Worryingly, with  regard to the remainder, if it's too much trouble to pick up after their dog then there is probably little chance of their pets being wormed or even possibly vaccinated. That they are posing a health risk to other people and animals does not appear to be enough of an incentive. But there we are.

Having said that, dog pooh biodegrades quite rapidly and while shovelling it into plastic bags may overcome any immediate health risk you are then encasing something that will break down quite quickly within something plastic that will not. So for a while now I have been on the lookout for some biodegradeable ones. And not just any old biodegradeable bags. We wanted them to be roomy.(A friend I went to school with works in our local branch of Boots. I bought something there recently and declined the small plastic bag she wanted to put my purchase in. She asked would it not do for clearing up after the dogs. I replied that it would need to be much larger to be of any use for my boys! Enough said). We also wanted bags that would have some strength to them, something my Lancastrian husband refers to as 'bant'. Our local council had a spell of issuing free poop bags at one point in an effort to keep the streets cleaner. That was an excellent idea except that in practise they chose bags with the thickness - and bant - of tissue paper. Moving on quickly now, we wanted handles that were long enough to tie the bag up without coming into contact with the contents. Now you might think that these seem perfectly reasonable requirements but it has taken a long time for me to track such an item down, particularly when I recall that a particularly pressing further requirement was that they should be reasonably priced. Enter Mutts Butts.com.

Not only do Mutts Butts do biodegradeable bags in a reasonable size with lovely long handles but you can buy them in three different thicknesses - economy, standard and premium. They also give you the opportunity to try them out in a sample pack of five of each type. Personally I think this is an excellent idea. The chance to 'try before you buy' means you are not wasting money or sending stuff to landfill because it's unsuitable for your needs. At first we thought we would opt for the premium brand but we dutifully tested all 3 and even the economy line didn't give us any problems. We chose the middle option and went for 500 of the standard bags at a cost of approximately 2.5 pence each, which is what we're already paying for our non-degradeable ones. If you buy a larger quantity the cost per bag is even less. Postage and packing is free in the UK and the sample pack arrived first class delivery the next day (our main order took a little longer because I ordered over a weekend). I was also happy to note that for every sale Mutts Butts makes a donation to Guide Dogs for the Blind.  What's not to like?

Worth waiting for

I cannot remember when I first set my heart on having a pair of original Avery shop scales. For a long time - although they had been superceded by modern electronic versions - they simply weren't available and then, once they were, they were either prohibitively expensive or too far away to be cost effective to fetch. If you look on Ebay even now their weight tends to render them a 'collection only' item, not ideal if they are at the other end of the country! I did spot the odd set now and again but there was always something wrong with them; invariably the enamel coating would be badly damaged or they were rusty from being stored too long in a garage or shed. Often the pan would be missing. To be perfectly honest I had all but given up on the idea and had filed them away at the back of my mind in the folder marked 'things that would be really quite useful if only I could afford them'. Then about a month or so ago, whilst browsing at the local car boot, I spied a typical Avery lozenge shaped pan but no scales to go with them. I snapped them up quick as I reckoned that I might now be in a position to buy a pan-less set of scales on ebay at a price I could afford. Once I got home however Ebay was sadly lacking in scales minus their pans that week but the hunt was on. The following week I went to the same car boot to help my mum. If you've read this blog before you will know that she has an antique business. She often has to buy some very mixed lots at auction in order to get the bits she really wants so inevitably some things end up at the car boot.

We are always very busy at first as the other dealers descend for the best pickings but after a while I went for a walk round. I had done about two or three rows when I saw them: a set of Avery scales right at the end of a pitch. I sidled up to them. Sometimes it doesn't pay to appear too interested. Things sold at car boots often have no price tag and less scrupulous vendors are inclined to up the price if they think you are really keen to have something. I looked them over quickly. They were not rusty, the enamel was fine, they had a pan (and the right pan, at that)! Better still, the sellers were not 'trade', as those in the business are commonly referred to. I casually asked the man how much they were. He said they were twenty pounds, that they belonged to his wife - who was serving another customer - and that he thought she might take less for them. I bent down to have a closer look. My heart sank as I noticed that the glass at the front of the scales was missing. I mentioned this to the man. He said that their daughter had broken it whilst they were moving house. I tried different objects in the pan and they appeared to weigh properly. As I did this I noticed that the front of the scales was held to the back with two screws. As it appeared possible to take it apart, it might also be possible to replace the piece of glass.I decided to take a gamble, particularly since they were about fifty pounds cheaper than I ever thought I'd have to pay for some. I asked the man what he thought his wife would be prepared to take for them and he said he thought fifteen pounds. I suggested he'd better check now that she had finished serving the other person; if they belonged to her I thought she'd better agree the price. To my delight she said that fifteen pounds would be fine but that she'd be sorry to see them go. I told her that I had been looking for some forever and that they would be going to a good home.

