It's all over...for now.

I'm done, and done in really. I had my final day on the stall on Thursday, and now it's all over. It's a strange feeling. As I packed everything up on Thursday night and hoiked it into an awaiting taxi (just before the heavens opened and dumped half the north sea on London) I couldn't really work out how I felt about it all.

I still don't know how I feel really. It felt so good to be back working on a market, and even better when the nice comments about the product really were about my product. But at the same time I was relieved that I no longer had to spend any and every but of spare time making jam or granola, or cakes, or sticking labels on things.

One thing I do know. I'm exhausted. I've spent three weeks not being able to stop. Even when I did manage to find a spare minute that had relaxing potential I discovered something inside me that wouldn't let me calm down. Even N, who is used to my manic-ness got a bit worried about me. As a result the last three weeks have been unbelievably productive, and taken a huge toll. Suddenly this weekend my body gave in, and it doesn't seem to want to relinquish it's new-found power over my will to do things, especially anything involving the oven or stove.

I'm sure I should pay attention and accept that I should be lying in bed or on the sofa groaning softly and recouping. But oh no, there's a new project that must be done...

...I'm making a wedding cake!

Here I go again!

Glutton for punishment that I am, I took on not only one week on Covent Garden Real Food Market, but three! All this in the few weeks when I have a chapter deadline looming. Yes, it seemed like a good idea at the time.Anyway, somehow I am managing - just about - to hold everything together, and so yesterday I lugged my trolley, backpack and huge Farmer's market shoulder bag on the rush hour tube and just about managed to make it to Covent Garden, both on time and intact. I must have been quite a sight dragging my stuff around. A fundamental flaw in my business plan is the fact that I don't drive! Oops!
So by the time I arrived I was already exhausted and I hadn't even set out the stall, let alone stood behind it for eleven hours. This time I remembered to charge my little point-and-shoot camera, and couldn't resist having it tucked in my bag so I could share some pictures with you.

After last weeks mild disaster with the baked stuff not selling I did a lot of thinking and decided that making stuff I thought was a winner in hot weather had actually put me at a disadvantage. It didn't show off my skills at all, as I think lots of people were looking at the stuff and thinking "well I can make cookies and scones" and not bothering.
This week I decided to completely change the approach. I made things I really like making, things I think look great and taste great, and things that if they didn't sell, would frankly be gobbled up once they got home, rather than making the trip into the depths of the freezer. I hope that this stuff would show off my skills a bit more too, and be a bit more impressive. Oh, and it would be cooler, so hopefully people would be hungry.

On top of this approach, I made more of the best sellers from last week (the white chocolate and macadamia nut cookies and the two granola's) and topped up my jam and chutney displays. All in all I might have been exhausted when I arrived, but I was feeling pretty psyched about the day, and aiming to try and sell out.
Of course, things never turn out the way you would hope.

I thought that the comfortable temperatures and spattering of sunshine would bring out droves of people to the market, alas this was not the case, and the day started reeeeeaaaaallllllly slowly. I barely sold anything in the first few hours, and even the supply of wine from my amazing friends on the stall next to me was doing little to lift my spirits. I have to admit that at one point I even got a little teary and pondered why on earth I was doing this whole thing, and what was I thinking trying to start a business when I'm clearly not good enough. These thoughts weren't helped by the lady who tasted one of the jams, pronouced it "alright" and flounced off, or the lady who tasted a different jam and said "oh, it's very sweet and sugary" (it's jam people, fruit preserved in SUGAR?!). So yes, things were not going all that well.However, things did slowly pick up, and although this week my jams and chutneys didn't sell as well (I partly put this down to being sold out of my most popular chutney the previous week), I did almost sell out of all the baked goods, with only a few fruit tarts left over at the end of the day (which were very successfully traded for some very delicious looking food from other people).

This week truly has showed me that Covent Garden is a strange market indeed. My knowledge of markets is based on specialist food markets, and my products bear that in mind. However, Covent Garden isn't usually occupied by foodie stuff, and so the crowd just isn't the same. Well, that's the verdict of myself and several other traders I spoke to.

So yes, perhaps it isn't that my stuff isn't good enough, perhaps it's just not in the right place, perhaps my takings (which haven't been as high as hoped for) are actually pretty good. We shall see. I have one more week, and after some very nice and supportive hugs from N (who came down after work, kept me sane for the last hour helping me sell, packed down with me, and then even dragged the trolley home after a few too many post-work pints) I've decided that I'm going to go all out. I'm going to bake lots and lots of stuff, and make more jams and chutney and hopefully it'll be a bonanza week.

Plus, there is a huge food event going on in Covent Garden next week, someone is making a giant cupcake at lunchtime, so who know, the place might be packed with food loving (jam buying) people!

