July 6 2008
What happened to May and June? Pau, Pulse, parenting and planning for Christmas sales, that’s what.
Pau first – a wonderful town in south west France close to the Pyrenees, which has been known to the English for centuries but it was a totally new experience for me – but then I am a New Zealander.
We were there for a classic car race. Like Monaco and Le Mans, the winding steep streets of the ancient town are turned into a race track for the weekend and husband Mark was there to race his old Aston Martin for the first time.
Mark's been involved with racing all his life. His early memories are of sitting with his brother in the back of his father’s Aston Martin heading for races. His father, now in his eighties, still competes but no longer tries to win. Mark is certainly still out for trophies.
The motor racing bug has carried on to a third generation. Freddie’s already a keen race goer, ready to help Daddy with any tinkering on the car and always ready to give it a wash and polish with a bucket and sponge.
We didn’t need the bucket and sponge in Pau, though. Southern France experienced some of the worst and wettest May weather ever while we were there which meant we were absolutely soaked to the skin for three days and the racing was very, very slow as competitors battled with the wet and slippery road surface.
This isn’t Formula One. There’s no pit team to leap into action if the car spins and certainly no easy bolt on pieces to make a repair – and no rich sponsor to pick up the repair bill. It was more of disappointment for the spectators than the drivers who were still able to experience the unique atmosphere of a French road race. The town with its fantastic buildings, views on snow-capped mountains, top designer shops and excellent restaurants made the trip well worthwhile for us bystanders.
Certainly a place to go back to in the sunshine.
From Pau we came straight home to Pulse. Just time to dry out, but not enough time to recover from the horrendous colds and chest infections all three of us developed after our prolonged soaking.
Pulse was a fantastically successful show for us. We were worried that retail gloom and credit worries would hold buyers back from summer ordering and forward planning for Christmas, but we had our best show ever.
Perhaps the fact that we manufacture everything in Gloucestershire and still keep to small hand production means we have been able to contain our costs more than those importing from abroad. Perhaps the increasing demand for ethically sourced and eco-friendly goods helped us. Perhaps we’ve been around long enough now to be trusted. Perhaps they liked our brand new bouquet garden melts, which you can see on the website now) and our new bath essence mood collection which was on show as a prototype at Pulse. You will be able to see it here soon.
The idea of the mood collection is that you will be able to buy a box of six blends of very concentrated aromatherapy essences which you can then use as they are or blend together to create your own perfect bath or massage blend. I’ve written blending rules and suggestions which come with the box.
That was the easy part and the fun part. More difficult was finding UK made boxes and bottles which meet our recycling criteria but are not so expensive that they price the product out of the market. I’ve needed my stress release bath and clarity oil (for headaches) quite a lot.
I do like the creative side of my business much more than the nitty gritty of finance and day to day operations, but probably everyone with their own business feels the same. You set out fired with a passion for what you want to do or make and spend 90 per cent of your time doing other things. But that 10 per cent makes it all worthwhile.
So, production is back in full swing after our late spring lull and will definitely not be easing this side of Christmas. We are already producing special products for some of the bigger specialist UK retailers to suit their packaging and working with others for some exciting new ideas.
April 28 2008
Those of us at the sharp end of retailing and manufacturing don’t have to wait for all those dreary economic indicators and credit scare stories to know when times are hard.
Shops know immediately when people aren’t spending so readily and we know when their level of reordering our products slows down. And it has.
That’s the bad news. Our little factory unit, which has been working full out since well before Christmas, now has a definite air of serenity about it. The in-tray of orders is neatly stacked rather than overflowing and the huge pile of boxes waiting for the daily courier pick-up is now an easily manageable stack.
The good news is it’s given us time to spring clean the unit, come up with new products (to be launched at Pulse in London in early June) and talk to some of the bigger retailers about making special lines for next Christmas. And – more importantly – we get a breather, too.
For me, that means seeing more of my son, Freddie, and husband Mark and managing a few treats, despite some appalling weather.
The first treat was a family day out to see Thomas the Tank Engine at our local steam railway in the Forest of Dean. It was freezing and it snowed so our planned picnic in the fields at the end of the line turned into a huddled and hasty sandwich on the station platform. But Freddie loved it. He gasped at his first sight of Thomas and ran up to him to say hello. He had no doubt that Thomas could hear and understand. He can in the books.
An old fashioned roundabout was as much fun as the trains and as all the rides were free, Freddie went round and round ….and round ….and round with a big grin on his face until he had to be prised off to go home. It was a really good value day.
The next treat was perhaps less good value although we were using a long overdue voucher for a free hotel stay. Realising it was about to run out, we headed for Tuscany and Grotta Giusti, a natural spa hotel near Montecatini Terme close to Pisa and Florence.
It was a spur of the moment booking and perhaps we should have done more research, but for me the treatments were very expensive and not really what I wanted. A four minute blasting with a fire hose is not what I think of as a hydro massage. I had to hold onto the walls.
