Tasty Development http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk developing a brand new way to buy artisan food online posterous.com Mon, 26 Jul 2010 01:27:10 -0700 Loveyourlarder.co.uk http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/loveyourlardercouk http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/loveyourlardercouk
Jars

Sign Ups are now live at loveyourlarder.co.uk. We're going to be sending out an awesome newsletter twice a week featuring some of the best recipes, techniques and ingredients that we can find. You can also join us in our facebook group; www.facebook.com/loveyourlarder.co.uk

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Mon, 19 Jul 2010 01:58:51 -0700 Cake Salé http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/cake-sale-0 http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/cake-sale-0
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I've been trying out lots of soda bread recipes recently, and one in particular seems to really stand out every time I make it. When I ask people why they like it so much the response is usually something about it being 'Cakey'. Building on this I thought I'd try adding some cheese to the mix, a few sunflower seeds, some chunks of a really good ham. It was delicious, absolutely amazing. I was imagining toasting it on a sunday morning and topping it with a poached egg and some hollandaise sauce. I was a genius, I didn't tell anyone about my discovery until I could perfect it, patent it, make a fortune! Then I read this; http://nyti.ms/91adGw. Turns out the french have been doing this for years. They'd obviously taken my approach of 'This is too good to tell everyone about. We'll let them think we're all about frogs legs when really we're eating the most delicious sweet bread / savoury cake ever invented!'

I'll let you read the article and use their recipe, not that it's better than mine rather that I'm still keeping it a secret in the hope that one day I can patent it! But before you go read their article, please take a second to visit www.loveyourlarder.com and leave us your email address. We're getting ready to launch the site this summer and we'd love to be able to tell you about it when we do.

NY Times Article and Recipe; http://nyti.ms/91adGw

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:55:54 -0700 Real Bread http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/real-bread-0 http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/real-bread-0
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Jeff, kneading the dough, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike (2.0) image from erica_marshall's photostream

There's a reason that dough and bread are slang words for money and it's because people used to value what their baker's produced for them. They valued the ingredients that went into the bread and the skill and time that the baker used to perform the alchemy that transformed these base ingredients into the food equivalent of gold. However during the rationing of the world war and the years following it we became increasingly reliant on industrial scale bread production. The industrial bread baking process uses refined white flour which has nearly all of it's nutrients stripped out of it by roller milling, introduces additives and fungicides to the mix to prevent mould growth and keep the bread 'fresher' (i.e. remaining soft) for longer.

There's a fantastic campaign called Real Bread which has been set up to encourage all of us to buy and eat bread made using traditional techniques from local and sustainable sources. You can read more about the campaign here; http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/ and use their bakery finder to discover where you can buy Real Bread from in your local area. Even better than buying Real Bread is making it yourself and you'll find that they've got lots of recipes which will see you baking a loaf that is not only tastier and healthier than what you can buy in the supermarket, but cheaper too!

We've already got a number of great millers and bakers signed up to sell their flours and breads through the site when we launch this Autumn so if you'd like to find out more about the site we're going to be launching click here to sign up to our mailing list. 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Fri, 04 Jun 2010 02:50:09 -0700 Backing up your Blog http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/backing-up-your-blog http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/backing-up-your-blog

Posterous

Our blog runs on Posterous, and for the most part I absolutely love it. But following on from a Tweet this morning by Christian Payne (from Documental.ly) I wondered how I would go about backing up our blog.

Turns out there's two options, neither of which I can get to download images, but that work well for downloading the text.

The first is by far the easiest and will work whatever system you're running on; http://www.backuperous.com/

This will produce an XML. Doesn't look pretty but it has all your text in there.

If you're on a Mac and have got a couple of minutes to spare then using Automator does a much better job.

Open up Automator and from the Internet selection drag ' Get Specified URLs', 'Get Linked URLs from Webpages ' and 'Download URLs' into the workflow window. Put your site address into the first section, make sure 'Only return URLs in the same domain' is ticked and start your workflow. Even easier you can download this file, open it up, put your site address in and you should be ready to go.

