We visited our new allotment this morning in the snow and while I was surprised by the sheer size of it I must admit I was pretty horrified by the state that it was in. The whole plot is at a guess about 200m square (although the plot is anything but square!). It is also absolutely covered in brambles, grass and weeds which will take many fine weekends to clear and then goodness know what I do with all the rubbish.

That said now that we have the plot I have started to plan what I will slowly put into it. I would like to keep the allotment fairly low maintenance as there will be the garden to tend to as well. With this in mind I am thinking that I will split up the plot once it is clear and plant different perennial plants in each so that with some weeding now and again and pruning once a year it will pretty much take care of itself.

As space in the garden for growing fruit and veg is at a bit of a premium ( I have been told that there must always be room for a game of cricket and rugby), I have decided that the raised bed will hold all the tender vegetables and herbs that need more daily care especially when we finally see a hint of Summer. This has left me with the fruits for the allotment. We are as a family huge soft fruit fans and I am really hoping that the bad weather I might get around the normal rules of having new soft fruit plants in the ground by March. This does mean that we will have to clear and prepare the ground very quickly as soon as the weather is a little warmer and get the plants in asap. I will plant raspberry canes and strawberry plants in a section each of their own. Hopefully then when they start expanding they have room to grow and create new free plants. I will also plant a few gooseberry bushes (a family tradition for any new garden) and also some red and black currents. After that I will possibly see what takes my fancy in the seed and plant catalogues and start filling the space.

I love the idea of planting asparagus but I am worried that for the space they take up and the years they take to establish they are not very worthwhile but I would love to hear any thoughts on this. I will also plant out my globe artichokes and fancy a go at growing some of the Mexican blue corn as well.

If anyone has any other good ideas for what to fill our considerable space with I would love to hear any and all ideas 🙂

It has been a day up highs and lows for us today. So, as the old saying goes – do you want the good news or the bad news?

Bad news first: We have heard from Westerham Parish council, and while supportive of our plans to hold a fayre in the town, they have said no. Basically, the large field that would have held the main bulk of the fayre is due for redevelopment over the summer and there are general concerns about using the village green because of traffic issues. While these reasons are both valid they are no less disappointing. There remains another option within Westerham but there is the likelihood that there will be some charge from the land owners. This also concerns us because, while the fayre does not have to make a profit, it must not also leave us out of pocket personally. So, we are now looking for other options. We have a few ideas and are still confident that this event is going to happen regardless. However, if anyone has any other bright ideas, or you happen to own a large chunk of land in Kent please do get in touch.

Now the good news: We have found light bulbs!!!

Basically, a fantastic Twitter follower of ours put us in touch with a lighting company that specialise in vintage lighting. While they stated on their site that the bulbs we required were “made in the UK” I was a little sceptical so I called them to verify the facts. The lady that I spoke to confirmed they were made in the UK but when I began asking more questions she became a little less confident of the fact. She said that she would call her supplier and call me back. I got a call about 20 minute later and she confirmed again that these bulbs were made in  the UK. The only issue is that they are new/old stock.  This basically means that they were made in the UK about 10 years ago, the factory now a distant memory. She also confirmed that they only had 20 of these UK made bulbs left… so I bought 15 of them. So, good news in that we now have bulbs for our living room and dining room but sad news in that this small handful of bulbs represent almost all of what is left of the UK lamp industry.

– James

As if we have not got enough on, we have had another idea to promote British products… this time focusing on Christmas 2013.

The current embryo of an idea is currently rattling around Bradshaw towers which takes its inspiration directly from our blog commenter and our Twitter followers. What if there was a shop dedicated to just British products?

Now, we are not about to give up work and open a shop but what about a temporary pop-up shop dedicated to British goods?

So here’s the plan: to set up a pop-up shop the weekend before Christmas that is stocked to the brim entirely with British products. And where better to have this store but the world famous Carnaby Street?

We this is still very early days but it is the sort of thing that must be organised early so, we have been in touch with Carnaby Street to register our interest and will keep you updated. 

If you like the sound of it let us know. Would you visit and by British this Christmas?

[aside: we must be totally crazy to be doing all this!]

