We are at the top… below is Esther Ransen and her late husband… just in case!

Well, that is the end of another interesting day in the Bradshaw house. It all started with a small interview we did with The Bromley Times about 2 weeks ago. This piece was published on Monday and today we woke to another maelstrom of media attention.

The highlight of this has to be featuring on the front page of the Daily Express. It is fair to say that when we started our little project we never dreamed that we would be slapped on the front page of a national newspaper! But it did not end there – we were also featured on page 25 of the Daily Star and had another piece on the MailOnline (Click here).

On the back of this Emily was interviewed on BBC Radio Sheffield and we have had additional offers of TV and radio interviews (watch this space!).

We are constantly taken aback by this sort of attention but it is great that we are in a position to celebrate the best Britian has to offer.

Page 14 – Daily Express

Page 5 – Daily Express

Page 25 – Daily Star

So far all of the things that we have had to do without because they are not British have not really lead to any great discomfort. However, we always said that if there was going to be one thing that might test our resolve throughout our year it would be something mundane… and that predictions seems like it might be coming true. Our search for British made light bulbs have so far been fruitless. It would appear that the majority of bulbs, even for the promisingly named British Electric Lamps Limited (B.E.L.L) is drawing a blank. We understand that BELL moved most of its manufacturing about 5 years ago to the Far East.

So, what does this mean for the Bradshaw’s? Well unless we find what we are looking for we are going to be living a very Victorian existence.

Our current situation is getting a little alarming. We are currently down to about half of our household capacity for bulbs – in only 6 weeks!!!

We will keep you posted before the lights go out.

Monday 18th February was a very special day for me as it was my first loan British Family experience. I had been invited to visit Jimmy’s Farm owned and run by Jimmy Doherty. I was to join 3 other blogging families to learn more about the latest campaign by Red Tractor to encourage people to ‘Give a fork about your pork’. http://www.channel4.com/explore/giveafork/

The day started out rather badly as Southern Railway were, as always, having ‘issues’ and my train was cancelled. However with a lot of running and the odd elbow here and there I got onto the 11:38 train to Ipswich and I was off. The journey was uneventful and I was delighted to meet one of the organisers at the station and get off to the farm.

The farm is very well signposted (in case you were thinking of visiting) and we arrived to a lovely warm cup of tea and a delicious home baked biscuit. I was greeted by Jimmy and I was very glad to see that the really nice guy that you see on the telly is actually even nicer in person. He was very relaxed and seemed really pleased to meet all the different groups of people.

Wellies were donned by all and we were off to look around the farm and learn more about how Red Tractor works. We were shown the petting area and the playground first, something I know Lucan would have loved. Jimmy told us that to be part of Red Tractor pig farmers have to agree to 130 different specifications and be prepared to be inspected by a vet 4 times a year with another visit as a surprise. When the vets visit all the paperwork and traceability is checked, something that with the horse meat scandal in the fore of our minds at the moment is key for consumer to trust the meat.

The Red Tractor does not mean that the meat has to be farmed in a particular way and Jimmy specialises in rare breed, slow growing pigs that are low intensity farmed. Other farmers use the Red Tractor and farm in different ways. It absolutely depends on what you want from your pork but buying the Red Tractor means that you know exactly where your pork has come from.

Jimmy showed us some piglets with their mum and explained to the children how the Tamworth mummy had met a Gloucester Old Spot daddy and so the piglets have characteristics of both pigs. He explained to us about the system he uses to keep the pigs which allows him to move the pigs easily and quickly from one pen to another.

Once the walk was over it was time to go and meet Jimmy’s dad to watch him section up half a pig carcass. This is another part of the ‘Give a fork about your pork’ campaign. Most of us who eat pork know very little about the range of cuts that should be available at any good supermarket or butcher. The aim of the campaign is to show us how diverse a pig can be when it comes to cooking. We prize the sirloin in a cow but did you know that a pig too has a sirloin? I didn’t until yesterday. Did you know that 20 years ago the pork belly was only used in sausages and now the belly and the ribs are as valuable as the chops?

After all the chopping and walking it was time for lunch. What more could we ask for than beautifully roasted pork with apple sauce, new potatoes and braised red cabbage. It was simply fantastic and even the crackling had a proper crackle. Lunch provided a great opportunity to talk to Jimmy and the other bloggers about what they do and their thoughts about all things British. Jimmy asked us how often we all eat Sunday lunch and I must admit in the Bradshaw household it is not quite a weekly occurrence  I wonder if this is normal across Britain and maybe why we don’t seem to think about where our food comes from? Could the horse meat scandal be the turning point to get us back around the table on a Sunday?

Last thing of the day was a quick bit of shopping in the superb farm shop on the farm and then the photo call for us all.

It really was a fantastic day and I am very very grateful for the opportunity to share it with the great people I met. More than this I think it has given me something else to look for and back as the Red Tractor really seems to be an inclusive and well set up scheme. We are not huge pork eaters normally but I have to say this has really shown me so many benefits I would be dopey not to make it a regular part of our week.

