It’s nearly a year now since I have (mostly) given up cow’s milk. I can cope with small amounts now and again, but any attempt to have cow’s milk products on a regular basis makes me uncomfortable and isn’t worth it. I am fine with goat’s milk on cereal and in tea; when I cook at home I use goat’s milk and butter, and Pete is fine with that. It’s hard to taste any difference in cooked foods, anyway.

One of the few things we have struggled with is finding a decent curry sauce that is free from cow’s milk. They’re either too fiery or completely insipid and leave a lot to be desired. But that has now changed, after a spontaneous visit to a local farm shop uncovered the range of curry sauces and chutneys (achars) from Ghurka Fine Foods.

For our first encounter I choose the mildest of the sauces on offer – the Masu cooking sauce has a heat rating of 1 (out of 5) and of itself is vegan although they recommend using it with red meat. We happened to have some lamb mince in the fridge, so today we cooked that up with the sauce, two onions and plenty of peas (Pete loves peas in curry!).

The result was delicious. Although there is not a hint of heat in the sauce, it still has plenty of flavour. We both loved it, without reservation, and would happily buy it again. Our local stockist had at least one other flavour on offer (and several chutneys), which was a heat rating of 3, and we’re confident enough of the quality of the range to give that one a go next time as well. And we’ll be keeping an eye out for the Ghurka Fine Foods range on supermarket shelves from now on.

Zazzle.co.uk are celebrating the football World Cup by offering free delivery (to UK addresses) to customers who use the discount code DROPKICKSHIP – but only until June 25th 2010!

Depending on how much your spending, or if you miss the free shipping offer, then you may be better off using our special Zazzle UK promo code – entering Emmapetesho1 as you checkout will save you 10% on all orders over £50. It has not expiry date and can be used multiple times. Score!

Ladies and gentlemen, I have new absinthe. And lots of it.

The nice Mr DHL delivered a consignment this afternoon direct from the lovely people at Absinthe-Shop.com to fill the void (and shelf space) left by more than a year of me not buying any absinthe.

My absinthe purchasing history has been somewhat chequered. You may recall the unpleasant eAbsinthe brouhaha from last year which – frankly – put me off buying for some considerable time. I’m very pleased to say that the ordering process from absinthe-shop.com was painless, simple and instilled way more confidence in anything (the now-defunct) eAbsinthe shop ever did.

The promise I made to myself was that I would sell stuff I no longer have reason to keep and use some of the money to spend on something I enjoy, in this case absinthe. For point of reference, I ordered four bottles in this shipment, enough to last me a year or more:

• La Fée XS Francaise
• La Fée XS Suisse
• Mansinthe
• Aderlass

(The Mansinthe and Aderlass were bought as an appropriately-named Darkness special offer combo)

I am by no means an absinthe expert or even a connoisseur. I don’t drink lurid, luminous absinthe in those horrid shots, nor do I set fire to it (though I used to, I must admit). It’s a drink I take with ice water and sugar, and I enjoy it. It’s a ritual.

I enjoy it to the point that there are very few other alcoholic drinks I partake in. I’m partial to Jägermeister any time of the year, and an occasional Tanqueray (gin) and Fever Tree tonic in summer – the absolute best way to enjoy g&t, in my humble etc, but that’s about it.

Back to the Absinthe Shop order. Here’s the timeline:

• Friday, March 12th, 2010 = Order placed, just after lunchtime UK time
• The Absinthe-Shop.com pixies packed my goodies and despatched them
• Tuesday, March 16th = Order arrived, courtesy of Mr DHL

Even with a non-working weekend in the middle, that’s essentially two business days for international delivery, including a cross-channel run – the package was dispatched from Heidelberg in Germany, which is by far the best service I’ve had from any online absinthe delivery, ever.

Packaging-wise, there are no complaints: a very sturdy cardboard box, well-fitting around the bottles (two of which, the La Fée XS, were boxed), with additional internal card protection and scrunched up paper for the non-boxed bottles. No box damage at all en route, the package could just as well have come from around the corner consider the tip-cop condition it was in.

All things considered, I’m very pleased. The memories of the eAbsinthe disaster are now long gone.

The lovely people over at the Green Shopping Catalogue have got a really great offer for you. Whether you’re doing some last minute eco Christmas shopping, or planning for an environmentally friendly New Year, if you spend over £30 with them they’ll through in a free copy of Through the Eye of a Needle by John-Paul Flintoff.

You can read my review of Through the Eye of a Needle over on my crafty blog, as it’s a book about making your own clothes – sort of! It’s actually a wide-ranging look at the way our clothes are made, through the eyes of John-Paul as he struggles to lower his impact on the world (environmentall and socially) through making some of his own clothes. If that makes it sound dull then it isn’t – but have a look at my review if you want to know more.

