Inntravel the Slow Holiday people.
Win! A River Cottage Cookery Course of your choice (closed)
River Cottage cookery course
Brush up on your culinary skills with a River Cottage Cookery course
THERE ARE A GREAT selection of cookery courses on offer this winter at the River Cottage farm, from Wild Food to Game Cookery. Enter our competition by answering one simple question and you'll soon be impressing your guests with a feast to remember. Enter here.
*Competition winner must book and participate on a course before 14th February 2014. See the River Cottage online cookery course calendar for more information.
See River Cottage Head Chef, Gillon Meller's delicious recipes featured regularly in The Simple Things magazine. Issue 17 on sale now.
Win! Breakfast for six months (closed 13 December 2013)
Dorset Cereals
Enter our competition today to win one of 10 Dorset Cereal breakfast sets including a full set of crockery, copy of The Breakfast Book and the entire range of porridges, granolas and mueslis…
WHEN IT COMES TO PORRIDGE there’s definitely a right way and a wrong way to make it, and at Dorset Cereals they like to do things right. Using proper jumbo oats and creamy barley to create a delicious, chunky porridge, they add nothing but real ingredients, such as honey, raspberries, pumpkin seeds and crumbled gingerbread – it’s how fantastic porridge should be.
And, as such, they’re pretty proud of their new porridge range. Dorset Cereals has teamed up with The Simple Things to give away not only the porridges, but all of their granolas and mueslis, and a copy of their new recipe collection The Breakfast Book – an homage to the greatest meal of the day. With their gloriously crunchy granolas, including the old favourite Honey & Pecan, the decadent Chocolate & Macadamia, the new Berry granola and the wonderfully simple Oat granola, along with their whole range of mueslis, breakfasts will never be the same again.
Ten lucky winners will each receive a set of Dorset Cereals crockery (two mugs and two bowls), a copy of The Breakfast Book and the entire new porridge range, granola range and mueslis (21 different packs).
To find out more about the Dorset Cereals range, and to win other lovely things, head to their website, www.dorsetcereals.co.uk.
How to enter
Enter online by 13th December 2013 for a chance to win one of ten Dorset Cereals breakfast sets worth £100.
Get some bangers and bread in for British Sausage Week
Celebrate British Sausage Week (4-10th November) by whipping up this traditional pork sausage sarnie recipe from TV chef, Simon Rimmer. Breakfast perfection...
FANCY PASTRIES AND ELABORATE MUESLIS are all very well, but sometimes all you want is a good-quality, tasty sausage between two doorsteps of freshly baked white bread. So follow the lead of chef, restaurateur and British Sausage week ambassador Simon Rimmer and celebrate the beloved British banger. The British Sausage week campaign, now in its 17th year, will take place from 4-10th November 2013 – and includes new recipes and a competition to find the greatest sausages in the land. As for the humble sarnie? Choose the best banger your butcher has to offer, add fried onions and dollops of mustard and ketchup, and you’re in breakfast heaven.
TRADITIONAL PORK SAUSAGE SARNIE
SERVES 2
4 lean pork sausages
10ml wholegrain mustard
4 large slices of bread or 2 bread buns
For the relish:
1 tsp oil
1 onion
2 tbsp tomato ketchup
1 tsp wholegrain mustard
1. Preheat the grill or barbecue and cook the pork sausages for 10-12 mins, turning once.
2. One minute before the end of cooking time spread wholegrain mustard over the bread or buns and lightly toast.
3. Meanwhile, make the relish. In a small saucepan heat oil and fry the onion, thinly sliced, for 3-4 mins or until soft. Add tomato ketchup and wholegrain mustard. Heat through.
4. Make two sandwiches, topping the sausages with the relish.
During the year to July 2013, the nation consumed 188,270 tonnes of sausages at home. That’s a lot of sarnies... Find this and more facts at www.lovepork.co.uk/pork-products-cuts/sausages/sausage-week.
Find this and lots of other tempting recipes in Issue 16 of The Simple Things magazine. To buy or subscribe visit http://www.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/TSTW1B/
Top 5 ways with pumpkins
Don't waste your Halloween pumpkins! More than just a scary face, these big and beautiful winter squashes can be cooked in all sorts of ways for a delicious supper.
