We are pleased to say that we have had some recent success at getting more support from British manufacturers and producers for our British Family Fayre (http://britishfamilyfayre.co.uk/). Most recently we have large high street chain Lush Cosmetics, luxury underwear brand Cahoonas and Shepherd Neame brewery all signed up to give workshops at our event on 31st August. We are also in discussions with a number of other businesses also considering attending. In addition, we are pleased to have the National Farmers Union (NFU) fully supporting our message and they intend on bringing something quite special to the day. Watch this space for more info.

With only 9 weeks to go to the big day it finally feels like we are gathering steam. Better late than never! I have to admit to the organisation of this event to have been about the most stressful thing we have ever undertaken as a family. There have been many occasions were we felt like throwing in the towel but, mostly through pig-headedness, we seem to actually be pulling it off. Thank you to those that have supported us throughout.

The British Family Fayre will be FREE TO ATTEND

Another important announcement that we are pleased to make is that the fayre will be free for all visitors. This was something that we were hoping to be able to achieve, dependant on overheads. It was always our ambition to get as many people to join us to celebrate British manufacturing, farming and production as possible. Offering a great family day out for free will hopefully allow us to exceed our 5000 expected attendees.

Opportunities for smaller businesses:

Another recent addition to our event is The Market Place (http://www.britishfamilyfayre.co.uk/market-place/). Based on feedback, we were finding smaller businesses that wanted to get involved were struggling with the £300 cost of a workshop, so we have put together a smaller, sales only, package for just £150. This allows smaller businesses to benefit from the day and to sell and promote there goods with less of the outlay. These spaces are strictly limited to 20 places, and since our quiet launch of this late last week 3 spaces have already been taken. These opportunities will go fast, so get in early to avoid disappointment.

It is also worth re-stating here that the event is entirely not-for-profit. Non of the organisers, including the professional events company Lincoln West, are not making a penny from it. Any funds raised are being solely used to cover the logistical costs of the event itself.

Let me entertain you:

We are also looking for entertainment on the day. Specifically, we are searching for anything with a British theme or that celebrates the cultural diversity we have in the UK. We welcome ideas, and offers of support, both leading up to the event and on the day itself. We are also looking for talented individuals and groups to come an entertain our crowds. It would be great to find traditional and modern dance troupes, choirs and musical ensembles or indeed anything else that you feel would add something uniquely British. Emily would personally like a  colliery band and, as the 31st August is her Birthday, we are going to do what we can to accommodate this.

We do have a limited budget available to cover some costs and expenses with regard to entertainment but due to the nature of the event we would also welcome offers of support of a more charitable nature.

Please get in touch here>>>

We sent out a rallying call to action over 6 weeks ago. We asked British manufactures and farmers to help us help them. This was in response to many of these businesses (and, indeed, consumers) telling us that something needed to be done to promote a buy British message.

We rose to this challenge by organising an event for which we have used our contacts to secure national TV, Radio and newspaper presence. Our, admittedly grandiose, aim was a to celebrate British production in such a way that its echo’s are heard across the UK. We do this without any prior experience in organising events like this, in our spare time and for zero profit.

Our original call to action was met with enthusiasm from over 200 great British businesses, who said that that if we were to arrange such an event then they would come. Buoyed by this initial enthusiasm we proceeded to secure a great venue capable of hosting such an event, hire a professional events company (who are working for free) and spend our evenings and weekends putting it all together. We then went back to those 200 businesses but have since struggled to get them to commit.

Changes to the fayre:

In light of this we have made some changes to the event, based on feedback we have received:
– We have reduced the event down to one day.
While this logistically has the same overheads we hope that this will reduce staffing costs for attendee businesses.

– We have added the British Family Market.
Which features smaller stands at a reduced price of £150 (a workshop space is just £300). We hope that this will encourage smaller businesses to make the effort to attend.

The current situation

The current status of things is that we have set a minimum for the number of businesses that we need to achieve for the event to be viable. We have also set ourselves a 2 week deadline to achieve this. We are some way off it but it is still do-able.

I would like to thank personally those businesses that have shown their faith in us and responded quickly to our original call the action. You will forever now be an important part of our story… we hope that we can do you proud!  Please take the time to visit our list of those glorious manufactures because they a all fantastic businesses that are very proud to produce in the UK. See here>>>

For those that have yet to sign up… expect a phone call from me in the next couple of days!!!