Workflow

This workflow will then create separate files for each of your blog posts.

If you find an easier way to do any of this then please let me know!

Posterous_backup.workflow.zip Download this file

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Fri, 28 May 2010 07:52:00 -0700 Cupcakes! http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/cupcakes-241 http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/cupcakes-241
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There's a huge amount to write about the Thinking Digital conference which took place this week, the amazing people and incredibly inspiring ideas. However I think other people can do that better than me, so I thought after all the positive responses we got for the cupcakes yesterday the least I could do would be to share the recipe.
 
We created two flavours for the conference, each showcasing a different local ingredient - Coffee cupcake with Mocha Icing, made using Pumphreys delicious Daterra Bruzzi coffee and Banana Cupcake with Honey and Cinnamon Icing, made using Chain Bridge Farm's incredible Heather Honey. Once we're up and running you'll obviously be able to buy all these fantastic ingredients through us, but in the meantime you can either get Pumphreys Coffee from their shop in the Grainger Market, Newcastle or through their website - http://pumphreys-coffee.co.uk/. Chain Bridge Honey is available in good delicatessens or they sell a limited range through their site - http://www.chainbridgehoney.co.uk/ 
 
It was great meeting you all and I hope you had as fantastic a time as we did. If you'd like us to let you know when the site will be going live click on the 'Join our mailing list' link above and put in your email address. 
 
I hope you enjoy the cupcakes, let us know how you get on!
 
 
Mocha Mini Cupcakes - Makes approx 30 
 
Ingredients:
 
For the Cupcakes
 
125g Self Raising Flour
125g Soft Unsalted Butter
125g Golden Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
2 tbsp Coffee - Make it nice and strong, either using a Espresso Machine (if you have one!), Mocha pot or Cafetiere
2-3 tbsp Milk
 
For the Icing
 
125g Soft Unsalted Butter
100g Icing Sugar
2 tbsp Coffee
 
Method:
 
1. Pre-Heat your oven to 200C
2. Cream together the sugar and butter, use a food processor if you have one
3. Add the eggs, vanilla extract and coffee - mix well - you should have a thick, creamy batter
4. Mix together the flour and baking powder, make a well in the centre and then pour in the batter
5. Using a spoon mix together until all the flour has been absorbed. You should now have a thick batter with a dropping consistency (when you lift a big dollop with the spoon it should slowly drop off). If it's still a little thick add some milk, a tablespoon at a time and mix in until it's just right.
6. Get all your cupcake cases out, either placing them in a cupcake tray if they're paper, or if they're foil they'll probably stand up on their own.
7. It can be really messy to get the mix into the small cases, so I fill up a freezer bag with the mix then cut a corner off and use it to pipe the mix in. You only need to half fill the cases otherwise they'll overflow in the oven!
8. Put them into the oven, they'll take between 13-15 minutes. Poke them with a skewer to check they're done, it should come out clean without any sticky batter attached. Leave them to cool on a rack whilst you get your icing ready.
 
For the Icing;
9. Cream together the butter and icing sugar, a food processor makes this much easier!
10. Add in the coffee, mix and taste. Taste again. It's good isn't it? Add some more coffee if you think it needs it. Now stop tasting or you won't have enough to ice all your cupcakes!
11. Depending on how soft your icing is (and how warm your kitchen is) you might need to put the mix into the fridge for a few minutes. It needs to be soft enough to pipe onto the cakes, but hard enough to hold its shape. Room temperature should be fine unless it's a really warm day.
12. For the next step you'll really need an icing bag and nozzle. Get a star shaped nozzle, they'll make even the most amateur icing look great (that's my tip of the day!). I use a size 8 for the mini cupcakes.
13. Spoon some of the mix into your icing bag, close the top and start icing. Make a nice little spiral working into the middle, lift up at the very end and you'll get that little peak in the middle.
14. For a really great decorative finish try grating some very dark chocolate and sprinkling it over the top!
 
 
The banana recipe is pretty much the same method, but I'll copy it out anyway for clarity.