5 ways with pumpkin
1. Pumpkin Pilaf Heat 2 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp butter in a saucepan with lid. Add 1 onion, 3 cloves garlic, 1 tbsp each of cumin, fennel and black onion seeds, and cook for 3 mins. Add 400g basmati rice, cook for 2 mins. Add 400g diced pumpkin and 800ml chicken stock, bring to boil, then simmer. Cook without stirring for 10 mins until liquid is absorbed, turn off heat, stand for 5 mins.
2. Broccoli, pumpkin & pine nut tart Mix 700g sliced pumpkin, 1 sliced red onion, 2 sprigs thyme and 2 tbsp olive oil in a roasting tin. Roast for 15 mins at 200°C. Add 200g Tenderstem broccoli (in 4cm pieces) and garlic to tin, mix and roast for 5 mins. Roll out puff pastry, place on baking tray. Place cooked mixture on top, sprinkle with pine nuts and dot with crème fraîche. Bake for 20 mins.
3. Shallot, red pepper and pumpkin soup Place 4 quartered, deseeded red peppers skin side up on a baking sheet and roast at 200°C for 25 mins, until the skins char. Cool, peel off skins, reserve flesh. In a pan melt 30g butter with 1 tbsp rapeseed oil. Add 6 shallots, 750g diced pumpkin and 1 red chilli, season, then sweat vegetables for 5-10 mins. Add 4 garlic cloves, sprig of thyme, 1.2l veg stock and simmer for 15 mins. Add red peppers and simmer for 5 mins. Blend.
4. Pennoni regati, butternut squash and pumpkin seeds Peel and dice a small squash. Season and sauté for 5 mins in 1 tbsp olive oil. Peel and add 20 small shallots. Cook and drain 300g pasta. Toast 50g pumpkin seeds. Mix a quarter of the cooked squash with 1 chilli and 6 tbsp water. Cook until it just starts to break down. Add a knob of butter, sprig of chopped rosemary and remaining squash and shallots. Mix in pasta. Add Parmesan to serve.
5. Baked pumpkin with a rosemary, chilli and orange topping Roast 12 shallots in olive oil and butter at 200°C for 15 mins. Add 1kg diced pumpkin, roast another 15 mins. Heat 4 tbsp olive oil with 3 cloves of garlic. Add 1 red chilli, 1 tbsp rosemary, 2 tbsp parsley and zest of 1 orange, stirring. Add 120g breadcrumbs, cook for 1 min. Spread breadcrumb mix over the squash and shallots mixture and return to the oven at 180°C for 30 mins.
Courtesy of www.ukshallot.com, www.loveradish.co.uk and www.tenderstem.co.uk.
People Tree: fighting for fair fashion
What do slavery, smoking in restaurants and eggs from caged hens all have in common? Answer: all were once commonplace; all were eventually banned; and none of us can quite get our heads round the fact they ever existed in the first place.
One day, says the Soil Association's Peter Melchett, it will be the same for ethical fashion. It too will become — indeed it must become — the norm.
The Simple Things is at People Tree's Rag Rage event in the aptly-named Fashion Street in Spitalfields. It's an evening of discussion and short films intended to keep the need for change at the forefront of the media's minds, six months after the devastating garment factory collapse at Rana Plaza in Bangladesh in which 1129 people died and another 2500 were injured.
Melchett's fellow guest speaker Liz Jones is visibly moved as she talks about her own visit to the "hell" of a Dhaka sweatshop. She is vehement that legislation is the answer; the average British woman shopper, she says, is not encouraged to invest in good quality, ethically-made clothes and will not simply yield her right to a £2 T-shirt. It was not always thus, she says ruefully: "I still wear a pair of trousers from 1996," she says. "My mother owned one handbag. Where did this mania for loads of stuff come from?"
People Tree founder Safia Minney, whose ethical fashion brand has grown 23% in the past year — partly, she says, due to both trade and individual buyers' revulsion at big business — shares her own horror stories of workers' suffering in the name of our throwaway clobber. But a boycott is not the answer, she replies to one question from the audience. The trade unions don't want us to boycott the 'bad' brands, but to force them to give their workers more money and basic rights.
