Author Archives: marketharboroughwi

Flower power

Posted on by

Nelly Moser, my garden, 25 May 12 (2)-w500-h500June’s meeting visiting speaker was Norma Blakey.  Hazel Stacey, President, reports, ‘I was interested in this particular speaker simply as I had never heard of flower reading before.  Everyone had picked a flower from their garden and placed it in a paper bag.  Norma then chose a bag at random and gently cupped it in her hands and somehow got feelings/ vibes from it.’

‘It was fascinating that Norma could feel things from a flower picked from someone’s garden and could, in certain examples, get people’s personalities down to a tea.’

‘I was amazed how she was able to tell if someone had had a sore throat for months and had just been to the doctors that week about it and another person who is in a lull and has been for sometime and when asked if this is correct the lady said yes!’

‘ Very, very interesting night.  So much so that I am hoping to get a small group of ladies together to have individual flower readings with Norma.’

Get jamming ladies!

Posted on by

IMG_3140-w500-h500Fiona Thompson, MHWI committee member, reports, ‘We had a great evening of Jam Making with Rosie from Rosie makes Jam. She gave an interesting talk on the history of preserving and explained that in essence what we do during the preserving process is replace moisture with sugar, salt or vinegar or a combination of these. She encouraged us not to throw away things like squeezed lemons as, with a bit of planning, these can be made into wonderful things like lemoncello liquer. Rose has a great website with lots of recipes and a great mobile phone app which has  recipe finder that can be adjusted according to the amount of product you have (e.g. if you have a glut of courgettes).’  Rose makes jam

‘We made blackcurrant jam using 1kg of fruit, 1 kg of sugar and the juice of one-two lemons. We IMG_3129-w500-h500were all amazed by how easy it was. She gave us a few simple pointers and in a short time, we were all proudly pouring our jam into the jars. It was an inspiring evening and showed us that jam-making/preserving does not have to be the huge, time consuming task that some of us may remember our mothers and grandmothers enduring. A small amount of effort and simple equipment can result in some wonderful tasting jam. Get Jamming Ladies!’

 

 

 

IMG_3127-w500-h500IMG_3135-w500-h500IMG_3131-w500-h500IMG_3128-w500-h500IMG_3134-w500-h500

 

Coffee morning success!

Posted on by

Despite the rain after all the glorious sunshine, people in Market Harborough turned out to support the coffee morning held at the Market Theatre this morning. This is our major fund raising event for 2014.  Thank you to members who so kindly donated items for the tombola, cake stall and refreshments.  Here we are all are, ready to go!

Coffee morning 6 Jul 14 (1)-w500-h500

MHWI members all set to go with refreshments this morning

Coffee morning 6 Jul 14 (3)-w500-h500

Claire Salisbury all ready to go with the homemade cake stall

Coffee morning 6 Jul 14 (4)-w500-h500

Carmen Wilson has everything organised on the tombola stall

Coffee morning 6 Jul 14 (5)-w500-h500

Delightful Market Harborough WI bunting made specially for the event by Fiona Thompson

 

May bake huge success

Posted on by

Members enjoyed a great evening on 21st May with Market Harborough WI’s May Bake.  The theme was vegetables.  Many members brought along food to share.  It could be sweet or savoury as long as it contained vegetables.  You can see the results below (go to the foot of this post to download copies of many of the recipes):

IMG_3173-w500-h500

Hazel sampling the chocolate and beetroot cake!

IMG_3174-w500-h500

Members enjoying the quiz, written by Helen and Claire Salisbury.  The winners were Team Spring Onions – well done!

IMG_3180-w500-h500 IMG_3179-w500-h500 IMG_3178-w500-h500 IMG_3177-w500-h500

IMG_3176-w500-h500

Vegetables recipes for you to download:

Sweet potato and white chocolate cake

Squash,Mint,Feta-Tart-w500-h500

 beetroot chocolate fudge cake

chocolate beetroot brownies

chocolate and beetroot brownie

carrot cupcakes

carrot and cheddar bites

butternut squash cake

courgette and lemon cake

courgette and lime muffins

flora’s famous courgette cake

parsnip and maple syrup cake

sweetmexican corn cake

Happy baking!

 

 

Coffee morning – Saturday 5 July 2014

Posted on by

coffee morning-w500-h500If you haven’t done so already, make sure you put this date in your diary and tell your family and friends, too.  Our major, annual fund raising event this year is to be a Coffee Morning to be held at the Market Harborough Theatre in Adam and Eve Street (near the council offices/new library and museum and just behind the Old Grammar School on High Street).  Entry is free.  The event will run from 9 am until lunchtime.

