Boy It's Cold Outside!!

Well, another frosty morning yesterday had me hunting frantically through my drawers for my thermal leggings and shirts. It gets very cold at the market in winter and thermal undergarments, while not especially glamorous, are pretty much essential. The last few days have been quite sunny but bitingly cold and I'm now up to three layers of clothes and a sleeveless puffa jacket meaning that I resemble something along the lines of a Michelin man! Still, if it keeps me warm I don't really care how ridiculous I look. After 3 or 4 very quiet weeks at the market, this week has been a very good week. It seems that the people of Cornwall are now in Christmas present buying mode and quite frankly, it couldn't have come at a better time. I discovered yesterday that the water treatment system that we have in the loft, that makes the water we get from the borehole safe to drink, has stopped working and I am now having to boil all my drinking water before I drink it. It's not really such a hassle because most of it is used in tea or coffee so it's boiled anyway and I have just nipped out and bought some 5ltr bottles of water for actual drinking water for me and the dogs and cats. The problem is that it's going to cost at least £500 to replace the system so I'm going to have to wait until after Christmas to get it fixed. Never mind, in the greater scheme of things, it's a trifling matter and things could be a lot worse ..... gosh I'm philosophical today :-)

It's starting to feel quite festive at the market too and you can always tell when it's getting close to Christmas because one of the lovely ladies at the market suddenly turns into this mad, wreath-making lunatic who runs around the place armed with secateurs and bags of foliage constructing gorgeous wreathes form holly, ivy, tree branches and pretty much any other greenery she can get her hands on. By Christmas eve, her hands are chapped and sore and full of holes from being pricked by the vicious holly leaves and she is totally sick of the the sight of wreaths. Last year, she made almost 400 in the month before Christmas!!

She basically turns this 

This 

 And this

Into this

And then this 

All in about 10 minutes :-)

I've asked her for a wreath with carrots and sprouts and broccoli on it this year and I get the feeling she isn't quite sure if I'm joking or not ..... I'm not :-) I really want a quirky wreath this year and I can't think of anyone better to make it. 

Oooooo and guess what arrived in the post on Thursday morning, right before I left for the market ....... my printable fabric. I am so beyond excited to give it a go I can't tell you but so far, I have been utterly thwarted in my attempts to have a play with it. People kept buying loads of stuff from my market stall on Thursday and Friday and I had to spend both evenings frantically sewing like a mad woman to make more things to sell. I will be putting everything on hold on Monday, though, to print my first piece of fabric. I can't tell you how much I'm looking forward to it. I will of course, be posting pictures of whatever comes out of the printer ..... good or bad ..... hopefully good so fingers crossed :-)

Boats

For about 18 months now I have been sewing like fury every week to keep my stall nicely filled and although I love sewing it was becoming clear that it was time to try something new. On my stall there are a number of things that sell well. They aren't expensive things but they just seem to be very popular and though I am well aware that I'm never going to get rich from being at the market, the small amount of extra cash is quite useful so I just keep on making them. The problem is, making the same things over and over and over and over and over ..... well you get the picture and quite frankly, I knew that if I had to make one more lavender chick or and another catnip mouse I would go mad. 

I had seen some cute little wooden boats in a very quirky little shop on my trip to Sheffield recently and I made sure that I had a really good snoop, to see how they were made. They looked simple enough and last week I decided that they were something I wanted to have a go at making. Now I don't like to copy things that I see in shops or at craft markets, I think that is kind of a dishonest, I much prefer to take the basic idea and make them my way, which is what I did with the little boats

Cue the power tools ...... a jigsaw, a drill and a sander  ........ great fun if slightly scary and after a disastrous start and a box full of wonky bits of wood, which will come in handy for lighting the fire later in the year, I finally managed to create something I am quite happy with. Actually ...... I love them. I couldn't stop making them. I made seven of them and then had to try and find a way to display them on my stall. A painted wooden crate and the addition of a little shelf that I made myself and they were ready to go off to the market. 

Pushing the Boundaries of Gastronomy

As many of you know, I bake a lot of focaccia for the market. In fact I now bake so much of the stuff that I could probably do it on my sleep, which is great on the one hand because I don't have to do stuff like find the recipe for the list of ingredients because they are now committed to memory but on the other hand, it can be a little dull making the same flavours over and over again. So last week, I decided to experiment with some new flavours. I have been muttering to various people at the market that I wanted to try making some sweet focaccia. Usually, the response is either to laugh uncontrollably or to look at me as if I have finally lost the plot ...... actually, more often than not they do both but, not letting this get in the way of my pioneering spirit, I got out my new favourite toy, my trusty mixer, and made up a batch of focaccia dough. 

