Bristol Good Food Awards 2014 - Voting closed

Image from thelittlehoneybee.com

A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who managed to vote for us in the Bristol Good Food Awards 2014, we're keeping everything crossed that we've made it as runners up again this year.  Keep an eye out for some more posts - hopefully with good news! 

Bristol Good Food Awards 2014

Thank you to everyone who voted us best Preserve at the 2013 awards

The Bristol Good Food Awards are here again!  We were rather oblivious last year and as such were very excited to find ourselves one of three runners up voted for by our lovely customers and then winner of best preserve!  However, not one to rest on our laurels we would love to be the winners of 2014 as well!!  It's very tough competition with blind tastings by Michelin and Media chefs, notwithstanding scrutiny of packaging and the like - but we're hoping we can do it again!!!

There are many categories, but we feel our strengths lie in the following:

Best local pie

Preserve

Condiment

So, if you could vote for us, we'd be firstly very humbled and secondly very happy producers!  Please click here to help make it happen for 2014!!!  Voting closes on March 24th.

Whiteladies Road and Tobacco Factory Markets

Our delicious sweet potato, wilted spinach & goats cheese pie!

The weather is looking rather good for the weekend and already we're thinking about what we're going to bake for our lovely customers.  This weekend we have a surprise in stall though... a new pie for our vegetarian customers.  At Whiteladies Road market (click here for details) we'll be bringing you our:

 'Beetroot, potato and creme fraiche pie'

  We've already given it a road test and we think it's rather wonderful, but we'd like you to let us know what you think!  We'll also be there with our rather renowned 'tipsy' bread pudding.

We ensure our fruit is steeped in our alcohol of choice overnight to bring you a decadent treat for your weekend.

We'll be at the Tobacco Factory (click here for info) on Sunday once again, we're thrilled to have a regular spot at this popular market and can't wait to meet new customers.  We'll have all our freshly baked goods to keep you well fed and a selection of our award winning preserves and marmalades.

Enquiries have already started flooding in for our Elderflower Cordial - we were overwhelmed with the success of our cordial and  within 6 weeks all our supplies had sold out! This time we'll be out in force picking as much elderflower as possible to ensure lots of satisfied customers. Keep an eye out from May onwards!

Tyndall's Monument

Image from Wikipedia

Sunday brought not only fabulous weather, but also my in laws from North Devon, up for the day to visit their grandchildren.  Snowdrop Cottage is a small Victorian affair and what it lacks in space we like to think it makes up for in charm but after a substantial Sunday lunch it was clear more space was required in the form of the great outdoors.  We're very lucky to live in an area which commands many great walks, although one of our favorites is to Tyndall's Monument in North Nibley.

It's a couple of miles walk through lovely woodland before the landscape opens up and Tyndall's monument stands before you.  There were plenty of people out with young children, dogs and picnic blankets all to take advantage of the warm sunshine.  We found many treasures a long the way including a hard fungus growing from a tree which our youngest child quickly commandeered as their own and refused to let go for most of the way.

It really is a lovely walk and well worth a visit should you find yourself in the area.

Food blogging, watch out!

Photo from wsj.com

Just found this really interesting artical written by Rose Prince - take a look here.  There's a world of bloggers out there, anonymous and gaining popularity daily writing about their passion with large followings.  It's not a new revolution, but one that once involved in can become really quite addictive!  

Pancake Day!

It's shrove Tuesday today!!!  At Snowdrop Cottage it's with some trepidation that I welcome such an event.  As someone who rarely measures ingredients and prefers a more spontaneous method of cookery my husbands eyes roll as throw the concoction know as a 'pancake batter' together.  Although quite proficient with marmalade making, pancakes elude me somewhat, usually turning out thick, flabby and slightly curled at the edges.  My children however only see perfection and delight in smothering then with fresh lemon juice and copious amounts of vanilla sugar.  Will next year show an improved version of my pancake?  No, the tradition will continue and eventually maybe my husband will take over the job!

A kindle of kittens...

But what is the collective noun for a collection of markets?  Quite frankly it's exhausting although I cannot deny a very satisfying weekend which has just occurred.  This is a question I've pondered for a while, perhaps at an early hour of the morning when really I should be sleeping. We've a busy weekend ahead coming up on 15th and 16th March with the fantastic Whiteladies Road Saturday and on Sunday we'll be at The Tobacco Factory.  Perhaps one of our lovely customers could answer the question for us and allow me to finally get some sleep!!!

Frome Independent Market

What a great day we had a our new market 'Frome Independent' yesterday.  Despite the rain customers came to spend a day out at what is an amazing market.  Wandering around the flea market area I managed to pick up a few things, the stalls on Catherine Hill were jammed and smiles were seen everywhere!  

The stall looked really good, we'd brought along some Spring flowers from home and even the drizzle couldn't mar their wonderful colours!

We'll be back there again on the 6th April... hopefully Spring will well and truly be out in force! For more information take a look here