Banana Mini Cupcakes with Honey and Cinnamon Icing - Makes approx 30 
 
Ingredients:
 
For the Cupcakes
 
125g Self Raising Flour
125g Soft Unsalted Butter
125g Golden Caster Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/2 a Banana (reasonably ripe)
2-3 tbsp Milk
 
For the Icing
 
125g Soft Unsalted Butter
100g Icing Sugar
2 tbsp Honey
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 Dessert spoon of Cream cheese
 
Method:
 
1. Pre-Heat your oven to 200C
2. Cream together the sugar and butter, use a food processor if you have one
3. Add the eggs, vanilla extract and the half banana - mix well - you should have a thick, creamy batter
4. Mix together the flour and baking powder, make a well in the centre and then pour in the batter
5. Using a spoon mix together until all the flour has been absorbed. You should now have a thick batter with a dropping consistency (when you lift a big dollop with the spoon it should slowly drop off). If it's still a little thick add some milk, a tablespoon at a time and mix in until it's just right.
6. Get all your cupcake cases out, either placing them in a cupcake tray if they're paper, or if they're foil they'll probably stand up on their own.
7. It can be really messy to get the mix into the small cases, so I fill up a freezer bag with the mix then cut a corner off and use it to pipe the mix in. You only need to half fill the cases otherwise they'll overflow in the oven!
8. Put them into the oven, they'll take between 13-15 minutes. Poke them with a skewer to check they're done, it should come out clean without any sticky batter attached. Leave them to cool on a rack whilst you get your icing ready.
 
For the Icing;
9. Cream together the butter and icing sugar, a food processor makes this much easier!
10. Add in the honey and cinnamon, mix and taste. Taste again. It's good isn't it? Add some more honey or cinnamon if you think it needs it (careful with the cinnamon - if you add too much it can taste a bit gritty!). Now stop tasting or you won't have enough to ice all your cupcakes!
10.a. At this point stop using the food processor and beat in the cream cheese. It seems to go too soft if you use the processor for this bit.
11. Depending on how soft your icing is (and how warm your kitchen is) you might need to put the mix into the fridge for a few minutes. It needs to be soft enough to pipe onto the cakes, but hard enough to hold its shape. Room temperature should be fine unless it's a really warm day.
12. For the next step you'll really need an icing bag and nozzle. Get a star shaped nozzle, they'll make even the most amateur icing look great (that's my tip of the day!). I use a size 8 for the mini cupcakes.
13. Spoon some of the mix into your icing bag, close the top and start icing. Make a nice little spiral working into the middle, lift up at the very end and you'll get that little peak in the middle.
14. Take a pinch of cinnamon and rub it between your fingers over the frosting to lightly dust them.
 
 

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Sat, 22 May 2010 00:16:00 -0700 Tasty Development at Thinking Digital 2010 http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/tasty-development-at-thinking-digital-2010 http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/tasty-development-at-thinking-digital-2010

2664933697_407ecfe0b1_b

Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/biscuitsmlp/2664933697/ Its the bloody Sage again!, a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike (2.0) image from biscuitsmlp's photostream

Tasty Development are incredibly happy to announce that they've been invited along to show off their site at Codework's legendary Thinking Digital conference. An annual event, the world's greatest thinkers and innovators gather in NewcastleGateshead to inspire, to entertain, and to discuss the latest ideas and technologies.
We're attending at the invitation of the Institute of Digital Innovation and we'll be demonstrating the idea and technology behind our site on Thursday 27th May between 8-11am. If you're going to be attending then please come by and have a chat with us (we'll have tasty food treats!).
We're really looking forward to some of the incredible speakers and topics that Codeworks have got lined up for this year, so not only is it a good opportunity for us to show off what we've been working on these last few months, but also for us to watch some of the surely inspiring talks.
For more information on Thinking Digital or the Institute of Digital Innovation there are links below;
http://www.thinkingdigital.co.uk
http://idi-uk.org/

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Sat, 22 May 2010 00:15:12 -0700 Thoughts from the Real Food Festival http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/thoughts-from-the-real-food-festival http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/thoughts-from-the-real-food-festival
Real-food-festival-diapo1

The Real Food Festival at Earls Court was even bigger and better this year. Producers, chefs and farmers from across the country had all made the trip to share some of the tasty delights that they had been working on for the last year. For us, at Tasty Development, it was a great chance to meet up with some old friends and also to make some new ones as well as find new businesses who we might be able to help with our site.

