SHWI gets potty

Following the success of the Great Pottery Throw Down and, for those older members, the memory of Patrick Swayze and Demi Moore in Ghost, it was with much trepidation that a group of our ladies met at The Art House in Sheffield on Sunday morning. 

Situated in the centre of town and next door to the first home of SHWI at St Matts on Carver Street, The Art House is a beautiful contemporary space where various craft classes are offered, as well as exhibition space and The Art House cafe. It also participates in the Pending Coffee scheme, providing free hot drinks for the homeless/vulnerable in Sheffield.

We all gathered in the cafe, bemoaning the early (10am) start on a Sunday, but bubbling with excitement and enthusiasm for the 2 hours ahead. We are greeted by Sarah who was to lead our session with a demonstration assisted by the lovely Claire. We moved upstairs to the airy, bright studio where we were given the obligatory health and safety talk; hair tied back, jewellery removed and a reminder that pottery is messy so it was recommended to roll our sleeves up and enjoy!

Following Sarah's informative and easy demonstration, we were all let loose to gather the required equipment - bag a wheel, a stool and get potting! What followed was great fun, very dirty with clay water spraying all over the place, a bit rude as we coaxed our clay into a variety of phallic shapes before pressing down to make the openings to our bowls; disasters aplenty as the wheels were spun too quickly, hands were not in the right place and the clay did not behave; our saviours Sarah and Claire were on hand to avert genuine disasters.

Each of our ladies succeeded in making 2 items for firing in the kiln; the majority of us making bowls or small trinket plates, Sam made what can only be described as a beehive and Alice made a chalice - unintentional rhyming there! Liz, having found her groove at the wheel, managed to squeeze in a 3rd item which was a genuine accident that she tried to pull back from the brink of disaster, she was left with a beautiful item with folded in pieces of clay which will look amazing once fired with her colour choice. 

We moved all our makes onto ceramic tiles, chose the colours for firing and have to leave our makes for 2 weeks for the next step to be completed. I think it involves baking the makes and dipping them in glaze, I'm not sure if there is anything else that contributes to the magic of colouring them in! Sam kindly offered to pick up the box of makes after 2 weeks and bring them to the next meeting, so watch out for ladies toting around amazing homemade pieces at the next meeting, I am personally looking forward to seeing Alice drinking from her vessel.

Much thanks must go to Carolyne for organising. A number of us are considering going back for more time behind the wheel - it is surprisingly therapeutic to get so dirty! Thanks also to Sarah and Claire for your patience and advice, it was a great start to a Sunday and absolutely recommend to all those other members who said that they wanted to try it out. You never know we might have a SHWI dinner service by the end of the year!

Rachel White
Committee Member

Christmas meeting and cocktails

December is always a special time for us SHWI-ers. Secret Santa and our Christmas quiz always gets us in the festive mood. However, this meeting was to be our last at Electric Works and we wanted to celebrate. 

Our last meeting at Electric Works - December 2015

Electric Works has been great for us. It’s allowed us to expand to 135 members. We’ve been able to accommodate disabled members and guests easily. We’ve had a ceilidh, cheerleading, crafting, parties and a market. But it’s time for us to move on, but not before one last go on the helter skelter!

Our main entertainment for the evening was Ed, Cocktail-Maker-in-Chief at The Broadfield and all-round spirits connoisseur. He showed us how to make three cocktails, the history behind it and we all got to taste. Hiccup!

Ed shows us how it's done

I also put together my annual Christmas quiz which this time was a picture round of clips from Christmas films. Congrats to the winners!

Winners of the quiz

Secret Santa is always popular with our gang. Members who want to take part bring a wrapped gift worth £5 and get to take away one themselves. I saved mine until Christmas Day and was thankful for some special festive beers. Thanks Santa!

Our Secret Santa presents

We also invited Jo and Theresa from the Young Women’s Housing Project to have a photo with the big cheque totalling all our fundraising from 2014. They gave us an update on where they money we raised has gone and how this has benefitted the women and children they support. We’ll be inviting our charity of 2015, SAYiT to do this same early in 2016. 

