You may have noticed in the Hartman collection this year we have not one but three fire pit tables, these tables are fantastic for keeping warm when the sun goes down but they are also great for cooking on.  As my culinary skills only extend to egg on toast I thought it was best to find a chef who could do more than rustle up a pot noodle!

Enter Lancashire lad Dave Mooney, co owner and Chef Patron of The Lord Binning. http://www.lordbinning.co.uk/

 Dave was taught from an early age the importance of food. He began his career in Cheshire when he was a teenager combining study, with work in top restaurants in Normandy, France. Here, the seeds of his organic growth into the restaurant business were sown as Dave was sourcing everything from local, French markets and preparing and cooking alongside the chef patron. His skills even extended to growing and preparing organic fruits and vegetables. Returning to the UK aged 19, Dave blossomed under the demanding and expert eye of Raymond Blanc at Le Manoir Au Quat Saisons in Oxfordshire, then the erratic, but brilliant Marco Pierre White at Harveys Restaurant in Wandsworth, London.

Here, Dave learnt about teamwork, taste and temperaments. As part of Raymond Blanc’s team of 24 he progressed from Commis Chef to Demi Chef de Partie and was in an eight strong team with Marco Pierre White as Commis Chef learning more about taste & food. David and Marco remain good friends to this date and he recently popped into The Binning for lunch.

Dave is also a serial media star, Dave cooks AND amuses! As the original ‘hairy biker’ Dave travelled on his motorbike searching for the best produce in the North West for North West regional TV ‘Food Hunter’. Dave was particularly pleased to be involved with the BBC2 series ‘Hairy Bikers Food Tour of Britain’ and appeared in the Sept 09 programme representing Cheshire. More recently Dave appeared on the Hairy Bikers Christmas Special for 2011 and also filmed ‘Perfect’ for Sky TV, a show about perfect pub food! Previously he also clocked up over 200 appearances as the ‘Granada Tonight’ resident Chef for two years with a live slot twice a week & many pre recorded inserts and live outside broadcasts. He has also worked on live magazine formats for Granada Satellite and UKTV Food and the Shopping Channel, demonstrating & selling various cookware lines. From BBC Manchester he has completed live & pre-recorded segments for the Morning magazine programme, to include viewer advice on budgeting & food on BBC Radio Five Live.

David continues to entertain at most of the major food and drink festivals around the north west and indeed further afield. All this builds on his enthusiasm for good food, his entertaining, approachable style and his desire for everyone to enjoy and share his passion in life. The challenge of live cooking demonstrations is never far away from demos at schools and colleges to the food shows including the BBC Good Food Show and Manchester Food & Drink Festival, amongst others. David Mooney was chosen to perform 10 days of cooking demonstrations for the GMWDA in the name of Love Food Hate Waste, December 2010.

Over the coming months Dave will be coming up with some seasonal recipes especially for Hartman which you can either cook on a Hartman Fire Pit table or just enjoy eating al fresco. 

Rumour has it we get about a bit! And this week is no exception. 

THE IDEAL HOME SHOW

The Ideal Home show runs from March 16^th – April 1^st at Earls Court London and our Rocco Milan Bistro Set can be seen adorning the Alan Titchmarsh Garden which David Domoney has interpreted especially for the show.

http://www.idealhomeshow.co.uk/the-santiago/

Another set can be seen gracing the Capel Manor Garden. 

David Domoney, Hartman’s gardening expert and Channel 5’s resident gardener has joined forces with The Prince’s Foundation for a second year to officially launch the 2012 ‘Ideal Young Gardeners of the Year’ competition. 

Six UK colleges will go head to head to create inspirational and sustainable show gardens which will all be exhibited in the forecourt of Earls Court during the 104^th Ideal Home Show.  Last year’s debut gardens, each designed by emerging young talent in the industry were visited by HRH The Prince of Wales at Earls Court and Capel Manor College in Middlesex claimed 1^st Place. 