Montecatini Terme is famous for its natural warm springs and has been a fashionable resort since the 19th century. Think Harrogate in terracotta – it was just as cold and wet. The Grotta Giusti is built over the underground caves which are heated by the thermal springs to create natural saunas. We were warned temperatures could be up to 59 degrees. Perhaps they meant Fahrenheit because we couldn’t find anywhere much warmer than an English beach.
There were beautiful naturally heated outdoor and indoor swimming pools, but we’d left Freddie at home with Mrs Pickle (see February diary) and I suffered the usual mother’s guilt of thinking how much he would have enjoyed swimming there.
Add to that a restaurant which managed that old Italian restaurant trick of producing a bill that bore no relation to the menu prices and we both felt a little of the gloss had been knocked off our luxury break. Still, it was great to relax and great to get home again.
Where there’s more good news. Jemma, an aromatherapist who is a key member of the production team here, has announced she is expecting a baby, due in the autumn. Congratulations. It’s a subject I’m sure we’ll be coming back to here. Lots of mums-to-be do ask about using essential oils in pregnancy. You do need to be extra careful but you’ll find some advice in the Ask Vanessa section and I will talk about it here next time.
Meanwhile, I hope you are all finding some good things, too, among all the economic doom and gloom
March 5 2008
I’ve been looking forward to Mother’s Day since January. Not because I’ve been looking forward to seeing what treats two-year-old Freddie would have for me, but because it would mark the end of the frenetic production schedule the unit’s been on.
No sooner was Christmas over than we were fulfilling Valentine’s and then Mother’s Day orders, working weekends and evenings to ensure every order got out to the shops in good time. They did.
But I had one last job to do before I could sit back and enjoy my day – and Freddie’s bright yellow home made card. Once a fortnight I still man a stall at Stroud Farmers’ Market and I was there the day before Mother’s Day serving the steady stream of small children who arrived with Dad and a few coins clutched in warm fists to buy Mummy a little treat.
Freddie was there to help me, too, but his business skills need a little bit of developing. He kept on trying to give the customers money instead of taking it from them. Perhaps that’s why we were so busy. Friends are always telling me I should give up the market stall. Logically they’re right – I have quite enough to do – but the market is where I sold my first products nearly 10 years ago and I still love the atmosphere there.
It’s just won the 2008 Farmers’ Market of the Year Award and it is the busiest and most popular farmers’ market in the south west with between 40 and 60 stallholders there each week. Many of us are now old friends and we are all genuine growers or producers. The novelist Katie Fforde, who lives locally, has even written a book, Paradise Fields , about the market.
It is hard work. It means loading the car and setting up at 7am and it will 3pm before we’re packed up again, carrying boxes up and down the steps of the old Corn Exchange. But between all that we chat, meet our customers, enjoy good coffee, buns and hot chocolate and excellent fresh cooked organic food from sausages to Thai fish cakes. I can also get a lot of my food shopping done between serving my customers.
There’s always music and entertainment but markets around Christmas, Easter and special days like Mothers’ Day have an extra festive feel. There are special book, art and craft events in the market. On Saturday an artist was getting shoppers to help her with her sculpture and last year the public were asked to judge an ostrich egg decorating competition at the Easter market.
It's all good fun, but there is a serious environmental side to it. This is local producers, selling local produce to local people, cutting out transport, over-packaging and maintaining traditional skills and products such as genuine single and double Gloucester cheeses and old apple varieties . I'm in good company - even Prince Charles' Duchy of Cornwall feels the market is worthwhile. The Duchy Home Farm has a regular stall.
For me, meeting my customers face to face keeps me on track. Stroud Markets customers are my oldest and most loyal and they will soon tell me what works and what doesn't and they give me new ideas. Essential balm was originally blended for a horse with cracked hooves but it works just as well for human heels, elbows and nails!
And if you'd like another recipe, try this one from a fellow marketeer. We like it with smoked mackerel and a little fruit like apple or gooseberry chopped in, too.
My favourite stalls are:
Frocester Fayre
Mrs Beeby, the egg lady
Lansdown Pottery
Quintessential Soaps
February 2 2008
Hearts and roses – they may mean Valentine and romance to you, but to me and all the girls who have been working all day, every day in our tiny factory unit, they mean nothing but hard work at the moment. If our other halves are reading this, we suggest they choose any shape but hearts and any flower except roses if they want to make us their Valentines.
We have beaten all records in the last two weeks. Orders have been flooding in from our stockists for Valentine gifts and now we are ready for the rush of internet shoppers.
Our factory unit is part of a small block of converted farm buildings right at the end of Frampton-on-Severn. It has one of the longest and most peaceful village greens in Britain. I’ve often seen a kingfisher in the reeds of one of the several ponds along the green and swans are always camped out on the pond near the post office.
Our units at the far end of the green are a little more frenetic. While we make and despatch our bath melts by the thousands, Mrs Pickle opposite is on just as tight a deadline producing her ‘delicious delectables” for Fortnum & Mason and under her own brand. She’s Mrs Pickle to us but Mrs Massey (Nicky) to the rest of the world.