Jen and Kirsty hand over the cheque

I was very emotional to see the big pile of food we collected this month for local food banks. Members really dug deep into their pockets (and cupboards!) and brought Christmas puddings, mince pies, stuffing and gravy to make sure the vulnerable people in our community had a great holiday too. This month, I took the donations to St Thomas’ Church in Crookes and they were very grateful so thanks to everyone who helped. 

Our donations to the food bank

Here’s to a successful and happy Seven Hills WI in 2016 at our new home!

Kirsty Bowen
President

Shelley Richmond talks about Rain Rescue and how photos can save furry lives.

November is always an exciting month, as it's our group Annual Meeting….. Which means we get to sing Jerusalem. Our youngest attendee Polly also joined us in song which was wonderful, a future member indeed! 

Kirsty took us through her first presidential address. Laura took us through the highlights of our year which were many. It's so great to look back over the last 12 months and see what we've achieved in our Centenary Year with both a new President and Secretary. Vicky took us through our financial statement and we have a healthy bank balance once again meaning that we can continue to offer the very popular Denmark bursaries. 

After a quick break we were onto our speaker. We were joined by Shelley Richmond, although not to craft with felt as per the programme, but instead to talk about her work with Rain Rescue. 

Rain Rescue are a Registered Charity founded in 2002. They are dedicated to supporting the local community by ensuring the provision of a reputable rescue centre to help pets in true crisis. Rain Rescue has saved the lives of thousands of dogs and cats from crisis situations in and around Yorkshire. Primarily savings dogs due to be put to sleep in the stray kennels and cats abandoned on the street who have no one else to care for them. Shelley showed us some images which were upsetting to some (I may have been squeezing Zoe and Anna's hands a bit tight… sorry about that!) and a few moist eyes dotted the room. 

Shelley’s passion and love for dogs was clear as she told us about a few cases, Colin in particular stuck in my mind. He was in a bad way when Rain Rescue picked him up, with awful injuries inflicted by heartless people. Rain Rescue has nursed him back to full health and Colin is also one of the stars featured in the Rain Rescue calendar which Shelley has taken photographs for. 

Photo by Shelley Richmond

The meeting ended on a high note hearing the recovery stories and seeing the ‘after’ photos. We also got to know about Shelley’s mission to change how people feel about the Staffy breed and their owners through a series of beautiful photos. Thank you to Shelley for her visit and to her and Rain Rescue for all they do for vulnerable animals. 

Sarah Willoughby
Committee member

Our new home

We're very happy to say that from Janaury 2016 our meetings will be held at Saint Andrew's United Reformed Church.

We found out only a week ago that we needed to leave Electric Works after December's meeting and after a frantic few dozen emails to local venues, we found Saint Andrew's.

The church itself is warm and welcoming, and we will have access to a fully functional kitchen for our tea and coffee making facilties. There is disabled access and baby change facilities. And our President will no longer have to lug all our meeting bits and bobs backwards and forewards every month - the church has storage space! Hurrah!

Overall we think we've found a great space and a new home for our WI.

President's blog: Thoughts on 2015

It’s been another fantastic year for Seven Hills WI. We’re still at maximum capacity for members and we’ve had a brilliant programme to keep us entertained. Personal highlights for me include Cheerleading and Dr Nate Adams. 

Cheerleading in 2015

Fundraising has become such a huge part of our group and I’m happy to say we’ve continued to raise massive amounts of money for our charity of the year, Sayit. Our total this year is £1055.69 so well done to everyone who baked for Sheffield Food Festival or came along to our Centenary event. Next year I would like to organise an extra fundraising event or challenge for our charity so if anyone has any ideas, please let me know. 

