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Location: Blogs Martins thoughts...
Posted by: admin	Thursday, February 21, 2008
Sometimes you get involved in things and they just take over your life. We visited the Marmalade festival for the first time last year and on the way out, I spoke to Jane McCosh and said that if she wanted help with the next one, we'd be happy to assist. Little did I know that it would take over my life for a couple of months. Don't read this as a complaint, it has been a really fantastic time, it just really did take over my life, I went completely over to the Orange side, everything else got put on hold. But what fun I've had, I've been on UKTV Market Kitchen, I've made some wonderful friends, I've asked favours of lots of people and they've delivered, I've set up a restaurant in a barn, I've been talking about Marmalade on Radio Cumbria for over an hour. In fact I've got so much out of this total immersion I've forgotten half of it. Oh yes, that reminds me I've finally learn't how to make decent Marmalade. The Japanese entry... And then there's Paddington, what a lovely chap. Ok, for the followers of this blog, here is some gossip about the bear, well, at least linked to him. I got a call from a company who shall remain nameless, but suffice to say they wanted to get in on the Marmalade act, given the publicity we were receiving. Their PR company had a "great" idea. What they seriously wanted to do was bring Paddington to Dalemain in a black Hummer, then when he got out, surround him with SAS type guards, dressed in black. The aim was to "protect" Paddington from the Marmite Insurgents......! Yes, I nearly cried with laughter on the phone, one part of me said, this is so stupid, it's brilliant and sure to get maximum publicity, but the other side of me said, "get a life", we want Paddington for the children. In any event I told them that we didn't really need the publicity and I quoted a pretty high figure for them to get involved. In fairness they did come back and make an offer, half of what I asked for, so I told them to think again. Time ran short so we didn't conclude the deal, but next year, well that's a real possibility. In any event Paddington turned up in style at Dalemain, on a carriage being pulled by four horses after causing a degree of mayhem in the centre of Penrith. The whole event was a fantastic success. It has given me so many laughs along the way and I'm so pleased we took part and made a contribution. I guess what I am proudest of is the restaurant in the barn. This was a crazy idea I had in my head. I thought I need someone I can trust, so I called on Nick Martin, he's a fellow scouser and a grafter to boot. I thought that if Nick and I could come up with a simple menu, we could cook some fantastic food in the barn, with a makeshift kitchen. Well that's just what we did. Now what I'm proud of is not the idea, but the execution and I wasn't involved!. It was brilliant we got the barn buzzing, there was a really great atmosphere created. Nick did the serious preparation groundwork and was supported by a team of two, Josh my younger (middle) son, and Matt my older one. That's what I was proud of. Here is a 15 year old, and a 19 year old on his birthday, stepping up to the plate and performing under pressure working alongside Nick. Matt cooked the risotto alongside Nick who cooked the chicken. Josh handled front of house consisting of 18 seats. What stars. All the food came out perfect, it was two rosette standard served on bio-degradeable plates. They did over 100 covers in around 3 hours. Me I just watched with a serious amount of respect, dragging in customers. We also had a stand in the barn, this was manned by the lovely Ali from the Castle, a true rock. Super saleswoman Cynthia convinced everybody to taste and buy the bread, you could learn an thing or two from Cynthia's patter, Cecilia and Luke sold "Marmalade making kits" as well as the preserved lemons I had made. All in all it was a great family and team effort. Is there life after Marmalade? Well yes of course their is. I'm slowly picking up the threads of my more pressing work. This includes supplying Cumbria Tourism with news each month, then there is the video work I am doing for Storr's Hall and then there is a long list of work that has piled up... For the real Marmalade enthusiasts, here is my take on the winning Marmalades, this was my first time on BBC Radio Cumbria I really enjoyed it. Click to play

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