MJM Blog

Martin — Sat, 05 Feb 2011 10:17:25 +0000

The new series of Secret Supper Club starts tonight on C4 and Suzie was away for a week filming it, she, another lady and a famous chef had to prepare a 3 course meal for 10 total strangers to be eaten in a beautiful oodland setting, they try and throw you in the deep end, asking you to cook strange/difficult meals etc, she rang me from the woods one day where they were filming saying that they wanted her to do a spit roast :P ( a pig which was good for her as shes done pigs and sheep on spits but they didnt know that), they probably wont show the bits where she walked up, looked at the rather small “fire” the crew had got together for the pig before telling them it should have been lit hours before, spread out further etc. she then sent one of the crew to her van to get the bellows, fire poker etc etc. They used our fruit leathers for the Fortune Cookies , and for some unaccountable reason they wanted Suzie not me ! :eh:

Martin — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 15:31:24 +0000

HAPPY XMAS (or mid winter festival, yule, solstice, Saturnalia what ever your celebrating TO ALL OUR CUSTOMERS AND A FABULOUS NEW YEAR weicx /8j8well, we’re all ready for our mid winter festival, food -cupboards stocked, booze aplenty and family over on Xmas day, its our best xmas in years, we lost the last 4 shows of the year due the the appalling weather etc but while it was devastating at first, with the aid of our customers ordering through the website for their xmas jerky we managed to pull through and while we are down on last year we are more relaxed having relaxation time forced on us, Feeling really good right now, glass of port in hand after spending the last hour and a half digging, scraping and hammering the ice on the steps to the town near our house, 64 steps with 8, 4 yard long “landing” bits spread throughout. My arms are in bits and shaking but they were really treacherous cos some stretchs dont have handrails and inches thick with solid ice and there an awful lot of elderly people around here who use them to get to the shops was a bit stingy at one point towards the end, I have recently re-dyed my hair red and had red hair dye and sweat running into my eyes lol. Suzie is doing the 3 bird roast today duck inna chicken inna tukey with layers of cranberry and orange stuffing between the birds.

Martin — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 09:14:37 +0000

Woke up to about 3 inchs of snow and more coming down, Ive decided I cant get into work today even though I work from home WE LOVE SNOW DAYS !and Ive just proved Suzie wrong, th kitten did look funny dropped outside the back door in the snow, cor shes a fast lil Biggins, got back in in seconds flat , unfortunatly had to cancel our last show which we were counting on for a bit of extra cash, but thats mitigated by the fact its SNOW DAY !!!!!!

Martin — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 22:45:24 +0000

I LOVE XMAS !! I really do, even when we were squatting in London / Holland / Brighton and it really wasnt the done thing or at all cool to like Xmas or any other festive type of thing we still did ! where ever we have lived we’ve loved Xmas and tonight we have had our first night off in months, as Suzie put it ” when you work hard all the time you dont realise how hard your working !” and the best thing is, we have at least 2 more days off before we have to think about doing owt, we sent the last of the recent orders off today, tidied the entire house, and I’m really looking forward to having my first new years party with my family for 22 years, spent a lot of time travelling and being at opposite ends of the country, but this year we’re stopping everything to go visit my Gandma and everyone else, full of xmas spirit at the moment, mostly single malt lol

Martin — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 19:50:07 +0000

Finally back home after a very stressful week, drove to Lincoln Tuesday, took us 5 hours to get there, then 4.5 hours to drive through the center of Lincoln city center, the Market had to be cancelled and we had a bit of a panic, our biggest show of the year cancelled, my sister was doing an indoor show in Liverpool so we decided to jump in with her , drove to liverool through some horrible weather and also managed to blag the use of an outside stall (our big canvas one) if I did the meat smoking demo, so I did that which meant we had room to get Sally in the outside stall, opened on Saurday and then the rain started, rained all day then started to run into the tent causing a swamp , soaking wet and cold all day. Luckily they found space inside for Sal and I didnt do the demo on Sunday but stayed on the inside stall we had, trade was OK, way down on last year at Linxoln but many of our website customers placed orders after hearing about our nightmare so the wolf is kept from the door, when we packed the stall down that was outside all the soaking canvas had frozen and our stall which meant it took up 3 times the amount of space and what Suzie could normally carry on her own took me and Gareth, we then drove from liverpool back home, had enough of nearly a week on different floors etc, filthy driving conditions all the way, freezing fog etc. Making a HUGE steak pie and baking cheese cakes now with a copy of Shrek 3 to watch with daisy , so glad to be home, oh and on top of that I had toothe ache all the time ,