Sheffield Food Festival 2015

One of my personal goals as President is to make members feel welcome and more included in the group. It can be hard when we have such a large group and when I’m personally very busy trying to get things ready at the start and end of meetings. I think we have got better at making members feel more included. We’ve had more and more newbies get involved, join spin-off groups and even feel like they want to join the committee after one year. I’d like to thank Lucy and Kat for organising a record number of meals out for SHWI Eats. Events like these really help people get to know each other and I think we’ve had much more than the usual faces come to events other than meetings. There is more to do and I hope we can build on this next year. 

Spin-off SHWI eats event at Bhaji Shop

On to the committee. We’ve had a few people stand down this year so I’d like to thank them for their hard work. Caryl Carson, Chella Quint, Leanne Sunter and Carly Sunter - thank you for everything you have done for SHWI and I hope you to see you at meetings in the future.

Our committee for 2016 is:

President - Kirsty Bowen

Secretary - Laura Bainbridge

Treasurer - Vicky Porteous-Medley

Vice President & Programme Co-ordinator - Jennifer Marsden

Assistant Secretary - Grace Tebbutt

Assistant Treasurer - Bex Lissaman

Meeting Attendance Secretary - Jodie Winters

Newsletter Editor - Sam Foster

Programme Co-ordinator - Rachel White

Meeting Co-ordinator - Liz Needes

SHWI Ambassadors - Anna Pilson, Alice Bullas, Sarah Willougby, Karin Safwenberg-Barnes, Chelle Cook

Next year we have a fantastic programme of events - more details to be announced soon!

Finally I’d like to say it’s been an honour to be President in the Centenary year. I’ve been lucky enough to have some fantastic opportunities and represent you in this year including appearing on the Great British Menu. 

BBC/Optomen Television Ltd/Andrew Hayes-Watkin

I will be stepping down at our AM in 2016 and I hope then, I will be able to look back at another successful year where the WI has enriched our lives and helped people where we can. 

The WI has been a force for good and for change for 100 years. I’d like to finish with a saying inspired by our WI friend, Joanne Croxford’s own motto - "Deeds not Words":

‘Fine words butter no parsnips’

I hope to our WI can continue to make positive change for our lives and our wider community in 2016. 

Kirsty Bowen
President

SHWI Getaway III: This Time it's Personal

So once again I have returned from the SHWI Getaway. I am writing my account of the weekend from my sofa, curtains closed on the beautiful sunny day outside, swaddled in my classy brown  dressing gown and jogging bottoms, RuPaul’s Drag Race soothingly providing the background noise, a Square crisp sandwich and a can of Diet Coke on the table in front of me. Basically, this year, rather than trying to recreate the atmosphere of the weekend through words, I am stubbornly refusing to believe that I am not in Currer Laithe and am actually attempting to physically re-enact farm life. I think I’m doing pretty well. I have the comfy clothes, hangover beverage, ‘nutritious’ food sources and a load of beautiful cross-dressers in my eye-line (more of which to come)...

Photo by Seven Hills WI

As usual, Friday night was pot luck buffet night. As usual, there was too much food. And as usual it was fitness personified. I hope you don’t think I’m being a bit blasé in skimping on my description of a SHWI pot luck supper, because as we know, there ain’t no buffet like a SHWI-made buffet (slogan copyright A. Pilson, SHWI Getaway 2 blog post, 2014). However, if I start raving about every dish, I’ll never stop! Suffice to say, we had enough left over for Carolyne and Tebble’s Patented Packed Lunches the next day. So what of the evening’s entertainment? Well, as usual, ice-breaker games took place, as usual they were, er, revelatory and as usual, I will decline to divulge any further information and move swiftly on…

