howies®

September has only just began and…

the car parks are empty

the beaches are quiet

there are no queues in the supermarket or coffee shop

the mornings are clear & crisp

the berries are bursting out of the hedgerows

the evenings are drawing in

there’s a nip in the air before the sun goes down

jumpers are coming out of storage for snuggling into

there’s some surf on its way

hurray hurray hurray I love september

Here’ s Neil Stuke, from Celebrity Masterchef sporting our Fredrik shirt from last winter and our classic howies t-shirt.

Watch it again here on iplayer http://bbc.co.uk/i/tfcz2/

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.

The Cardigan River and Food festival is tomorrow.

It’s always a great event, with stalls of tasty local food and loads of fun stuff going on down by the river.

Scott will be running a howies stall down on the riverfront by Fforest from 12pm.

We’ll be selling some great sample sale stuff with everything going for a tenner on the howies stall!

And Fforest have a lot going on with canoe taster sessions on the Teifi and bushcraft lessons on the quayside as well as barbecuing some yummy food on the quayside by the fforest / howies shops – veggies and pescatarians catered for. They will also be serving up delicious hand-made pizzas from the pizza oven on the quay all washed down with lovely local Penlon beers. Fforest cafe will be serving coffee and homemade cakes and the giant hat tipi will be up with live entertainment happening throughout the afternoon.

The quayside is also the perfect vantage point to watch what’s going on on the Teifi.

For more details of what’s going on, click here.

It’ll be a great day, if you’re around don’t miss it.

But it might rain, so bring a brolly or a jacket.

Next Thursday, Tom Herbert from Hobbs House Bakery is going to be talking about all things baking and artisan bread.

As usual there will be free drinks on offer and maybe this time even some nibbles.

If you would like to reserve your place please tweet us @howiesbristol, email bristolshop@howies.co.uk, call 01179298928 or pop into the shop and pick up a ticket, you could also accept our invitation on facebook.

Its the last Wee Do whilst I’m still working at the Bristol shop so I hope to see all my favourite Bristol customers in attendance to say farewell. See you there, Amy :o)

We have just invested in a bread maker and it has been a life changing event.

I will never buy bread from the supermarket again.

I have been told about them sooo many times and we have now finally got one.

It was so easy and quick to make and tastes amazing.

And you can’t beat a sneaky slice of the crust with butter, as soon as it comes out of the oven.

Here at Carnaby Street the offical favourite animal is the dog.. but my personal favourite has always been the bear. There are quite a few bear themed things in my life.. Grizzly Bear, Polar Bear and Panda Bear are all lovely bands and my favourite t-shirt which has a bear on the front.. and now I have a new bear themed goodie to add to the list! Healthy snack enthusiasts BEAR are a great company specialising in natural dried fruity granolaie nibbles… yum (thanks to Gavin who dropped by the shop and let us taste test the products). Today they have earned my respect even more as they took to Westminster in search of Health Secretary Andrew Lansley to growl about his cuts to Government funded healthy eating initiatives (AND if that isn’t enough to earn your respect please BEAR in mind that it is a hot hot day here in London and there is a fully furred guy running around in a bear suit for the cause.. kudos!).  If you want to pop your name on their petition visit wearebear.co.uk .

I also drew some pictures of bears in support of the cause…. 

Sinead x

last week I made my annual trek home to see my family in the US of A

Each time I go, the list of “goodies” that my howies co-workers request grows longer….. (I don’t actually eat most of this crap btw!!!!)

Here’s the who and what:

Pete: Salt Water Taffy (gooey sweet stuff)

Hollie: Jolly Ranchers (hard sweet stuff)

Tomos: Peanut Butter M and M’s (chocolate covered peanut butter sweet stuff)

Scott: Lucky Charms (crunchy puffed sweet stuff) and Twinkies (non biodegradable spongey cake like substance with artificially simulated cream-like filling)

Robin: Sloppy Joe Mix (dehydrated stuff combined with tomato paste and mince to make a scrumptious sandwhich)

No one asked for this stuff, Fluff.  Unfortunately I couldn’t bring any back, my luggage had reached maximum load capacity.  Fluff is whipped marshmallow that you put on bread with peanut butter to make a sandwhich.  They also have fluff mixed with strawberry, blueberry or raspberry jam….saves that extra step when you are making a peanut butter, jelly and fluff sandwhich!

making anyone hungry? :-)

The other day Scott was going on about his lovely walk in the sunshine, well tonight I’m going to the BioBlitz Twilight Walk to spot owls and bats. Today’s sunshine is very welcome indeedy but there is something magical about summer walks at dusk too.

BioBlitz is an annual event,  a 30-hour race against the clock to find as many species of wildlife as possible, taking place during the UN’s International Day of Biodiversity.

Scientists, naturalists, the public and over 250 schoolchildren will work in groups across Blaise Castle Estate to find and identify as many species as possible on Friday 21 May and Saturday 22 May. Information will be recorded, with some specimens brought back for identification to a temporary base camp lab. TV presenter and nature expert Philippa Forrester and wildlife filmmaker and photographer Charlie Hamilton-James, will also help the team and announce the findings at 3pm on 22 May.

In addition, there will also be the following special sessions taking place:

• • Lichen Walk with David Hill, lichenologist and botanist at 4:00pm on Friday 21 May
  • Twilight Joint Dusk Walk with Roger Moses of the Hawk and Owl Trust and David Brown of Avon Bat Group at 8:30pm on Friday 21 May
  • Moth Trapping with Bristol & District Moth Group at 9:30pm on Friday 21 May
  • Dawn Chorus Bird Walk with ornithologist Ed Drewitt at 4:30am on Saturday 22 May
  • Spot the Lady Bird with Dr Remy Ware, coordinator of the UK Ladybird Survey, two walks at 9:30am and 1:30pm on Saturday 22 May
  • Fungi Blitz with members of the North Somerset and Bristol Fungus Group at 10:30am on Saturday 22 May
  • Mini Beast Bug Hunt with Pete Dawson, local educational ecologist, two walks – one at 10:30am and one at 12:30pm on Saturday 22 May

These events are free of charge and open to anyone interested, but spaces are limited. People who want to take part need to sign up at the BioBlitz website: www.bioblitzbristol.org

The sun is shining, the birds are tweeting, and we’ve got cake for you all to enjoy if you pop by to take advantage of the 20% discount on all items, including items already marked up in the sale. We have several things in our Bristol shop that mail order has run out of too. We are open until 8pm tonight so you have time to check out what cakes are left after work.

And Carnaby have 20% off too…but no cakes!

Come on down for a cuppa and tell us all about your summer holiday plans….