The Steeple Times

Tag: Brazil

  • Flora’s ‘Little Pot of Sunshine’

    Flora’s ‘Little Pot of Sunshine’

    9-year-old girl’s prize-winning “little pot of sunshine” conserve goes on sale in Fortnum & Mason after beating 3,000 others in the world marmalade awards; 99-year-old’s grandson meanwhile claims marmalade helped her beat coronavirus

    Guardian readers regularly marvel about marmalade. In 2020, they sent scores of letters to the paper about marmalade and longevity and in April that year they also even referenced a 99-year-old whose grandson believed she’d beaten COVID-19 by eating marmalade sandwiches.

     

    Now, going to the other end of the age spectrum, the paper shared news late last week that a 9-year-old child, Flora Rider from the Isle of Wight, has become the youngest ever winner of the world marmalade awards.

     

    Having “impressed the judges with her marmalade made from Seville oranges and orange blossom from her local supermarket… which was made on only her second attempt” and beaten off other amateur and professional makers also, Rider’s conserve has now gone on sale in Fortnum & Mason.

     

    Commenting of the winning entry, the ritzy store’s website now is offering the creation and shares of it:

     

    “Selected from over 3,000 entries from all over the world, Flora Rider’s Seville Orange & Orange Blossom Marmalade has been crowned the winner of the 2021 Dalemain Marmalade Double Gold Awards.”

     

    “Described by 9-year-old Flora as a ‘little pot of sunshine,’ this joyous jar is bursting with fresh citrus notes and a bright and honey-like flavour. Seville oranges harmonise with subtle hints of orange blossom water to create a delicately floral spread. Finely cut and light in colour, this marmalade pairs perfectly with breakfast pastries or dolloped atop fresh yoghurt.”

     

    “Flora’s homemade marmalade has been commercially produced and will be exclusively sold at Fortnum & Mason and Dalemain throughout the year – with 50p from each jar going to Hospice at Home Carlisle & North Lakeland.”

     

    Speaking of her victory, Rider told the Guardian:

     

    “[I was] very excited, over the moon and really amazed to have won the prize.”

     

    “I enjoyed shredding the peel and filling the jars, but best of all I enjoyed eating the finished marmalade. I liked the thought of adding flowers to my marmalade, so using orange blossom seemed like a good idea. The taste was very nice, with a lovely floral and honey flavour.”

     

    To order Flora Rider’s marmalade – priced at £5.95 for a 340g jar – click here. Also available from the store is last year’s winning entry, Jonathan Hamel Cooke’s Dark & Chunky Marmalade – also priced at £5.95.

     

    Rita Reynolds marmalade coronavirus
    In April 2020, nonagenarian Rita Reynolds of Bramhall, Stockport’s grandson told the ‘Guardian’: “I don’t know how she got through [and recovered from coronavirus]. I don’t think she has ever eaten a vegetable or fruit. She lives on marmalade sandwiches and biscuits. But she’s never smoked or really drank.” Mrs Reynolds is plainly like a cat with nine lives. In the Second World War, aged 21, she supposedly refused to go into an air raid shelter “because she wanted to read her book.” She instead hid under a table at her home in Liverpool and amazingly survived when a bomb landed right outside.
    Flora Rider beat off over 3,000 entries from 30 countries around the world – including Canada, the Czech Republic, Australia, Japan, Kuwait and Brazil – to win the 2021 Homemade Marmalade Awards. Of her entry, the judges declared: “A first time marmalade maker, Flora and her family, like so many in the UK, decided to get creative in the kitchen during the winter lockdown – with phenomenal results! Her entry absolutely bowled over the judges and was unanimously declared the winner, not just of the Children’s category, but of the whole competition.”
    Going further of the winning entry, Dalemain declared: “Flora’s winning marmalade was ideal for the ‘floral’ feel of the day, and organisers hope it will be the perfect accompaniment to a gorgeous summer ahead.”
  • Emily Bolton