The gang at the Bronte Parsonage

 A rainy Saturday saw us heading back to Haworth and revisiting the Bronte Parsonage for a talk and walk. Despite having visited the Parsonage on our first Getaway, we heard a completely original talk on the Bronte family, thanks to the fantastically knowledgeable and enthusiastic staff member who led our activities. We enjoyed listening to tales of the lives and personalities of each of the Bronte family, as well as discussing our perceptions of the picture sources in the presentation and I personally was chuffed to drool over the Lord Byron pics. He kind of reminds me of a cross between Mr Darcy, Henry Cavill and Michael Fassbender...sigh. Anyway, I digress. By the time we had finished our talk, the drizzle had done one and we were able to enjoy a guided walking tour of the village, taking in some of the Brontes’ favourite haunts. These included the spot where Charlotte used to secretly rendez-vous with her future husband Arthur Bell Nicholls, who was initially perceived as undesirably too low-class a match for Charlotte. A little like Charlotte’s most famous heroine, Jane Eyre, and Mr Rochester but in reverse, if you will.

Photo by Ellie Last

 Whilst I would love to continue with my literary musings further, alas I must revert to detailing the weekend. Although, I’d just like to point out that if we accept that Kirsty is SHWI’s own amalgamation of Michael Winner and Jay Rayner due to her take-no-prisoners judging role on the Great British Menu (and swarthy good looks, of course), then through that critique I must SURELY qualify as our own Mark Kermode? What with my retro (i.e. dated) hairdo and dead good knowledge of films and that. DISCLAIMER: I was going to compare myself to one of the world’s premiere literary critics, but, erm, I couldn’t think of one, so I turned to my trusty pal Google. That came up with the name Salvatore Quasimodo and I just couldn’t see ANY similarities between me and that namesake AT ALL. AND NEITHER CAN ANY OF YOU, ALRIGHT? AND YES, I’M AWARE THAT JANE EYRE IS A BOOK BUT THERE HAVE BEEN ABOUT 20 MILLION FILM VERSIONS OF THE VARIOUS BRONTE WORKS, SO I CAN GET AWAY WITH LINKING IT TO CINEMA, OK? Phew, glad we got that straight.

Now where were we? Ah yes, Saturday night… Our fancy dress theme for this year was men. Yeah, you read it correctly, men. I mean, given that this year has been all about celebrating the wonders of sisterhood through the WI centenary, it seemed only right that we acknowledged that men have done some decent stuff too - through the respectful medium of drag, naturally. And who’d have thought given the delicate femininity that exudes from the pores of every SHWI member (moi especially), that we’d make such HOT blokes? We had historical hunks (Thor), geektastic guys (Einstein), movie men (Rambo, Garth Algar and Frank N Furter), literary lads (the Bard himself), AND (tenuous phonics alert) tuneful chaps (The King, Freddie Mercury, Conchita Wurst, Adam Ant), televisual todger-owners - GROAN, jeez Pilson – (including the Hoff, Father Ted Crilly, Marcus Wareing, Michael O’Hare, 118 man, Richard O’Brien) and, OF COURSE, no evening would be complete without a sexy drag mermaid.
 

Photo by Ellie Last

Saturday night proved to be a potentially life-changing experience for me. Firstly I immediately began to question my sexuality when I saw Grace’s ruff (snigger). Honestly, who knew Shakespeare was so damn shexy? (Imagine this said in Sean Connery voice and then the spelling makes sense, honest guv). But it must be stated, I was certainly not the only one to find my hormones pulsing in a most unexpected manner. In fact, it turned out that I, as Marcus Wareing, was responsible for most of the, er, ‘confusion’ felt by some of the ladies. Look, I’ll be blunt – it turns out I am one damn fine specimen of manhood. Who’d have thought during all these years of waging a constant battle against my body hair, that if I’d just let it grow to its hirsute heart’s content I’d have been a STUD? All I can say is I’ve never felt more like myself than when wearing chef whites, having a face-full of stubble and bellowing in my best angry Cockney accent. Sigh…

