Harvey's Spring Fete

My blogging has been somewhat curtailed recently due to a rather bizarre golf cum chain sawing injury. Apparently I have a case of golfer's elbow which is the scourge of the weekend gardener or ad hoc or infrequent chainsaw users. Hmmm, needless to say I've never swung a golf club in my life, have no garden not even sadly a window box at the moment and as much as I really relish the thought of welding a chainsaw occasionally, that pleasure has yet to be experienced! So how could I have acquired such an odd injury? The jury's out at the moment but if I had been excessively lifting Wol pans or vigorously mashing potatoes that would possibly explain it but I can really think of little that would exacerbate such a condition. Well no matter what, I have been forced to rest my right arm and hoist it in a rather fetching sling and now with my first faltering BlackBerrying with my left hand I can finally catch up on some foodie exploits.
Tonight was Harvey Nichols' spring fête and I figured that this could still be enjoyed with only one functioning arm. The idea was that various purveyors of spring related goodies were set up around the fifth floor food hall so you could visit, taste, ask lots of questions and generally discover a lot more about their wares. I started with the lovely people at Teapigs who showed me their little tea temples and discussed the benefits of blue tea - clearly green tea is very last year! There were some scrummy (just divine for a diva!) pink champagne truffles, curiously feisty sausage and mustard flavour Tyrell's crisps and dried mangoes and pineapples from Southern Alps. A wonderful woman at Secrett's Farm introduced me to wild leek (even more of a kick than wild garlic, which she also had some fine specimens of) and red sorrel and many other bits of intriguing greenery. I'll have to see if if I can get my local deli to stock them as I know they have some of the Secrett's range.

There was also a raffle which I was lucky enough to win not one but two prizes: a signed copy of Silvena Rowe’s Feasts – Food for sharing from Central and Eastern Europe which unbelievably I didn’t already have. Well I don’t own every single cookbook in the world – just quite a few! And if that wasn’t enough, a beautiful bouquet of Jane Packer colourful flowers and trust me they’re a challenge to get home in one piece with only one working arm!

We also received rather packed goodie bags, handy black canvas shopping bags, well who even consider a plastic bag nowadays?, filled with Brewhaha tea, Miller’s gin, V Water Shield – the one with “the Shaolin warrior inside the bottle ready to defend your body temple”, Pipers Biggleswade sweet chilli crisps, Southern Alps trail mix, various chocolates including a chocolate espresso (ug, coffee!) bar and some Harvey Nichols blackcurrant jam. Didn't we do well?

There’s further events planned like Chocolate on 4^th April and Celebration of Summer on 16^th May, another one for my diary I think!