Finally, fluorescent-haired design legend Zandra Rhodes says she wishes The Archers would run a storyline about organic cotton. After all, she says, the show is renowned for introducing environmental issues to a mainstream audience. It's clearly an off-the-cuff idea, and everyone chuckles, but then Peter Melchett chips in. He knows the show's farming adviser well. He will have a word with him.
And suddenly the dream seems a step closer — first we take Ambridge; then we take the world.
Alastair Sawday: the green travel pioneer
The Simple Things interview: Julian Owen chats to Alastair Sawday.
“I can’t stop people flying, but I can influence the way they behave – offer them the choice to stay with interesting people”
THIS IS THE KIND of morning that suggests all is right with the world. In Clifton, the steeply rising Bristol hilltop settled by the merchants who brought the city its wealth, a cloudless sky allows ranks of grand Georgian terraces to bask in the sun’s rays. A trilling nightingale is, surely, only just out of earshot.And yet, those merchants didn’t build here simply for the view. They came to escape the hovelled poverty and putrid stench of the industrial city below. Out of scent, out of mind. Even more so, the African lives they traded in, wrenched from homelands to work enslaved in Caribbean colonies.
As we’re warmly ushered into a spectacularly spacious abode and the owner speaks of our attitude to climate change, we’re put in mind of a contemporary parallel. “We’re like the people of Rome,” says Alastair Sawday. “Too busy enjoying their massages and wine to bother about the Barbarians coming. There should be a revolution. Why do we allow it? It’s the West that caused it, but we’ll find ways of adapting. In the meantime we’ll allow more refugees to leave hit countries, islands to sink, and food supplies to become more expensive, to the detriment of the poor.”
Today his name is synonymous with eco excursions – first as a tour operator and latterly for a vast range of travel guides, alongside tomes on food and broader green living. He’s been one of environmentalism’s most articulate voices for the best part of four decades, since his views saw him labelled “a complete crank. Barmy, hopeless, quixotic, useless, irrelevant.” When he founded the Avon branch of Friends of the Earth in 1978, nuclear power was the issue of the day. “I found it intellectually fascinating, arguing the irrelevance of a brilliant system.”
Even before the partial nuclear meltdown at Three Mile Island a year later, Cold War fears meant Alastair was pushing at a partly open door. The next venture was paper recycling – initially collecting in his own van, selling to wastepaper merchants, living off the “pittance”. This increased to three lorries, 100 employees, and city-wide collection. “Our managers were long-term unemployed, collecting staff were kids off the street. I don’t think of myself as a businessman, more as a social entrepreneur."
Green is good Born in Kashmir in 1945, moving to the UK in infancy, Alastair attributes his outlook to his parents and their friends. “Their narratives were of service, commitment, a certain amount of sacrifice. ‘Decency’ and ‘integrity’ were bandied around a lot.” He shares a telling anecdote: before reading law at Oxford, Alastair studied in the US, returning to announce plans for a pizza business “which would have been pioneering in Britain. I’d probably be a pizza billionaire by now. My parents were just appalled: what an incredibly vulgar, self-serving thing to be doing.”
Betterment of life for others was the thing. Eschewing law, he embarked upon “probably the most significant transformational experience,” with Voluntary Service Overseas in St Lucia. “I realised people were poor because the system was set against them. [Other] people wanted it to be like that.”
Ensuing years saw him travelling South America, running a VSO programme for Papua New Guinea from London, becoming a “semi-social worker” to Asian refugees thrown out of Uganda by Idi Amin, and teaching, first in inner-city London, then Bristol.
“I wanted to do something transformative,” says Alastair. Building on the recycling, he set up an organic food distribution project via local schools. “It was a total failure. Organics were in their early stages.” Nevertheless, the strategy was sound enough for the Soil Association to take on, and organic food remains a passion for Alastair. The suggestion that it’s too inefficient to meet the planet’s needs cuts little ice. “We’re not feeding the world properly with the system we have, are we? It’s to do with far more than growing – it’s delivery, logistics, markets. By putting more power into the hands of a few corporations, we’re depriving the world of any openness on the issue. We’ve got to build resilience.”
In 1984 he founded Alastair Sawday’s Tours. “Completely committed to showing people the real world, introducing them to human beings, getting them under the skin of places. I was trying to redefine the way we travel, but it rather fizzled out.”