    Emily Bolton

    A Shackleton Award winning campaigner who “fights miscarriages of justice and demands reform,” practicing solicitor Emily Bolton is married to Reprieve founder and one of “Britain’s most powerful civil rights lawyers,” Clive Stafford Smith. This Dorset born stonemason’s daughter, herself, founded the Centre for Criminal Appeals in the UK in 2011 after previously representing wrongfully convicted prisoners in the United States through the George Soros funded Innocence Project in New Orleans. She is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and Tulane University and her work trying to highlight the flaws in the 2011 convictions of the ‘Freshwater Five’ fisherman is clearly illustrative of her tenacity and dedication. Bolton’s sterling efforts in this regard were quite correctly highlighted in an April 2020 in-depth analysis of this most likely bungled case in the Guardian and in 2017, she tellingly commented: “Human beings make mistakes, and no system has more human parts than the criminal justice system. If it can’t identify and rectify its mistakes, it is doomed to repeat them.”

     

  • The Blatancy of Banks

    The Blatancy of Banks

    The National Crime Agency’s investigation into and that Theresa May stopped a previous inquiry into Arron Banks’ activities is proof that he must now be properly questioned

     

    Arron Banks looks like the kind of a man who’d have been a bully at school. He was actually expelled from two schools – once for stealing the lead off a roof – and was incensed that William Hague effectively termed him a “nobody.”

     

    Named after the Scottish island of Arran (though his parents bizarrely got the spelling wrong), Banks is undoubtedly wealthy but that he likely provided money of dubious source to the Leave.EU campaign is definitely worthy of detailed examination.

     

    Married to a Russian he met at a Britney Spears concert and the driver of a ghastly purple Range Rover – complete with the equally pretentious numberplate “X MI5 SPY” – Banks also co-owns the ridiculous website Westmonster with the “remarkably unpleasant child” and “milk bottle white” Michael Heaver. He hangs around mostly with a supposed “diplomat from Brazil” named Andy Wigmore, hands out diamonds like confetti and is a “man of many legends” according to The Daily Mail’s Andrew Pierce.

     

    Now, however, this ‘Bad Boy of Brexit’s’ business affairs may very well be his undoing.

     

    Pictured: Arron Banks with Andy Wigmore.

     

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  • Luigi Tadini

    Luigi Tadini

    Luigi TadiniCo-founder of Brooklyn based creative consultancy The Gathery, Luigi Tadini was listed amongst New York’s “most stylish” by Time Out in 2012. (more…)

  • Wally of the Week: Richard Littlejohn

    Wally of the Week: Richard Littlejohn

    Richard Littlejohn’s attack on the memory of the late Jean-Charles de Menezes is an utter disgrace (more…)

  • Paollo Sagherah: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    Paollo Sagherah: “What’s on your mantelpiece?”

    ‘The Steeple Times’ asks society hair stylist Paollo Sagherah: “What’s on your mantelpiece?” (more…)

  • Barbara Casasola

    Barbara Casasola

    Barbara CasasolaThis Brazilian firecracker and rising star of the fashion world loves spending time at 5 Hertford Street and the National Art Library at the Victoria & Albert Museum. (more…)

  • Picture of the Week: Recycling England

    Picture of the Week: Recycling England

    England’s most disastrous World Cup performance ever

     

    For the last few days, the nation attempted to get enthusiastic about the chances of the England team in the World Cup. Sadly and predictably, this came to nothing. (more…)

  • Plodding communications

    Plodding communications

    Matthew Steeples argues that the detainment of David Miranda again illustrates why a clearer communications strategy is required on the part of the police

     

    David Miranda’s detainment may have been legitimate and he may indeed have been carrying information that could be considered dangerous to Britain. Equally, though, these charges could simply be, as most suspect, trumped up by the Met. The main wrong in this story, however, is the way in which our police and their press departments have handled it. (more…)

  • Madams and margaritas

    Madams and margaritas

    The brass of Chelsea

     

    Though the characters of Chelsea are changing, the murky world beneath its privileged surface will never disappear. (more…)