– James

A few weeks ago we put up a post about 10 fantastic and fabulous truly British items that we have discovered in the last 6 months. To keep the world a balanced place we thought that we would now list our top 10 things we either miss and cannot find, or are really disappointed that aren’t made in the UK. So here goes, the top 10 things we just can’t get;

Black peppercorns – This was something that we found out pretty early on that we were going to have to just do without. That said it doesn’t stop us missing the taste and wishing that there was a way to grow it or buy it made in the UK. While we’ve had some super weather this week, we’d need more weeks like this than like the one that is on it’s way to grow peppercorns so this one will just have to go on the New Year shopping list.

Lemons – This is not something that we thought would really be much of an issue. However as we approach summer and want to make zingy dressings for our lovely home grown salad the absence of lemon is quite obvious and sad. Limes and oranges are not such an issue and are something that we could be forced to live without but lemons are one that summer will not be quite the same without.

Toys – We have posted before about the death of the British toy manufacturing industry so we won’t put too much in here other than to say that since we posted that blog we have had some super news that Hornby are returning from China and India to make new model kits and railways on UK soil. Well done Hornby and we look forward to more news like this!

Power tools – This is James’ department and I’m not sure what power tools we do not already own that he has been looking for, but it is still an area that we have all the skills to make. Yet to our knowledge nothing in this area is made in the UK. If you are a manufacturer James would love to hear from you to increase his shed full 😉

Bed linen – While we had expected that the cheaper end of the linen scale would not be there for us this year we had expected that we might be able to find something somewhere. Despite looking for the last 6 months we have yet to find any sheets of any kind either for us or for Lucan that are made in the UK. I can only assume that there is little weaving left in the country especially when it comes to cotton and this is why there in no British made fabric available either. I will however put a caveat in here that there are still fabulous weavers of tweeds etc but not so much weavers of everyday cottons and linens. I will also put towels into this category as we have not found anyone producing these at an accessible price point either.

Light bulbs– Again this was fully fledged post from a month or so ago so I won’t add more than is there. It is sad that a whole industry has left the country forever but hopefully there is someone somewhere who might bring it back one day.

Canned foods – This one is not something that we really thought about when we started this challenge. We would buy tomatoes, pulses and beans to put into other dishes easily and cheaply. When we started looking at just how far the canned food had come we were really quite surprised. Dried pulses were off the menu as well as these are only packed in the UK which for us being strict this year is not enough. There is one supplier of dried fava beans (broad beans) and peas, Hodmedods but these still need to be soaked and boiled before ready to use.

Batteries – When we started we knew fairly quickly that batteries would have to be rationed. It would be fair to say that every British household will consume a certain amount of battery power each year and we are no different. We are however finding that with a bit of fore planning it is quite possible to run on rechargeables instead, far greener 🙂

Women’s clothes – If we had unlimited money and time this would not be a problem, but having very definite limits on both this is a whole category that is missing from almost all British High Streets. What we have found so far has all been bought online and while there are a good number of people providing for the alternative market in many ways there is almost no British made clothes for everyday wear at a reasonable cost. Under-wire bras are a particular need at the moment and again while there are companies making skimpy just cover you up bras there is nothing in the more substantial end. We had heard at the start of the year that River Island and Topshop among others were bringing more British made clothes to their stores but nothing substantial as of yet.

Mobile phone – Earlier on this month James’ mobile phone started to die and this is worrying as the only British manufacturer of mobile phones is Vertu. Their phones are gorgeous with a capital G but are also well out of our price range starting at around £5500. We clearly have the skills to make mobile phones and very glamorous and gorgeous ones too so where is the more accessible British phone?

Something we need to finish with is that this list has taken us quite a while to put together. It is strange that when you have accepted that you can’t buy something you don’t seem to miss it much. We hope that this is not read in a negative way as we really are all about celebrating what we do make and not lamenting what we don’t, however we also felt that in order for there to be balance we should share the downsides of our year along with the upsides.

If there is anything you can help us find we would love to hear from you and help us to tick off the things that are missing 😀

– Emily

Farrington’s Mellow Yellow have offered our followers a pair of tickets to this years BBC Good Food Summer Show at the NEC Birmingham, commencing 12th June.  The Farrington’s team will be showing their full range of award winning cold pressed rapeseed oil products so you will get an opportunity to try their products for yourself as well as some other great British produce. 

The winner will receive a pair of tickets, each ticket admits one person, to a day at the show (with the exception of Saturday). We only wish we were going too!

www.bbcgoodfoodshowsummer.com

To be in with a chance of winning simply complete the form below…

This competition is now closed. The winner will be notified by email on Monday and you tickets mailed to you.

Good luck!

Here is a link to those pesky terms and conditions: http://www.farrington-oils.co.uk/latest-news/shows-and-tastings/upcoming-shows-and-tastings/british-family