Whether its bacon, sausages, gammon, chops, loin, leg, shoulder or anything else make sure your pork is Red Tractor so you know that what you are eating is safe and checked and more than anything really tasty 😀

– Emily

4 times a year and then have a surprise visit too

It has been a few weeks since we last visited the supermarket for a proper shop. It is becoming plainly obvious to us that buying food for our family is far cheaper if we avoid the supermarkets, and the quality of the fresh produce is far better. This means that a trip to to supermarket is a rare treat rather than a weekly headache.

We did, however, get suckered into buying far more than we originally went for (which was basically black bin bags). It was only when we got home with 5 bags full of stuff that we knew that we had fallen into their trap.

Emily did very nearly fall off the wagon though as having had no lunch the chocolate aisle called. However with nothing within easy reach the temptation had to be ignored, however frustrating it was!

Another things that we did notice while in Waitrose was these new labels denoting the county of origin. This seems like a step in the right direction to us!.

Barcodes have many uses, however, did you know that if your barcode begins with the number  50 that it is supposed to mean that the product that you are holding in your hand was manufactured in the UK? No – well, neither did we until recently.

I suspect that you might now be waving your hands in the air, whooping and giving communal high fives to strangers at this very interesting news… no? Then perhaps you were not as excited as we were to find this out.

However, this is still not an accurate distinguisher of British origin as it also covers the broader remit of ‘packed in the UK’.  As we have discussed before, this just is not cricket as far as we are concerned.

For example – We have had reports of ham both cured and packed in the UK but using EU meat. For the purposes of what we are doing that is not British enough for us, and what with the recent horse meat scandal we suspect that we are all a bit more concerned about the origin of our meat products at the moment.

Ultimately, ‘Packed in the UK’ does not support British manufacture and so for us the 50 barcode rule only serves to further confuse an already difficult labelling issue.

For more information on barcodes or as an antidote to too much Red Bull (or the British equivalent) follow this link: http://www.computalabel.com/aboutean.htm

It is me or is the Union Jack now being banded about on products more than ever? In many ways the increased presence of this symbol of national pride is heart-warming but also to us, at the moment, it is causing great confusion in our ability to buy British.

As there is no consistent labeling for the origin of goods, one of the signs that we automatically look for is the presence of the Union Jack. However, this is regularly a red herring. All too often we pick up something in store on the basis of the flag being clearly part of the branding only to find that is has very little, if anything, to do with being of British origin. A clear example of this was a suit that we found recently with a Union Jack on the swing tag and the hanger. We were very excited about this as a possible British made off the peg suit but when we dug around for certain proof we found the words ‘Made in Romania’ (on a very small tag contained inside the breast pocket). There was nothing about this suit that was British, as far as we could see, but they were quite happy to use the Union Jack as an integral part of the branding. We are still confused as to why.

The use of the the national flag aside – then there is the confusing small print, denoting origin, to contend with. This is also often illogically positioned or misleading, if present at all.

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a nationally/internationally recognised kite mark denoting British manufacture? It could be used by manufacturers as a symbol of their pride to have made their goods in this country and would highlight to consumers what this country is capable of producing.

I wonder how we make this happen?

Almost as soon as we started our project to live on only British goods and services we were inundated by people suggesting that what we were starting was something similar to the ‘ I’m Backing Britain’ campaign of the late 1960’s. The more people that have continued to say this to us the more we felt that it was possible. Indeed it would seem the timing is right; we are in economic dire straits as a country, people are genuinely concerned by the decline of our manufacturing heritage and we are, as a country, motivated by a re-energised sense of Britishness following the Olympics and Royal Jubilee last year.

However, we have recently hit a rather substantial bump in our efforts to get the country celebrating the things we are still able to produce.

We are sorry if the next bit is rather cryptic but we hope that you understand why. We recently wrote a letter to a very high profile minister tasked with helping to get British business back on track. This letter was delivered directly into his hands by a reliable intermediary. The feedback we were given was that an EU directive forces the UK government to not support one EU counties produce over another. This same directive forces retailers away from overly favouring one EU country over another in point of sale advertising or promotions. Basically, he was not willing to help us!

This means that such a celebratory campaign as some people remember from the swinging 60’s would be difficult, if not impossible to do again.

However, this will not stop us trying. If there is one trait that the British have in spades it is our ability to face adversity against the odds.

Is there anyone within our fantastic followers with an expert legal background that would be willing to advise us (Pro-Bono I am afraid) on the background of this situation and how we may overcome such adversity?

I must add an important caveat to this post; we are not politicians and do not want to take any particular stance on the UK’s involvement with Europe or other political matters. We will not be drawn into comment on our own beliefs in this regard, as we feel that it detracts from the intended celebratory and inclusive nature of what we are trying to achieve.