Fresh bread on demand

This thing of beauty arrived this morning. A white tin loaf sprinkled with poppy seeds and hand- delivered by Mandy from Tigh Fuine on her bicycle. As you can see, I'm looking rather pleased with it. Who wouldn't be? It's home-made, hand-made, fresh, organic, cheaper than buying a slightly fousty loaf from the local shop and delivered for free. What's not to love? All those that live outside Mandy's delivery area may now turn green with jealousy. The rest of you shoud start banging down her door!

Drop me a line and I'll pass on your email (the website is being worked on as we speak) and you can be added to her weekly email she sends out on a Monday telling you what breads she is baking that week. You just let her know what loaf you would like and on what day. Genius.

All that was left for me to do this morning was swither over having some of my new delivery for breakfast, or some of those fresh baked blueberry scones that are cooling in the background. It was a tough call...

A quiet picnic?

Quietude is never far away in the highlands – so don’t miss out on it!!

Travel anywhere in the highlands in summer and you will come across lots of weird and wonderful sights by the road. The whole spectrum of ‘outdoor thrill seekers’ can be found, from tour buses taking a short walk at the main beauty spots to folk changing in and out of flashy look gear for climbing up or diving off our mountains. All good – but what I can never get my head round is the ‘trunk road picnic’.

Get some lovely food, some fold out chairs, some good company and head for a 2 metre wide concrete layby with HGVs, caravans and motorbikes roaring by. Something not quite right there is there?! And I’m not talking about a quick stop on the road to break up a drive and have a bite to eat – I mean set in for an afternoon of traffic watch. Why???

The highlands are filled with countless spots of serene tranquillity, spitting distance from the road. Why spend your time taking in the sights and sounds of the kerbside for the sake of a little imagination or a couple of minutes research on the map?

Today's lunch

I went out to buy lunch today. This is what I came home with. Nice eh? And yes, I did eat all of it! The flower garnish are Nasturtiums – completely edible, according to Becky from Shielfoot Organics. How did they taste? ‘Woody’, just like Becky told me they ‘would’ be.

Today’s lunch shopping was rather more interesting than normal; at Lochaber Larder’s monthly food producers gathering and market in Fort William. Among the delights on offer was Tigh Fuine’s (Gaelic – ‘bakehouse’) gorgeous breads. Mandy bakes daily and delivers her loaves to the door (so long as you leave her the dosh in a jam jar first!) every morning. Velvet Antlers headquarters will be partaking daily from now on. If you’d like Tigh Fuine’s number, drop us a line. I arrived back home with warm bread, edible flowers, chutney, rainbow eggs and more than a few new friends.

So there you have it. If the story behind this not-so-humble sandwich doesn’t convince you that seeking out local food is good for you, nothing will.

Stuck for a Fathers Day Gift?

Hands up who's panicking about what to get their dad for Fathers Day?

I'm willing to bet that if your dad is as hard to buy a present for as mine, there will be a fair few hands in the air at the moment. Guess what? All your pressie-buying woes are over if you get your order for a One for the Lads hamper (or indeed any other type of hamper) in before 11am Friday.

Ben Nevis Challenge

Dave has been writing on his blog recently about all his days up on the Ben training for a new route. I’ve been following him up there quite a bit and I can safely say that I am absolutely knackered by the time I get down. My plans for getting fit (see post below) are coming along slowly but surely but I don’t think I’ll ever be as fit as I need to be, more effort will always be required to keep up with the MacLeod.

Speaking of effort, I got a call a couple of days ago to see if I could film a guy called David Burdus take part in a wheelchair race up Ben Nevis for ITV. David the wheelchair leader was helped by a team of 5 (Andrew Yule, Lisa Renwick, Rachel Gibson, John Pope and James Forbes) who pushed, pulled, hauled and heaved to the top in an outstanding display of grit, determination and stamina from everyone involved.

Where normally I’d have stopped for some lunch or a wee drink or a breather, they just kept on going. David was in a specially adapted wheelchair with handlebars on the front for steering that he said was like doing a hundred thousand press-ups on, on the way down. I don’t fancy my chances at doing one push-up, much less a hundred thousand. We got up in 6 hours 24 mins in 3rd position, spending 13 hours on the hill with the winning team summiting in 5 hours 45 mins. Eight teams started out but two had to turn back before they reached the summit which goes to show how hard going it was. All in all, over £100000 (no, not a typo! Maybe a pound for every push-up David did...or a penny for every midge bite the teams endured!) was raised for charity and I know that at least one guy realised a dream and was on top of the world for the day. Inspiring stuff.