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Taking Time to Live Well
DJ Frances Ambler
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We have two fresh start bundles to give away, courtesy of Garden Trading, to help you get your home shipshape and Bristol fashion
Start a brand new decade by bringing a feeling of calm and clarity to your home. Garden Trading’s new Laundry and Storage Collection harmoniously blends beauty with function, each piece doing its bit to make every utility room and kitchen a clean, orderly haven. After the excess and clutter of Christmas and New Year celebrations, now is the ideal time to give interiors the room to breathe. From stack-and-store utility baskets to hampers and handy boxes designed in crisp, clean linen shades, you’ll soon have a place for everything and everything in its place.
Vertical storage solutions in Lily White painted wood make the most of wall space to create extra hanging and stacking room; giving everything a home, even when you’re mid-chore. And the details have been given careful consideration, too. From refillable glass jars with cork lids for washing powders and haberdashery essentials, to screw-top glass bottles for laundry detergents and washing-up liquids, eco-friendly bamboo lids to traditional rug-beaters… the collection is full of simple, green solutions to help make everyday housework a pleasure.
Garden Trading has put together two laundry and storage bundles to give away to The Simple Things readers. Each includes: • Melcome Slatted laundry shelf, • 2 Chesil rectangular baskets, •Portland storage hamper, • Portland utensil holder, • Portland utility Basket in Lily White, • Provender Jars (small, medium and large) • Peg Bag in Ink Stripe, • Bottle brush • Washing-up Brush
Discover the full collection at gardentrading.co.uk
For your chance to win, click on the button below and answer the following question by the closing date of 12 February 2020:
Q. What is the name of Garden Trading's new utility and kitchen range?
Terms & conditions The competition closes at 11.59pm on 12 February 2020. A winner will be selected at random from all correct entries received and notified soon after. The winner cannot transfer the prize or swap it for cash. Details of our full terms are on page 127 of the magazine and online at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules
We’ve teamed up with Scilly Flowers to give you the chance to win flowers delivered to your door every month for the next year. How blooming lovely!
Scented narcissi are one of the traditional crops grown on the Isles of Scilly, 28 miles off the Cornish coast. There, in the small, sheltered fields dotted throughout the islands warmed by the Gulf Stream, the flowers thrive and come into bloom early. At Churchtown Farm on St Martin’s, owners Ben and Zoe Julian and their team pick, pack and post these gorgeous narcissi from October until Easter, come rain, shine or gale-force winds. Then, over the summer months, their attention turns to scented pinks, harvested so their customers can enjoy the colour and perfume of fresh flowers within days of being picked.
We’ve got together with Scilly Flowers to bring a bit of spring to one reader’s door for the whole year.
For more information on how these flowers are grown and harvested, or to place an order, visit scillyflowers.co.uk or call 01720 422169.
For your chance to win 12 boxes of scented narcissi (one every month), each containing 40 flowers, click below and answer the following question by the closing date of 12 February 2020:
Q. The Isles of Scilly are how many miles off the Cornish coast?
Terms and conditions: The competition closes at 11.59pm on 12 February 2020. A winner will be selected at random from all correct entries received and notified soon after. Flower substitutions may be made depending on availability. The winner cannot transfer the prize or swap it for cash. Details of our full terms are on page 127 and online at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules
Make a 100 wishes bay leaf garland or wreath this Christmas.
A needle and strong thread, in any colour
Lots of bay leaves.
1. Tie a knot at the end of a long piece of thread and run the needle through each leaf until you have gathered a large bunch.
2. Next, pull and tie the two ends together.
3.The garland can be tied to a door or placed on a table. Use the bay leaves over winter to cook with, write down your wishes, dreams and hopes and share them with your friends. Simple pleasures.