Standing as Green candidate at the 1992 election, he finished fourth. “A pretty debilitating experience. I was told: ‘We think you’re dead right, but it’s a wasted vote’.” Kipling would doubtless approve that Alastair treats his disasters with the same frankness as his triumphs. Nevertheless, this passage is uniquely illuminating. “If the ship’s going down, and we’re all going to drown, it doesn’t stop you bailing. Winning the battle was less important than playing a part in possibly one day winning the war.”
In 1994 he launched Alastair Sawday Publishing. “I realised publishing books about places I loved was going to be a damn sight easier than trying to persuade people to enjoy every moment of the day I was organising for them.” Before the term ‘boutique holiday’ was coined, his guides offered a welter of green-leaning destinations, handpicked by trusted contacts across the continent. In an increasingly online world, and notwithstanding a 30% fall in book sales, business remains stable thanks to all guide entries paying a fee for inclusion. Isn’t it tempting to accept money from sub-standard providers? “Imagine looking on our website and finding some naff place, run by unpleasant people, overlooking a motorway. You’d start to disbelieve us.”
Environmentally aware On climate change, Alastair says: “The most upsetting aspect is the unfairness on those who’ve made no contribution to it. I can’t bear it. I’m tearful as I’m talking now.” And he is. Which makes asking the next question as difficult as it is unavoidable: how does such an environmentally aware man reconcile heading a travel-encouraging business? “I feel it very keenly. I can’t stop people flying, but I can influence the way they behave – offer them the choice to stay with interesting people, eating organic food from their gardens. It’s not an impressive answer because I have, presumably, contributed to the damage.” A beat. “I don’t know if I’ve reduced damage or increased it. We’ve actively avoided long haul, have turned down sponsorship from companies we disagree with. That’s another way we try to ease our consciences. If we can encourage B&B owners to put [solar] panels on their roofs, provide bicycles, little things add up.”
Family business In 2010, Alastair handed over management of the company to his son, Toby. The latter has presided over digital transition (“We’ve now got an app, for example, which I’d never heard of”), and taken on his father’s offshoot, Canopy & Stars, borne from a love of treehouses, offering genuinely esoteric accommodation. Alastair enthuses about a “farmer who’s built a wooden hut on a floating platform in a gravel pit – imaginative, beautiful.”
Just don’t call it glamping. “I hate the term, loathe the pampering people love nowadays: the emphasis on power showers, fat towels, the self-conscious pursuit of hedonistic pleasures.” Nevertheless, isn’t traditional camping the simplest travel pleasure of all? “We’d never survive if we just offered camping.” And who wouldn’t “get a kick out of a slightly more upmarket camping weekend up a tree”?
Perhaps Sawday Jr’s biggest change concerns company HQ, sacrificing the totemic eco-friendly base in an outskirt village for a central office block. “Easier to get to, easier to recruit, easier to run,” avows his father. Nevertheless, “I’ve been through an awful lot of emotional turmoil; even thought of going to live there. But Toby’s right, business has to come first.” Though there may no longer be an office pond in which to take a dip, the fundamentals still apply. “I can’t stand the greed that tends to follow the successful. The salary range from bottom to top in the average FTSE 500 company is something like 250 to 1. Oxfam advocates a maximum of 10 to 1. In Sawday’s it’s 3.5 to 1.”
Projects keep coming. Alastair helped secure Bristol’s European Green Capital 2015 award; next year he’ll chair the city’s Big Green Week; there’s talk of a good food book for dinner ladies. Because ultimately, for all his misgivings about humanity, Alastair remains driven by a belief he didn’t so much learn as inherit: “Our potential for doing benign, intelligent things is enormous.”
ALASTAIR’S CAREER PATH www.sawdays.co.uk
1945 Born in Kashmir
1964-67 Studied law at Oxford
1968 VSO teacher in St Lucia
1969-78 School teacher
1976 Moved to Bristol
1978 Founded Avon Friends of the Earth
1984 Set up Alastair Sawday’s Tours
1994 Founded Alastair Sawday Publishing
2005-7 Vice-chair of Soil Association
2006-11 Founder-chair of Bristol’s Green Capital Momentum Group
2008-10 Awarded Environmental Publisher of the Year
2010 Founded Sawday’s Canopy & Stars
2014 Chair of Bristol’s Big Green Week
Read the full interview, including a fascinating scrapbook of images from Alastair's early days as a travel entrepreneur in issue 16 of The Simple Things.
