It’s Spring and already our southern hemisphere minds and hearts turn towards Advent and Christmas. But in our parish, closer than both of these Christian seasons is another significant event: the Amberley A & P (Agricultural and Pastoral ) Show – on Saturday 31st October. This occasion is almost part of the church calendar for us—not really! Continue reading
Tag Archives: Christmas cakes
Sunshine in a jar
Only one week to go before Amberley A & P Show on Saturday 1st November (Amberley Domain, Douglas Road). If you haven’t been to this small, friendly springtime country Show, now is the time to make a change.
Preparations in this parish have been ongoing for weeks as many people bake Christmas cakes and make chutneys, preserves and lemon curd for our ‘From the Church Gate’ stall at the Show. (I hope we will also have some of your delicious old-fashioned lemon cordial again, Patricia?)
This weekend beautiful lemons, free-range eggs, butter and sugar were turned into delicious lemon curd. Who can resist this golden delight, like sunshine in a jar?
On Friday, 31st October, volunteers will be needed at the parish hall to help wrap and present all the goodies, and co-ordinator Sue Atkinson would like to hear from you if you can help look after the stall at the Show on the day. Her phone number is in the parish directory.
Please keep making Christmas cakes — we need more.
Time to get stirring?
No, it’s not yet Stir Up Sunday (but that must be soon?), when we include a Christmas-cake mixing liturgy in our Sunday worship. That’s always fun, although not so much the part where we cream the butter and sugar! But this is a reminder to those who are offering a cake—or cakes—for sale at our ‘From the Church Gate’ Christmas stall at the Amberley A & P Show: the Show will be on Saturday 1st November, so it may be wise to start making them soon. Get in touch with our parish administrator or vestry members if you need help sourcing ingredients or subsidising the costs.
Last Spring, we took it in turns to look after the church stall for the day. Not only did we sell all but one of the cakes, but people enjoyed their time on ‘duty’ and had great conversations and laughs with locals and visitors alike. It felt really good just to be ‘our there’ and visible. Many older people living alone bought one of the smaller cakes—perfect for enjoying a slice with visitors over the festive season. And busy working families bought our largest cakes; they just don’t have time to spend hours in the kitchen, but they still want the homemade taste.
Jams, marmalades and cordials also sold very well last year, and will be gratefully received again.
‘From the church gate’
amberleyanglican 