Of course, the Green Shopping Catalogue is one of the places you can buy my book – The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z, so now might be a great time to treat yourself or the gardeners in your life to a copy. And orders over £15 get free P&P anyway, so this is a really good deal!

There is no discount code to copy and paste, and no special link you need to follow. Just spend over £30 and your free book will be included in your parcel when it is dispatched. The offer is valid while stocks last, or until 28 February 2010.

The latest offer from the folks over at the Ethical Superstore is a nice one – they’re giving away a free bamboo cleaning cloth with every puchase from the Ecover eco-surfactant range, and you get 10% off the Ecover products as well. And you get free shipping on orders over £60. Follow the link for more details.

The slightly odd (in a good way) people over at Moosejaw are having a gear sale. They’re calling it their ‘Quasquicentennial Gear Sale’, but I can’t spell that so I won’t be typing it again. Follow the link to find out which of their products are on sale for 20% off.

There are two episodes of ENPS waiting to be uploaded (unless Pete did it last night while I was sleeping) and if you listen to the second one you might get the impression that I forgot my mum’s birthday. I didn’t forget my mum’s birthday – I just forget it was yesterday. I don’t check the date every day now that I work for myself, from home. I bought the card a fortnight ago, I just never got around to posting it.

Anyway, to make up for it, I have bought my mum some flowers. And not your run-of-the-mill flowers, either. I’ve bought my mum a seasonal, British-grown bouquet from Wiggly Wigglers. Low flower miles! Environmentally friendly flowers! I think most, if not all of them, are grown on the Wiggly farm in Herefordshire.

As I am a subscriber to the Wiggly e-news bulletin, I also had a code from a free bird feeder and seed, so I bolted that on. It’s a bit of an odd birthday present, perhaps, but mum likes birds so she will appreciate it.

Where do you buy your green office products? It can be a tricky question to answer, as not only do you have to find a reputable stockist for some rather unusual items, but really you should be checking their ethical credentials as well.

You don’t need to worry about that if you shop at the Green Shopping Catalogue, as Pete and I can vouch for the fact that they’re lovely people with the highest ethical standards – we’ve met them!

They’re not an office supply company, but they do have lots of lovely things that green businesses and workers would love to get their hands on, including energy-saving devices like the OWL wireless monitor and the Bye Bye Standby energy-saving kit. They’ve also got some great solar chargers if you want to take your eco business on the road.

Another great product for a green office is the Tefal Quick Cup that combines a water filter with a kettle that boils just one cup of water at a time. And there are items to help you recycle as well – including the Biobox Kitchen Caddy, a bottle and can crusher and a logmaker that allows you to turn all that waste office paper into fuel!

Don’t forget to check out the books, too, to learn more about living a sustainable lifestyle. Those of you with short commutes might find a copy of Bike Easy helps you to transition to carbon-neutral transport.

And we have an exclusive discount for you! If you spend £25 or more at the Green Shopping Catalogue before the end of September, you can save £5 on your order by using the coupon code GS£5OFFSEPT.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered myself a couple of t-shirts from Eko Noiz, because their Grow Your Own design is very suitable for an alternative kitchen gardener, as are their fabrics – you can choose from organic cotton, bamboo, hemp and recycled plastic bottle. And many of their prices include a £2 donation to an ethical charity – the Grow Your Own shirts support the Permaculture Association.

I went for one of the white bamboo shirts and a black recycled bottle shirt with fluorescent green ink. They arrived this morning, and are in the wash to get rid of the ‘new’ smell. The black one is lovely; the white one is a little too see-through for everyday wear and will no doubt be something I wear over my long-sleeved shirts when the weather is cooler.

They included the stickers shown above in the package – Pete has snaffled ‘Recycle or die’ already for his laptop. I will need to find an Earth Mom to give a good home to the second! Also impressive are their labels:

They’re hand-painted on the back of cardboard from cereal boxes. So all very green, although it appears that someone in the office is a fan of Coco Pops…. :D

I’ve never been one to sit back and just appreciate life, but it’s something I’ve been trying to get into of late. And now I have a shiny new chair that lets me do just that – outside in the garden.

My Planet Chair is just about the most comfortable thing I’ve ever sat in, and it folds up like a deck chair and I can carry it out into the garden or bring it back inside depending on what I’m doing.