Once the dough had been through both the rising and proving stages, I added my flavours.

Number 1 ......... Chopped up Snickers Bars 

Number 2 ......... Chopped up Mars Bars

Number 3 ......... Choped up Cream Eggs

I then added a drizzle of olive oil and a light sprinkling of sea salt and popped them in the oven.

Oh my GOODNESS!!!!! they were delicious. The chocolate bars melted and went slightly chewy in the oven, the olive oil kept everything moist and the sprinkling of sea salt gave them a salted caramel flavour and stopped everything becoming too sickly sweet.

On Friday morning, I set off to the market and after everyone had set up their tables, I nervously got out my sweet focaccia samples for the girls to try. I was a bit apprehensive. Just because I liked them didn't mean that anyone else would but I needn't have worried, everyone loved them ....... all except one old lady who spat it into the bin and hurried out of the market as if I had tried to poison her. 

Well, I guess you can't please everyone.

I remembered to take a photo of the focaccia but by the time I grabbed my camera, there wasn't much left. 

Finally Feeling Better

Well, it's been a while since my last post. I have had the dreaded flu and have really not felt well enough to post anything. I have had an ear infection which made me dizzy and deaf and extremely prone to falling over when getting up too quickly or bending down, or pretty much just walking around, I have had a sinus infection which was just too gruesome to mention and I have been battling high temperatures, aching muscles and a horrible cough but I am happy to say, 6 weeks later I am finally feeling much better ...... and let me tell you I am so happy to be feeling almost human again. I missed 3 weeks at the market and watched so much daytime TV that I found myself actually starting to like some of it .......eeeek! But happily, I'm now back. I'm back at the market, I'm back sewing and baking focaccia and have even added gluten free focaccia to my repertoire and I am finally back blogging again. 

Gluten Free Focaccia with Feta and Sundried Tomatoes

While I was ill I also had time to think a few things through. Until now, the market, although fabulous fun and great place to be, is not really financially viable enough to provide me with enough money to live on and although at the moment that's fine, in a few years time this is not going to be the case. So, I am in the process of coming up with a 4 year plan to make sure that I can grow my business enough to provide me with a modest living when the time comes. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not expecting to become a millionaire, nor am I even expecting to be particularly well off but I am hoping to at least be able to support myself. I don't live a particularly lavish lifestyle and I try to make the most of what I have by making do, upcycling things like furniture and fabrics and making my own soft furnishings so, add to that growing my own veg, keeping chickens for eggs and being thrifty in the kitchen and I am hopeful that I will see my 4 year plan pay off. 

It was with this plan in mind that this week, I made a massive decision. My handmade focaccia is really taking off at the market and last week, I was asked if I could make some gluten free focaccia as well. After much testing of different recipes and sourcing of all the ingredients, my 3rd batch turned out extremely well. The only problem is, whereas normal focaccia dough is like wrestling with an uncooperative jelly fish, gluten free focaccia dough doesn't need kneading at all, just whisking. In my case, this meant whisking with a hand-held electric whisk. No problem you might think, easier than kneading a jellyfish, you might think but honestly ...... when is life ever that simple! Gluten free focaccia dough is like very gloopy, thick, sticky cake batter.  It sticks to the beaters and climbs it's way up them, trying to climb inside the mixer and jam up the motor and when you lift the beaters out of the dough to scrape them off, it sprays it all over the kitchen walls! Not good. 

So ....

To my mammoth decision .....

I bought a food mixer!

A very expensive food mixer!!

A £300 food mixer!!!!!!!

I felt faint after I had ordered it and had to sit down and have a cup of tea. 

I then had to stop myself ringing and cancelling the order after I got cold feet and freaked out about how much it cost.

And it's being delivered TODAY

And, despite the fact that I was freaked out about how much it cost I think it will be a great investment and I really can't wait to use it. 

This is the one. 

So I am now sitting on the sofa waiting for the knock on the door like a kid waiting for Santa Clause.

And if anyone has any advice on how to make my fledgling business more profitable, with marketing, promotion, how to grow the business, things like that, I would be immensely grateful.

Yummy Beef Pie

On Sunday, for lunch, I slow cooked a piece of brisket that was on special offer at the local supermarket. It was in the oven for ages in a red wine gravy with some carrots and a couple of parsnips and it emerged from the oven beautifully tender and was absolutely delicious with roast spuds, parsnips and loads of fresh veg, but, as usual I cooked for an army and there was loads and loads left. Yesterday, rather than divide the leftovers between the dogs, and in the  recently revived spirit of thrifty living, I scooped it into my trusty earthenware pie dish ........ 20p from a car boot sale a couple of years ago ....... along with the leftover stuffing, roast potatoes and parsnips and made a shortcrust pastry top to turn it into a pie. It was extremely yummy. I know that I should try to be health conscious and curb my enthusiasm for hearty pies and warming stews but quite frankly, the weather is so depressing at the moment that I just don't seem to be able to help it. Add to that some apple crumble with a big dollop of thick Jersey cream for desert and I'm a very happy bunny.