Grace and Sam the sheep dog - Photo by Ellie Last

 Once again, I’m afraid I cannot reveal any more of the night’s shenanigans, so I shall move onto Sunday (but I’ve got to just say: Holly, Tebble, Corinne - Marcus enjoyed your moves). The order of the day was a lazy morning for some, a trip to Saltaire for others and some serious veg prep for the rest. This toil resulted in a once-again EPIC Sunday roast, with particular props going to the team for the care taken to cater for us veggies, many thanks. This year quite a few people had to depart on
the Sunday evening, leaving a small group of us to enjoy a quiet evening of reflection. By which of course I mean we caned the Singstar for approximately 5 hours. We discovered that most people had fairly decent pipes on them, that Zoe is now probably addicted to karaoke and that pretty much any song can be improved if performed in an angry Cockney or jaunty German accent…

So Monday arrived and due to clock-change confusion, we ended up leaving mega-early. But it’s probably for the best given that every year it gets harder to leave. For serious, man. So once again HUGE thanks to Kirsty and Grace for their organisation skills and thanks to all the ladies (and gents) for their fantastic company. I feel massively privileged to have been lucky enough to attend all 3 Getaways so far and feel that I should probably be magnanimous enough in 2016 to stand back and let others attend. HAAAAAAAA! AS IF! Roll on Getaway 4! Because, to be honest, the fact that I have to be female to attend the SHWI Getaway is pretty much the only thing stopping me hotfooting it to Tijuana to get the op to turn into Marcus full time…

Photo by Laura Bainbridge

By Anna Pilson
Committee Member

Happy 6th birthday!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SEVEN HILLS WI!

Wow what a great night! As a relative new comer to SHWI I wasn't sure what to expect from a birthday party for a WI. Would there be party hats and cake, pass the parcel or singing birthday songs to each other?

Birthday cake!

Well, there was definitely cake amongst the vast array of yummy food everyone brought for the pot luck. I spotted a few fancy hats too, including a fascinator made from tights, very WI I must say.

After the usual business, we all formed a very orderly polite queue for the food - then could be seen shovelling in Guinness brownies, stilton bread, onion tartlets and sticky toffee things to name but a few. As we quietly stuffed our faces, we were ushered into a semi-circle ready for the next portion of the night.

Just some of our party food

This was in the form of Dotty Winters, a fabulous women with a penchant for telling fibs and poking fun at herself and others. In her defence, she did admit to the fibs after she'd lured us in so convincingly with her comedy act so I think we can forgive her. To be honest, I think we can forgive anyone who can pull off wearing a cape to do their weekly Tesco shop. This, I hasten to add, was not a fib as she brought it with her to prove it while giving us a warm and funny insight into her life as a female comedian. It was both refreshing and sometimes a little gritty to hear of her experiences as a women in a male dominated world, which is surprising to say in 2015. But her lust for the centre of attention and passion for making others giggle soon had us rolling in the aisles.

Jodie, Chella, Dotty and Jen

All too quickly the night came to an end with huge rounds of applause and leftover food snaffled up, we all went on our ways after a great night, looking forward to what the next 12 months will bring.

Jodie Winters
SHWI Member

The Cheese Factor

As summer drew to a close, there was one thing on the mind of all us SHWI foodies - cheese tasting!

On Thursday 17th September, SHWI was delighted to be joined by Simon Davidson from The Cheese Factor. Simon gave a wonderful insight in to how his father, Roy, established a successful cheese shop serving the good people of Chesterfield and North Derbyshire for over 50 years.

He told us tales of Roy's adventures in the Merchant Navy, to settling down in Chesterfield to try his hand at poultry farming, to becoming a door to door vacuum sales man before finally finding his passion for fine cheese.

Starting out by serving the cattle market, The Cheese factor soon became a staple for locals and eventually moved into the main Chesterfield market. Tales of Roy's profiteering techniques were reminiscent of Arkwright from Open All Hours, asking the bakery to deliver later in the morning to cash in on the warm fresh smelling bread! Whilst initially Simon wasn't keen on joining the family business, he eventually took over from his father who sadly died in 2011.

Simon then went on to tell us about the triumphant story of how a small consortium of locals saved Hartington's history of cheese production after a large corporate put profits over quality and closed the only remaining creamery in 2009. This small consortium battled for funding and investment but finally opened Hartington Creamery in 2012.