It wasn't just about wandering round the stalls trying everything from some Somserset Chorizo to Venezuelan Cacao, there were also demonstrations from top chefs, piglets and bullocks, milking demonstrations as well as a cider bar and wine tasting.

The event is split into two sections with the first three days being aimed at the public and giving them a chance to buy directly from the producers, and then the final day being open to the trade. The trade day was relatively quiet which meant it gave us a great opportunity to have some really interesting conversations with producers and find out some of the issues that they're facing.

We'll certainly be going back next year (Maybe even with our own stand!) but in the mean time we have the speciality and fine food fair this Autumn to look forward to (and the Great Taste Awards as part of it) - Can't wait!

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Fri, 07 May 2010 03:02:51 -0700 Real Food Festival http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/real-food-festival http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/real-food-festival
Header_left_new

Today is the start of one of Britain's biggest celebrations of quality local food - The Real Food Festival. Held in London at Earl's Court, the festival brings together over 400 of the best producers from across the country showcasing everything from handmade farmstead cheeses to slow reared British meats. The Tasty team will be traveling down on Monday to sample some of the delights on offer and meet the faces behind the food. Even if we can't bring you back any of the delicious treats that will be available we'll make sure to take lots of pictures and share some of the highlights with you.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Fri, 30 Apr 2010 05:20:39 -0700 The future of e-Commerce http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/the-future-of-e-commerce http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/the-future-of-e-commerce
201004291625

One of the major hurdles we face in developing a site which aims to connect food producers and customers is how we deal with delivery and ensure freshness. A fisherman's co-operative in Japan has come up with an incredibly innovative solution - the fisherman take photos of the morning's catch whilst still on the boat, upload it to their website with a price, and by the time they get back to harbour they've got their orders and the fish are shipped out. In this way the fishermen cut out the middlemen, meaning a higher margin for them, and the customers get incredibly fresh fish and they know the exact provenance of what they're buying.

http://asiajin.com/blog/2010/04/27/tokyo-bay-fishermen-start-seafood-e-commer...

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Fri, 30 Apr 2010 04:20:56 -0700 Burgers, Barbecues and Bank Holidays http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/burgers-barbecues-and-bank-holidays http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/burgers-barbecues-and-bank-holidays
20100409-spotted_pig_burger_-_

They just go together don't they. It doesn't look like the weather is going to be great this weekend (of course it isn't, it's a bank holiday), but all you need for a barbecue is an hour when it doesn't rain to get the coals (yes, coals, not gas) going, cook up a treat and take it back inside to eat. Before you get started there's a few things to consider....

The most important thing about your barbecue is what you put onto it. I'm not talking about Tesco Finest burgers either I'm talking about making your own! Now there's two ways to do this - the proper way and the cheats way - mince your own beef or buy it in. I know you're thinking that it's too much effort to mince your own, but if you don't then you're missing out on one of life's great pleasures - the medium rare burger. You can only do this with meat that you've just minced yourself - this is all to do with the fact that bacteria grows on the surface of meat - you can cook a steak medium rare because you can sear the outside, killing all the bacteria, whilst leaving the centre beautifully pink. In order to sear the surface area of bought mince you have to cook the whole thing well-done, but if you've just minced it yourself then there's no time for the bacteria to grow and you'll have one of the tastiest burgers you've ever tried. It's not even expensive, most home mincers (and get a metal one - they break less and are easier to clean) are between £15-£20 like this one here from Amazon.

So now you've got your mincer you get to choose exactly what meat is going to end up in your burger. At this point you want to go and visit your friendly neighbourhood butcher - they're going to be able to make suggestions based on how many you're cooking for, how much money you've got to spend, and what sort of flavours you want.