Save £20 at Gousto!
It’s 6.30pm, you’re on the bus, and dreaming of getting home to a healthy dinner. Trouble is, a detour to buy fresh parsley/tahini/black eyed beans is out of the question. Wouldn’t it be great if all the ingredients could be magically waiting at home for you?
Friends James Carter and Timo Schmidt thought so — which is why they set up Gousto for people committed to home-cooking, but lacking the time to shop for ingredients.
It’s a temptingly simple solution. Go online, choose from a ‘Couple Box’ and a ‘Family Box’, select the recipes that appeal to you, and they’ll deliver (for free) the necessary portions of the local, fresh, organic ingredients you need — along with easy-to-follow recipe cards.
Gousto’s recipes are developed by a team of professional chefs, cover all cuisines and styles, and are tested by friends and families first. Every week, the selection is updated to make sure there’re plenty of new recipes for you — recent dishes include chicken in mascarpone/chilli/lemon zest sauce and rice, and honey-roasted beetroot with warm bulgar wheat and beans. And, since the assumption is you’re busy, most dishes take no more than half an hour to prepare and cook.
Fancy giving it a go?
How to redeem your £20 coupon
- Visit www.gousto.co.uk
- Select your box
- Enter your code SIMPLE20 at checkout to save £20
- Select your recipes
Win a £200 shopping voucher!
Win a £200 shopping voucher! Tell us what you think of The Simple Things. What do you enjoy most? What would you like to see more of? We’d really appreciate it if you took a few minutes to complete our reader survey. And as a little incentive you could win a £200 shopping voucher. (You will need a copy of issue 16 to hand to take part.)
Thank you.
Dogs in blankets
The secret dreams of sleeping pets…
Talk about letting sleeping dogs lie. Stick a blanket over them while you're at it, and snap them looking all cute and cosy. Tweet us your snaps @simplethingsmag and you could be part of our new feature, Dogs in Blankets. Use the hashtag #dogsinblankets
We promise we're not barking mad…
Bake a delicious rhubarb cake
Sharp rhubarb, sweet orange and a hint of warming spice – this is a cake to curl up with on a rainy afternoon
Rhubarb*, orange, pistachio & cardamom cake
150g light brown sugar
250ml sunflower oil, plus a little extra for greasing
3 eggs
1 tbsp orange flower water (optional)
Zest of 1 orange
Seeds from 12 cardamom pods, crushed
1/2 tsp ground ginger
300g self-raising flour
350g rhubarb, cut into 1cm pieces
80g pistachios, finely chopped, plus extra for the topping (optional)
For the icing:
250g mascarpone or cream cheese, at room temperature
50g icing sugar, sifted
Zest of 1 orange
1 tbsp lemon juice
1. Grease a deep 20cm cake tin and line the base with baking parchment. In a large bowl, beat together the sugar, oil and eggs.
2. Stir in the orange flower water, zest, cardamom seeds and ginger. Fold in the flour. Stir in the rhubarb and pistachios.
3. Pour into the tin and even it out. Bake at 180°C for 1-1 1/4 hours on the middle shelf, until a skewer comes out clean. Keep an eye on it as it cooks and cover loosely with foil if it’s turning too brown.
4. Turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool.
5. To make the icing, beat together the mascarpone, icing sugar, orange zest and lemon juice.
6. Spread over the top and sides of the cake once it has cooled completely.
7. Sprinkle over some chopped pistachios, if using.
Find more yummy ideas in issue 16 of The Simple Things, which is on sale now.
Get into whisky
Alwynne Gwilt aka ‘Miss Whisky’ has a simple goal – to turn the ‘armchair & slippers’ image of whisky on its head.
What tips can you give us about buying whisky for friends in the run-up to Christmas?
All the whisky outlets will be doing tastings, so go along and try some. At the Scotch Malt Whisky Society in London, Edinburgh and Leith you can buy tickets to events where you can sample interesting single cask whisky. Don’t assume that just because it’s old it’s good – it comes down to what you personally enjoy. And when buying for friends, think about what they already drink. If they enjoy red wine, sherry or port, they’ll probably prefer a whisky that’s had a sherry maturation. If they already drink bourbon, then they might like to try a Scotch whisky which has been finished in a bourbon cask. Just go into a specialist shop and have a chat. There are no ‘wrong’ questions!
