Dunkley's Craft Show Ahoy!

Hoorah for the Dunkley's NZ Craft Show! My stall was a great success at the show and I was pleased with my "budget" set-up with fuzzy felt flowers & calico backdrop. I even stole my husbands favourite orange couch rug for the display! He couldn't figure out what happened to it until he came to my stall. ooops! Here is Aunty's Natural Muesli on display. I had lots of people come & taste my samples and I hope they visit me at the Taranaki Farmers Market soon.

The other stallholders were good fun too and were really helpful when I was setting up.


Here is Ian sellng his preserves. It was his 18th year touring with the Dunkleys Craft Show.



There were so many fabulous stalls. Belgian Truffles, Vintage Vixen Jewellery, the lovely Angie with her jewellry too AND she won Best stall Display with her dazzling Vegas style lights. I also loved the Nana knitting stalls and bought a lovely Merino sleeping bag for my best mate Jane who has no 3 on the way next month. There was also a lady selling "Quake Art". Her studio was battered by the Christchurch Quake and she has created some cool art work from her battered paintings and broken mirrors.



Here is my honey supplier Fiona from Bees R Us. I use her Manuka Blend in my muesli which gives it a rich & sweet flavour.

She also has a Macdamia Bush honey which I am quite a fan of

The show was well advertised, well organised and a big hit. If you are considering having a stall at one of the shows I HIGHLY recommend. Stallholders go to a massive effort to get ready for these shows and sometimes the organisers don't let the public know its out there.

Thanks to the Dunkley family for a great weekend!

Aunty's Does the Dunkley's NZ Craft Show!

Aunty's been a very busy baker making & packing almost 300kg of muesli over the past few weeks. Its really hard work and the packing fiddly but now comes the fun part! I have a stall booked at the Dunkley's NZ Craft Show in New Plymouth this weekend. Its a 4 day event tagging onto Mondays Public Holiday here and held in a big stadium. I think there will be about 80-100 stalls selling everything from handmade cards, knitted booties to Old Busmans Bourbon, leather bags, pottery and of course muesli! Aside from making muesli I need to decorate my stand to attract some customers. I haven't had much time (or money!) to put a display togther but bought 10m of fabric to cover the MDF stall boards, sewed some gingham tablecloths and then will scatter my felt flowers & leaves I whipped up last night. I was going to stuff the flowers too, like the leaves, but my orange thread ran out!



But its worked out for the best as the leaves are quite heavy and might not stay up plus I have twice as many flowers. Funny how disaster turns into a plus like that. Well wish me luck I am really hoping to win a prize or place for Best Dressed stall. I'll post some Show pics next week!

Aunty at the Foxton Fair

After a totally TOP holiday in snowy Queenstown Aunty hit the road with a load of muesli to the annual Easter Sunday Foxton Fair. The weather forecast wasn't singing out summer but I'd booked my lot at the fair sometime ago and you just have to take a punt. Plus the lure of being part of a market AND Fun Fair was too much! After a 3 hour drive in stunning autumn countryside I hit Foxton and found my spot & set my stand up & squeezed in time for a few snaps.

It was an odd mix of stalls from jams & pickles to plants to candy - I was over from some bootleg T-shirts and 3D tiger pics with the famous Foxten De Molen Windmill in the background.


But some super cool crafty stalls too! I am a complete sucker for knitted babies booties. They're so cute & fluffy & teeny & fit babies feet in them. I had to physically stop myself from buying a pair reminding myself that Oscar would not wear them. Unless there were some with cars on them which there weren't!



And what makes a fun fair?? Spinning clown heads! I have no idea what this Fun Fair Game is called but the whole concept looks so easy and the colourful clown heads just lure the kids in.

I had such a great day. The muesli stand did well and the rain held off until I was an hour from home so thanks Foxton for an awesome Easter Sunday Fun Fair!

Chocberry Granola

At long last a new muesli variety! Chocberry Granola has been a long time in the making and I am really pleased with this one. Its a super crunchy muesli with NZ rolled oats, sunflower seeds, linseed & Manuka honey as the base with toasted almonds, sultanas, dates, coconut chips, dried cranberries and DARK CHOC CHIPS! All topped off with a new label design too.

