A Holiday and 25% Off Fresh & Save

It's early Wednesday morning and we're away on holiday for a few days, in Center Parcs (there's something peculiar about the spelling considering it’s a French company, don’t you think?*), the sun is shining in a cloudless sky, the birds are singing, the ducks are quacking, the moorhens busy hoovering the carpet, the pigeons are cooing and the squirrels are silent but busy, and all's well and at peace with world.

Well all would be at peace, were it not for the RAF, who stationed nearby, delight in making repeated low level attacks on an imaginary target somewhere in the middle of the parc every day. But when the RAF have "gone in for tea", peace returns to the forest once again and all I see out of our French windows is a wooded scene, dappled with bright sunlight, and a slightly overgrown pond, on which the ducks are swimming and the deer grazing round it's edge. An idyll, in fact, that you might not expect to find in a square mile site occupied by roughly 4000 people!

* They’ve spelt "Parcs" the French way and "Center" the American way and to point out the obvious,  WE ARE IN BRITAIN! Babette could be heard to say, on occasion, when I got on my high horse about English spelling of say "Centre” “Colour" or “Theatre” or the correct pronunciation of words such as "Scheduled" or “Lieutenant”, that she found me a pedant and rather boring (she was an observant woman at times!), and that I needed to realise that language was a living thing that evolved. 

The real irony here is that I’m one of the world’s worst spellers….

So to this weeks product and a 25% saving on Zwilling’s “Fresh and Save”

As I’m short of time this week I’m going to re-use the email I sent earlier in the year about this rather clever and very easy to use food saving system. My chums at Zwilling have come up with a strong offer to which we’ve added a little bit extra, for this weekend, meaning you save 25% when using code FRESH25. This offer includes all the range except the sets which are already discounted.

If it has ever occurred to you to buy a vacuum food saving system, but you’ve always found a reason to not do so, you will almost certainly find this one different and very easy / accessible to use. You might also feel it is a good time to dip your toe into this green, waste free way of using our resources well, and whilst saving a bit of money in the process!

Here’s what I said back in January

Now here’s a product that I just love. It is based on the principle of removing all the air to stop the contents going off from a:

1. a Food container

2. a Bag

3. a Lunch box

4. or a Wine bottle

Something it does with remarkable ease. And that, for me, is its number one USP, because if it’s not easy to use, then it’s tempting to stop using it, once the novelty has passed. Coupled with the ability, via its own App, for you to scan any box or bag onto your phone, then name it and date it and you have a very powerful, very easy to use food saving system at your fingertips.

Pump:

Let me go though some of the range to explain a little more. The heart of the system is the Vacuum Pump. This is electric (rechargeable battery) stands in its own base (which also charges it) and it plugs into a normal USB socket. The pump is placed over the valve of a Box, Bag or Wine Stopper, press the button, stand back and let it do its stuff. In a trice it's created a vacuum that has removed the air (and the bugs). When this is achieved it switches itself off automatically. It's easy to use, requires just placing on the box or bottle, no fuss(with the bags you have to hold it there). And seems amazingly powerful.

Zwilling claim it makes foods last up to 5 times longer. This I haven’t measured, but it clearly has a dramatic impact on life span.

Boxes and Bags:

The Food Saver boxes come in several types. There are two materials, glass and plastic.

Glass has the advantage of being able to put the contents in the oven (without the lid!) and the microwave, and is completely see through. The plastic ones are microwave proof (and obviously not oven proof) and are lighter. These two types come in 6 sizes from quite wee through to a medium lasagne size of dish. Theres also a lunch box with a moveable divider in it.

Then there are the Food Saver Bags which come in three sizes and naturally also have a valve built into each one.

One note of caution here. If vacuuming a bag for say Sous Vide cooking that is likely to have a significant amount of liquid in it, then you do need to be careful to not get the liquid into the Vacuum Pump.
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Unique QR Code read by your phone:

Now one of the clever things about these bags and boxes, is that every bag and every box has a unique QR code. And when I say unique I mean exactly that. You can buy two of the same size box and each will have a different QR code printed on the lid, that is unique to that box, and this is significant. The Zwilling App, that you can download from the App Store (in my case for an iPhone), you can scan the QR code and then record on your phone what is in the box, when you put it there and it will even suggest a “best by” date based on the type of food, a list of which is also provided within the App. Over time you then build up separate menus of what you have in the Fridge, the Freezer and in your Cupboards. So, no need to label anything in the depths of your freezer any more (or find that the label’s fallen off) because now all you do now when food hunting, is take your phone to it and scan the boxes and bags and the phone will tell what it's hiding! This is living again. So simple. So clever!

Wine Bottle Sealer:

This idea, as I’m sure you’re aware, is not new, but like the bags and boxes, it is just incredibly easy to use and you won’t be surprised to hear that, in our household, this was the first application that this system was used for. Out goes my ancient but very reliable Le Creuset Wine Pump, in comes the Zwilling Fresh and Save stopper and electric pump. Would I justify spending about £75 on a pump and a stopper…? Well in the past perhaps not but these days my perspective on life has changed somewhat and if it’s a luxury that I’ll use a lot over time and I’ll really enjoy in use, then maybe it doesn’t seem so extravagant!

Whatever the rights or wrongs are, the fact that IT'S JUST SO EASY to use.

Back to me now:

Ok so that's me done for this week. It's back to reality in the next day or two as we’ve still got to clear stuff out of Banstead shop. And I neglected to say in last week's email, that if you are a Banstead customer, then last Saturday was the last day of trading. So, by way of an apology, if you are a Banstead customer and have cause to need something from us over the next 4 weeks, if you pop down to Reigate or Cobham instead, we’ll offer to pay your parking and give you a £5 voucher as a sweetener and to say sorry.

I hope you have a pleasant and peaceful weekend.

Kind regards

Andrew

Andrew Bluett-Duncan
Director