So this morning I have been just sitting in the garden, catching some rays, listening to the birds tweet and feeling the breeze ruffle my hair. If there were roses, I would have been smelling them too, but it’s too early in the year ;)

It’s nearly a year now since I have (mostly) given up cow’s milk. I can cope with small amounts now and again, but any attempt to have cow’s milk products on a regular basis makes me uncomfortable and isn’t worth it. I am fine with goat’s milk on cereal and in tea; when I cook at home I use goat’s milk and butter, and Pete is fine with that. It’s hard to taste any difference in cooked foods, anyway.

One of the few things we have struggled with is finding a decent curry sauce that is free from cow’s milk. They’re either too fiery or completely insipid and leave a lot to be desired. But that has now changed, after a spontaneous visit to a local farm shop uncovered the range of curry sauces and chutneys (achars) from Ghurka Fine Foods.

For our first encounter I choose the mildest of the sauces on offer – the Masu cooking sauce has a heat rating of 1 (out of 5) and of itself is vegan although they recommend using it with red meat. We happened to have some lamb mince in the fridge, so today we cooked that up with the sauce, two onions and plenty of peas (Pete loves peas in curry!).

The result was delicious. Although there is not a hint of heat in the sauce, it still has plenty of flavour. We both loved it, without reservation, and would happily buy it again. Our local stockist had at least one other flavour on offer (and several chutneys), which was a heat rating of 3, and we’re confident enough of the quality of the range to give that one a go next time as well. And we’ll be keeping an eye out for the Ghurka Fine Foods range on supermarket shelves from now on.

Zazzle.co.uk are celebrating the football World Cup by offering free delivery (to UK addresses) to customers who use the discount code DROPKICKSHIP – but only until June 25th 2010!

Depending on how much your spending, or if you miss the free shipping offer, then you may be better off using our special Zazzle UK promo code – entering Emmapetesho1 as you checkout will save you 10% on all orders over £50. It has not expiry date and can be used multiple times. Score!

Ladies and gentlemen, I have new absinthe. And lots of it.

The nice Mr DHL delivered a consignment this afternoon direct from the lovely people at Absinthe-Shop.com to fill the void (and shelf space) left by more than a year of me not buying any absinthe.

My absinthe purchasing history has been somewhat chequered. You may recall the unpleasant eAbsinthe brouhaha from last year which – frankly – put me off buying for some considerable time. I’m very pleased to say that the ordering process from absinthe-shop.com was painless, simple and instilled way more confidence in anything (the now-defunct) eAbsinthe shop ever did.

The promise I made to myself was that I would sell stuff I no longer have reason to keep and use some of the money to spend on something I enjoy, in this case absinthe. For point of reference, I ordered four bottles in this shipment, enough to last me a year or more:

• La Fée XS Francaise
• La Fée XS Suisse
• Mansinthe
• Aderlass

(The Mansinthe and Aderlass were bought as an appropriately-named Darkness special offer combo)

I am by no means an absinthe expert or even a connoisseur. I don’t drink lurid, luminous absinthe in those horrid shots, nor do I set fire to it (though I used to, I must admit). It’s a drink I take with ice water and sugar, and I enjoy it. It’s a ritual.

I enjoy it to the point that there are very few other alcoholic drinks I partake in. I’m partial to Jägermeister any time of the year, and an occasional Tanqueray (gin) and Fever Tree tonic in summer – the absolute best way to enjoy g&t, in my humble etc, but that’s about it.

Back to the Absinthe Shop order. Here’s the timeline:

• Friday, March 12th, 2010 = Order placed, just after lunchtime UK time
• The Absinthe-Shop.com pixies packed my goodies and despatched them
• Tuesday, March 16th = Order arrived, courtesy of Mr DHL

Even with a non-working weekend in the middle, that’s essentially two business days for international delivery, including a cross-channel run – the package was dispatched from Heidelberg in Germany, which is by far the best service I’ve had from any online absinthe delivery, ever.

Packaging-wise, there are no complaints: a very sturdy cardboard box, well-fitting around the bottles (two of which, the La Fée XS, were boxed), with additional internal card protection and scrunched up paper for the non-boxed bottles. No box damage at all en route, the package could just as well have come from around the corner consider the tip-cop condition it was in.

All things considered, I’m very pleased. The memories of the eAbsinthe disaster are now long gone.

The lovely people over at the Green Shopping Catalogue have got a really great offer for you. Whether you’re doing some last minute eco Christmas shopping, or planning for an environmentally friendly New Year, if you spend over £30 with them they’ll through in a free copy of Through the Eye of a Needle by John-Paul Flintoff.

You can read my review of Through the Eye of a Needle over on my crafty blog, as it’s a book about making your own clothes – sort of! It’s actually a wide-ranging look at the way our clothes are made, through the eyes of John-Paul as he struggles to lower his impact on the world (environmentall and socially) through making some of his own clothes. If that makes it sound dull then it isn’t – but have a look at my review if you want to know more.

