On your bike & mind the local sheep !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, You can't have helped notice that "Le Tour Yorkshire", the Yorkshire leg of the Tour De France has been in the news recently as the 100 days countdown has started

As you will see from the map, the Tour hits Ilkley on the Saturday 5th July and goes straight past our showroom front window on the main A65 trunk road.

Le Tour is the biggest major event to hit Ilkley in " I don't know how long". Certainly nothing this big in my living memory and I'll lived around here all my life.

Ilkley is one of the Tour 'hubs' so everything you could want to see will be going on in and around town, that's going to make it murder to move around by car for the whole weekend but then one of the purposes is to promote people moving around by bike or on foot as it's better for you anyway!!


As we're slap bang on the main road, we will be open all day on the Saturday and are welcoming our valued existing customers to join us in the showroom for the perfect vantage point. We will have unlimited free tea and coffee on all day, toilet facilities, and a place to shelter & sit down if the weather's inclement and you want to rest your weary legs.

We are also proposing to have small commemorative "Recycled Roadstone Plaques" to celebrate the event available for sale both before and on the day for a reasonable cost. Numbers of these will be limited so fans of the plaques, this is a one off opportunity, so don't miss out !!

(More details of size, format and cost of  these in the near future)

If you want to book a 'Roadstone Plaque' before the event, do let me know and we can make sure you get one. In fact, if you want to take advantage of our viewing point, it would be good if you let me know anyway as we only have so much space and if we can limit the numbers then we'll all have enough space to enjoy the day without getting squashed. Unlike our local sheep !!


You can contact me through our website or on: julian@milestone.uk.net to book your place at, probably, the only venue on the day where it costs you nowt to be here and not be crushed in the crowds !!

Supporting Le Tour and helping our valued customers enjoy it .... What a Public Service from those extremely nice people at Milestone Design !!

Your interests at heart ..... Jules 

"Which" Pan

Ey up my faithful blogworms, my apologies for leaving you with nothing to read last week but eco duty called down in sunny Essex so I didn't get chance to spout forth words of wisdom last week. Hopefully this weeks will make up for it

I bring you further news from a cast of thousands, can you see what I did there ??

Following on from last weeks dipping into all things iron, I felt I should elaborate a bit more on our fabulous deal with these brilliant products.

Every one who takes advantage of our "Try before you Buy " scheme will be asked to fill in their own personal test report .... don't worry ... it's not "War & Peace", just a few simple questions with even simpler answers about how you feel the pans perform with your style of cooking. Your version of a "Which" report , if you like. By the way .... the Tagine ( pictured left ) is brilliant and very effecient.... we know, cos we've tried it !

Just simply for filling this in and returning it, we will offer you a 10% discount of your first purchase ( 3 item limit ) as a thank for your honest opinions and feedback. This will be a big help in further developments of new and existing products

If you get your first pans as a freebie with your new kitchen purchase from us then we'll still give you a chance to fill in the report with the same 10% discount off further ironware purchases.

There's so much more in the range than just pans, you know, it's worth checking out the full range either by coming in to see us or looking on Nethertons website:   http://www.netherton-foundry.co.uk

Just a short one this week, hope you all don't mind, testing has started already so we thought it important to let you about it and how we can work together to help new developments

" Th ... Th ... Th .. That's all folks !!  ( It's a cartoon thing ! if you're old enought to remember ? )

Jules

'Pan Handling' Done the Milestone way !

 Ey up my faithful Blogworms, this week is all about traditionally made, eco friendly, British produced, outstanding cookware

In this day and age where the words 'modern' and 'progress' nearly always refer to something electronic & technical, it's nice to see products coming onto the market where neither of those words apply.

Those who know me, know that my favourite phrase is 'Roman Engineering' keep it simple, solid, good quality, reliable and with very little to go wrong. The Romans achieved this phenomenally well with few tools and a great creative way of thinking.

This really does apply to this fantastic range of pans and cookware we've taken on to complement our eco kitchen ranges.