It’s pure coincidence that two companies producing goods that are shipped and sold around the world should be neighbours on a tiny Gloucestershire farm, but no doubt that sort of enterprise exists in thousands of quiet corners of the country. Having Nicky as a neighbour has been great for me and I hope we are good support for her. As women in business with young families, we do support each other when child care comes unstuck or when we have an important business meeting that will go better without children running round.
And Nicky has let us into a few cookery trade secrets that have come in useful in my products. The herbs and spices infused in my KAT aromatherapy essences don’t lose their freshness thanks to Mrs Massey. She also helped to perfect the light blending of our body butter. I don’t know if it’s her influence or mine that has turned my two year old son Freddie into a cook, but while I’ve been busy making melts, he’s taken up biscuit making at home.
This is his favourite. It’s as good as you get in the posh coffee shops, a lot cheaper and it really is easy enough for a two year old to make as it uses oil rather than butter which makes creaming easy. We’ve adapted from Cookies Galore by Jacqueline Bellefontaine
Hazelnut biscotti
Ingredients
2 eggs
175g sugar
Grated rind of an orange*
2tbsps orange juice
60ml light vegetable oil
200gms hazelnuts
350gms plain flour
2tsps baking powder
175gms ground rice
Oven 180 degreesC/ 350F or gas mark 4
Beat the eggs and sugar in a large bowl until very pale and thick. Beat in the orange rind, juice and the oil. Stir in the nuts.
Sift the flour and baking powder together and add to the bowl with the ground rice, working the mixture with your hands to form a soft dough (Freddie’s favourite bit). Add extra flour if the mix is too sticky.
Divide in half and roll each piece into a log 20cms long. Bake the logs on baking sheets until they are golden and risen (about 30mins). Remove from oven and cool slightly.
Reduce the oven to 150C/300F or gas mark 2. Cut the logs into thin slices and put these flat on the baking sheets. Bake them, turning once until they are crisp and golden on both sides (about 20 mins).
They will keep for several weeks in an airtight tin and are lovely dipped in coffee or served with a chocolate fondue.
*I use about 10 drops of essential oil of orange rather than the orange rind. It is safe to use some of the essential oils in cookery as long as you are sure of the purity of your oils and stick to the oils that you recognise as coming from an edible part of a fruit or plant; eg citrus oils such as orange, mandarin or grapefruit, or ginger and lemon grass. The accepted rate is one drops of oil per person and this recipe makes a batch of 50 biscuits.
Please be sure you know what you are doing and stay within the rules with essential oils. They are very potent and it is usually best to stay with the ‘Not to be taken internally rule’. Email me if you’d like more advice on using essential oils.
January 20 2008
Trade shows are a mixed blessing. As a country bumpkin, the prospect of spending days in the artificial atmosphere of Earls Court or the NEC fills me with dread, but it does give me a chance to get out of wellies (OK they are designer wellies ) and spot the latest trends.
Top Drawer, held in London last week really is the place to see and be seen. The best young designers exhibit there – there’s always a handful of Dragon’s Den successes and failures – but the show visitors are worth watching, too. We see what the world’s wearing long before it reaches Gloucestershire and then I have to decide whether I’ll look trendy or just plain silly wearing a bubble skirt at the farmers’ market. Fortunately there’s plenty of tweed and sensible boots about this year.
The designer wellies were replaced by waders as we got ready for the show. Gloucestershire flooded badly again as we tried to load up, cutting our house off from my factory unit in the next village. Mark, my husband, and I spent the day digging trenches to keep the water out of our house instead of preparing for the show, but this time the water went down as it reached the front door step. We weren’t so lucky last summer.
The next morning I set off through the flood waters as Mark had to continue to try to drain the fields, feed our sodden sheep and pigs and look after two-year-old Freddie who doesn’t understand the difference between a puddle and a flood. Suddenly the idea of three days undercover in Earls Court didn’t seem quite so bad.
The show was great. The atmosphere was vibrant and there was certainly no sense of gloom among the exhibitors or the shops ordering for Valentine’s day and on into the summer. It seems that if you sell something people really want, and sell it honestly, there’s still hope for retailers and manufacturers.
We took many more orders than we expected – mainly heart bath melts for Valentines. Our new deep red rose buds and black boxes did look sexy.
As we hand make everything to order I realised we were going to be working all hours to get the orders into the shops well in time for February 14. Then the news came through on the second day of the show that the flood waters were rising again and the factory unit was cut off. This time Jemma and Mary, my stalwart melt makers, were stranded inside with their road home blocked.
They were happy to carry on working, knowing that Mark would come and rescue them with the tractor and trailer if the water continued to rise. They deserved medals but I found them some funky watches instead. And here’s my show favourites – just to prove I do like to get out of wellies sometimes. At least the baby products are sensible – Freddie loves his Lumilove Nighlight.
Amazing slinky sandals from www.janerafter.com
Art Deco slinky dresses from sassyandboo.com
Baby stuff that looks good and works from bibsandstuff.co.uk