Once you've got that sorted it's time to decide what sort of burger you're going to make;

The Juicy-Lucy (AKA the inside-out cheeseburger - like a stuffed crust pizza, only in a burger!)

20100423-jucy-lucy_-_20-thumb-

A Pesto Burger? Link

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Sliders? Link

20100326-sliders-beauty

Or even the World Famous 'Spotted Pig' Burger from New York
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For a load more recipes, great tips on using your Barbecue properly and general food awesomeness checkout A Hamburger Today on seriouseats.com

And if you're going to all this effort for your burgers, don't swill them down with Carlseken, try and find something from your local brewery. And if you're in the North East this weekend go and check out the first Gateshead Beer Festival - Friday 30th April, Saturday 1st May and Sunday 2nd May 2010.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:59:00 -0700 Wine on the Tyne http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/wine-on-the-tyne http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/wine-on-the-tyne

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(Image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/cedric_foll/1103938984/ Red Wine bottle, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share-Alike (2.0) image from cedric_foll's photostream)

The North East's first annual wine festival is going to be held in Corbridge on 4th & 5th June, it's going to bring together some of the best specialist wine importers in the region and give you an opportunity to taste over 160 wines! There will be wines from all over Europe (including England) as well as the New World.

The tickets are £18 which gets you a souvenir glass and 10 tasting tokens, each of which will get you 75ml of your chosen wine. There'll also be food cooked up by three of the region's best restaurants (names are being kept under wraps but we've got a good guess who it will include) and talks about wines and tasting from some of the regions experts including the very talented Michael Jobling.

The Tasty team will obviously be there so come over and say hello if you see us.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:39:48 -0700 Can food be Art? http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/can-food-be-art http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/can-food-be-art
Brooklyn_museum

If you asked most people if food can be art then they would probably talk about some of Heston Blumenthal's beautiful creations - involving all of your senses in the dining experience. Well last week Jennifer Rubell tried something different. At the Brooklyn Museum's annual Ball she presented 'Icons' - Food experiences inspired by famous artists. Eight paintings with drink spigots poking through, cheese 'heads' melted by heat guns over piles of biscuits and a 3m tall Andy Warhol pinata head filled with sweets!
There were no waiters or chefs in whites serving, instead the guests were invited to carve their own turkey, beef, pork or even rabbit (pictured above). 

Have they proved that food can be art?I think the art comes into play with the product itself, not the presentation - a perfect Cob made by a true craftsman from excellent ingredients. What I think they have done with this event is pulled away the veil that food presentation normally hides behind and made people think about the flavours and the ingredients more than the silver service, and that can only be a good thing.

You can read more about the event and see some more photos over here.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Tue, 20 Apr 2010 06:28:50 -0700 Laura Marling and living the Good Life http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/laura-marling-and-living-the-good-life-0 http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/laura-marling-and-living-the-good-life-0
4510334275_e6ab5dcb27_o
(Image: Laura Marling, a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial (2.0) image from kdamo's photostream)

If the local food movement had a soundtrack then it would undoubtedly be the new wave of incredibly talented folk musicians like Laura Marling and Mumford and Sons. 

The Tasty team were lucky enough to see Laura at her sold out gig in Newcastle last night, an absolutely fantastic show with support from Boy and Bear and Alessi's Ark.

It turns out Laura is a big fan of all things local and tasty - collecting fresh eggs in the morning and even learning how to lamb - you can read more here. Perhaps she'll be one of our producers one day?

If you haven't already go and get Laura's latest album I speak because I can, you really won't regret it. Plus make sure you check out Alessi's Ark - one of the sweetest songwriters you'll ever hear and Boy and Bear - a great Australian band that are fantastic live.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Mon, 19 Apr 2010 01:27:39 -0700 Newcastle Beer & Cider Festival http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/newcastle-beer-and-cider-festival http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/newcastle-beer-and-cider-festival
2010_festival_logo

Now in it's 34th year, the Newcastle Beer & Cider Festival is an unmissable event for anyone with even the slightest interest in all things brewed. So it was decided on a sunny Friday afternoon that the Tasty team would, in the name of research, head down and see what was on offer. With a choice of over 120 beers from 70 breweries as well as 40 ciders and perry we had our work cut out, but we got stuck in and here's some of the best of what we tried;

Swift and Tar Bar'l stout from Allendale Brewery - both absolutely delicious in very different ways, plus they are from a great local brewery.