This is when Simon captured our full attention as it is from this very creamery that our fine cheese samples were produced. He handed around samples of both blue and white Stilton whilst explaining how it is produced, as well as giving us all a perfect pub quiz fact that Stilton can only be produced in 3 places in the world, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. If it's produced anywhere else it just ain't Stilton! Our small and tasty samples were delicious, particularly the white Stilton! But in the words of Wallace, Simon left us craving "more cheese Gromit!".

The Cheese Factor now has branched into the wholesale market, so good news for us as there are plenty of places in Sheffield to get our cheese fix.

Louise Worn

SHWI Member

SHWI meets the Coupon Kid

Our guest speaker at our August meeting was 'The Coupon Kid' Jordon Cox.

Jordon tries out his new selfie stick!

Jordon features regularly in national newspapers and on TV for his amazing low cost or free shops by using coupons and in store offers.

Everyone listened intently to the presentation showing all the tricks for combining coupons and offers to get great savings, we even had a few shocked gasps from the group at some of the amazing shops Jordon had done for a couple of pounds.

One of Jordon's biggest savings was for a shop for charity. He was able to shop for enough food to supply several families in need with a hamper for little cost due to using coupons and with the support of a friendly supermarket manager who helped by reserving a till for the numerous transactions required to get the best deals.

Coupons can be found in a number of places:
1. Supermarket free magazine
2. On packaging, look out for stickers, hang tags and coupons inside packaging.
3. Internet sites, for the companies and some manufacturers.
4. Market research companies (such as Orchard at Tesco and BzzAgent).
5. Where they are doing promotions in supermarket car parks etc.
6. Newspapers and Magazines (if you use public transport pick up the Metro - it is free and sometimes has coupons in it).

Coupons are out there, you can find them by just devoting a few minutes to it each day and save a lot of money.

The other ways to save are cashback apps, the main ones are Shopitize, Checkout Smart and Top Cashback. You buy the items, take a photo of your receipt and upload it. Once you have collected so much you can withdraw it by PayPal or BACS to your bank. If an item appears on more than one app at the same time you can still claim on each of them and also claim if you have already used a coupon in store which means sometimes things may be free or you might even be paid to take them out of the shop.

Overage is where a coupon is for more than the current price of the item in the shop the extra will be used against the rest of your shop.

Jordon stressed things are only a bargain if you need them, so don't use a coupon just for the sake of it and be patient until a good offer is there. He did confess to buying a lot of women's hair removal product which is just sat in his stockpile, but in his defence he was getting 20p overage per pack so was effectively getting paid to take it away so it was OK in those circumstances.

Couponing can save you pounds but if you can get a non-perishable for free or a very small amount but it isn't something you use, consider if a charity or food bank can use it and donate it.

Jordon has put all the website details on our Facebook page. If you like to try new products, sign up for The Orchard at Tesco and Bzzagent, You fill in a few questionnaires and if you are selected, you get products through the post to try and coupons for friends and family to try them, Orchard usually send vouchers to spend in Tesco and you get some choice about what you have out of the range they are promoting. For both all you have to do in return is post on Facebook and write short reviews and a questionnaire after the campaign.

I know we all learned a lot from the talk and some members were very surprised about how much you can save from couponing.

Liz Needes
Committee member

SHWI Love Food, Hate Waste

SHWI member and blogger, Ros Arksey has written about the recent Love Food Hate Waste course organised for our members for her food blog, Nibbly Pig. She's kindly allowed us to post it below.... 

 Love Food, Hate Waste

I love food and always try to plan my meals and make the most of leftovers, whether that is putting them in the freezer or turning them into lunches for work. As you can imagine, I was very enthusiastic about attending this Love Food, Hate Waste workshop hosted for our Seven Hills WI group.