You can read the rest of our interview with Alwynne in issue 16 of The Simple Things, which is on sale now.
Diwali dinner idea: pumpkin coconut curry
Pumpkin coconut curry with split peas, chickpeas & leek This light, sunshine-hued curry promises not to make your eyes water – just your mouth…
Serves 4-6 2 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
1 leek, roughly chopped
1 litre vegetable stock
1 can coconut milk
230g kabocha squash/pumpkin
65g yellow split peas
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
21/2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
1/8 tsp red pepper flakes
65g kale, chopped small
1. Add onion, garlic, leek and olive oil to a frying pan over medium heat. Sauté for 5-10 mins or until it starts to brown. Add vegetable stock, kabocha or pumpkin, split peas and salt. Bring mixture to a boil, then simmer and cover for 20-25 mins.
2. Once pumpkin and split peas are tender, add chickpeas, all spices and kale. Stew for 10-15 mins until well combined and tasty. Top with shredded coconut or natural yoghurt.
Find more yummy ideas in issue 16 of The Simple Things, which is on sale now.
Hand-printed fabric
BRINGING THE HANDMADE back into our fabrics and homes.
We sent textile designer and stylist Manisha Harkins to the Design Centre in London's Chelsea Harbour to hear a fascinating talk by Helen Cormack owner of Tissus d'Hélène. Helen, who started the company in 2006, has a passion for prints, most of which are hand-blocked or hand-screen printed.
Helen welcomed Carole Langton and Sophie Paget Steavenson of Langton Textiles, who offered an insight into Kalamkari Indian block printing and Juliet Cornell of Pukka Print who discussed her print journey from Hampshire to Mumbai and back.
Their first collaborative collections are hand printed on linen. Sophie Paget Steavenson, formerly based in Mumbai, with her own line of block-printed scarves, helped bring Carole Langton's prints to life. Back in the UK, Carole first drew Indian inspired motifs "before skilled craftsmen carved detailed wooden blocks. Colour-wise, Helen was instrumental," both explained.
Also in Mumbai until recently, Juliet Cornell realised her dreams through talented Indian designers and craftspeople using traditional wood and brass blocks. "That's something I'm really proud about: It's really the finest quality Rajasthani block printing -- plus the authenticity of Indian pattern with very English colours." Cormack, whose showroom is a natural home for these complementary collections, reflected, "It is vital that these crafts continue."
Find both Langton Textiles and Pukka Prints stocked at Tissus d'Hélène 421 Design Centre East, Chelsea Harbour, London SW10 0XF.
Love fabric? In the November issue of The Simple Things we have an extract from Cassandra Ellis' latest book, Cloth (Kyle Books £25), which explores the history and significance of natural fabrics and contains more than 30 beautiful projects for wool, linen cotton, silk and hide.
Claim £20 off at Hello Fresh!
Claim £20 off! We've teamed up with Hello Fresh to provide you with an exclusive offer on a delivery of fresh ingredients and recipes.
- Visit www.hellofresh.co.uk/ST20
- Choose your box
- Select your number of meals and portions
- Hello Fresh will send you your first box full of fresh ingredients, £20 off.
Hello Fresh deliver recipes that can be prepared in 30 minutes or less, with all the required fresh ingredients in the exact quantities, direct to your door.
'We source the highest quality, freshest ingredients the UK has to offer and bring it all to you direct from the very best independent suppliers.' Patrick Drake, Head Chef.
My city: Marrakech
Maryam Montague invites us into the souks, cafés and alleyways of the city she adores
Maryam’s private tour of Marrakech.
