State of Play 7 13 lessons learned after 2 years of small business ownership You have to need it to work; wanting it to work isn’t enough. You have to have something riding on your business’s success. Quit your job, sell your house, do something that forces you to have to make it work. Running a business is hard and if you have a Plan B, you will probably go for it at some point. Be prepared to make sacrifices. Lots of them. You will work lots more hours than you will get paid for, you will work on weekends, you might have to sell your house, or your car, or something else to make your business work. Be prepared...
Fig and honey tart Fig season is a firm favourite in my calendar. Juicy, mild, fragrant figs are a delicious match with honey. This tart is perfect for these longer autumn evenings when watermelon and ice-cream dripping out of the cone gets replaced with real puddings and we start to hunker down for the winter; just like the bees are doing. Ingredients 1 block of store bought sweet short pastry (or make your own - you will be rewarded with a much better taste) 4 figs 2-3 tablespoons honey Frangipane 60g butter 2 tbsp honey 1 egg 3/4 cup ground almonds 2 tsp flour Preheat the oven to 180ºC. Roll the pastry out to about 5mm thick and use...
Just before Christmas, a customer at a market walked up to me boldly and proclaimed “so what are you spending all your money on then? You beekeepers are rolling in it”. I just smiled and replied “gold bricks to pave the driveway to our mansion”. If only he knew…. Things have been fairly quiet on the Hunt and Gather front as of late. We went mad with markets leading up to Christmas, with 2-3 and sometimes even 4 a week to capture the spending frenzy leading up to the big day. It was the first time that we had done any Christmas markets and it was great to get a feel for how the markets go at that time of...
Fig and Thyme Cocktail It feels like summer is starting to slip away. The days are getting shorter and the bees are getting a bit swarmy. Make the most of the last warm evenings with this super fragrant, indulgent and delicious cocktail. Our brand new honeys are perfect for this recipe right now because they are still liquid but later in the year, just mix the honey with a tablespoon of hot water to liquify it. Ingredients 25ml Cointreau 1 fig, finely sliced 6 sprigs of fresh thyme 1 teaspoon honey Champagne, sparkling wine, cider or soda water Fill a tall glass with ice. Add the cointreau and thyme and stir vigirously to release some flavour from the thyme. Add...
Honey and Basil Gin This drink is perfect for a warm summer evening, Sweet, fresh, tasty. Ingredients This is to make one drink so just double, triple, quadruple it depending on your needs. 1 tablespoon honey 50 ml boiling water 15 basil leaves 1 lemon wedge 2 shots of gin ice soda water Stir the honey in to the boiling water to dissolve it and set aside to cool. Fill a tall glass with ice. Pour over the cold honey syrup and gin. Add the basil leaves and the lemon wedge (squeeze some of the lemon juice out into the glass as you add it. Give it all a good stir to bruise the basil leaves and release...