Taken from The Magpie & The Wardrobe: A Curiosity of Folklore, Magic & Spells by Sam McKechnie and Alexandrine Portelli (Pavilion Books)
This was originally published in December 2014.. Get hold of your copy of this month's The Simple Things - buy, download or subscribe
Photography: Holly Wulff Petersen
This proper cake is great for festive guests or as a pudding for anyone not a fan of Christmas pud. It’s just one of the festive bakes in our December issue and we liked it so much we thought we’d share it here
Serves 8
For the cake:
120ml milk
10 green cardamom pods, lightly crushed
2 tsp vanilla bean paste
275g plain flour
1 tbsp baking powder
225g unsalted butter
225g caster sugar
3 eggs
For the jam:
240ml red wine
400g plums, pitted and quartered
200g black seedless grapes, plus extra to decorate
2 cinnamon sticks
1 star anise pod
¼ tsp freshly grated nutmeg
450g granulated sugar
30ml lemon juice
Half an orange, thickly sliced
For the topping:
250g mascarpone
150g icing sugar
80ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160/Gas 4. Grease two round 20cm cake tins and line the bottoms with baking parchment.
2 To make the cake, gently heat the milk in a saucepan with the cardamom pods and vanilla paste, letting it simmer for 2 mins before removing from the heat. Cover and cool for 15 mins before straining.
3 Sift together the flour and baking powder in a large bowl and set aside.
4 Using an electric whisk, beat the butter and sugar until pale and creamy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each one. Mix in half the flour, then the milk and remaining flour. Divide batter evenly between the tins and bake for 35-40 mins. Let the cakes cool for around 15 mins before turning out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely.
5 To make the jam, add the wine, plums, grapes, cinnamon sticks, star anise and nutmeg to a large saucepan. Cook for 10-15 mins to soften the plums. Add the sugar, lemon juice and orange and boil for 12-20 mins, or until it coats the back of a spoon. Remove the cinnamon sticks, star anise and orange slices then pour into a shallow tray to cool quickly.
6 To make the topping, beat the mascarpone and icing sugar by hand until smooth. Fold in the cream and vanilla and chill in the fridge until ready to use.
7 Sandwich the cakes together with half the mascarpone and a generous spoonful or two of jam. Cover the top and sides with the remaining mascarpone mix. Use a palette knife to smooth the sides of the cake, scraping off just enough of the mascarpone to let the cake peek through. Add grapes and a few dollops of jam.
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Taken from The New Way To Cake by Benjamina Ebuehi (Page Street Publishing). Photography: Holly Wulff Petersen
Photography: Gap Photos
How a small Worcestershire town became the UK’s Mistletoe capital
Are we the only ones who start each December with the promise to ourselves that we’ll give the tinsel a miss this year and just use ‘nice greenery’ instead? (And then panic buy a couple of sprigs of holly for the front door and sneak out under cover of darkness to lean over the fence to pinch some of next door’s ivy?) We thought not.
If you live near a mistletoe market, however, a house full of greenery need not be an unattainable dream.
The tradition of hanging mistletoe in the house goes back as far as the ancient druids. But for more than the last 100 years, the village of Tenbury Wells in Worcestershire has been hosting mistletoe and holly auctions in the run-up to Christmas.
Many markets of mistletoe and holly were held in the area but Tenbury Wells is the last remaining, holding markets on the last two Tuesdays in November and the first in December, as well as a mistletoe festival, this year held on Saturday 7 December.
The mistletoe and holly auctions are exactly as they sound. Turn up, bid, buy festive greenery. You do need to buy more than a sprig to dangle over your doorway, but anyone can buy at the auctions. Large bundles are sold individually but the first to buy a bundle from any seller’s particular batch has the option to buy all or any of the rest from that seller.
The sale begins indoors with wreaths and once they are gone moves outside, with would-be buyers following the auctioneer down the rows of huge mistletoe bunches.
We recommend you get there early to bag the best bunches. The auctioneer’s bell sounds at 10am sharp when the selling begins. But if, when your alarm wakes you to the dark of a December morning, you don’t feel very festive, fear not. It will all be worth it when you return triumphant with the back seat of your car full of mistletoe. And next door’s ivy can remain unmolested another year.
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December sees a large delivery of brown paper and brightly coloured string into The Simple Things’ offices as all the team gather to wrap our Christmas Gift subscriptions.
If you order a gift subscription you can choose to have the first issue (January 2020) wrapped up and sent out with a The Simple Things Christmas card. We send them out in time for the last Christmas post and they can be sent direct to the recipient or sent to you to hand over in person. The lucky recipient then gets a further 11 issues sent monthly to remind them of your generosity.