Of course, the Green Shopping Catalogue is one of the places you can buy my book – The Alternative Kitchen Garden: An A to Z, so now might be a great time to treat yourself or the gardeners in your life to a copy. And orders over £15 get free P&P anyway, so this is a really good deal!

There is no discount code to copy and paste, and no special link you need to follow. Just spend over £30 and your free book will be included in your parcel when it is dispatched. The offer is valid while stocks last, or until 28 February 2010.

The latest offer from the folks over at the Ethical Superstore is a nice one – they’re giving away a free bamboo cleaning cloth with every puchase from the Ecover eco-surfactant range, and you get 10% off the Ecover products as well. And you get free shipping on orders over £60. Follow the link for more details.

The slightly odd (in a good way) people over at Moosejaw are having a gear sale. They’re calling it their ‘Quasquicentennial Gear Sale’, but I can’t spell that so I won’t be typing it again. Follow the link to find out which of their products are on sale for 20% off.

There are two episodes of ENPS waiting to be uploaded (unless Pete did it last night while I was sleeping) and if you listen to the second one you might get the impression that I forgot my mum’s birthday. I didn’t forget my mum’s birthday – I just forget it was yesterday. I don’t check the date every day now that I work for myself, from home. I bought the card a fortnight ago, I just never got around to posting it.

Anyway, to make up for it, I have bought my mum some flowers. And not your run-of-the-mill flowers, either. I’ve bought my mum a seasonal, British-grown bouquet from Wiggly Wigglers. Low flower miles! Environmentally friendly flowers! I think most, if not all of them, are grown on the Wiggly farm in Herefordshire.

As I am a subscriber to the Wiggly e-news bulletin, I also had a code from a free bird feeder and seed, so I bolted that on. It’s a bit of an odd birthday present, perhaps, but mum likes birds so she will appreciate it.

Where do you buy your green office products? It can be a tricky question to answer, as not only do you have to find a reputable stockist for some rather unusual items, but really you should be checking their ethical credentials as well.

You don’t need to worry about that if you shop at the Green Shopping Catalogue, as Pete and I can vouch for the fact that they’re lovely people with the highest ethical standards – we’ve met them!

They’re not an office supply company, but they do have lots of lovely things that green businesses and workers would love to get their hands on, including energy-saving devices like the OWL wireless monitor and the Bye Bye Standby energy-saving kit. They’ve also got some great solar chargers if you want to take your eco business on the road.

Another great product for a green office is the Tefal Quick Cup that combines a water filter with a kettle that boils just one cup of water at a time. And there are items to help you recycle as well – including the Biobox Kitchen Caddy, a bottle and can crusher and a logmaker that allows you to turn all that waste office paper into fuel!

Don’t forget to check out the books, too, to learn more about living a sustainable lifestyle. Those of you with short commutes might find a copy of Bike Easy helps you to transition to carbon-neutral transport.

And we have an exclusive discount for you! If you spend £25 or more at the Green Shopping Catalogue before the end of September, you can save £5 on your order by using the coupon code GS£5OFFSEPT.

A couple of weeks ago I ordered myself a couple of t-shirts from Eko Noiz, because their Grow Your Own design is very suitable for an alternative kitchen gardener, as are their fabrics – you can choose from organic cotton, bamboo, hemp and recycled plastic bottle. And many of their prices include a £2 donation to an ethical charity – the Grow Your Own shirts support the Permaculture Association.

I went for one of the white bamboo shirts and a black recycled bottle shirt with fluorescent green ink. They arrived this morning, and are in the wash to get rid of the ‘new’ smell. The black one is lovely; the white one is a little too see-through for everyday wear and will no doubt be something I wear over my long-sleeved shirts when the weather is cooler.

They included the stickers shown above in the package – Pete has snaffled ‘Recycle or die’ already for his laptop. I will need to find an Earth Mom to give a good home to the second! Also impressive are their labels:

They’re hand-painted on the back of cardboard from cereal boxes. So all very green, although it appears that someone in the office is a fan of Coco Pops…. :D

I’ve never been one to sit back and just appreciate life, but it’s something I’ve been trying to get into of late. And now I have a shiny new chair that lets me do just that – outside in the garden.

My Planet Chair is just about the most comfortable thing I’ve ever sat in, and it folds up like a deck chair and I can carry it out into the garden or bring it back inside depending on what I’m doing.

So this morning I have been just sitting in the garden, catching some rays, listening to the birds tweet and feeling the breeze ruffle my hair. If there were roses, I would have been smelling them too, but it’s too early in the year ;)