Saturday 9 December 2017

Forging ahead

This is a post I have been dying to write for a very long time. After nearly three years of careful planning and precision strategizing (read: much flapping, scratching of heads and wondering just what the hell happened to our lives) we are nearly ready to launch our new business. This week we, as they say in the trade, ‘soft launched’ our new brand, The Forge, on social media (warning: shameless plugs to follow shortly). So no turning back – it’s now all about building the buzz and the right kind of image so that when we officially launch in January we are inundated with bookings.


All of this means that of course from now on my blog needs to portray a picture-perfect image of our ‘organic rural idyll’ where we, and I quote, “combine modern comforts with back to nature experiences” – and that means I couldn’t possibly begin to share with you the fact that…

……this week my husband narrowly escaped death when he nearly toppled the tractor on himself lifting the recently dispatched pig on the front bucket. It turns out that stuffing your porkers full of barley and tkids' leftovers turns them into right old hefty buggers. Cue the humiliating phone call to the neighbouring farmer to bail us out. Again. Suffice to say, there’s a very large ham and a bottle of something nice heading their way this Christmas.

Oops

Help!

…..or that my kids now point blank refuse to eat our organic, home-grown cavolo nero kale, turning their noses up at this in favour of the 99p frozen peas from the supermarket. Ditto my soup, when I actually get around to making any, is dissed in favour of Heinz Tomato every time. Why do I bother?!

Snow way I'm eating that Mum!

Organic, homegrown roasted pumpkin and spring pea soup with coconut
and a hint of chili, finished with creme fraiche and a sprinkling of fresh
homegrown coriander - OR - Heinz Tomato. No contest, apparently.

….or even that I recently took delivery of a massive case of wine (from one of those deals that seems to come enclosed with every item of mail these days). There is no way I am relying on the dodgy, brownish raspberry vodka or sloe gin I made here from the land a few months ago for all my festive inebriation.  Na ah. I definitely need something very tasty and very alcoholic and from very far away (preferably Australia) to see me through this yuletide. Although I can’t help thinking that getting said case delivered on December 1st was a bit of a mistake…hiccup….

I don't think they sent us a full box (ahem...)

And I definitely couldn’t mention that my big hairy Scot of a husband, famed for his love of the cold and the great outdoors, surviving on nothing more than a few rabbits and the odd dandelion leaf, and washing only on every fourth full moon, recently spent pretty much three days straight in a sauna in Lisbon, showering on average seven times a day. Perhaps not quite the image we are trying to portray here at The Forge, but oh so bloody needed after the past few months of hard graft to get this place ship shape and ready for the spring.

So there you go. Full disclosure and all that. From now on my posts will be wholesome and squeaky clean and ever so slightly nauseating. Maybe.

And now for that shameless plug. You would make me a very happy woman if you could like, share, comment or follow our social media sites – links below. It’s a sign of the times when all I want for Christmas is some social media love. Oh ok, and maybe a nice fat Australian Shiraz. Merry Christmas everyone!