What’s Up?

What do a blog, a candle and a recipe have in common?

They all need love, passion, courage, patience, discipline and perseverance! And the willingness to learn something new every day.

The Blog First

When I started with Late Bloomers nearly five years ago – this was my first post in English: Quince Lemon Chutney – I literally had no clue!

Blogging? No problem, I can do it! And yes, in both English and German from day one on. I have kept a journal for years, easypeasy, turn that into posts. An absolute no go as I had to learn the hard way, it is a long way …

Enters the Candle

Those of you who have known me for years are familiar with my soy wax candle making business and how I started it in 2009, step by step learning how to create a perfect fragrance candle and sourcing the ingredients needed: organic soy wax, cotton wicks, jars, fragrance oils and sheer essential oils.

Over the years I expanded my small candle business into a wellness collection of candles, diffusers, soaps, small bottles of essential oils and fragrance oils, bespoke perfumes and accessories.

Late Bloomers Collection 2015

 

In September 2012 Late Bloomers was ready for a new look and my friend Kittie Walker of Avidmode in London created and realised it. We added a web shop to the blog (in English only).

Fast forward to early spring 2015: imagine my surprise (and frustration) when a friend told me that she had wanted to order something from the web shop but the link was broken! Oh no! Remember what I said at the beginning: you need perseverance and patience?

Time to speak to Kittie about a new website, this time fully functional in English and German including the web shop. She suggested using X WP Theme and WooCommerce for the web shop. Lovely, I fell in love with X File right away. The rest was a test in endurance, a willingness to learn a ton of new stuff and patience on Kittie’s side (thank you so much, Kittie, and I trust you will share your side of the story here!). What looked like a project of a few weeks turned into a full cycle of gestation!

But we are getting there and the new website will be up quite shortly. Want a sneak preview?

 

 

Preview of Late Bloomers new website

 

What do you think? I love the sleek and minimalist look!

Enters the Recipe

I have always loved cooking, learning by watching my mother and grandmothers, and I am very blessed by them leaving me their handwritten recipes. I keep adapting them to our times, reducing them in size and leaving off the sometimes too heavy or sugary ingredients and adding more spices and herbs.

When a friend brought me a basket full of kumquats, I immediately thought of a chutney recipe for it, I concocted a new recipe throwing in lots of ginger for tartness and this extra zing and some cranberries to add some sugar.

What I was not aware of when tackling the task was the tedious work of slicing and taking out the pips of the miniature kumquats! It took me six hours … a labour of love and endurance! But the result is worth every second of it!

 

 

Kumquats

 

Late Bloomers Kumquats Ginger Chutney

Yield: 6 jars à 200 g

Ingredients
1.5 kg kumquats
70 g cranberries (dried fruit here)
100 g shallots, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
40 g ginger, finely diced
3 fresh chilli, without seeds and finely diced
2 TS oil (canola here)
1 TS coriander grounded
1 TS cumin grounded
2 TS mustard seed
2 star anis
2 dl aceto balsamico bianco
10 TS sugar
1 cinnamon stick (10 – 15 cm)
salt + pepper

 

Method
Wash fruit, quarter them and take the pips out

Roughly puree half of the fruit in mixer

Heat oil in a skillet and gently roast shallots, garlic and ginger, ca. 5 minutes

Dry roast spices

Gently simmer all ingredients in a non-reactive pot for about 15 minutes

Season with salt + pepper

Fill in hot jars and sterilize in steamer

 

Tips
Serve with curries, raclette (I am Swiss after all!), boiled meat or BBQ

Keep opened jars in fridge