Staying on a local theme Auld Hemp from High house farm brewery in Matfen went down a treat, as did Red Ellen from Jarrow brewery in South Shields. Jason's Jinga Ale, brewed by Bull Lane from Sunderland lived up to it's name - a true ginger beer.

Fuller's Golden Pride at 8.5% out of London wasn't to be trifled with, but had a delicious fruity aroma.

We even ventured up to the cider and perry room, with the clear winner up there being Oliver's Blakeney Red - a delectable medium perry that had lazy summer afternoons written all over it.

A well spent afternoon and a well earned break for the Tasty development team. It was incredibly inspiring to find so many passionate people with such incredible products on offer (so inspiring in fact that plans are afoot for our very own tastybrew).

We're going to make sure that as many of the incredible brews on offer are available through the site when we go live, so you can enjoy that festival feeling whenever you like.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Thu, 15 Apr 2010 06:27:00 -0700 IDI and the Digital City Fellowships http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/idi-and-the-digital-city-fellowships-0 http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/idi-and-the-digital-city-fellowships-0

Dcf_idi_banner

It's been over 4 months since we first started working on Tasty Development and our idea for an online food market. We knew that getting the fundamentals sorted and the site development done would take at least 6-9 months, and we had to find some way to pay the bills whilst we did that. So one of the first things we did was to go and talk to our local business link to see what sort of funding was available. We were told, very clearly, that no one would give us money to work on our idea. It was incredibly disheartening but we resolved to find some way to make it work. So we kept doing some freelance work in order to pay the rent, and then at the end of January we entered the Shell Livewire Grand Ideas award. 

Shell Livewire deserve a whole seperate post (and will get one shortly) about why it's been so fantastic to be involved with them, but we were fortunate enough to win one of their awards which came with a £1000 prize. We needed this money in order to hire a designer, so put it aside for the time being, but it was the knowledge that someone who wasn't a friend, who wasn't our family, thought it was a good enough idea to invest in - that spurred us on more than anything.

The same day that we found out about the Shell award we attended a funding event run by Codeworks, designed to introduce small businesses to some of the funding options available in the North East. At that event we met some great people from Codeworks Dev (Fred Pernet), Codeworks (Herb Kim), Sunderland Software City (Bernie Callaghan) and Digital City (Mark Hill). Mark told us about a scheme which Digital City ran through the Institute of Digital Innovation (IDI) called the Digital City Fellowships. 

These fellowships are designed to support entrepreneurs and innovators and give them access to some of the best expertise and facilities available in order to further their idea and develop something really amazing. They're designed to run for 6 months and are accompanied by a £4000 per person bursary to allow you to work full time on the project.

The application process is fairly involved, and if you get through to the final round, culminates in a pitch to a panel of industry experts. Yesterday we pitched. We travelled down to Middlesbrough from Newcastle, leaving ourselves plenty of time in case the trains were delayed (and plenty of time for our nerves to build up!). Going in I felt we were well prepared, the slidedeck covered all the main points, we'd rehearsed the presentation and covered some of the obvious questions. It didn't stop my hands from shaking as went into the room and started the pitch. We had 10 minutes for our slides and then it was meant to be a 10 minute Q&A - we ended up answering questions for 30 minutes. The panel really knew the sector we were talking about and found all of the holes, not in a malicious way, but in an educating way. I left that room with a dozen new ideas about features, development and the business model. I felt it had gone well, but was far from convinced that we would be awarded a fellowship. We sat on the train back to Newcastle discussing the various options if we didn't get it, constantly checking email to see if we had a response yet didn't help calm us down. Then, just as we were pulling into Newcastle station, we got this;

"Thank you for attending the interview today in respect of your DigitalCity
Fellowship application.  We are delighted to confirm that your application
was successful"

As you can imagine, today is a good day. Having spent the last week building up to the presentation it's great to have that weight off our shoulders, but now it feels like the beginning of something even bigger. We have 6 months of access to some of the brightest minds and best facilities in the country, and we need to make the most of it.

