Caro giving out samples

This was the second time we had taken the Roadshow to Westmorland and what a fantastic show it was! This show is only on for one day and a good day was had by all! The sun was shining, and everyone was in high spirits.

children on the Plan Bee stand

There were many schools in attendance at this show as a large number of them close for the day and bring the children, which meant Plan Bee and the Smoothie Bike were in high demand!

The cookery demonstrations throughout the day were presented by Simon Woodhouse who prepared Spiced Elmwood Chicken with Homemade Bramley Apple Chutney along with our favourite Barbequed Fruit Kebabs. Every session was full and Simon received many compliments…with one gentleman having never tasted curry before, commenting how nice it was and that he would definately be having it again!

The sampling at this show consisted of tomatoes, Truly Irresistable cookies and shortbreads, Truly Irresistable crisps, fruit crushes and cider, all of which went down well with the crowds and sold out in the shop by the end of the day!

This was  a great show to end the tour of county shows with and we were all sad that the outdoor leg of the tour was over for another year. However, we still have the two Good Food shows to look forward to and I hope to see you there!

Bye for now!

Christine x

Brand Ambassador and tour blogger 2009

The show was a three day show. We were welcomed by rain which turned the foot paths into bogs.! However this did not put the public off. Everyone donned their wellies for what turned out to be a fantastic show.

Our executive chef Simon Woodhouseprepared a beautiful dish of Chicken on Broad Beans with Fennel, followed by Barbecue Fruit kebabs. The demonstrations were very well received , with every session sold out . There were people who had visited us last year who joined us again for Simons culinary expertise.

Sampling of locally grown Tomatoes took place everyday which people loved and were even tempted to buy. The smoothie bike sessions were always well attended by children and adults alike.Plan B was found to be very popular with local bee keepers who had heard of the campaign.

We have a long break now until our next show in September at the Dorset County Show on the 5th & 6th, see you there!

Brand Ambassador and tour blogger 2009

This show was very significant as it was the last ever Royal Show to be held at the showground in Kenilworth. However, we suceeded in making it a very memorable show as we won not one - but two awards here! We won second prize for ‘Most informative Trade Stand’ and the Gold award for the best trade stand overall!

Simon Woodhouse our executive chef prepared ‘Grilled Elmwood Chicken on Fennel and Broad Beans’ as well as the ever popular ‘BBQ Fresh Fruit Kebabs’. Both dishes were very well received by all with many people returning to watch the afternoon demonstrations as they were so impressed by what they had seen in the morning!

Again, there was a huge interest in the Plan Bee unit, especially from Bee Keepers who also had a stand at this show and were keen to learn more about what The Co-operative were doing to help the plight of the bee.

There was, as ever, a huge crowd for every smoothie bike session we had throughout the show with both children and adults alike enjoying peddling their way to a smoothie!

This show was a landmark for us on this tour as it was the final Royal Show and has been one of my personal favourites so far!

Anyway, there isn’t much time to rest….. we are off to Yorkshire in 2 days!

See you then

Christine x

The next stop on this years roadshow was the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh and what a fantastic show it was! Despite us not having the best weather for this 4 day show, it was overshadowed by the great time we had!

The main highlights of this show were the many special visitors we had onto the stand. On day one of the show we were visited by Richard Lockhead MSP Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs. He was particularly interested in the Plan Bee stand and asked many interesting questions and gave some very positive feedback. The next day we were joined by Professor Charles Milne - Food Standards Agency Scotland Director, and Assistant Director Lydia Wilkie. Again they were highly impressed by Plan Bee as well as many other aspects of the Co-operative.

However, the most important and most impressive visitor we had (and by visitor I mean quickly drove past the stand in a car!) was the Queen! She visited the Royal Highland Show on day two and we were all priveliged enough to see her!

As usual, Simon Woodhouse’s recipe’s were a huge success. He prepared Spiced Scottish Elmwood Chicken with a quick Bramley Chutney along with his trademark BBQ fruit kebabs. These dishes were given great compliments, as well as the products which we were sampling at the front of the stand. These included delicious Truly Irresistable Scottish AVA strawberries, shortbread, millionaires shortbread, Truly Irresistable crisps as well as Whisky which we sampled each evening.

Our next show is The Royal Show at Kenilworth… hope to see you there!

Christine x

Brand Ambassador and tour blogger 2009

This was the first time we had been to this show with the Good with Food Roadshow and what an impact we made! First time there and we won the award for the best trade stand of the show! What an achievement!

Chris, Chrissie and Pete receiving our Best Trade Stand award

The weather at this show was fine, except for being a little windy but the rain managed to hold off for us which was great.