I have so many ideas for different mueslis and would love to roll out a few more but the process is not that easy. Firstly I have to experiment with recipes and flavours & textures while still keeping the muesli healthy. Its really easy to boost flavours with oil & sugar but then I wouldn't be creating a healthy natural muesli! Each time I make a different recipe I have to run the ingredients through a Nutrition Calculator to see if I am happy with the calorie, fat, protein, carb & sugars content. Then more recipe adjusting. I have to be totally happy with this process before rolling it out as once I have my labels made up thats it - I have to stick with that recipe to ensure the nutrition levels are right for each batch. So each bag of muesli is a complete labour of love (-:

I highly recommend the Chocberry Granola sprinkled on top of Boysenberry Ice cream with some fresh berries thrown in. Yummo!

Xmas Macadamia Muesli Gifts

Jingle Bells Jingle Bells! I have become very festive since I made these Xmas gifts for the market stall . A nice healthy gift for someones Nana or friends peraps. I thought the cranberries looked really Xmassy mixed in with the macadamias & loved recycling some old Xmas cards that Ive been hanging onto.

Are you tempted to buy a jar??

Muesli Bars

Its taken many muesli disasters to perfect this sugar-free, low fat muesli bar recipe. And make them nice & chewy too. AND I'm not quite ready to divulge the secret recipe - but you can buy them at my stall at the Taranaki farmers Market each week (-;

Bircher Muesli

A lot of people ask me what the difference is between Bircher Muesli and regular muesli. So here is my understanding of it all!

Muesli was introduced around 1900 by the Swiss physician Maximilian Bircher-Benner for patients in his Swiss hospital, where a diet rich in fresh fruit and vegetables was an essential part of therapy. The original Bircher muesli recipe was soaked in cream overnight but this recipe is a more healthy version.

Aunty's Bircher Muesli

Serves 4

2 cups Aunty's Deluxe Macadamia Muesli or Classic Fruit
2 cups natural yoghurt
Juice of half a small lemon
1/2 cup grated apple
1/2 cup coarse chopped strawberries or berries in season


- Mix ingredients, divide into 4 bowls and refrigerate overnight.

Garnish the four bowls with;
- 1 peeled sliced organic kiwifruit
- 1 tablespoon Manuka honey

Serve immediately.

Here's a delicious recipe using Aunty's Deluxe Macadamia Muesli which has juicy cranberries and sultanas in it as well as local spray free macadamias.

Aunty's Berry Nice Crumble

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

4 green apples - peeled, cored and chopped
1 tablespoon caster sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon water
1/2 cup Aunty's Natural Deluxe Macadamia Muesli
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup plain flour or gluten free flour
75g/2.6oz butter - softened and chopped
200g/7oz mixed fresh or frozen berries (blackberries and raspberries are best)
Extra 1 tablespoon caster sugar

Method

- Preheat oven to 200°C/392°F
- Place apples, caster sugar, lemon juice and water in a medium saucepan.
- Stir to combine. Cover and cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally until apples are soft, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
- Meanwhile, combine Macadamia Muesli, brown sugar and plain flour in a medium bowl. Add butter, using your fingertips rub butter into dry ingredients. Mix until well combined.
- Combine cooled apple mixture, berries and extra caster sugar together, then spoon into a medium baking dish (approx. 30cm x 15cm x 5cm deep).
- Sprinkle crumble mix evenly over fruit. Place baking dish onto a baking tray and bake for 30 minutes or until crumble is golden.
- Serve warm or chilled with yoghurt or ice cream. YUMMO!

Aunty's Baked Goodies

So I have started out with 3 muesli varieties - Classic Fruit (Lightly toasted oats with honey, dates, apricots, sultanas, almonds), Toasted Tropical (golden roasted oats with honey, nana chips, papaya, sultanas, dates, coconut) and Deluxe Macadamia (lightly toasted oats, honey, macadamias, cranberries, sultanas, dates). They are all delicious but it seems the big hit is the Deluxe Macadamia. I sold out of my 1kg bags on Sunday!


The baked goods went down a treat too and I ran out of the Muesli topped Sticky Date & Apricot muffins in half an hour. The mini Carrot Loaves were a hit too.



But no great love for the Orange & Poppy Seed muffins. Poor poppy muffins. So alone.

Aunty's AuGo-Go!!

At long last, after 3 months of research, baking, packing and sweating in the Galleon kitchen, Aunty's Natural Muesli launched at the Taranaki Farmers Market on Sunday June 6th.

Thank you to all who braved the torrential rain to be my first customers.