It’s not quite John Lewis, but we have made our own Christmas advert staring Olivia and her wrapping skills.
To order a Christmas Gift Subscription just click here.
Salutations!
Am I Overthinking This? by Michelle Rial (Chronicle Books)
We’re saying goodbye to our November issue today. We hope our back cover illustration from Michelle Rial’s Am I Overthinking This? raises a smile with you.
Our very special Christmas issue will be in the shops soon.
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Photography: manuscriptmaps.com
Or why maps are not always to be trusted
You think you know where you are with a map, don’t you? Hopefully in a very literal as well as a figurative sense. We’re going to mess with your mind here… <whispers> Not everything you see on maps is real!
We recently heard about ‘paper towns’, which are, as you might expect, towns, streets or areas that can be seen on a map but do not exist in reality.
Also known as ‘fake towns’, ‘phantom settlements’ and ‘bunnies’ (no, we aren’t sure why either), paper towns are made up by map makers in order to catch out copycat cartographers (try saying that while you’re drawing a map). The idea being if you add a fake town to your map and then you look at a map drawn at a later date by someone else and it includes the town you made up, you’ll be able to prove they copied your work. Sneaky!
There is, we are told, a Moat Lane marked on the Tele Atlas Directory of London (the basis for Google) which is entirely made up. And it’s not the first time Google has unwittingly copied a fake entry from a map onto its own map of an area.
Back in 2008, there was a flurry of interest in a town called Argleton in West Lancashire. A trawl of the internet turned up all kinds of businesses, land for sale and more, but there was a hitch… Argleton did not exist. If you went to the spot where it was marked on Google, there was nothing to see but a rather uninspiring field. When it was brought to Google’s attention they issued an apology for the ‘error’ and the town disappeared from its maps in 2010. But somewhere, someone was having the last laugh at his or her little joke (and the knowledge that Google had chosen their maps to use).
Suggestions were made that Arlgeton was an anagram of ‘not large’ or even ‘not real’ with a ‘G’ added for ‘Google’. Who knows if that’s true, or just a delicious coincidence, but we’ll be studying our Ordnance Surveys more carefully in future for suspicious-sounding towns that ring no bells.
If you also love a map, don’t miss our November issue in which we meet cartographer Kevin Sheehan who creates traditional, hand drawn maps like the one pictured here. Each is a work of art in its own right.
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Offices of Unwin-Carruthers & Unwin-Carruthers, Solicitors April 1930
‘Philip…’
‘Hm? Oh. Good morning, Miss Marfleet.’ She looked troubled.
‘I see. You’re back to addressing me as Miss Marfleet. No more Alice. Am I to stop calling you Philip?’
‘I’m sorry. I never know what to call you, or how to think about our…predicament.’ My
own grumbling bored me. The trouble with complaint is that it does not move things forward. ‘Do you have good news for me?’ I asked. One might as well remain optimistic for as long as is feasible.
‘Philip, I can’t bear this uncertainty. I must decide. I have decided. I can’t marry you. Not with Father’s passing still unresolved. Don’t you see? It’s bad enough to live with one unanswerable question. Endless not-knowing is a torment.’
‘Well, true, but…you could say yes. Then I could refer to you as Mrs Unwin-Carruthers — no more Miss Marfleet! Yes is as firm an answer as no, and one that would prove more satisfying for us both.’
‘I’m not fit to be anyone’s wife, Philip, not with this horrible…question looming over me.
Tell me truthfully: do you still believe we will one day know who killed Father?’
I left my desk and walked over to the window. Was it time to risk unvarnished honesty? ‘I believe that if you sincerely wished to know, then you could.’
‘What do you mean?’ Alice said sharply.
For some ten years before his death, I had looked after the legal affairs of Stanley Marfleet, Alice’s father. I had become well acquainted with all three of his daughters and fallen in love with Alice, his youngest. I sought Stanley’s permission to ask for her hand in marriage, and he granted it. I duly made my proposal and Alice told me, eyes a-sparkle, that I would receive her answer very soon.
