What’s happening in February!
Becca Crawford
January is almost behind us (WT?!). There are many changes afoot with a huge line up of stuff happening in February. Buckle up, hold onto to (activated) nuts, and here we go (and please do share with family and friends!):
1.
CONSCIOUS CLUB 4TH FEBRUARY
The Conscious Club is held every 6 weeks in Paddington Town Hall. The Conscious Club is now at the forefront of the mainstream consciousness movement. The events are far from a hippy commune, but rather a conglomeration of people from all walks of life who simply desire to enjoy an inspirational social experience that is fun, informative and uplifting in every way. The evening is filled with inspiring talks from some of the world’s thought leaders, wholesome food, uplifting local music, a thought-provoking short film, live art and a 20 minute group meditation. To learn more about what the Conscious Club is click here.
We were beyond honoured to have been asked to be the Conscious Club’s dessert supplier. This means that we will be offering all guests our artisan chocolates for free at all Conscious Club events as well as having a stall where a selection of our wholefood products can be purchased. We will be alternating the desserts each time. For this first event, all I will say is that the offerings will be an ode to a celebration of love, befitting of February.
The first Conscious Club event for 2016 is only a couple of weeks away and I was blown away to learn that Pete Evans will be the guest speaker. BUT it might surprise you to learn (as it did I) that at this event Pete’s not talking food! Instead, in an exclusive talk for Conscious Club, Pete will reveal details of his previously untold spiritual journey. He will share how he lives his life, his loves, his life philosophy and how, when Pete changed his existence to a healthy way of living, an abundance of mental, physical and emotional changes followed.
If you have never been to a Conscious Club event I encourage you to do so! I was hooked from my very first one almost 5 years ago but back then there were just 20 us sitting in a tiny room in Bondi Pavilion. Wind the clock forward to today, and the format and inspiration hasn’t changed. I am delighted to now be a greater part of it and would love for you to also be a part of this momentous experience. Come and join us at this years’ first Conscious Club event on 4th February by clicking here to book tickets and to learn more about the line up. I hope to see you there!!
WHEN: Thursday 4th February, 6pm - 10pm
WHERE: Paddington Town Hall Sydney (249 Oxford St cnr. of Oxford & Oatley Rd)
PRICE: General $55 / Student tickets $45
+ $15 for a Vegan/Gluten Free meal (optional)
RSVP on Facebook and invite your friends
2.
About Life “Get to the Core of Gut Health” talk
I will be a guest speaker at the About Life, Double Bay, community detox event on Friday 5 February 6:30-8pm. Other speakers at this event include Radley Spring from Spring Wholefoods (we offer his gluten-free bread with our meals in our store) and Lee Holmes from Supercharged Foods. I am honoured to be talking alongside these Sydney wholefood pioneers who have been a source of inspiration over the past decade.
About Life run a community detox every year. Customers register for free to participate, are given little gift bags with an invite to the events, shopping lists for their detox shopping and some core ingredients for their detox-ing. There are daily juices and meals prepared in store that customers can have as part of their detox. Last year over 1000 people signed up. This year the program runs from February 1st – February 7th2016 and the theme of this years detox is “Get to the core of Gut health”.
I will be speaking about the role of the gut microbiome and the path to a healthy gut. I hope to see you there!
3.
Raw meats workshop
I took a few months off from running workshops at the end of last year to pour all my energies into opening Broth Bar & Larder (side note: opening up a retail store and commercial kitchen when you are a single mum on the day when kids start school holidays is not something I would recommend to anyone…EVER! Deep breaths and carry on…)…..but now (almost recovered) I am super pumped to restart my cooking workshops for 2016! I didn’t realise how much I missed running them. They are such an integral part of my work and my mission.
I am kicking off the year with a hard-core paleo Raw Meats class- but don’t let the name scare you. Raw meats are so delicious, always a crowd-pleaser and a kids’ favourite. There are only a couple places left with spots booking fast. To avoid disappointment, reserve your spot now by following the steps here.
4.
Our new broth-based soup: Restorative Asian Broth
I crafted the Restorative Asian Broth Bowl as a dine-in option at Broth Bar & Larder on 1 January. I wanted people to enjoy a nourishing bowl of goodness with the light and fragrant flavours of Asia. I wanted people to take their first sip of it and feel that it is doing them good. I wanted to create something restorative.
So I took our signature long slow simmered 100% pastured chicken stock and added in some chicken meat, Asian veggies, ginger, lemon juice, Red Boat (sugar-free) fish sauce, tamari, chilli flakes, home-grown Vietnamese mint and home-grown lemon grass.
As one customer said “This soup kicked my cold in 10 minutes flat”.