So today, Si' - my very own Mr Fix-it - has been having a look at them. First he unscrewed the two halves, then he made the template for the new glass. Whilst I was cutting up the first windfall plums for jam he went round the corner to the glass place and returned with a beautifully cut piece to match his template and a piece of emery paper to smooth the edges for the princely sum of two pounds fifty! He then had a think about what to use to cushion the glass against the frame and returned later from Wilkinsons with a roll of self adhesive draft excluding strip for windows. Getting it to stick where we wanted it to - and not to each other - was a team effort but we got there in the end and then it was time to put it back together again. And here is the result above! (Please excuse the slightly wonky angle. By this time it was about six o'clock and the light was beginning to go. We had to move the scales into the bay window and due to the age of our house our floors are anything but flat). It just goes to show that sometimes you have to have a bit of faith in the world and be prepared to wait for what you want. At one time I would have bought something I wanted straight away without a second thought but there is no doubt in my mind that now I place much greater value on having fewer things and treasure those most that I've had to save up/wait for. Also I feel there is much to be gained from the challenge of something being not quite as you wanted it. There is something very satisfying about solving a problem yourself, particularly when you have saved yourself a bit of money too. We knew at the outset that we had a range of skills that would help us in our downshifting endeavour but we also try to be open minded and are learning new things all the time. I hope our experiences encourage readers to have a go themselves. Even if you start out with the little things, success brings the confidence to tackle more. As the saying goes, "Great oaks from little acorns grow"! The pan on these scales is just right for weighing this year's orchard bounty and not a moment too soon: the cider-making season will soon be here! 

Choc-a-lot

I have always had a special fondness for Easter time. To me it is the epitomy of Spring. Days are lengthening, the birds are singing their feathery little hearts out and Nature is well under way with another breathtaking visual display. The delicate appearance of Spring bulbs belies their more robust spirits as they tough out the temperature changes of this fickle time of year.The holiday provides the perfect opportunity to do, bake and sow and that other very British of indulgences - eat chocolate! I know that the recipes on this blog are always very popular and there are an awful lot of recipes available with chocolate in them to choose from. So it's been a case here of selecting two with Easter in mind. Now in many ways chocolate buying at Easter can not only be expensive and something of a rip off - actual weights are tiny compared to the cost of eggs - but something of an eco nightmare. All that packaging has to go somewhere afterwards and it doesn't really add to our enjoyment of the chocolate itself; it just stops the chocolate eggs from getting broken in the shops! If you have still to buy your eggs, M&S still do the box-free egg I mentioned two years ago. It's roughly the size of the average boxed version and costs about a pound ( having not bought any this year I can't be more precise). When my family were growing up we made the Easter nests shown above. It makes a small amount of chocolate go a lot further. The shredded wheat used for the 'nest' effect not only ensures some essential fibre in your sweet treat but is quite filling and helps to ensure they are not all gobbled at once! I made this batch yesterday. The chocolate is not costly Cadbury's but a mid range bar from Tesco by a comapny called Ryelands. It weighs 200grams and cost less than a pound. It actually tastes jolly nice too. They are great fun to make with children - especially if its too wet/cold to play out this weekend. It is always lovely to be able to hand round treats you've made yourself. Click here for the recipe. They make an 'egg'cellent addition to your Easter tea table and need no extra embellishment! 

Now something for the grown ups. After all, we have spent a lifetime cultivating our appreciation of chocolate. I have hesitated in the past from including this recipe because - on the face of it - it is not cheap to make. However, it is extremely rich. Which means that you only need serve very slim portions at a time. I tend to make it at holiday times such as this when I have family visiting over two or more days and we can do justice to it. Ring the changes by varying what you serve with it. Raspberries are a particularly good contrast to the richness.At a rough guess I estimate £6.00 -£7.00 for the ingredients if you have to buy them all from scratch (not counting the alcohol, if you include it).