Instead, three days later came the news that Stanley Marfleet had been found bludgeoned to death in his study. A blood-encrusted poker lay on the carpet beside his body. No fingerprints were found upon it. Nothing useful was discovered by the police, apart from one peculiarity that nobody could explain: on Stanley’s desk was a cup, a matching saucer, and a quantity of tea.
Let me be clear: I do not mean that there was an undrunk cup of tea resting upon a saucer; there would have been nothing remarkable in that. The saucer was sitting on the desk and the cup was perfectly centred upon it, but upside down. A little of the tea was in the saucer but most of it was in a large pool on the desk.
Alice had become obsessed with this detail. Dozens of times she’d asked me, ‘Isn’t it possible that Father knocked over the cup while he was being attacked and it simply landed that way?’ I always gave the same answer: ‘I suppose so, just about’ — to which Alice always instantly replied, ‘No. It’s impossible. If you accidentally knock a cup, it couldn’t land back on its saucer in a way that looks so carefully positioned. Never.’
Now, aware of Alice awaiting my response, I said, ‘I believe you could know the truth if you wanted to. But you fear it.’
‘Philip, if the police can’t —’
‘The police don’t know your sisters as you do.’
‘Lily and Julia were nowhere near Father’s house on that day. It’s been proven. And Father’s will hardly shocked them. They expected it. He was married to their mother only for a short time, and he was never a true father to them. My mother was the great passion of his life.’
Evidently she did not see that these circumstances could equally explain why her sisters might find the will especially intolerable. ‘You need to think more clearly and…factually,’ I told her. ‘Alibis can be manufactured. And the cup must have landed upside-down by accident. Your father was hardly the puzzle-leaving sort. On the contrary: he loathed silly puzzles. And the way Lily spoke to you about that silly magic square, which you’ve conveniently erased from your memory…
‘But, Philip, you don’t remember either!’
‘I know, but…why go over this again? I should give up — on marrying you, on justice for Stanley, on everything I’ve hoped for!’ I scarcely recognised myself during this outburst. Love can do strange things to a chap.
‘Please, Philip, don’t be angry,’ Alice cried. ‘Might we go over that strange afternoon once more? You say I fear the truth, but you’re wrong. I wish I could know!’
‘Do as you please,’ I snapped, turning away from her. ‘We were in this room: you, me, Lily, Julia and Edward.’ I shuddered at the mention of Julia’s guttersnipe husband.
‘You read us Father’s will. I assured everyone that I’d make things right and equal. Julia hugged me. Edward said I’d made an honourable decision. Oh!’ Alice stopped. ‘You must help me to give Lily and Julia their shares of my share. It’s wrong to make them wait any longer. I know you suspect Lily, but…I don’t.’
‘Julia and Edward were grateful,’ I agreed. ‘They had many times tried and failed to persuade Stanley to make things more equitable. Lily had done no such thing, and she was ungrateful. She said, “If Paternoster didn’t want me to have it then I don’t want it.”’
‘Yes, and then she explained that Paternoster means “Our Father” in Latin.’ Edward was offended, said he knew fine well what it meant, and asked if she knew about the magic square of Pompei.’
Alice leaned over, took a pen and a sheet of paper from my desk and recreated the magic
square.
R O T A S
O P E R A
T E N E T
A R E P O
S A T O R
‘Then Edward rearranged the words in a cross shape…’ she said, ‘…with ‘Paternoster’ going across and down, sharing the letter “n”, and with two As and two Os left over, which apparently makes it a secret symbol of Christianity somehow. Edward said the square was a palindrome. Lily sneered that only the middle word, TENET, was a palindrome. That’s where both of our memories grow hazy. The next thing I remember is you, red-faced, telling Lily and Julia that if either of them spoke to me like that again, you would throw them out on the street. Edward said, “What on earth do you mean?”, and Lily asked if you’d gone mad and…and…oh!’
‘Alice, what is it?’
‘TENET,’ she whispered. ‘It’s the only palindrome — that’s what Lily said. While AREPO is simply OPERA reversed.’
‘Darling, what’s wrong?’
‘I know who killed Father,’ Alice said.
*****************
‘Tell me.’ I crouched down beside her.