We need members’ help in a number of ways, please.

  • Home made cakes to sell at the event and to be sold with refreshments**
  • Prizes for the tombola stall – anything, as long as it is within its sold by date.  Please bring these by the June meeting on 25th
  • Volunteers to help on a rota basis (2 hour slots) to make and serve refreshments, manage the cake and tombola stalls and maybe outside to encourage passers by to pop in for a coffee

** Cakes can be dropped off at the Leicestershire and Rutland Federation quiz night at the Congregational Church Hall on the Friday evening, the 4th (a couple of members will be doing the refreshments).  Or, you can drop them off at 11 Ashley Way, Market Harborough Le16 7XD on the 4th  You can also leave them in the porch, unless it is a really hot day!  Alternatively, call 07906 857 133 if you would like your cake to be collected.  Lastly, you can drop them off at the Theatre on the morning of the 5th July between 8.15 am and 9 am.

Cellophane, boxes and paper plates for presenting your cake for sale will be available at the June meeting.

 

 

 

 

WI quiz night in Market Harborough (Leicestershire and Rutland Federation)

Posted on by

Are you free on Friday 4 July 2014?  If so, would you like to make up teams of 4 (WI members, non-members, partners or husbands) to take part in a quiz night to be held at the Congregational Church in Bowden Lane in Market Harborough?  There is a small charge.  Bring your own wine and nibbles (tea will be served, too).  Start time to be confirmed, but likely to be around 7.30 pm.

To enter your team, email the Leicestershire and Rutland Federation of WIs in Leicester – Contact Us

Why I joined the committee of MHWI

Posted on by

Although I have lived in Market Harborough for 14 years, I have worked full time forIMG_2954-w500-h500 most of that period and didn’t know many people.  An article on line, shown to me by my daughter, prompted me to call the MHWI contact, Hazel Stacey.  Before I knew it I had attended my first committee meeting and had a sense of purpose locally.  Several months later I attended a WordPress course at work and used this website as a practice for the one I wanted to set up locally for my employer.  You know the rest.

Being a committee member has enabled me to contribute ideas and take part in organising and assisting at numerous events over the last 2 and half years.  Making things happen and knowing that lots of women enjoy attending, plus meeting other people, is very rewarding.  Committee members pay their annual fee just like any other member.  We attend a committee meeting once a month, usually in a pub.   We urgently need new committee members who can bring their own ideas and give some time each month to help make meetings and social events take place.  Our very own Hazel is stepping down, too, this autumn.  So, if you think you would like to step up and join the committee, please speak to a committee member (we wear the blue sashes) or Contact  us.  You’re very welcome to come to a committee meeting, not only to meet us, but to see what it’s all about.

Posted on by
10303783_10152354873204654_551479941973086446_n-w500-h500Thank you to Evanda Greenwood for her write up of the farm visit last week (you will remember Jane Barnes spoke to us last year, telling us all about the life of a dairy farmer’s wife):
‘Anyway, Farm visit was great. Jane Barnes was a great host and we all ambled across the fields to see all of the cows. The Barnes’ have roughly 300 acres and the art of dairy farming is extremely technical to say the least.  It was a lovely evening and we all thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt so much.’
‘They have about 130 milking cows in the herd, most of them being pedigree Ayrshire and these need feeding twice a day.’
To quote from the Farm’s website, “They produce 725,000 ltrs of milk per year and it  is sold on contract to Clawson Dairies to be made into Stilton Cheese.  The aim is to send 2000 ltrs of milk to the dairy everyday.  It’s collected by a tanker lorry and taken to Clawson to be pasturised before its made into cheese.”‘
10264556_10152354870819654_2869349852078324755_n-w500-h500 1509037_10152111291209654_1642679241_n-w500-h500
Not sure of the significance of the time picture – maybe Evanda can explain?

May-bake monthly meeting – vegetables

Posted on by

Sort out your favourite vegetable recipe (sweet or savoury) and bake it for the next vegetabes-w500-h500monthly meeting on 21st May.  You will be able to share your baking with members, as well as sampling lots of new, innovative ideas which you can then try out on friends and family.

Don’t forget to bring a copy of the of the recipe (or, ideally, several copies) so these can be pegged up for other members to take home to try out for themselves.  We’ll be putting digital copies on the website, too, after the meeting.

Members will also be able to have fun in teams and take part in one of our popular quizzes.  This, too, will be on the theme of ‘vegetables.’   Time to dig deep now to brush up on those unusual facts.