If you'd like to find out more about the Fellowships the you can visit their website here; http://www.digitalcityfellowships.org/

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Thu, 15 Apr 2010 02:43:10 -0700 Cakebook http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/cakebook http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/cakebook
06-03-29_holy_jesus_hospital_0

As part of Newcastle & Gateshead's fantastic EAT! festival a giant model of the cities will be built out of Cake by 100 teams of amateur and professional cake makers.
The building plots were available to bid for on eBay, and we bought one!
You can see the building that we have to construct in the photo above - This is Holy Jesus hospital in Newcastle, you can find out much more about it here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holy_Jesus_Hospital
We have to make a model of it, using cake, that will be 70cm long, 19cm wide and 20cm high. I've been thinking that fruit cake might be good for the main structure - strong, keeps well and the colour will be quite a good match for the bricks. Any suggestions on how we're going to do those arches though?
The cakes will all be brought together at a secret picnic on Sunday June 20th, we'll let you know how we get on.

http://www.newcastlegateshead.com/2138/Food_Festival.html

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Thu, 08 Apr 2010 02:31:05 -0700 Expensive Tastes http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/expensive-tastes-0 http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/expensive-tastes-0
Expensive_tastes

We love the Everywine.co.uk site, essentially a pick and mix of the best wines in the UK, all available to buy online. Even better is that it's run by the people from Booths - a family owned and run chain of high quality food stores.
Now I'm a great believer in buying the best bottle of wine you can afford, steering clear of the 'half price' offerings at Sainsburys, however this is ridiculous. From Everywine.co.uk - a case of Giacomo Asheri's Poderre di Montalupa Viognier for the bargain price of £1,903, 491.49! And for that price they still take 7 working days to deliver it to you. If you decide to buy any invite me over for a tasting.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Wed, 07 Apr 2010 05:04:00 -0700 Consumer Survey http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/consumer-survey-4 http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/consumer-survey-4

Woo Hoo - the consumer survey is now ready and waiting for your answers. It only takes 2 minutes (if that) and will help us out an enormous amount in understanding what people want from a service like this.

http://bit.ly/foodmarketsurvey

UPDATE: The Survey is complete for the time being - thank you so much for all your responses.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Tue, 06 Apr 2010 07:44:00 -0700 Producer Survey http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/producer-survey http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/producer-survey

Survey_snapshot

We're in the process of doing a Survey of some of the best small producers in the UK, getting a snapshot of how a service like ours could be of use to them. If you happen to know a small producer, then please get them to fill it out for us - it only takes 2 minutes and will be invaluable for us.

http://bit.ly/producersurvey 

If you don't know any producers, don't worry, as tomorrow I will be posting a link to our Customer survey! This will be to get the all important opinions and views of you, the consumer, the ones who will be ordering your cheeses and chutneys through our site.

UPDATE: The Survey is complete for the time being - thank you so much for all your responses.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk Thu, 01 Apr 2010 00:26:00 -0700 Hot Cross Buns http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/hot-cross-buns-6 http://www.tastydevelopment.co.uk/hot-cross-buns-6

4470312355_03f98269c7

Time for something a little more mouthwatering than the last post and since it's Easter it had to be Hot Cross Buns.

What I didn't know about these curranty treats was that;
"The Protestant leaders of England tried to ban the sale of these buns because they were seen as a dangerous symbol of Catholic beliefs. Queen Elizabeth I eventually made a law that bakeries could sell the sweet, currant-filled buns, but only at Easter and on Christmas."

Get the full low down on these delicious easter treats over at the Cooking Canuck site, including a foolproof recipe to get yours ready for Sunday.

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]]> http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/686994/lyl_profile.jpg http://posterous.com/users/5erxJEYqSp3j loveyourlarder.co.uk loveyourlarder.co.uk