She stared at the square of words. ‘Edward was right. It is a palindrome, if you lay the five words end to end — ROTASOPERATENETAREPOSATOR. Lily misunderstood. He wasn’t claiming that each word was a palindrome. What a clever magic square! And to be able to make the Paternoster cross, too! It’s really rather marvellous that they found it among the ruins of Pompei.’
‘What does this have to do with Stanley’s death?’
‘All this time, I’ve wondered, Philip: what terrible things might Julia and Lily have said that day that prompted you to threaten them? Odd, isn’t it, for us both to forget? And why would my sisters savage me? I had promised to share everything equally. Lily didn’t even want Father’s money. Why should she accuse you of having gone mad unless…unless you’d reacted to something that never happened?’
‘What do you mean?’ There was a limit to how much Alice could know. She was surely unaware (or she’d have mentioned it) that Stanley had consulted me about making a new will, to make things equal between his daughters. Julia, damn her, had persuaded him that was fairer. And then, if Alice had married me as I’d hoped she would, we’d have been unnecessarily poorer. Unless something were to happen to Stanley before the new will could be made…
‘You reacted with anger to nothing,’ said Alice. ‘I didn’t forget the dreadful things Lily and Julia said; neither did you. They said nothing offensive. You needed that conversation to end: the discussion about palindromes and words that were other words reversed. You were afraid I’d tumble to the truth: that you murdered Father. That, while dying, he managed to turn over that cup of tea — and in doing so, name his murderer. The word cup, upside down, gives us the letters p, u, c. Philip Unwin-Carruthers. As you say, Father wasn’t one for setting puzzles. Your words contained an assumption: that Father turned the cup upside down, not his murderer. How could you have known that unless you were there? Unless you killed him?’
What a fool I’d been, so secure and smug in the assumption that she’d never work it out.
Well, there was only one thing for it — though Alice hadn’t yet got that far in her deductions. She soon would. What choice did I have? I was hardly about to let her leave my room and go straight to the police.
It was a terrible pity. I sincerely loved her. We could have been so happy together.
The end.
Photography: Yeshen Venema
And help Christmas go with a homemade bang
In our December ‘Cosy’ issue, we have a lovely ‘how-to’ which takes you step by step through making your own Christmas crackers. You can find all the instructions from page 53.
What you’ll need before you start, though, is the templates for the crackers, which you can find below, ready to print out. There are also some jokes to print, cut out and pop inside each cracker, and (in case our jokes are too groansome for you) there’s also a sheet of blank slips to write your own jokes or riddles on. Or why not personalise them for each of your Christmas guests?
We’d love to see pictures of how your crackers turn out. Do tag us on your Facebook or Instagram posts!
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DJ: Frances Ambler
A basketful of delicious treats, thoughtfully sourced, to cheer dark evenings
Abel & Cole have been delivering delicious organic food for 30 years now. With award-winning animal welfare credentials, top-rated treats, and plenty of plant-powered options, all the delicious goodies in Abel & Cole’s catalogue taste as good as the eco glow they’ll give you. From moreish pies, pastries and tarts to savoury charcuterie, interesting cheeses and wines and fizzes, you’ll find something to bring a little cheer to any winter evening.
Our favourite part? It’s all wrapped up in recyclable, reusable packaging and dropped to your door by their own cheery drivers. Each delivery is carefully planned to be as efficient and carbon-friendly as possible, always putting the planet first. All of which means you can feel completely happy with what you put on the table, whether you’re enjoying a cosy dinner in for two or are planning to be feeding a crowd.
Abel & Cole have put together a foodie hamper to appeal to gourmands, worth £120 each, and we have three to give away. To be in with a chance of winning one just click the button below and answer the following question:
Q: For how long has Abel & Cole been delivering organic food?
Terms and conditions
Entrants must live within an Abel & Cole delivery area – please check your postcode at: abelandcole.co.uk/help/faq. Three prize winners will be picked at random from all valid entries and notified via their entry email address. The winner must claim the prize within three days of notification, after which time an alternative winner will be selected. For full terms and conditions, visit abelandcole.co.uk/terms-conditions. You’ll find Iceberg’s full terms and conditions on page 127 and online at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules Entry closes at 10pm on 27 December 2019.
