How to make Strawberry & Vanilla Conserve

In the Kitchen

Its been a beautiful day and after sorting out the study we thought we would enjoy a lovely lunch in the garden. We followed this with lovely ripe strawberries and clotted cream icecream. There seemed to be a glut of strawberries so we decided to make the most of this harvest and as its Ashleigh's favourite we chose to make a strawberry & vanilla conserve. So berry delicious and perfect for my homemade scones. Paul returns from his golfing trip tomorrow just in time for our anniversary so I had best get cooking those scones.

Strawberry & Vanilla Conserve

Ingredients (produces 3 jars)

1.2kg of sugar

1.5kg of small ripe strawberries hulled

1 sachet of pectin

2 tbls of vanilla extract

juice of 1 lemon

4 tbls of water 

Add the sugar, pectin, vanilla and lemon juice into a large heavy based pan and gently heat until the sugar dissolves, make sure you stir it from time to time to prevent it clumping and sticking.When the sugar has dissolved into a syrup remove pan from heat and add strawberries. Stir the strawberries to coat them in the glossy hot syrup and leave for 45-60 mins so that the strawberries soften in the liquid and release all of their succulent juices. 

Put pan back on a medium heat so its on a gentle steady boil and leave to cook without stirring for around 10 mins or until it reaches setting point (to gauge setting point put a small spoonful onto a cold saucer and after a minuite it should wrinkle when pushed with the fingertip). When the conserve is ready leave to cool slightly for 10 minutes and then ladle into sterilized jars and then seal immediately. Don't they look scummy.

Store in a cool dark place and they should keep for months but once opened keep in the refrigerator and use within a month.

I do hope you will have a go at making this lovely conserve, we did.

Creating a Pallet Shelves - Peregrine Pottery

Behind the Scenes

Being a family business every job we have to do tends to be done by either one or all of the family be it our website, hand producing the ware or even rolling up our sleeves and doing the jobs we hate like bringing in the bags of clay or moulds on the hoist and digging out the troughs. You are invited into the life of Peregrine Pottery although we promise we wont bore you with the through digging haha. We will also invite you into our home kitchen were we will share our recipes and get togethers with our family and friends. Paul is away playing golf with the boys this week having well deserved break so with DIY jobs awaiting and this not being Paul's strongest point I decide to tackle them this week.



Making a shelving unit from a pallet

Today we are having a mother and daughter day and we wanted to do something we would both enjoy. My daughter Ashleigh is responsible for our lovely website and is always looking for fresh ideas to display our pottery. As we are now concentrating on ideas for our new brochure and have been thinking of other options for Lifestyle displays we set about looking for a different shelf showcase.  Searching for old dresser shelves is not always a cheap option as we found by scouring shops and trawling ebay.

In the end we happened upon some pallets near our unit that we thought would be an alternative to the traditional dresser shelves.

Armed with a hammer and nails we proceeded to strip wood from one of the pallets and turning another pallet on its side we used the wood to make tops for our soon to be shelves.

One we had our shelves ready we decided that the colours we wanted were Sky Blue and Jet black and as the shelves were rustic we also decided on a matt emulsion. We had to put the fans on as the unit was so hot but with help from Ashleigh we painted our new shelves and as you can see they look pretty good for just the cost of a coat of paint and we had fun in the process. The next thing to do is have a play with displays to see which collections would look lovely on our new shelves.

As you can see the contrast of the black shelving is perfect for making the designs pop so is perfect for our new sheep range and our Equestrian.  But for a softer approach take a look at the blue shelving which takes on a nautical look.

  

Ashleigh thinks it sets of the Sweet Pea too. Anyway we must carry on happy browsing.

The Winner of our Best Displayed Stockist is...

STOCKIST DISPLAY

WINNER

Thank you to the Stockists who have taken time to submit photos of their displays of our ware. We were so pleased with them all but could only pick one to be featured on our cover of our Facebook page. Congratulations to our chosen winner 'AMORE' a new family business in worcester (WR1 2QX) supplying beautiful giftware and distressed furniture. They were chosen for their creative use of our products mixed in with other giftware.

AMORE

Please do not worry if yours was not chosen this time as we feel due to the good response we would like to revisit this feature throughout the seasons.

15th June Fathers Day. Have you got him something?

11 Days until Father's day, haven't got him anything? Don't worry you still have time to order a personalised mug from Peregrine pottery.Order before the 12th June to receive your gift on time*.

We have a selection of different designs on offer for our war heros, our Stokies to our city/country gents. We cater for you.

Visit Peregrine Pottery - Gifts for Him to see for yourself and remember Happy Fathers Day.

* We cannot guarantee delivery by this date for standard deliveries, because the mail service cannot make this guarantee.