July 20th, 2010
When you’re thinking of someone in sympathy often our first thought is to send a bunch of flowers… another thought is to send a pot plant ~ particularly if it’s a special plant or flower that was a favourite of the loved one who has passed on…
On Norfolk, when we all know each other in our small community, it’s possible to quietly find out that particularly favourite flower or plant. At Peach Season we’d love to be able to give that ‘extra special’ thinking of you gift on your behalf. Just email us (gifts@peachseason.com) with the request and we can arrange it all for you.
We recently gifted a lavender pot plant in remembrance of a loved one for the family.
Your thought or expression or personal wording of a message can mean ‘the world’ to someone who is feeling loss and sadness in their world.
Lavender pot plant
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July 6th, 2010
This week’s new addition to the Peach Season collection… a whole trumpeter (2kg) ready to bake in the oven! Home delivered, vacuum packed… (availability is dependent upon the Norfolk seas and when a good catch has been made…)
Trumpeter is a best-loved Norfolk fish… also known as Red Emperor.
Trumpeter
Some islanders love to cook and eat the trumpeter fish heads. Boil in lemon juice with cut onions and tomatoes to create a soup stock, then add cream & serve… superb!
I’m thinking of adding ‘fish heads’ to the Peach Season collection??? Or maybe that’d be a bit too quirky?
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July 1st, 2010
Our ‘Norfolk-specialty’ desserts feature our locally made pies – delicious flavours such as lemon, passionfruit, coconut… then… add the ‘Norfolk gravy‘ alias ‘cream’! Yum!
Everyone has a particular favourite ~ and at family gatherings, we all know who’s favourite is what! …So it becomes a race to the dessert table once the main meal is done!
A Norfolk pie is the perfect substitute for a birthday cake! At Peach Season we just love delivering a homebaked pie for a special occasion! Just recently we had an order ‘local to local’ and we delivered to the workplace as a surprise treat…
Our feedback was “Oh, how wonderful, but do I have to share??”
Norfolk Passionfruit Pie
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May 16th, 2010
Mother’s Day was magic! I had such fun delivering Peach Season gifts to Mum’s here on Norfolk from their family overseas… and the surprise brought tears to many eyes… Being a Mum myself, made the day extra special as this was the first year I could share in giving to other Mum’s via Peach Season. It was also the opportunity to decorate flowers and gifts with my own Mum before we jumped into the car to do the home deliveries.
The next day, I received this email :
Just wanted to drop you a line and thank you for delivering the flowers to Mum. They looked gorgeous and Mum got a nice surprise and loved them also! Its good you have started this website it makes things a lot easier and it also means you know that whoever the gift is for will get the very best. I didn’t know who to use to get flowers delivered over there and then I remembered your site and thought I would have a look to see if you did flowers and to my relief you did! Thank you, Sarah.
It was a most enjoyable day…
Seasonal flowers
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May 4th, 2010
As it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday, I was searching through some of my photos to add to my Peach Season Facebook page as a ‘reminder’ for Mother’s Day. I came across this one, of a nest with the tiny baby birds squarking to be fed… I was thinking, how applicable ‘a nest’ is to represent Mother’s Day… following our childhood we can find that we’re either still in the nest, or struggling to get out of the nest, or completely flown the nest years ago…
The nest remains.
A Mother's Nest
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April 26th, 2010
I look in the cupboard to see columns of piled up take-away coffee cups… I’ve been wondering what to do with them? How could I re-use them somehow because I just can’t throw them away…
Browsing a ‘House & Garden’ Magazine I came across this perfect idea… to recycle coffee cups as plant containers! Using scissors I cut a couple of small holes in the base, then filled with soil and water crystals, then added the plant cutting.. they’re working wonderfully..!
A habit or a vice? …my daily take-away coffee routine? But now it seems okay, because I have all these cuttings lined up on the verandah…
And they’ll be ready to share for Mother’s Day gifts… Just not sure whether to re-pot them into terracotta pots or would it be a quirky gift to receive a flower plant in a take-away coffee cup? Maybe I could add a Coffee Voucher? Now that could be fun!!
The 'perfect' recycled plant container
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March 23rd, 2010
Growing up on Norfolk was a childhood of memories of the senses…
Just the simple activity of collecting guppies involved…
- Touch: feet wading in the gently flowing creek, full of squishy mud and water hyacinths
- Intuition: blind hope in each step that there’s definitely no eels hiding in here!
- Smell: Fresh, ‘aromatic’ creekbed mud all over your feet and inbetween your toes… right up to your knees depending upon your age & height.
- Sound: the quiet tippy-toe action holding the net ready and then a scoop to victoriously capture what innocent guppies happen to be swimming by…
- Sight: the counting up of exactly how many guppies actually made it into the bucket?
- Taste: Definitely not the guppies… but the treats of biscuits and drink brought along to nourish and rejuvenate little legs and arms as they got tired!!!
Norfolk Guppies
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March 15th, 2010
Our red guavas are in season… less in abundance this year probably due to the lack of rain we’ve had since November. We collected a bucket of porpay (Norfolk word for ‘guava’) and made some guava jelly this week for the Peach Season Cuppa Tea Collections. It’s always a resounding ‘whew’ when the jelly sets!! Some handy tips I’ve found when making guava jelly:
- Boil the guavas in only a little water which covers the bottom of the pot
- Strain overnight
- Measure out eg. 8 cups of juice, then you need 7 cups of sugar
- As you bring juice to the boil, place the sugar in the oven to warm
- Take pot off the stove to dissolve sugar into the boiling juice
- Place back onto the stove and boil
- Test with a fork and if the liquid is sticking between the fork edges, then it’s ready
- Meantime, the jars have been in the oven warming in a tray with a little water
- Pour jelly into the jars and allow to cool gently in the tray
Then… take a freshly baked, warm scone, add a dob of guava jelly and top with whipped cream … Boil the kettle to make a cuppa and sit somewhere with a little sunshine on your back.. breathe, relax and enjoy the decadence!
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Red Guavas
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The inside of a red guava
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Juice boiling
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March 8th, 2010
… to my Peach Season blog. My Peach Season website was launched in November 09. The idea originated from the frustrations I remember when I was living away from home (Norfolk Island) and trying to get gifts sent to my family and friends here on the island. The only option was by mail and there was frequently the chance that my parcel would end up in ship mail. It was so disappointing when I’d send a gift to arrive in time of the occasion, to find out later that the parcel didn’t turn up until 3 months after being posted! Ship mail!
Peach Season is a way in which you can get online, order a gift and have it home delivered on exactly the right day, here on Norfolk!
The concept then grew to including support for local artisans, so you’ll find various arts, crafts, cooking and produce grown by locals here at home. This isn’t your ‘traditional’ only flowers/chocolates/champagne gift delivery service… it’s much more… you can browse the collections and suggestions and order lots of ‘Norfolk flavour’ gifts… memories of childhood and growing up on the island.. things we love to do.. things we love to eat…you’ll find local lemon pies, coconut pies, guava jelly with a cup of tea collection, as well as our beautiful seasonal flowers and gourmet treats!
Over the weekend I added a bowl of guppies for the kids! And each week I’m working on new ideas and other collections, so there’s going to be lots to share…
I’m always keen to hear of ideas for particularly ‘atypical’ Norfolk gifts for a loved one here at home, so please leave a comment if there’s something you’d like to suggest…
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