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Photography: Yeshen Venema
Create your own eco-friendly crackers with brown paper or recycled wrapping paper
If you liked the colourful Christmas Crackers make in our December issue, but would like something a little greener, or just a little more understated in design, you might like to make these eco-friendly versions.
You will need:
Cracker template (click to download and print out)
Brown paper
Cutting board
Craft knife
Toilet roll or cardboard tube
Cracker snaps
Double-sided tape
Ruler
String
How to make:
1. Cut out your template and draw around it on the card. Cut out the main cracker shape and then cut out all the triangles using your craft knife and ruler.
2. Place your toilet roll in the middle of the brown paper between the cut out diamonds. Take your cracker snap and put it through the cracker then place in the cracker any presents or jokes you wish to fill it with.
3. Place sticky tape along the bottom edge of the cracker, leaving a space where the triangles are, then roll and stick the cracker together. (If you don’t want to use tape you could little tabs in one side and slits in the other for them to go through to hold the paper together, although this won’t be as sturdy.)
4. Place your string underneath the triangles, pull tight and tie into a bow.
5. Cut off any of the cracker snap that may be showing, then personalise as you wish.
Do you go straight for the Strawberry Delight or are you a die-hard Toffee Penny fan? Join our very scientific research project to help us pinpoint The Simple Things’ readers’ favourite?
In our December issue' Miscellany, we’ve taken an irreverent look at our favourite Quality Street chocolate. But these things require serious consideration, too. If you thought the biggest vote of December 2019 was the general election, think again.
There were strong feelings in the office, with the Coconut Eclair being perhaps the most divisive, so we’re putting the vote to you. Tell us which your favourite Quality Street is by clicking on your favourite below.
We have four Doves Farm Ancient Grain Baking Hampers to give away
The festive baking season is upon us and this month we’ve teamed up with Doves Farm, the organic flour experts, to give you the chance to win a spectacular hamper packed full of their award-winning organic ancient grain flours.
We have four hampers, each worth £50, ideal for the avid baker who would like to add delicious flavours to their bakes. Presented in a beautiful wicker hamper, the prize contains eight packs of Doves Farm organic ancient grain flours - Wholemeal Spelt Flour, White Spelt Flour, Wholemeal Rye Flour, White Rye Flour, KAMUT® Khorasan Flour, Einkorn Flour, Emmer Flour, Buckwheat Flour, Quick Yeast, a bread proving banneton and Doves Farm recipe booklet.
To be in with a chance of winning one of the hampers, simply click on the button below and answer the following question:
How many bags of flour are there in the prize?
A. 5.
B. 90.
C. 8.
Browse the full range, plus find hundreds of delicious recipe ideas at dovesfarm.co.uk.
Terms and conditions
Competition closes at 23.59 on 31 December 2019. Four winners will be selected at random from all correct entries received and notified soon after. The prize is as stated, can’t be transferred or swapped for cash. Find our full terms and conditions at icebergpress.co.uk/comprules.
Ever fancied zero waste shopping but worried about how you’d get it all home? We asked an expert how to pack no-packaging grocery items. And we want to hear about your favourite zero waste stores, too…
Zero waste shops are suddenly everywhere, and we love using our local ones and having a poke round new ones we find on our travels. But for the newbie it can be a bit of a minefield, knowing what you should take and how you’re going to transport your goods home. Tote bags are all very well but you can’t fill them with milk now, can you? We talked to Tracey Harwood, owner of zero waste store Fetchem From The Cupboard, which has branches in Fetcham and Ashtead in Surrey, and asked her to share her best advice for shopping package free.
Tracey suggests you scope out your local zero waste store before you try and do a shop and see what products they stock, make a list of what you normally use and get containers ready to take with you. Here are her recommendations for transporting various products, from hand cream to quinoa...
Beeswax wraps are a good investment but putting that into an airtight container too will improve longevity of the product.
Tupperware is best and most of us have some in our cupboards somewhere. Any storage containers you normally use for your rice and cereals can just be brought in and refilled. If you don’t have a label write down the date you filled the container. Most produce bought packaging free is fresher than plastic wrapped and therefore lasts longer but you need to use most dried goods within three months.