While we are keen to keep our blog positive and trying not to lament the past too much it is fair to say that one sector of manufacturing that is almost extinct in this country is children’s toys. Having a 2 year old and not being able to buy his something to play with occasionally is a really difficult as a parent. Something really must be done to re-establish the toy industry in this country but until that happens this weekend I took matters into my own hands.

I spent 2 days making Lucan a little wooden tractor. It was actually supposed to be red as a nod to our friends at Red Tractor Assurance but Lucan had other ideas. This is how my first attempt as a toy manufacturer went:

What is great about this toy is that it did not cost me a penny. It is build entirely from bits i had knocking around in my shed. I started with an old off cut of pine 3×4″ and drew my basic shape onto it. Ideally a hard wood would have been much better and had I had some that is what I would have used (and if I had used a hard wood I would have spent a little more time on the finish).

I then cut out the shape using both electric and hands saws and finished it was a belt sander and elbow grease.

I cut the wheels with a hole saw attached to my power drill and the same with the rear arches.

After ensuring a smooth finish on all the parts I glued and nailed the arches to the main body and added a bit of dowel on the nose as an exhaust.

I them primed the pieces with grey under-primer and left to dry until Sunday.Meanwhile I drilled holes in 4 metal washers and later nailed these onto the outside of the wheels. I then spaced the wheels from the main body with 2 metal washers separated with copper grease, so they would turn freely, and screwed them all to the body.

The next day I let Lucan loose on the bits with a water based paint. This is the reason for its unconventional paint job. Once dry I coated with clear gloss varnish and left for 2 hours.

The result is a rather rustic looking toy which Lucan seems to genuinely enjoy. But it is made all the more special because father and son made it together!

We are happy to say that the newspapers have yet to get bored of our constantly banging on about buying British. Today, we were once again on the Mail on Sunday along with our friends at Make it British and Red Tractor.

Click here to read

This is the 4th time we have been featured in the Mail on Sunday in the space of  2 months and they certainly seem to be incredibly supportive of our cause. We are very grateful to have such fantastic backing!

[we will post some pics of the evening soon]

To start at the beginning, about 2 months ago we were contacted by Red Tractor offering us the chance to come to the famous Westminster Kingsway College (where many a famous chef has earnt their whites) to be guests of honour at a dinner. This was a complete surprise and a real honour to be asked to speak to potentially very important people about our project. Weeks of secrecy, dress hunting, and speech writing later the night was upon us and after a quick dash to change and prepare ourselves we were on our way to London to our very first British Family official engagement.

In the end the guest list consisted of about 30 individuals made up of press and those at the forefront of the food industry. The atmosphere was amazing and so warm and positive toward what we are doing. We had a tour of some of the kitchens with a chilled glass of Nytimber in hand, meeting staff and students along the way. Everyone was happy to chat and exceptionally professional and I must admit the smells from the kitchen were some of the finest I’ve smelt in a very long time. Following this there was a short interview for Chinese Central Television as we were told they are fascinated with our project as well and that the clip would be seen by up to 15 million people! Certainly not something we had expected.

After all this there were two great speeches from the Head of the Culinary Arts, Gary Hunter and also from the Chairman of Red Tractor, David Gregory. Then we were ready to eat, and wow eat we did! The all British menu consisted of;

Parsnip soup, Cornish sea salt crisps
Wild Garlic custard, pickled fennel slaw, Citrus reduction
Baked goats cheese, onion seed cracker, Tomato chutney and lemon thyme cream
Roast and pressed “Old spot” Pork belly, Sweet potato dumplings, green apple sauce
Yorkshire Rhubarb and custard

English Coffee

Lavender shortbread

Sorry if you are now starving hungry – it really was as fantastic, if not even more fantastic, than it reads. All this wonderful food was washed down with some excellently paired English wine from Elysian Fields Vineyard and not having tried it before I can say for certain that we will be getting some in very soon! After stuffing ourselves silly there was the small matter of our speech which went mostly according to plan and was very well received, thankfully.

I don’t think there are words to describe how grateful we are to everyone who contributed to and attended the evening, it was very special and made us start to realise that we might really have started something here. Thank you also to everyone following our blog as really it’s why we keep writing them and documenting what is turning into a very memorable year.

