FINISHED !!!!!!1 Ive just filled the last jar of the 650 I bought with Cowleys Killer Ketchup, I smoked all the ingredients first Toms, onions and chillies etc for 6 hours over oak, its worked far better than I had hoped, frantically making stuff for the new stall.

Though I can hear the Xbox 360 calling me for an hour or two shooting nazis in the face lol. Then Im making a vat of Chaucers Medieval Mixed Pickles, we went to watch Sherlock last night its the best movie Ive seen in years, went to Nandos after its been ages since we went out .

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its been a rather good day today, been to look at the new indoor stall, went to the printers to look at the new labels and invented a new Chilli Ketchup for the stall, its lush, I smoked all the ingredients before making the Ketchup and also added scotch bonnets to it for a bit of bite, its going on the stall as

Cowleys Killer Ketchup

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Its been nearly a year since my last post, and what a year, its been fanttastic, the last 8 months have been better than the previous 2 years, the weather was mainly to blame forthe problems but we have changed a few things , we’re doing more indoor shows and also supplying a couple of other traders and also a couple of pubs and today we’ve been to the printers to look at our new labels, once they are done we will be able to approach bigger shops and see what happens from then.

The butchery course last year was a resounding success and we are having work done on the garden to be able to run them at least once a month, we have a facebook page with photo’s, its …..

Martins Meat Meet

We’re also spending some time trading in Europe, we do shows in France, Holland and Belgium and we have had quite a lot of interest from traders in Europe who want to stock our jerky as well, which is nice lol.

We also went to ponty prodd indoor market today as we’re opening a stall there which we will be using as a shop front, Ive dug out my old recipe book and Im making chilli based pickles ‘n’ relishs.

The butchery and jerky making demonstrations we’re doing at the reenactments is also taking off quite well and last year we saved about 2000k by doing the demo’s for free instead of paying a pitch fee

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Heres to a cracking good year !!

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Its been a while since my last post, after a rather nice Christmas and new Year it all went a bit rubbish, after last years appalling weather meant we couldnt put away some cash for our quiet period ( Jan / Feb) so things have been tighter than they ever have before, to the point we were within days of closing the business and giving up, but after a sit down we realised that even though we were skint we were still managing albeit with difficulty.

The main problems were the rising cost of all our ingredients  and the power with which to dry them. We’ve streamlined a few things, for example at big shows we will be weighing out the jerky to order which will cut the cost of packing, also far less waste going into land fills from empty packets so a good move all round.

We have also decided to start a new business to run in conjuction with our current one and we have called it A Taste of History, we have built 5 “medieval” trading booths which are canvas and wood but will stand on cobbles as well as grass so they are fully free standing, each one will have a trader in them selling historicaly based food stuffs i.e a stall of only historical sweets, one dried and cured meats etc, and each trader will be able to do a demo on their chosen product, I will be doing smoking displays, skinning/ dressing and drying venison in historical costume that was worn in 1804 on the Lewis and Clark expedition, or cooking a meal the same way and using the same ingredients as Scot  of the Antartic ( before they stareved) or making pemmican the same way as the Chippewa Indians used to do.

We will have a list of displays we can do and the aim is to do the demo’s so our pitch fee’s will be greatly reduced, we have booked 3 shows already who have waved the pitch fee in exchange for good displays. We will also be able to rent the stalls out when we aren’t using them.

We are feeling very very upbeat about the coming year , far more than we were last year, as soon as I have pics of the stalls I will be posting em on here, so fingers crossed for a bit of good weather this year

Martin and Suzie

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D’OH !!!!!!! after the many hours of sewing we set the tent up, only to find I had sewn the bloody side on sideways instead of upright !!!!!about 30 foot of hand stitched seam though 2 layers of canvas, my fingers are like tea bags now, but I managed to finish it at 3.30 am, its looking good and I’m going to put photos up on here when its finished once and for all, It might be nice if we could sell a couple as they are cracking little tents lol

well off to varnish the wood bits now and waterproof the canvas

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YAY    ITS  FAN_BLEEDIN_TASTIC !!!!! After many hours of hand sewing our new stall is built , its a basic 9 fot square cube that needs now guy ropes and can go up on grass or a hard stand, Dave and myself have been working on it since the reenactment at Tintagel last year, an ongoing project, we set it up today and measured up the last walls and sewed, by hand about 48 foot of seams , Im so chuffed, it looks so good and is very sturdy, hopefully we may be able to sell acouple ,  its also going to save a lot of money as there are no guy ropes we have less  pitch fee to pay, well, back to sewing, only about 5 foot of seam left , oh, also made a new veggie snack today, smoked chilli tofu, t’will be on the website in the next few days.

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The events page is now updated, yay, thanks Phil, more dates to follow as well, but not today, today Im smoking some venison in the garden using my newly built outdoor smoker.

I have to get photos of it in action for an article in Skirmish a very popular reenacment magazine, should generate a bit of interest in the business from those who havent seen us at shows before and its also going to help cut the cost of pitch fees as I’ll be able to do demo’s on drying/smoking food which will help at the moment lol, well, off to smoke some meat now

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Ah having a very lazy day, watching the Zombie flicks we didnt get through last night, rented 5 and had a night on the sofa with Suzie, might also have booked another nice little show yesterday at the market, a chap came over and asked if I could do the Cardiff Uni beer and cider festival  at the end of Feb, so I agreed in principle and am just awaiting confirmation, which means I will be able to go to Dom and Faye’s wedding do  in the evening which I thought I’d miss, it means Suzie doing the International Living History Show on her own or with hired help but it might be worth trying the new show as beer ‘ n’ jerky go together so well lol

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Just been sent a new piccie of me taken at the LARP fair last year, thought Id post it on here as I kinda like it lol

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Well, I screwed up my new resolution on day 1, must be a bloody record LOL, but I do have an excuse , I spent all day making and remaking my canvas, outdoor smoker so I can try and cut down our pitch fee costs by doing displays on using a Boucan to smoke meat and fish onsite so people can see an old craft being done, all ready to test it out today by smoking some meat for 24 hours (which enables it to last a week without being kept in a fridge, but its raining so hard I cant do it (glum faced smiley here), So will crack on with the article for Skirmish magazine instead lol, and also getting the list of dates ready for this year with the new additions, Sweden, Holland and France and Ireland if the weather holds out it should be a cracking year (fingers crossed)

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