Most supermarkets have their own brand or similar of chocolate that is the next level up from basic or value ranges. Double cream is pretty much the same price everywhere unless you can get it on offer or buy it reduced near to its sell-by date. The original version used hazlenuts in the base but either you have to toast them to get the skins off - which is a faff - or you buy the de-skinned and pay through the nose. I used flaked almonds once because I'd foolishly run out of hazelenuts and use them as standard now for speed. This is one of those 'wow' puddings, a bit like meringues because it looks fancy and difficult to make. In fact it's quite straightforward and the recipe is here.

Like me, all three of my children are big fans of chocolate and - just like me - that pleasure hasn't diminished as they've become adults themselves. After I made the Easter nests yesterday my son, Adz, called round. En-route to the train for an overnight business trip, he left the house mid-way through eating one. Last night I got a text from him. It read "Bk tomorrow evening, please save me a nest". That's my boy! Hope you have a Happy Easter whatever you're up to this weekend.

 

The more it snows . . . .

 

We awoke last Saturday morning to a world iced with white. There is something special about the first snow of the season, particularly if you are up early to enough to appreciate its untouched beauty. Having dug up my dahlias - to my enormous relief - at the beginning of last week, I had spent the rest of the week catching up with indoor jobs. So when the sun came out by mid morning on Saturday it provided the perfect photo opportunity. The shed shown above is in the orchard and as the roof is reasonably weatherproof we use it to store the logs we split in the summer. In a past life it had been used as a hen house, although when we 'liberated' the orchard the integral nest boxes had all but rotted away. We have cleared quite a lot of the undergrowth at this end of the orchard and hope to keep hens in there ourselves at some point but we are are ever mindful of the presence of Mr Fox. When we lived in Wales our children spent their Easter egg money one year on hens that would lay them real eggs. In the run up to Christmas that same year Mr Fox visited nightly for his chicken dinner, leaving the very last one for his Christmas lunch!

 
These footprints probably belong to a cat but we have seen fox tracks criss-crossing the allotment during snowy weather in the past and quite often spot their russet forms amidst the undergrowth in the darker winter months. They do not trouble us, though the dogs catch their scent, and probably keep our rabbit population in check.

 
Some of our apple trees still have a few fruit clinging on. We have eleven apple tree altogether and with the bumper crop we've had this year that means an awful lot of windfalls. Last year we left them where they fell but this year we took the advice of the charity East of England Apples and Orchards Project and barrowed them to the north side of the orchard. This means that they are still available for wildlife to feed from but, since our prevailing winds are from the south, substantially reduces the risk of any potential disease spores or pests from re-infecting the tree via rotting fruit. The snow and the leaf together on this Bramley does rather remind me of a hat, with the icicle providing the tassel on the end!

 
Here are some of those windfalls after our resident wildlife have been feasting. I have been careful to tip each barrow load close to the hedge so that the feeding site is both sheltered from the weather and affords some protection from would-be predators. Presumably, that which is not eaten will rot down and provide nutrients to feed the hedge itself.

 
Likewise, there is a good crop of berries on the ivy, too. Ivy flowers quite late in the season and provides a much-needed food source for bees and other insects once other flowers are over. On sunny days in September and October this plant hummed with winged visitors and though the ivy is troublesome if it runs unchecked into the trees, it is welcome to its place in the boundary hedge.

 
I was also intrigued by the patterns the snow created on very familiar objects like the roof, above, and the pallets, below, and the contrast it created with the bright stems and berries, further below.

 
 
 
 

Since Saturday, though, we have had more and more snow culminating today in heavy showers more or less non-stop throughout the afternoon and this evening. We now have about seven inches of the sort of wet snow that sticks to the washing line and the telephone wires and renders them thick as ropes. And the forecast? Well more of the same, actually. So while my daughter, Lu', in London is just celebrating her first flakes we are all but buried up to our ears. Not to mention how cold our toes are growing. Never mind; it won't be long till Spring. Tiddely pom!!!