There was, admittedly, a rather harsh edit in relation to our experiences with the iCandy brand and their promoting themselves as a British company within our feature on The One Show. We were concerned that this particular section of the film might suggest that iCandy were out to deliberately mislead. We are sure that is not the case. They are a fine British owned company with a great product.  However, we personally did find their promotional material confusing enough that we had to call them (twice) to finally verify that their products are actually made in China. It was apparent that others (including a recent Which? Review*) were also somewhat confused about the origin of their manufacture.

Today we received the following statement from iCandy themselves:

Following 27th February’s The One Show, iCandy would like to re-affirm its status as a British company and brand. With over 80 years of experience within the British manufacturing industry, iCandy is extremely proud of its longstanding British heritage.

During the 1990’s, the decision was made to re-locate the iCandy factories to China due to the economic climate. Although products are currently manufactured in China, all iCandy products are proudly and uniquely designed and engineered in the UK by our British design team. All of our British manufacturing experience is implemented ourselves through our own British directed iCandy China team.

iCandy has made the conscious decision not to be sold online, choosing instead to support British independent retailers by driving the British consumer in to British speciality stores.

As the British consumer continues to invest in, and purchase Dutch, American, Italian, Polish, Canadian & Scandinavian stroller brands, manufacturing in the UK has become increasingly more difficult. However, iCandy’s aspiration for the future is very much to bring British manufacturing back to the UK- the more people that buy British the more this will be possible.

We commend iCandy for getting in touch with us in an attempt to clarify the situation. However, we find that their obvious desire to relocate the Britain leaves us with more questions to ask.

1. How committed are iCandy really to bringing  manufacturing back to the UK and within what time frame?
2. What are the current logistical/economic barriers to iCandy moving back?
3. Are there other companies with a similar desire the move back to the UK and what are the government doing to help them?
4. Would iCandy be willing to test the market for a British made product by relocating production of just one line back to the UK?

We know that there are many in this country that would welcome iCandy moving their manufacturing back to the UK and I am sure that we in Britain would unanimously support them with our cash!

We thank iCandy for their honest feedback but we would value a little bit more information so that we can help them bring their manufacturing home to Britain.

We will see what we can do to get more answers but we would love to hear your views.

* http://www.which.co.uk/news/2012/01/which-unveils-the-most-popular-pushchairs-275207/ “iCandy offers a lot of flexibility within its range of travel system pushchairs and makes a lot of fuss about them being made in Britain.”

Today the Falkland Islands are celebrating their Britishness after exercising their right to self determination. A unanimous vote in favour of keeping their existing ties to Great Britain is welcome news for both islanders and for us here on the mainland. However, it does beg the question of whether goods made on the Falklands, and indeed any British sovereign state, fall within the remit of acceptability for our project. We would personally like to think so, but what do you think?

Although is this question a merely an academic one? What is there actually available to buy in the UK that is produced on the Falkland Islands? We would love to get a list together if possible.

Please post your comments on this page.

The British Family were lucky enough to be filmed by the BBC again on Monday 25th February and here is the piece they aired on 27th February. Filming was great fun although slightly daunting being trailed around Waitrose by a camera crew. The whole team were brilliant with Lucan and were really understanding when we had to stop to get him home to bed. All in all another great experience to add to the book, we are very lucky and very grateful 🙂

When we get beyond all of the press stuff that is happening at the moment, the core part of our project… the part about trying to see if it is possible for a normal British family to survive on just British goods and services, is beginning to become more routine.

It is fair to say that, we, like most families, tended to buy much the same things week in week out. For the first two months this was obviously not the case, while we began to find our way to the British stuff and leave behind the imports. Now we seem to have settled into our stride we have regular things we buy on a weekly basis and this makes the core project much easier.

We now know where our essentials come from, when we go to the supermarket there is far less need to check the backs of packets and the time it takes to organise shopping is far less than when we first started. The fact that this has become routine is probably a very good sign. It means that living on entirely British goods is possible for an average family. That is to say, we have survived 2 months on a normal family budget, have the time to live a normal family life and best of all have not starved.

So, barring a few issues (batteries, light bulbs, kids toys) the early signs are good for being able to live a truly British family existence. In fact, more than that, we are really enjoying it!