Our executive chef Simon Woodhouse prepared a new dish for us at this show – British Elmwood Chicken with fennel and cherry tomatoes. This went down well with the customers as many commented that they had not actually tried fennel before and did not know how to use it in cooking. Again, Simon also prepared his barbequed fruit kebabs which as usual were a huge success with the audiences.

Again, the Plan Bee stand has had some fantastic responses from both adults and children alike wishing to learn more about bees, what they can do to help and what action the Co-operative are taking.

A highlight at this show was the return of  Titan the Robot. We have not seen Titan for a few shows but he was here and I have a link to a video so you can see for yourself just how brilliant Titan is! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8RGSzVbHSY  

However, we had a very valued team member go missing on the second day. Daisy our lifesize cow was taken from our stand and left in a field overnight! However, she was found safe and sound and returned to us – once we had identified her of course!

Daisy - returned to us safe and sound!

After the three days at this show, we have a week to rest before we head up to Scotland for the Royal Highland Show – which i’m sure is going to be fantastic!

See you there!

Christine x

Brand Ambassador and tour blogger 2009

As we saw at the 2008 show, Bath and West is actually nicknamed the ‘Bath and WET county show’ and for the set – up day and first day of the show it was definately wet! However, armed with our wellies and trusty plastic poncho’s we were ready for this fantastic show regardless of the weather!

The bad weather on day one did not seem to matter, especially when the next three days were glorious sunshine and, despite day one being a bit of a washout, we managed to walk away with the Gold Award for the best trade stand at the show!!

We had a brilliant location at this show, overlooking the main ring which was perfect for attracting a crowd and also for watching the ‘Human Cannonball’ who we have seen for the first time at this show and were amazed by! Here’s a link to a video we took of this incase you weren’t fortunate enough to be there and see this for yourself! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMvAORov94c

At this show, Simon Woodhouse prepared King Prawn Pasta Arrabiatta and BBQ Fresh Fruit Kebabs – which went down fantastically well – especially when the sun was shining and it was perfect weather for a barbeque!

We also had some VIP guests – Prince Charles and Camilla were present ( although sadly they did not come to one of our cookery demonstrations, despite us reserving two seats at the front ‘just in case!’) as well as conservative MP David Cameron (who also missed out on our demo’s!).

The smoothie bike was agin a big hit here, especially when being manned by Rob and his ‘banana microphone’! Everyone gathered round to watch the smoothie being made and were especially pleased to get a sample of it to refresh them in the hot weather!

As we have seen throughout this tour, the new ‘Plan Bee’ stand has been very sucessful and this show was no exception, with many children and adults alike wishing to learn more about this initiative and the plight of the bumble bee!

We don’t have too much time to rest now as in two days we begin the Royal Cornwall show at Wadebridge!

Hopefully see you there

Christine x

Chris peddlng a smoothie for the Countess

Wow what a show! Royalty and the public of Devon were out in full force to visit our stand. Over the three days we had fantastic weather as well as a whole host of interesting people on the stand. The main visitor was The Countess of Wessex who came on the first day. She was particularly interested in visiting the Plan Bee unit where Naomi Davies from the Co-operative’s Social Goals department, and Lisa Johnson from the Marketing Department were only too pleased to explain what it was all about. The Countess then sampled one of our delicious smoothies, peddled by our very own company director Chris Jackson!

The Countess of Wessex enjoying her smoothie!

Brand Ambassador and tour blogger 2009

The team at Newark

This was the first time that the Good with Food Roadshow had been to Newark and the stand went down a storm! We were situated right near the ‘Sheep Show’ (a show which we had seen many times last year and was sure to attract the crowds) and near the vintage cars, surrounded by many other food stands.

All the weather reports gave a terrible forecast for the weekend, so we were prepared for the worst (with our wellies and ponchos!) however, luck was on our side and it turned out to be a lovely weekend which also meant that the crowds were not put off either!

As well as our first time at Newark, this was the first time that the ‘Plan Bee’ section of the Roadshow had been unveiled. This is an interactive ‘Kids Zone’ educating them about the plight of the bee, as well as informing both children and adults alike, about the Co-operative’s new initiative – ‘Plan Bee’, a ten

me on the new plan bee stand

point plan aiming to educate people about the need for bee’s and empower them to do something about it. I was given the privilege to man this section of the Roadshow throughout the show and it was very well received and a huge success!

Of course, we still had the ’smoothie bike’ , shop and our executive chef ‘Simon Woodhouse’ who prepared a dish of chicken with a Bramley apple chutney and barbecue fruit kebabs for desert.

Once the two days were finished, the team didn’t have much time to rest as it was straight on to Belfast for the Balmoral Show… see you there!!

Christine

Brand Ambassador and tour blogger 2009