Fingers crossed I can go out with a bang, and if you fancy a taste of the world's largest cupcake, or some baked stuff from moi, please pop down and say hello.

Gosh

I am so exhausted. I didn't drag my aching body out of bed until past midday and have spent most of the day on the sofa blurry eyed attempting to edit a chapter, or keep my concentration up for longer than a few minutes. I'd forgotten just what hard work it is standing up all day. I don't remember it being quite so tiring when I was at Borough. Then again, when I worked that market I hadn't spent the week beforehand putting in long days baking, preserving, designing business cards, labels and obsessing over stall layouts.

I don't think the heat helped much either!

Who's idea was it to make it the hottest day of the year when I had to stand up for eleven hours trying to sell homemade products to overheated tourists?!

Another bad picture as I didn't want to risk my camera at the market, but you get the idea of what my little stall looked like. I was expecting a double pitch and had planned the amount of stock I had accordingly, so I was a little disappointed to discover I only had one table to squeeze things onto. However, I did the best I could. I think.

The whole thing was such a learning curve, and the heat probably made the day a little unusual, but I feel like I've learnt so much. Overall I was pleased with the experience, but disappointed with the result. I know that must sound strange, but I'll explain. The response from people was wonderful, everyone was really interested in my flavour pairing, and encouraging about me trying to kick-start the From a North London Kitchen empire. Also, I couldn't believe how many people came down to show support, not only my friends (friends I hadn't seen for years who took time out of their precious lunch hours to keep me company, or friends who walked all the way from north london just to visit for half an hour, or friends who took tubes from work just to stop by) but also people from the blogging world, and the UK food bloggers association. It comfirmed what I already knew, that you lot out there are an amazing supportive bunch.

I got to meet the lovely lady of Green Ink (who was wearing the most fabulous green summer dress *want*), and soon after Julia of A Slice of Cherry Pie and Kavey of Kavey Eats bumped into each other in front of the stall. Their smiles and enthusiasm got me through the final hours, and Julia took what I'm sure are some very embarrassing photos, which she's promised to share in the next week or so. Oh dear!

I also caught up with some friends from Borough (who even let me store my leftover stock in their premises until next week, saving me a cab ride that would have left me with virtually no cash after a hard days work), and made some new ones, reminding me of the great camaraderie of the market, something that make the hard days worth it.

But, the actual selling didn't go as well as I'd hoped. The preserves went well, which is great, but the baked stuff just wasn't going. Frankly, I don't blame people as it was so unbelievably hot in the piazza that I didn't touch a bite all day and the last thing I would have wanted would have been baked stuff. However, I had spent almost fourteen hours the day before making as much as possible in fear of running out of stock and not being able to fill the space, and so going home having sold only a sixth of it was somewhat demoralising.

I'm hoping that next week it'll be cooler and people will be in the mood for some tasty goodies (well, I think they're tasty). I did speak to another trader who I know from Borough who said she just couldn't figure Covent Garden out, no week has yielded anything expected. Something that was nice to know.

So yes, there it is. A real mixed bag. I'm glad I'm doing more than one week, because I think if yesterday had been it I might have been ready to quit the whole stupid idea of starting a company. As it happens, I got enough positive feedback about my preserves, and enough people interested in my business cards, that I shall push on, try new things, and do it all over again with excitement and anticipation for the second go.

I'm mad aren't I?!

The reveal (part two)

No time for a good picture this week. Why? Because it's action stations in the North London Kitchen. I can finally reveal the massive project I've been working on, which is possibly the most exciting and terrifying thing ever...

...I'm going to be selling my products at the Covent Garden Real Food Market! Ohmygoodness! Basically, if you live in London, for the next three Thursdays (2nd, 9th and 16th July) you can come down and see little ole me and my jams, chutneys, cakes, cookies and such like, and even buy it! I'll be in the piazza of Covent Garden (near the Royal Opera House end) from 12pm - 8pm each week.

I've been wanting to make NLK into a business for so long now, but didn't know where to start, and was convinced when friends and family said things like "you could sell this you know" that they were just being polite. Well, they probably were, but as of Thursday I'll actually find out. Who knows, it might be the start of my empire, it might lead to nothing. But's it's going to be great fun and a wonderful experience.

It's all part of the UK Food Bloggers Association, and I must thank them and particularly Julia Parsons so much for providing the opportunity.

I'd love to see some of you down there (don't worry, there's won't be any hard sell, just some nervous grinning). Sorry I can't give more exciting recipes and tales from NZ, but right now I have tomorrow's teaching to prepare, a chapter of the Phd to edit and a price list to put together. Eek!