Ditty's Digest

Where has the first third of 2010 gone?

I'm writing this as a new government has been formed and hope that they live up to their promises on their manifestos. Radical change I feel and a business like approach to the public sector is absolutely necessary with an end to the extravagance we have witnessed over the last ten years.   

In my own business I have spent the last four months trying to minimise and make savings against the rising charges government are levying on us. 90% of my admin time is spent trying to save money instead of trying to make money. Increases on rates, water charges, land fill charges and a considerable number of raw material costs in a marketplace that has become so price sensitive that the mere mention of price increases causes eyes to pop out.    

Easter trading was hampered greatly by, number one, being earlier in the year and the horrible weather we had the week before. Having said this business in general has not been too bad and we have seen reasonable growth outside Northern Ireland particularly with our oatcakes. Just today we have had confirmation of an order for New Zealand. Our sales in Waitrose have grown, no doubt, helped on by two surprise articles in The Times in March were we discovered Rachel Johnson, editor of The Lady and Joanna Trollope are among our oatcake fans. Our shops and coffee shops are growing slowly and we continue to offer new products on an almost weekly basis. I have eventually succumbed to all the talk on cupcakes and now make a couple of specials every two days. At weekends we have extended our range of individual desserts which has grown week on week and we just recently started making our own breakfast sausages. With the better weather we are looking forward to fresh local rhubarb, strawberries and raspberries. Our bread counters have had a little lift recently with some new bread ideas, spelt and honey, corn bread and we are currently working on a new wheaten bread with Irish honey.

Through Good Food Ireland we did a showcase in the Merrion Hotel in Dublin at the launch of Colman Andrews amazing book on Irish cookery entitled 'The Country Cooking of Ireland' which I feel is a must for any serious cook interested in Irish cuisine and its history. The next big Good Food Ireland event for us will be the Hillsbrough Garden Show on 21st-23rd May where 15 members will be showcasing and selling a wonderful range of Irish foods.

My bees came through the Winter unscathed and have built up very nicely over the last month. Unfortunately the current cold and wet spell is hampering their productivity with the abundance of pollen and nectar sources available right now. I have extended my wild flower meadow which I am hoping will be a wonderful show in a month's time and planted 18 old varieties of apple trees, 2 pears and 2 plum trees in the meadow. I planted out a variety of vegetables in two of my raised beds and will start on the other two in a couple of weeks time so that I can extend my harvesting season this year. Our fantail pigeons have already produced two young which have left the nest and are flying, one of them, unfortunately into the talons of a sparrow hawk.  The old pair have hatched another two eggs so another cote has been ordered to house the new generation. I feel some method of babysitting as a deterrent against the hawks while they enjoy an hour or so of freedom each day will be necessary.   

   

Summer update

Hello

How the long range forecasters got it wrong again! If you have a big enough garage, you could have a BBQ! Anyhow, August has arrived wet and windy and at home we have started to enjoy the vegetables from our raised beds. Only last week my evening meal included peas, broad beans, cabbage and potatoes all grown by ourselves. Interestingly,  it was also the week that the government informed us that organic food is no more nutritious than non-organic. Having grown my vegetables 'naturally', as I am not a big fan of the word organic, nutrition was not my main reason but as the food on my plate proved it was about taste and the non use of chemicals as weedkillers or pesticides. Now that we have almost got rid of conventional farmers - is this the government's means of destroying those who have diversified into organic? (I'm sure you will find a few major share holders of Tesco directors somewhere in the background!)

Our raised beds this year have been a success due to a little forward planning. Instead of having 20 lettuce ready for eating on the same week we staggered the planting by splitting the raised beds into two and planting seedlings four weeks apart.  This year we grew broad beans, two different varieties of lettuce, rocket, two different varieties of cabbage, cauliflower, beetroot, chives, parsley and potatoes.   

     

 The raised beds are about a metre wide and four metres long.

The bees have produced a new queen and she has just started laying but unfortunately the pollen flow has all but ended for the year. As a result I took the top super off at the weekend and the kitchen worktops are now covered in pots of Glenshane honey! So in the next few weeks I will start work on my honey yeast starter to produce our own sourdough for the bakery. No doubt other ideas using honey in the bakery will develop. The bee keeping experience has been extremely exciting to date and I would encourage more people to have a serious look at it as a hobby. Take a look at the Institute of Northern Ireland Beekeepers.  

July trade was rather sluggish particularly in south Derry but was buoyant in our coastal wholesale accounts, obviously everyone braved the bad weather and still went to the seaside! Rhubarb tarts and franzipans proved to be top sellers in the comfort food category and soda farls and potato bread were still the popular holiday breakfast. 

Helen (wife) and I had a couple of very relaxing days in Donegal with our dogs. If you have dogs who need a holiday check out Rathmullan House . Fantastic food in a very friendly and comfortable family hotel.