1. Favourite restaurant
Al Fassia
9 bis route de l’Ourika
This is my favourite restaurant for authentic Moroccan home-style cooking. Delicious! It’s also a woman’s cooperative, so you can feel especially good about going there. Make sure you make a reservation, though, because others are onto this secret too!
www.alfassia.com
2. Favourite shop
33 Rue Majorelle
33 Rue Yves Saint Laurent
A concept store that carries wares from over 200 designers – from homewares to jewellery to clothes. This is fresh contemporary Moroccan design at its best and a great one-stop shop. You can also pick up a signed copy of my book, Marrakesh by Design, if you’re so inclined.
www.33ruemajorelle.com
3. Favourite Gallery
Galerie 127
127 Avenue Mohammed V, Guéliz
Marrakech’s gallery devoted to contemporary photography. There’s always something interesting to see. I saved up to buy my own birthday present here – there are so many images on my covet list!
www.galerienathalielocatelli.com/galerie127
4. Favourite café
Kaowa
34 Rue Yves Saint Laurent (opposite Majorelle Gardens entrance)
If you’re tired of heavy food and want a quick, healthy bite, this is the place to come. A great spot for vegetarians and vegans with salad and juice bars, as well as an outdoor terrace.
www.tinyurl.com/m765d7s
5. Place to see by night
Jemma el-Fnaa (just at dusk)
Medina
This might just be one of the planet’s best places for people watching – host to a variety of characters, from snake charmers to henna painters to fortune tellers to musicians. And the visitors are almost as intriguing.
6. Place for souvenirs
Spice souk
Medina
Ask for the “Souk des epices” once you’re in the old city, known as the medina – most people will be happy to direct you. Stall after fragrant stall awaits you. Pick up some ras-el-hanout – a blend of 12 or more spices that’s a mainstay in the Moroccan kitchen. Mix it into rice or meat dishes, or into a stew for a taste of North Africa.
Seed to Stove: Autumn roots
Introducing… Seed 2 Stove: Autumn roots.
In the first of a new series for the magazine, keen allotmenteer Lia Leendertz cooks up her colourful autumn crop.
"My allotment sits at the top of a hill in north Bristol. Much of the time my two kids are climbing the apple trees and demanding drinks or snacks, but not now. Autumn is a gentle, quiet time to be here. They’re in school and the mad tsunami of summer bounty is behind me. My autumn crops sit and wait until I’m ready for them. What a change. I can think and tend and decide what to cook, rather than the allotment dictating.
It’s a time for reordering summer growth and chaos. Grass edges that have crept into beds can be sliced into satisfying sharpness with a spade, and new areas of the plot must be conquered, the white couch grass roots slowly disentangled from the earth and thrown straight onto a little smoky fire. Some things will need planting soon too: new fruit bushes must be ordered, as well as garlic and broad beans – promises of flavours to come."
In season this month "Beetroots and carrots are pretty malleable and dependable crops. I sow direct into the soil every few weeks from early summer to late summer, picking the babies earlier in the year but leaving some to get big for autumnal roasts and pickles. You can, of course, sow carrots and beetroots that look just like the ones in the shops, but where’s the fun in that? It’s precisely as easy to sow and grow white and yellow beetroots, candy striped ones, yellow, black and white carrots as it is the usual suspects, and this year I really went for it. They make for a pleasingly colourful and unusual autumn crop.
At this stage of the game they’ve toughened up a little, so we’re not really in salad territory here. These roots are best when slowly cooked and dressed with spices to bring out their inherent sweetness and complexity. Suits me."
Try something new There’s a world of unusual colours and varieties to try. The future is not necessarily orange for the humble carrot.
1. White Belgian "I’ll let you into a secret – these huge, heavy fellows were once commonly grown on small farms to be used as animal feed. But don’t let that put you off! They’re deliciously tender and mild, and look great pickled in jars with their orange friends."
2. Spanish Black "This year I also sowed some of these striking black carrots. They were around long before the orange sort, and are popular across Asia and the Middle East. Roast, don’t boil them as you’ll lose the colour (and taste)."
3. Jaune Obtuse du Doubs "A French heirloom. That makes these carrots sound almost too special to eat, but eat them you must as they’ve got a great, strong, sweet taste and look brilliant grated in a salad."
Join Lia Leendertz and photographer Kirstie Young every other month for seasonal recipes and growing tips in The Simple Things magazine.