It has been by far our most popular soup, especially in this hot weather when light and fragrant Asian flavours go down more easily. We have had tremendous positive feedback on it and requests to also sell it as a pre-packaged soup. So we did! Click here to view it on the website along with our 5 other pre-packaged soups. Dinner just got a whole lot easier.
5.
Glass jars for soups and stocks
In response to customer feedback, we are now selling all of our 4 stocks (beef, chicken, wild fish and veggie broth) as well as our 6 broth-based soups in glass as well as BPA-free plastic containers.
The glass jars cost $2 more as that’s what it costs me buy them and sterilise them. In an ideal world nothing would be plastic but often the practicalities of cost, lightness and convenience take precedence. In terms of our BPA-free recyclable plastic containers, know that we take great care to ensure that liquids are only poured into them when cooled.
6.
Brothsicles
Our broth infused iceblocks “Brothsicles” have been a massive hit over summer.
THESE NO-GUILT ICE BLOCKS ARE INFUSED WITH OUR UNSALTED SIGNATURE ORGANIC BEEF BROTH TO BOOST THEIR NUTRIENT-DENSITY. WHEN FROZEN, BEEF BROTH IS COMPLETELY TASTELESS, SO DON’T EVEN MENTION TO FUSSPOTS THAT WE’VE SNUCK A LITTLE IN FOR EXTRA NOURISHING GOODNESS (SHH!).
Just another way that I have snuck in bone broth into my kids diet over the past 10 years.
These are sold individually for $5 or in bags of 5 for $25 in the following 4 flavours:
> Raw cacao
> Strawberry
> Mango
> Kombucha
7.
A special offer to a free sweat sesh at Bondi Outdoor
If you’re thinking it might be nice to get back into shape after the Christmas blowout, here’s a little inspo for you.
Bondi Outdoor, Sydney’s brand new premier outdoor gym right on Bondi beach, has very generously offered my followers a FREE fitness session. Book in for a session in the next fortnight and it's absolutely free, all thanks to Star Anise Organic Wholefoods Enthusiast, and co-founder of Bondi Outdoor, Olivia Arezzolo.
Visit www.bondioutdoor.com.au/timetable to find your preferred class, time and date, and email olivia@bondioutdoor.com.au with the details - she will take care of the rest! Conditions apply.
8.
My website has had a little facelift…
…but I can assure you it was broth not botox boosted ;-)
Check out the new home page here. I hope you find the website easy as pie to navigate.
9.
BROTH BAR & LARDER
It’s been 6 weeks since we opened the doors to Sydney’s first Broth Bar. Thank you for coming in to check us out, to support us, to buy our artisan wholefood products, to have a nourishing meal, to enjoy a simple cup of broth or a cool smoothie or brothsicle and for indulging us in our inevitable teething issues. Even though I’ve been operating the business from home for 5 years nothing really prepared me for the big move into a retail shop. A million and one issues crop up that you never expect or didn’t even think of and it’s been a case of putting out fires day after day. I feel that we are finally getting on top of issues (but of course no doubt more will crop up!).
I am pleased to say that our aircon system finally arrived. Hooray for that! It’s been stifling hot in the broth bar without air con especially on these hot summer days….Didn’t I mention that you get a free detoxifying sauna experience with every cup of broth ;-) We are making an application to council for outdoor seating to accommodate more people. I apologise to anyone who has had to stand to eat their meals when we couldn’t accommodate more than 4 people at a time on the broth bench. And of course we never expected to be as busy as we have been so our stock levels of product have not been as high as we would like with our products flying off the shelves and I know some of you have been disappointed to not find the product you specifically walked in to buy. We will never be able to guarantee that we will have all of our products in stock 100% of the time because of the nature of what we make and sell: we are dependent on organic farmers and suppliers for organic raw materials which are not always available. Also our products are hand-made which takes time. Our nuts take up to 7 days to activate and our ferments take a week. These are lengthy processes and I will not compromise on quality (e.g. by buying conventional) or processes (e.g. by reducing activation or fermentation time). My team and I are busily working on building up stock levels of all of our products and we are pretty much there!
If we can make your experience of our products and services a more positive one please don’t hesitate to let me know by return email or phone call. I really do take customer feedback very seriously and pride myself on producing 100% premium quality products and services. I have had lots of customer feedback for our pâté to also be sold in smaller glass jars, as the 250g jar is a bit too big for 1 person to get through in a few days. We are onto this and hope to roll this out soon! We are also looking at selling our kombucha in larger bottles upon customer request. Thank you for helping me mould and shape Star Anise Organic Wholefoods into a greater, more versatile brand.
10. VALENTINES DAY '16
I'll be sharing this years special Valentines Day goodies in the upcoming days - keep an eye out! :)