Use an old bottle which used to contain oil or vinegar but it must be completely dry to avoid damaging the product. An old jam jar will do if not and is easy to fill.
Loose produce can just be put straight into a reusable bag. If you want to invest in some lightweight produce bags to separate out your purchases, there are recycled plastic and cotton ones on the market which can be washed and reused. They’re good for things like Brussels sprouts and new potatoes, which can get lost in your basket or your trolley quite easily when loose.
Bring a tin or Tupperware again, most stores and even supermarkets will serve directly into your own containers now and they put their dispensed labels onto that instead.
Tupperware or produce bags are good here - or reuse the bags which you previously bought the products in and replace them as and when necessary. If you only buy small amounts the cotton bags are good enough for the freezer as you will use the product before it spoils.
Reuse the containers you have from your old products to fill up or invest in some prettier soap dispensers for ones that will be on display. Think about the fact you will need to refill them, so make sure the opening is not too small otherwise it may be tricky.
Tracey suggests you shop little and often if you can and take your time getting used to the self-fill containers. “See-through containers are ideal so you can track your progress when filling but they’re not essential. Ask a staff member of any shop which provides refills to help you until you have got the hang of refilling your containers - they’ll be only too pleased. Sadly, once a product has been decanted, a retailer is not allowed to put that product back, and if you leave it behind or worse, spill it, it has to be wasted, which obviously defeats the object.”
And working with the shop owners is key, she says. They want you to provide a good experience for you not just for the sake of their business but for the sake of the planet, so you’re all on the same side. “Give feedback when something doesn't meet your expectations but also give feedback when you are blown away by a product or service. Try to be patient and understanding - this is a learning curve for all of us and your zero waste shop owner is likely working very long hours, taking very little reward, yet turning up every day to make a difference - we all need your support to build sustainable businesses which can compete with the big boys. We need to work together on this.”
We loved poking our noses into Fetchem From The Cupboard but now it’s over to you. Do you also have an amazing zero-waste store near you? Somewhere that’s going above and beyond, offers products you don’t see elsewhere, has a brilliant cafe or simply staff that are making a real difference and make it a pleasure to shop there?
We’re hoping to put together a booklet of the best zero-waste stores around the UK, as voted for by readers of The Simple Things. Leave your votes in our comments section, or on Facebook or Instagram.
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By Rebecca Frank
As thoughts inevitably turn to Christmas, why not swap the shops for the kitchen and have a go at making your own festive foodie gifts. Rebecca Frank visited River Cottage to do just that
While Christmas shopping tends to make you tired and stressed, spending a day in the kitchen creating brightly coloured bottles and boxes bursting with delicious festive flavours whilst ticking names off your present list has the exact opposite effect. This I discovered on a cold and wet November day when I joined the Christmas Hampers workshop at the River Cottage in Devon. While the rain came down outside my fellow cooks and I boiled beetroot, apple and tomatoes with wintry spices to create a bottle of deep red St Nicholas Ketchup and combined Bramley apples and lemons with eggs and cloves to make two jars of Hugh’s delicious winter lemon curd. A chocolate salami followed, which course leader Lucy Brazier described as the ideal no-cook recipe for when you’re ‘sick of pudding and sick of cooking’. Packed with nuts and sour cherries and a couple of teaspoons of alcohol (we used locally made cider brandy) all of our sausage shaped creations looked different but equally impressive.
As we all know, cooking can build up quite an appetite but there’s no fear of going hungry here with regular breaks for tea and homemade spelt digestives and a hearty lunch served in the farmhouse in front of the log fire. While feasting enthusiastically on winter salads and tender meats we shared stories of our Christmases and cooking successes and disasters. It was soon back to the kitchen as we had a long list of goodies to get through including piccalilli, roasted nuts and seeds with Twelfth Night seasoning, quince vinegar and a batch of those yummy spelt digestives. Lucy made it all feel very achievable for a bunch of amateur cooks with her lively demonstrations and useful tips and hints. While we cooked at our individual stations, she wandered around answering questions and rescuing the odd mishap with a smile.