In the afternoon, I set about making some cards for the market. I realised last week that I'm very low on stock and of course, I can't make any money if I have nothing to sell. So I switched on the TV ...... I like to have something in the background that I can listen to ...... and I set to work. I love making cards. It's actually my favourite crafty thing to to do because I find it very relaxing. Kind of like when you were a child and made collages out of pasta and seashells. In fact I actually used to use seashells and sea glass, that I had collected from the beach, on some of the cards I used to make many, many years ago. Come to think of it, I can't believe I have been making cards and doing crafty stuff for such a long time. I used to have a stall at Tavistock pannier market about 17ish years ago! I even had a website! Back then though, the market stall was only once a month and it was really more of a hobby. Now I do three days a week at the market at Trerulefoot here in Cornwall and I am trying to build up my hobby into more of a little cottage industry. I'm thinking though that when, and if, spring ever arrives, I might have to take a trip to the beach and find some little shells and some lovely sea glass and once again incorporate them into my cards. 

The Saga of the Trerulefoot Worms.

Wow, three posts in one week, not bad considering my track record over the last couple of months has been appalling. Actually, I'm sitting on the sofa waiting for the sun to get a little higher before I go out and start doing some much-needed gardening. My shiny new petrol mower arrived a couple of weeks ago but the minute I put the thing together, it rained. It then rained on pretty much every day off I have had since, until earlier this week when I managed to finally attack the patio, which resembled a field. The plan today is to attack the lawn, which also looks like a field. I did mow a path from the garden gate to the compost bin before I did anything else though, so I could empty the grass basket on the mower without getting completely soaked.

Not so shiny after mowing some of the dreaded patio :-)

Anyway. You might be wondering about the title of the post, given the saga of the slow worms on the living room light fitting the other day (Hmmm I do seem to have been having a lot of sagas lately). I am happy and somewhat relieved to say that these are worms of a much less scary nature. At the market, one of the stall holders, Bridget, apart from all the fabulous local fruit and veg and plants that she sells, often comes in with some amazingly weird and wonderful items that she also sells on her stall. A couple of weeks ago, along came some terracotta worms, designed to sit on your plant pots . Since then, the worms seem to have taken on a life of their own. The people who came to the market loved them. They were bought by people from all over the country and some have even ventured even further afield, one of them went across the Channel to Disneyland and one of them is off to Africa very shortly! They have been photographed on various stalls in various guises (One now has an eye patch because someone dropped him and he lost an eye!) and things seem to be getting a little crazy. Still, it's all good fun, although just how mad the people who visit the market think we are is quite another matter. 

Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of my worm, Stanley just hanging around on my stall. 

You can check out the adventures of the worms Here :-)

Right, the sun is now shining, the day is warming up, the neighbours are awake enough not to mind if I bang and clatter around too much so I am off to do some gardening. I have cucumber and courgette plants to pot on, some runner beans to plant out, more clematis to plant, a rosa rugosa plant from my friend Bridget to find a space for, some willow sticks to plant to try and screen the mess the neighbours have made putting in their sewage treatment thing and a massive lawn to tame. I could be gone a while. 

Spring and Sunny Skies.

It's been a lovely couple of days here in Cornwall. Friday and Saturday were sunny and the skies were blue making the local produce market at Trerulefoot, a much nicer place to be than in the freezing conditions of a couple of weeks ago when I was wearing at least 4 layers of clothes, (including thermal shirts and leggings) and I was still blue with cold by the time I got home. I really love my three days at the market. Despite the sometimes cold weather, it's a really enjoyable place to be. The people are lovely, there is a fabulous atmosphere and the range of skills and products available is amazing. A lovely old couple, Penny and Brian, produce hand made wooden planters, bird tables and such like and they grow plants and herbs to fill them with. A couple of weeks ago, they were given a commission for a wishing well and because the people had a big garden they wanted a BIG wishing well. Brian did a fantastic job of designing and building it and here is the finished article, on display at the market, waiting to be collected. The handle even turns and the bucket winds up and down. 

There is a lady who does fabulous stained glass and wooden painted items and if you give her a picture of your pet she will turn it into a fabulous key rack or a hook for a dog lead with a picture of your pet on the front. There are local jams, jellies and chutneys, home made cakes, vegetables and plants, locally produced apple juice and cider and free range organic eggs and meat. Give me a local market any day of the week. I now do most of my shopping at the market. We eat locally produced vegetables,  free range organic eggs, meat that was running around in a field the week before and which was organically and ethically reared and I spend three days out in the fresh air chatting with people both local and from further afield and I even, on occasion, make a bit of money.