Peter Hellawell from WRAP delivered the session at the Showroom and explained how we can all learn to waste less food, save money and pick up useful tips along the way.

Here’s a bit of background for you…

‘Love Food, Hate Waste was launched in 2007 and raises awareness of the need to reduce food waste and helps us all take action to tackle it. It shows that by doing some easy practical everyday things in the home we can all waste less food, which will ultimately benefit our purses and the environment too.’ Love Food, Hate Waste website

Sheffield is part of their 10 cities campaign which means there are lots of awareness-raising activities going on, like this workshop, to get the message out there to help reduce waste. Sheffield was chosen due to its high population and the fact that we have higher than average waste levels.

We started the session in an interactive style with Peter asking us to raise our hands if we love food. Lots of hands went up. Then he asked, ‘who hates waste?’ Again all hands were raised. So we quickly established that we were a crowd with an appetite to learn.

Peter set the scene with some hard-hitting facts about food waste.

·          UK Households waste around £12.5 billion worth of food and drink each year

·          On average 4.2 million tonnes of the food that is wasted is avoidable

·          Food waste costs the average household £470 per year

·          The most commonly wasted products are fresh vegetables, salad, fruit and bakery items.

The conversation and activities were then focused on recognising what we do now, could we do anything better and what tips could be helpful for the future.  

Planning and being organised seemed to be at the heart of reducing waste. For example, plan your meals, think about portions, utilise leftovers and keep a check on use by dates.

For example, if you are tempted for a buy one, get one free, then consider if you will use the products or would you be better sharing it with a friend or family. Think about what you already have in your cupboards, do you need to buy more food? Try out practical tips to make food last longer, like adding a damp piece of kitchen roll to an open bag of salad, this will give it a couple more days freshness. If you have broccoli that has wilted, put it into a glass of water or bowl and this will help it crisp up.

Know your dates. Use-by dates are about food safety and generally when you must use the item. Best-before, is when it is the most suitable time to eat it and is all about quality.

Sell-by or display until are shop led and is an internal guide for shop staff, as consumers we don’t need to take notice of these dates.

Consider storage to get the most from food. Eggs like a constant temperature, they don’t have to be in the fridge but this is the best place for most fruit to make it last longer. Don’t put your bread in there though, this will make it go stale quicker – keep it in a bread bin if you have one. Alternatively, just get slices out of the freezer the night before you need them, which is what I do.

**5 degrees is the optimum fridge temperature.

Love your freezer. We learnt that you can freeze eggs if they are separated, remember to make a note of how many whites you have added together, as when it comes to defrosting you might struggle to work this out. You can freeze soft cheeses like brie and yoghurts; if you stick ice lolly sticks into the yoghurt tubs this will give you frozen yoghurts for the kids or you. Remember to label what you are freezing, we are all probably guilty of having some mystery frozen ‘surprise’ that we get out to defrost. A sharpie pen was suggested as something to invest in to label up items. You can even get technical and make a spreadsheet to track what you have in and how long it has been there.

**Freezers operate best ¾ full.

These are a selection of the facts and key tips that we went through on the night. There are lots of useful resources on the Love Food, Hate Food website, go check it out.

http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

It certainly got me thinking about what else I could do and when I got home, two peppers, half an onion, a lime and some ginger were all chopped or sliced and put in the freezer, as I knew I would not use them while they were at their best. I now have a piece of paper on my fridge with the meals I am cooking for the week and a reminder of what needs using up from the freezer.

Thanks to Peter for an informative session. I’d encourage you all to see how you can do your bit to make a difference to the planet and your pocket.

President's blog: Being a guest judge on the Great British Menu

It was the day after our former President Lindsay stepped down that I got the call from a researcher about possibly appearing on the Great British Menu. Talk about starting with a bang!

In case you haven't seen the show before, chefs from different regions around the country compete to have one of their dishes at a special banquet. The theme for this year's banquet was the WI's Centenary and the producers of the show were looking for different members to appear as guest judges. Seven Hills WI would represent the so-called 'New Wave' WI - more recently established groups, mostly in cities that tend to have younger members and participate in with less traditional activities. They were looking for a President from a particularly foodie group and we fitted the bill.

