howies®

I started at howies in 2003 and Ray Mears was on the telly at the time doing his stuff.

I read about the knife that he designed and then had made by Alan Wood, so I phoned to buy one. There was a three year wait.

I gave my howies e-mail address and could have sworn they had not written it down and I would never hear from them.

Nearly 7 years to the day I got an e-mail from Woodlore saying,  ”we got it,  you want it”?

Yesterday I just took delivery of this beautiful tool.  The quality of the materials and finish means I shall be passing it on to my kids and them to their kids.

If you order one today you will have to wait till at least 2020 for one!

REAL BREAD

1.Local, stoneground flour

2.Water (more if its wholemeal flour – wholemeal keeps absorbing water after its made into dough)

3.Seasalt (has the potassium, magnesium and other trace minerals lacking in table salt)

4.Yeast (fresh or a sourdough starter)

5.Time & patience (rise once in warm area, re-shape, then leave to rise overnight – slowly risen bread is reportedly more easily digested)

6.Bake in a very hot oven and moisten with a spray of water.

That’s it – Tom enjoys keeping things simple.

Thank you to everyone who turned up to Tom Herbert’s Wee Do last night at the Bristol shop, and to Bristol Beer Factory for providing the beer that helped all the bread go down so well.

Tom gave away lots of bread baking tips and tales and I’m going to try and share the highlights with you now.

If anyone is reading this who attended the talk and feels I have neglected to mention a useful titbit of information, please feel free to comment.

We discovered that the history of civilisation is all about growing the grains that make the bread – flat bread to start with , then the canny Egytians sealed grains away for storage and accidentally invented sour dough.

Wealthy people always had white bread because it was harder to produce white flour.

‘The upper crust’ was eaten by the wealthier ‘upper classes’ because the bottom of the bread always got burnt.

My favourite tale from Tom’s family baking heritage is that his grandad used to sleep on top of a huge container of raising dough, and would get woken as it tipped him of in the morning, all risen and ready to be baked!

Tom is involved with the Real Bread Campaign who have home baking advice and tips on how to source ‘real bread’ from local bakers.

If you check out the Bristol Local Food Directory you can find where to source fresh yeast and local flours.

After many bread baking dilemma questions were answered we got down to the business of sharing the bread. It was a fun evening so thanks to everyone who made it.  We’d love to hear how people have got on with their new bread baking knowledge so do let us know.  If you haven’t given it a go yet here is the recipe Tom was using to make the dough last night.

Issue 2 of Boneshaker Magazine is out in howies stores so buy your copy as a treat this weekend.

Still remaining advert free and full of great photography and articles that cover the diverse range of cyclists out there, its a great little read and celebration of cycling.

A couple of weeks ago a few of these little notebooky-looking things started cropping up around the office, turns out that Ade had been making them from those bits of scrap paper that everyone has in their office….you know, the unloved ones that hang around by the printer feeling unwanted.

reduce, reuse, recycle and that.

(click on the picture a couple of times to make it bigger)

Friday 23rd July sees howies Bristol doing something a bit special with our mates at Weapon of Choice, a live painting show using pens upstairs in our gallery. There will be drinks and a DJs, an authentically Bristolian evenings entertainment.

We know that you guys are appreciative of great illustration, so get yourselves down to the Bristol shop on Queens Rd to witness some of the best bring their work to life before your very eyes.

Check out the Facebook group at Weapon of Choice take over howies with ‘The Live Show’ .

We think that this is going to be a very popular event so get here early.

Graphic Designers and Illustrators around Bristol have been letting their creativity run wild with Ink Dot’s summer poster show ‘Escape’.  Ink Dot’s ethos is simple, they set a title and a colour pallette and wait to see what poster gems the designers create. The title for the summer project ‘Escape’ has a colour palette of  light blue, cream, dark blue, red/pink, yellow and green plus black and white.

This Thursday at 7pm we are launching the new exhibition, ‘Escape’ upstairs  in our gallery so pop along for a drink and to share opinions on the work (the shop will be open for some late night shopping too.) It runs from 17th June until 11th July and features work from more than 30 of Bristol’s most innovative established talent, including pieces by Lorenzo, Peskimo, Dylan Shipley (Sun and Moon Studios, and Bristol’s Street Wars team), Ged Palmer, Danny Capozzi, Marcus Walters (New Future Graphics), Ben Steers (Start Gallery), Danny Capozzi as well as featuring work from new up and coming designers.

All Ink Dot prints are for sale as an edition of 50 and are available through www.ink-dot.co.uk. All works are A2 Gieclee posters, printed by Hello Blue from Spike Design. All prints are sold as a limited edition at very affordable prices.

On Friday night I went out to a gig at the Passing Clouds in Dalston called One Day in May.  It was a charity event to raise funds for The Medical Foundation and Encompass, with the likes of Lazy Habits, The Drop, Bunty and King Porter Stomp playing.

It was an awesome night…dancing till the wee hours.  Very tired the next day but so worth it!

When I used to live in Brighton a few years ago I saw Bunty perform a few times.  She uses just her voice an an effects pedal to create the most beautiful harmonies!  So it was a real treat to see her perform again.  She’s touring a lot this summer, so if she’s in your neck of the woods check her out.

So 20 minutes left to vote…

Mark has been plagued with punctures of late…he’s even repairing one as I type.  So I thought this subject quite apt.  With this extreme winter we had it has done done no favours to our roads, pot holes are everywhere!!! (Some roads worse than others.  For my ride in it’s Mildmay Park Road.  I shiver at the thought of it!)

I stumbled upon this blog showing some stenciling someone has done in New York…genius!

The sports that we’re into aren’t team sports…they are sort of solitary really.  But if you ask anyone about their best days riding, they will always say a day when they’ve been out with an awesome group of mates who inspire them.  There are certain friends who push me more to ride faster and try something new.

I just stumbled upon this edit of an interview with a snowboarder called Jess Kimura.  It’s from an all girl’s production Peep Show, which was released this winter.  Anyway she sums up that feeling of riding with your mates perfectly.  It’s a really sweet video, so check it out…