Pea and bean sticks and bags of manure at the market ready for Spring planting.

As the weather is warming up, everything seems to be coming to life. Flowers are beginning to bloom, birds are singing their noisy dawn chorus even earlier in the mornings and there are now lambs and calves in the fields around the house making a huge racket at 6am. It's lovely. I love the lighter mornings. I'm much more of a morning person. It's nice to have the lighter evenings too but, for me, the best part of the day is first thing in the morning when everyone else is still asleep and things are calm and peaceful and quiet ....... well except for the birds, the sheep, the cows and the owls hooting their way back to their trees to sleep until dusk when they go off out again to hunt :-) Whoever said it was quiet living in the country had obviously never lived there. 

So, here are some pictures of the things that are beginning to bloom in the lovely sunny weather.

Pink Tinged Daffodils.

Forget-Me-Nots in the border.

The pulmonaria that I bought from the market is flowering like mad.

And the fabulous evergreen Clematis called Wisley Cream that I bought from my friend Bridget at the market  and keeping one of my tea cosies company on my stall.

Getting Creative Making Cards

A couple of post ago I mentioned that I had my first ever table at my local produce market and this week I have been making some more things to sell. I noticed that the people who did extremely well at the market were the ones that had fruit and veg and eggs to sell. I'm guessing that this is because these items are needed on a daily basis so that come the weekend, people come back to the market to stock up. With this principle in mind, I decided that I would make some greetings cards. Cards are something people always need and many many years ago, I had a stall at Tavistock market selling my hand made 3D decoupage cards and I actually did quite well. 

This time, I wanted to do something a little different. I have long admired people who can do freehand machine embroidery and recently, using one of my book tokens that I got for Christmas, I bought myself a fabulous book by the very talented Poppy Treffry. Previous attempts at freehand machine embroidery were, shall we say, less than successful. Being used to the rigid feed of  normal machine sewing and the need to sew in a straight line when making cushions and things, I found it very hard to simply throw all that out of the window and move the embroidery hoop around willy nilly like a mad thing. The finished result of my first attempt looked like a drunken spider had skated all over it after having it's feet dipped in ink. Not a pretty sight and a world away from the fabulous designs Poppy seems to achieve so effortlessly. 

I am, though, nothing if not determined. Some might even say stubborn! I knew what I wanted the cards to look like but I also knew that I wasn't ready to take off the feed dogs on my sewing machine just yet ..... it's a bit like taking the stabilisers off your bike when you're a child...... very scary! So I compromised. I stitched the fabric to the cards using a basic bog standard machine sewing technique and ...... Ta da ..... cards :-)

I have to say I do like them quite a lot. 

Not bad for a first attempt.

  

My First Local Produce Market

Last week, I posted about the fact that I had managed to get a table at my local produce market and yesterday was my very first one. I was thrilled and terrified in equal measures. I had spent the previous week sewing like a maniac to gather enough stock to make the table look nice and at 9.30am on Saturday morning I arrived to set up my table.

I sold sold a few things. Not a huge amount but, apparently, for a first time I did ok. I'm sure I will have to add to my range until I know what things sell well and I am positive I will have to wear at least another three layers of clothes next week because, despite the fact that it was a nice sunny day and despite the fact the tables are now inside a marquee it was freezing. I did, however, have a fabulous time. The people on the other tables were lovely and really helpful. I bought some fabulous organic free range "mislaid" eggs from the lady on the next table, some locally grown veg and some delicious coffee and walnut slices made by the lady with the table on the other side of me.

The cute little cat helping me advertise my catnip mice was made by another one of the ladies at the market. It's hand painted and she also make the most gorgeous stained glass panels.

I took these pictures before the ladies of the co-operative gave my some help with the pricing. I will definitely be going back next week with some more things to sell. Handmade cards are on the "to do" list for this week but today, I am having a day off. The sun is shining and although it's quite chilly, I am going to wrap up warm and go out and tidy my garden and maybe even do a bit of digging. 

In case you're wondering, "Mislaid" eggs are eggs that were not laid in the nesting boxes and as a result have a bit of chicken poo on them. I bought 30 eggs, all laid on Friday for £3.50!!!!! What a bargain. I will be making lots of eggy things this week starting with a quiche this afternoon for tea and an apple and raspberry crumble for pudding made with the cooking apples I bought.

There is a link HERE for the facebook page of the market and if you live near Kernow Mill in Cornwall, the market is every Thursday, Friday and Saturday and sells lots of lovely local produce.