To say I was nervous about taking part would be an understatement. To be honest, I had no desire to be on television. But I knew that I couldn't turn down the chance to take part. The role of President requires you to represent the group at a national level and our group deserves to be recognised for the hard work we put into Sheffield Food Festival and our love of all things culinary. Plus Anna P, fan of the show and committee member would actually kill me if I didn't part (a vegetarian herself, she told me that if I got to take anyone to the banquet, she would forego her dislike of meat and try everything).

My role would be to judge the two finalists of the North East region heats. Three chefs from the region had been cooking all week and the top two went through to Friday. On Friday, the judges eat all the dishes and the winner is the one who scores the best. The winner then goes through to finals week.

So after a conversation over the phone with a researcher asking me some questions, a couple of days later said researcher was meeting me in person at my workplace and interviewing me on a camera. Later the next week, I got an email to say they'd love me on the show if I could make the filming dates. I tried to put it all out of my mind until after Christmas. I was told to keep it a secret too - which wasn't too hard as I was so scared about it!

The filming took place on January 30th. I got the train to St Pancras the night before where I was met by a very smart eastern european driver in a suit with an earpiece, leather gloves and a black Mercedes. It was like being in a spy film. He took me to a very nice hotel in Marylebone where I spent the night in a MASSIVE king size bed. Oh the hardship! I had to be really careful not to fill up to much on the breakfast buffet - but it was really not to tuck into all the pastries, fruit, breads, cereals etc. There was even an egg station! At 8am, I had another driver whisk me to the studios in Kentish Town.

I was greeted by the production team who were totally lovely and looked after me all day. They tried to put me at ease and explain the day's filming. The chefs who we were judging were Michelin starred Tim Allen and Leeds-based Michael O'Hare. There was real anticipation in the air about the food and the team told us we were in for a real treat.

After hair and make-up by the brilliant Heather, I was taken to the judging chamber. The chefs were already busy in the kitchen and they would take it in terms to plate up their food in order of starter, fish course, main course and dessert. I was introduced to the judges - Oliver Peyton, Prue Leith and Matthew Fort. All three were really nice and asked me lots about questions about my WI. They had a great sense of humour and a real interest in the food and the chefs.

I ate some fabulous food - highlights included Tim's delicious starter (I can still taste that ham and egg), Michael's fish (like nothing else I'd ever seen) and beautiful main course, and Tim's gorgeous pudding.

Tim's pudding

It's not all glam and gorgeous food though. It was a really long day. You have to wait for each course to be served and there's a lot of shots to set up and repeat. These shots don't take up a lot of screen time but they are essential to show the food presented correctly. It's also important not to scoff the food down quickly. I had to take my time as we'd be talking about the food for a long time and because only certain snippets would be aired, we needed to keep food on the plate as long as possible.

Michael's fish course

After lunch, I was taken into the kitchen to meet the chefs and talk to them on camera. I had to tell them a little bit about myself and how the judging was going - without giving much away! I could tell they were both quite nervous about the result so it was hard to tease them. But they were both such nice guys who clearly enjoyed being in each other's company and the friendly competition between them.

Michael's main course

When it came to announcing the decision, it was quite nerve-racking. We were asked to score them after every dish and then the points were added up. I was given a few lines to say on camera after the result had been announced based on my thoughts and criticism during the judging. The chefs were brought into the room facing the judges desk and we had to stare at each other for what felt like years as the camera set up the shots. Finally, Matthew was able to announce that Michael had won. He had only one chance to get this right or the surprised reactions would be lost. Luckily, this went ok and I then said my line.

Michael's dessert

After filming, I said goodbye to the judges and was whisked away in a car to the station and back to Sheffield. But just before this happened, the Producer asked me "Would you like to come back for finals week?". To be continued!