This year Capel Manor’s Garden entitled ‘Dancing with Daffodils’, will feature a Hartman Chartwell Bistro set placed amongst engraved slate, dry stone walling with alpine planting, raised beds edged with woven willow and a solar powered pump amongst a mixed bog planting scheme.  http://bit.ly/zAbPnL

What are you waiting for? Book your tickets now!

www.idealhomeshow.co.uk

Lofa is the governing body that most, if not all outdoor leisure and furniture suppliers belong to and Hartman have been a member for many years. www.lofa.co.uk

Lofa have launched a new environmental initiative called “Made Aware”. In its simplest terms it means that Lofa are trying to trace the story of each product its members sell.  So from furniture through to barbecues it is looking at the environmental impact of the production and delivery of each product from the raw material sourcing, pollution control, worker welfare, carbon footprint, product longevity and end of life disposal. 

An independent panel of experts monitor the stories and our very own “Made Aware” guru John Hughes has been working really hard on pulling all Hartman information together and so far, our wooden acacia products have all received “Made Aware” status. John is now striving to obtain the Made Aware status for the rest of the Hartman product range.

To push the campaign forward Lofa have come up with the beautiful idea of a “Wishing Tree”, these trees will be located in lots of garden centres up and down the country where we would urge anyone and everyone to place an environmental wish on to the tree. These wishes will then be collected and passed on to the people or organisations who can make these wishes come true. 

Hartman and the Lofa members are totally committed to spreading the “Made Aware” word, we would love for you to join us and there are loads of ways to get involved, so log on to http://www.madeaware.org.uk for more information, make an virtual environmental wish  http://www.madeaware.org.uk/the-virtual-wishing-tree.php or follow the campaign on twitter @madeawarebylofa or facebook ‘madeawarebylofa’

Together we can make everyone in the UK made aware

This year Hartman have teamed up with David Domoney, Channel 5’s resident gardener to get you out into the garden planting, growing and of course sitting on your Hartman garden furniture!

David loves everything about gardening and gardens.  His love of plants and gardens began at an early age when he first sold plants at a local church fair and from these humble beginnings he ventured out into the community and spent a lot of his spare time helping the pensioners in the local community cutting their lawns and weeding the flower beds.  Listening and talking to these garden enthusiasts he gained an immense amount of knowledge and a huge passion for gardening.

So it was no surprise to anyone that his choice of career would be in the horticultural world, he took an apprenticeship with a large plant nursery, and not content with just practical knowledge he also studied the academic side and spent time at three of the UK’s horticultural colleges where he incidentally met and formed a friendship with Hartman Sales Director, Paul Facey. 

Having spent time with David you cannot help but be enthused by his energy and love of the garden.  His knowledge and experience are vast and it’s one of the reasons we asked him to join us here at Hartman offering his gardening knowledge to all our website followers.  He will be filming seasonal gardening tips throughout the year which you will be able to view in the coming months on our website www.hartmanuk.com and if that wasn’t enough he has also got more than a little creative and designed a range of furniture for 2013 inspired by, yes you’ve guessed it, his love of plants. 

If you want to know more about David you can log on to his website www.daviddomoney.com

An awards evening of any kind is a big night, but for Hartman it was a great big night! We got to award the Hartman Prize to third year Product Design students at Birmingham University’s BIAD Exhibition. 

Phil Daniels (our FD) came up with the idea of joining forces with Birmingham University sometime in January 2011, we all thought it was a brilliant idea so we got in touch with the university and luckily they also thought it was a brilliant idea and a fantastic opportunity for the students. 

Our aim was for students to design a set or a piece of garden furniture which Hartman could include in their 2013 product range.

 After many meetings and a visit from all 29 students they produced designs from which we then had to select a winner and a runner up. 

 This proved extremely difficult as the standard of the work and the presentation was absolutely fantastic. However, whittle them down we did, which is why we were suited and booted on the evening of Tuesday 6^th December to present a cheque for £1000 to the winner and £500 to the runner up.

 The First prize went to Chris Wall for his pod design it was a design that leaped off the page at us, it was multi functional, fun, comfortable, contemporary and above all unique.

The runners up prize went to Li Ling Yao for her rocking chair, which was futuristic in design and comfortable.

 As well as the two winners we also selected another three designs, which we feel fit really well into the Hartman collection and those were designs by Amit Fox, Meera Joshi and Justine Woolley.

 A great night was had by all and we are looking forward to working with the university again in the future.