How can a pan be "Eco Friendly" I hear you ask..... well, these pans are from wonderful people at Netherton Foundries in Shropshire, the birthplace of our industrial revolution and heartland of our iron foundry work. They are manufactured using traditional techniques, (think Roman Engineering !) all the materials are sourced locally even down to the locally grown Flax oil used to season the pans and the Oak used for the handles. There are no toxic nasties included in the process of iron work itself and manufactured using more environmentally controlled plant and equipment.


Netherton themselves quote the following as a company ethos:


 Reduce the wasteful shipping of materials around the globe.

 Develop local supply partners and use sustainable materials.

 Use finishes and materials that can be restored and even improve with age.

 Be easily repaired with simple tools.  We will ensure spare parts are available.

 Be packed in readily recyclable packaging, which ensures the product arrives fit  for use.

We've talked at length to the enthusiastic and creative people at Netherton and we are going to be dealing with their product range through our showroom as we feel their products and ours will gel together beautifully.

But, you all know me by now .... there's a twist !!

We are going to pioneer a "Try before you Buy " system. These are damn good, well made, quality items of cookware but we know that different people cook in different ways so we're going to let you:

 Take a pan away for a few days,

Cook in it, 

See how you like, 

Clean it and bring it back, ( emphasis on the'clean it' )

Before you decide whether to purchase. Which we're pretty confident you will, if you're serious about your pans !!

So, Come on down !!, .... leave  us a deposit, take your pan away and have a go ! ... You've nothing to lose by trying something that just might change the way you cook forever !!  Bring the pan back for the next cooks to have a go and get your deposit back.

Oops ! nearly forgot, ..... there's a second twist ?  Every Eco Kitchen purchased from us between now and the end of July, will receive 2 of these remarkable pans totally free of charge with our compliments. Choose any 2 from a selection of 7 pans.

Pan Handling done the Milestone way is a much better way !!

Always looking for ways to improve our lives.

Jules

Having a smashing time !

Ey up my faithful blogworms, Having a smashing time this week, wish you were here !

Have you ever wished you could take out your frustrations with life by deliberately smashing hundreds of glass bottles ?

Well that's exactly what's involved with the fabulous worktop products I want to show you this week.

100% recycled glass worktops & splashbacks

If you're of an eco persausion ( as I trust all my blogworms are ! ) you may have seen many recycled glass products out there but the examples shown here are probably the only true contenders.

The wonderful people who run this business quite literally get hundreds, if not thousands, of waste glass bottles and smash them all to bits themselves. Give me a hammer !!

The particles are then all graded for size, in a machine of their own invention, from 5mm upto 20mm sizes. This enables different looks and textures to be created. Plain coloured panels and panels with a mix of colours can then be produced.

The next step is the really clever bit and the bit that makes these products stand out above all others. The particles are poured into moulds and placed in a kiln to fuse everything together. Unlike most other recycled glass worktops etc, these have nothing added to the mix .... it's pure glass !!. 

Many other companies add resins which is environmentally nasty and quite frankly .... cheating ! but not these.

There is some very complicated technical witchcraft takes place in the kilns through a complex series of timed temperature climbs and falls which take the glass through chemical changes to get the end result. I don't pretend to understand most if it but they clearly do !

What you end up with is a fantastically solid glass material which is a durable as granite and doesn't suffer from the scratches that lets most other glass products down. With it being glass it can also be used to fabulous effect by lighting behind it as shown by the splashback opposite ... Wow factor of what ??

It's perfect for worktops, splashbacks, tiles, etc and even, as you can see in the pic, many small custom items of furniture. The wonderful people who make this are also just as open minded as we are to looking at creating anything you may have in mind. All you need do is ask and they'll have a go !

As you know, from previous blogs, we have been dealing with another environmentally 'switched on' company .... H & M Retail Stores by supplying all their in-store staff kitchens, well.. ... we've just got the order for their kitchen and drinks stations in their head office in London and they have chosen this very recycled glass in pure white for the worktops in their main kitchen, we're really looking forward to doing it and seeing, what will be, the stunning results

Contact us for more details and samples, we know you'll be impressed with what you see.

Onward & upward. Jules