Martin — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 20:30:54 +0000

devastated truly devastated, we’ve invested all our cash in stock, bought no presents as yet or anything 12 hours travelling last night, most of it stuck in Lincoln city center in the blizzard, this could be the straw that broke our back TBH , I dont know what we are going to do. oh and as for Chas the manager of the Bishops Palace EH site in Lincoln and orgnizer of the show,he’s a top bloke, spent hours (literlly hours) shovelling snow from all the steps and paths , really top bloke, though, and this may not be believed but I , yes me, picked up a shovel and actually did manual labour for the benefit of others WHO WONT BELIEVE I IDID IT !!!!!!!, something Ive sworn off, the wine and Port is kicking in and I still love Xmas

Martin — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 22:30:55 +0000

Oh did forget to mention that my wife , who I love with ALL my heart packed my case of cloths and medieval kit and rememberd to pack my union long johns ( red ones with a flap in the back, like in the cowboy films) when I was getting ready on Saturday I realised my wife, who I love with ALL my heart had packed me hers by mistake, the silly bint, she is 5ft 3 Im 6ft 4, it was like wearing a Long John Thong a ver uncomfortable feeling it has to be said .

Martin — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 22:27:41 +0000

Got set up at Ludlow Castle, ready for the Medieval Christmas Market and twas bleedin freezing, currently sitting by roaring wood fire with my long johns hanging next to it ready for the morning and my sleeping bag, inside out hanging on the other side of the chimney warming up gently, looks like its going to be a good weekend Pru and her team have done a cracking job of Xmasing up the castle yet again and we are staying in Tamsin’s barn conversion a few miles outside of Ludlow it’s a wonderful building with mezzanine floor bedroom listening to a bit of Trojan Ska eating Maltesers the only thing missing is Suzie, she’s at York Medieval Market , its its first time and run by a friend so she wanted to support it but I do wish she was here. Its now Sunday night , totally shattered after the market, really thobbing tooch ache which was aggrivated by being in the cold, but whinging aside it was a great weekend, really nice atmosphere quite few sales and lots of mulled wine, also its really nice to know you have friends watching your back, suzie is on her way home from York after the Xmas market (shes a bloody hero, 250 miles driving on her own after working a market all day, going to try and stay up till shes home but she will be stopping hve way for a power nap so will probably sleep on the sofa lol)) anyway I digress, I go a call from Jackie (Cloaked n Daggered) letting me know that the weather was bad in the North and that Suzies probable could be blocked by snow and tha Rollo and Caroline said she could stay there (near York)and gave me Carolines mobile number if that was needed, its really quite heart warming to know that people watch your back, Suzie is on her way home and her route is not to bad but had it not been she could have had a warm bed with chums (mmm not sure if that bit sounds right) instead of stranded in a van on her own in the freezing cold, many thanks chaps you made me feel warm inside (evil smily here), must be the wine talking, or the tirdeness, early start in the morning restocking for the Xmas Market at the Bishops Palace in Lincoln

Martin — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:19:12 +0000

oh AND the new Darck Choc ‘n’ Chilli Peanut butter is fan-bleedin-tastic

Martin — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:14:03 +0000

its been a really busy few days, totally shagged out, average time finished work in the celler 11pm, average starting time ? 7.45am, though this is our busiest time of the year, its tiring but some of our fave markets, though Im not looking at the Met Office forcaste till tomorrow night, I dont want to depress myself, Suzies is doing a market in York and Im doing an outdoor one in Ludlow, so I have everything I need in the house and can put in the van what I need though what I dont *funk* need is this raging tooth ache, which I cant get sorted till 9th dec cos we’re away so much and all the stuff I have to make for 4 big markets in the next 2 weeks ( the markets are all in the next 2 weeks , not 2 weeks to prep for em )