Interview: Cassandra Ellis quiltmaker
CASSANDRA ELLIS doesn’t just wake up under a quilt, she spends her days making them, or teaching others how to. It’s not about art, it’s about memories…
Do you wake up under one of your own creations? Yes, I have too many. They’re the essence of what a home is (that and a roast chicken). We all have one on our beds, I made quilts for both my stepchildren, and they’re also on the sofas. It’s very cute when the kids are watching TV the quilt comes off the sofa and on the laps. We have a chocolate lab called Mr Darcy, because he’s so good looking, and Lily, an Australian terrier – they have their own too. In fact there’s a quilt that didn’t start off as a dog quilt but has become one because Mr Darcy lay on it all the time.
Is the rest of the house as cosy? We live in Peckham Rye in London. People might assume I’m going to be wearing velvet and jangly bells and have a purple streak in my hair and every wall’s going to be a different colour. It’s nothing like that. There’s no built-in furniture, everything is very simple, along the lines of Barbara Hepworth’s house in Cornwall. Clean, not fussy. The whole house is one colour, pale grey, with wooden floors. We had new friends round for dinner and they described our house as “soporific”, as in they didn’t want to leave!
What is it like, teaching workshops in your own home? I’m quite fanatical about having everything prepped. I get up at 5am and bake. It’s not just about learning to quilt but about creating a homely feel. I have a huge studio up in the roof. By the time they get to floor five people go “Oh my God!” You can see across the city of London. I really enjoy the whole community thing. People share fabric and tell stories. That’s where it all started – doing your day’s work, getting the children to bed, and doing craft was the only chance people got to sit and talk. It’s lovely.
Tell us about the memory quilts you make for people When I make a commission for someone, or teach someone, when they hand over their bags of children’s clothes and wedding dresses and husband’s shirts, in some way they all tie together because it’s their story. When it’s finished, they don’t see the quilt first – they see their lives. It’s incredibly emotional.
Can you suggest a good project for beginners? The only thing you’ve got to learn is cutting fabric and sewing it back together again. It’s about building blocks – that piece of fabric can be sewn to that piece of fabric. Try a little memory piece. These came about from someone I know who, when someone died, cleared out all the clothes then realised, ‘Oh God, we should have kept those’. You can use any cottons, anything from shirts to kids’ clothes, mixing up with Liberty or Indian block prints. You can use wool but not very heavy wool – you’d struggle to put silk next to wool, they’d have a little fight and the wool would win. If you want to incorporate silk or lace, back it with something. Ties are perfect for binding edges.
In the November issue of The Simple Things we have an extract from Cassandra's latest book, Cloth (Kyle Books £25), which explores the history and significance of natural fabrics and contains more than 30 beautiful projects for wool, linen cotton, silk and hide.
Blog giveaway: Win an Elizabeth Eley Upholstery stool (closed)
footstoolblog
Elizabeth Eley has dedicated her time to rescuing, restoring, and bringing unloved and misused chairs back to life ever since she quit the rat race to open Elizabeth Eley Upholstery. Her chairs are not only beautiful, but each one has a unique story and is built with true craftsmanship to last and outlast its owner. This gorgeous furniture is truly one-of-a-kind so we're delighted to be giving away a special restored footstool to one lucky reader of The Simple Things. Click here to enter now!
To find out more about Elizabeth, her upholstery business and her journey towards a more simple life make sure you pick up a copy of The Simple Things issue 16, out now.
WIN! A Canon EOS 100D Camera with Issue 16 of The Simple Things (closed)
SIM16.comp.indd
To celebrate our new Miscellany features ‘Dogs in Blankets’ and ‘Cats on Mats’, The Simple Things has teamed up with Canon to offer you the chance to win an EOS Digital SLR camera. All you have to do to enter is take a photograph of your pet. Whether you have a horse or a hamster, a cockerel or a catfish, we’re looking for a candid shot that reveals your pet’s character and makes us smile.
canoncomp3
The prize is a camera you’ll never want to leave behind. Canon’s 18-megapixel EOS 100D is perfect for beginners who are interested in photography: it delivers superb photos and video, and features an optical viewfinder and touchscreen controls. It’s small enough to take everywhere and ideal for capturing Fido or Tiddles at their playful best. The winner will also receive the 100D’s standard kit lens, the EF-S 18-55mm.
Click here now to submit your photograph for a chance to win! The winning image will be chosen by The Simple Things editor-in-chief Jane Toft and photographer Andrew Montgomery.
To find out more about Canon cameras, including the EOS 100D, visit www.canon.co.uk/EOS.