Free Tickets to give away!

We have 2 pairs of free tickets for this weekends Garden Show at Wrest park,  Silsoe, Beds. The tickets can be used on any of the three days of the show.

All you need to do to enter is to leave a comment on this blog or our Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/pages/Humbers-Homemade/134529056608191?v=wall  or RT our competition message on twitter www.twitter.com/humbershomemade or do all 3!

Winners will be drawn at 12 noon on Thursday 26th May.

Good luck!!!

Funny how things come about!

A couple of weeks ago I was approached by a company looking for Seedless Raspberry Jam.  I have made seedless jam before but it involves a lot of work as the fruit has to be pushed through a sieve to leave you with just the pulp and with raspberries that is not an easy task as the flesh is around each individual seed.

So I made a small batch and sent the company a sample, which I am pleased to say that they loved and this week I delivered their first order of the jam in 3kg tubs, and I left them a sample of my Lemon Curd as they may well in want to use this in the future.

Funny thing is that I have found that the Seedless Raspberry Jam is a very good seller at the markets too, just goes to show that you do have to just go with the flow of things!

Isn't life funny?

RND 11 Our contribution

So for Red Nose Day this year I wondered what I would do, and on pondering I had an idea (my 10yo Dear Daughter called it a light bulb moment) as my Apple Jelly is clear I wondered if I would be able to put a bright red glace cherry in it to symbolise a Red Nose.

So I had a play and yes this worked really well, although I found out that you needed to get the air out the of the glace cherry to make it sink (see who says there isn't science in cooking!)

So the jars looked good but they needed eyes which I was just going to draw on with a permanent pen, but before I did this I though I would just look on the internet to see it anyone made 'eye stickers'.  My search came up with a mail order company called 'Yellow Moon' who I have dealt with in the past as a Rainbow Guide leader, who did a reel of sticky eyes.

So from a very simple idea came this product that we took out to sell this weekend and they were very well received and we hope to raise a lot of money for Comic Relief.

Who said Twitter is just Cheese Sandwiches

So after a nearly 2 weeks of feeling rather awful, I had orders that I needed to catch up on and make so I started with Red Onion Marmalade.



The teaspoon or so left in the measuring jug



But when bottling up I found I had an amount

 left which was too small for anything, so as

 it was around lunch time I decided to

have it myself.  So what to have it with?



Now I am rather partcial to a cheese sandwich, so on checking the fridge I found that we did indeed have cheese so I proceded to make said sandwich.



Doesn't look great I know the light was too bright I have been informed!



But then my dilema was do I toast the sandwich or not as seeing as I have post the last photo on Twitter I decided to do the same with this photo and ask the question to toast or not to toast.  Teh responses came back from @hazelshomegrown @realmensow and @s_humber_design that toasting was the way.

As the sandwich was too thick to fit in a toasty bag,

so I toasted under the grill, and this was the result.



Red Onion Marmalade and Honey Mustard all
capped up ready to go





Then to show the full cycle of the Red Onion

 Marmalade I also took a picture of the

jars that I had bottled earlier that were

going out to a local Farm Shop.

So that was my lunch on Friday! makes a change really as I don't often actually stop for lunch, but Friday I did, and very nice it was too.

Please leave me a comment on this blog, and I will write again soon.

Vickie xx

Exciting times ahead - Are you my Jam Factor?

I had a very exciting meeting with 2 great friends yesterday, and if you are connected to the food industry in anyway there will be an exciting development soon, I wish I could say more but I know that I would get told off for spilling the beans!

At my markets at the weekend people were still saying Happy New Year! it felt really weird as it is almost 2 weeks into the New Year and how fast we forget all the festivities, just like holidays I suppose, you only have to have been back a short time and it feels like an age ago that you were away.

Luton Tweetup
We had our very first Luton Tweetup on Sunday and although the numbers were small, it appears that we are going to do it more often and the numbers of those interested has grown.  I can't wait to meet more lovely peeps in the flesh and the upcoming events, let me know if you are interested in coming along to one.

Are you MY Jam Factor?
As a result of being on The One show at the end of November last year we are upping our production and we are looking for a reliable person to join our small but lovely team of workers (that would be me then!) The hours would be flexible and a food safety certificate would be an advantage but not essential, so if you are interested either send me an email at vickie@humbershomemade.co.uk or call me on 01525 750246 or 07967900110, I would like to hear from you.

I have got some research to do, as yesterday two separate people in two separate meetings suggested the use of 'mind maps' and apparently this would be good for me to use as I have thoughts running around my head like mad and it should help to get some order into what I want to do and achieve so that is this weeks task - along with the general running of the business - to see if they are right and how you go about doing a 'mind map'.

I'm sorry that this post is going to be such a short one but I am off to go and do my stint at the Bedford Credit Union which is opening a collection point in Flitwick, so if you want to know more about me you will have to follow my tweets and you can come and talk to some of my great friends.

So bye for now

Vickie xx