At the end of the day we were given wooden boxes and Christmassy accessories with which to decorate our hampers while Lucy poured us all a glass of quince, bay and ginger ratafia and laid out a fabulous cheese board for us to feast on as we worked. I came away with heaps more confidence and ideas for making edible gifts but also general cooking tips I will definitely be putting to use in the kitchen over Christmas. I wasn’t surprised to find most people on the course had been on a River Cottage workshop before as I definitely hope to return soon. If you can’t make it down this year, perhaps you could slip a cooking course onto your Christmas wish-list..?
The next Christmas Hamper course is on 21 November and costs £195 for the day including lunch (9.30-5pm). Visit rivercottage.net to find out more.
Recipe by Le Creuset, photography by Dirk Pieters
Surely the most comforting of comfort foods, great for a crowd and just as good eaten alone on the sofa
In our November issue, Olivia Potts, author of A Half Baked Idea (Fig Tree), talked about how cooking a fish pie helped her grieve for her mother and we all agreed that there’s something very gentle and soothing about both putting together and eating this dish. Baking a fish pie needn’t involve using every pan in your house. In this simple recipe, which first appeared in our November 2015 issue, the veg are included in the pie so you don’t even need a side dish. Spoon it out into a bowl to eat curled up with a blanket or perhaps bring it out for a bonfire night supper with friends.
You will need
200g boneless white fish fillets
200g skinless salmon fillet (pin-boned)
450ml full-fat milk
750g potatoes, peeled and halved
1 tbsp olive oil
4 baby leeks, finely sliced
3 shallots, diced
2 fennel bulbs, finely sliced
100g butter
2 tbsp plain flour
150g frozen peas
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
juice of 1 lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper
How to make
1 Preheat oven to 180C/Fan 160C/350F.
2 Place the fish in a baking dish, season and pour over 400ml of the milk. Cover with foil and bake for 15 minutes until the fish flakes slightly when pressed with a fork.
3 Remove the fish, reserving the milk. When cool enough to handle, flake the fish into bite- sized pieces and set aside.
4 Place the potatoes in a pot, cover with salted cold water, bring to the boil and simmer until soft. 5 Heat the olive oil in a shallow casserole over a low to medium heat on the hob and sautée the leeks, shallots and fennel until soft. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.
6 Melt 50g of the butter in the casserole, stir in the flour and cook over a low heat for 2-3 mins. Slowly add the reserved milk and continue to cook until thickened, stirring continuously.
7 Add the flaked fish, sautéed leeks, shallots and fennel, peas, 1 tbsp of the parsley and the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.
8 Drain the potatoes and mash with the remaining 50ml milk, 50g butter and rest of the chopped parsley until smooth. Season to taste.
9 Spoon the mash on top of the fish mixture and smooth with a spatula. Trace a pattern into the mash with a fork.
10 Place the casserole into the oven and bake for 20–25 mins or until golden.
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Photography: Cathy Pyle
For a bonfire night gathering or just a dinner with a spooky or autumnal feel, this cocktail is a winner
Ingredients
1 bottle of gin
1 bottle of elderflower tonic water
1 litre fresh pomegranate juice
1 lemon, cut into wedges
6 sprigs of rosemary
1 fresh pomegranate
How to make
1 Mix together 1/3 gin to 1/3 tonic and 1/3 pomegranate juice.
2 Add a twist of lemon and stir with the rosemary sprig (then add the lemon wedge and rosemary to the glass for garnish).
3 Cut the fresh pomegranate in half and scoop out the seeds. Add 1 tsp of seeds to each cocktail.
This cocktail recipe by Kay Prestney is in our November issue, as part of our menu for a murder mystery party, which also includes brie and cranberry bites, apple and celeriac soup, chicken, chorizo and pepper bake and poached pears in red wine. A menu to die for. Find it on p32.
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We celebrate slowing down, enjoying what you have, making the most of where you live, enjoying the company of of friends and family, and feeding them well. We like to grow some of our own vegetables, visit local markets, rummage for vintage finds, and decorate our home with the plunder. We love being outdoors and enjoy the satisfaction that comes with a job well done.
