Le Creuset Overstock, Dreamfarm and Sadists
3rd July 2021
Andrew Bluett-Duncan
Director
Dreamfarm is, I think, an unlikely name for a company for us to deal with. For me it invokes thoughts of health spas, or maybe something a little out of whack or even sinister, Orwellian perhaps. For Andi when I asked him it was more Bocketts Farm (A visitor attraction Farm for Children in Dorking Surrey). But no, in reality tis neither. They are in fact an Australian manufacturer of kitchen implements. And if it's a bit unusual to find Australian produced anything in this part of the world, then it's also unusual to find people who are really trying to solve real problems in an imaginative yet simple way.
Well, the folks at Dreamfarm certainly try and as you will see if you continue reading, they've come up with some quite startlingly simple and elegant ideas and designs
Grindenstein
Now this company is not new to the game and they've been around for 18 years and I recall a good number of years ago stocking their first product, brought in by an importer (can't now remember who) and this was the Grindenstein "Knock Box". A wot? Well actually, it was probably the first, or one of the first, containers on the domestic market for safely and cleanly knocking the spent coffee out of your coffee holder on your espresso machine. It's a short cylinder made of stout plastic with a substantial rod placed crosswise, which in turn is covered in rubber so as to absorb sound and the blows, as you easily dispose of the coffee grounds by knocking your coffee holder against it. A simple pleasing design that is small enough to store on the machine when not in use. It'll happily sit on the drip tray under the coffee head on most. Very neat.
Grindenstein Knock Box Black
£19.95
Every Grindenstein comes with an information booklet filled with great ideas on how to recycle the collected coffee grinds as a great natural fertilizer for the garden.
The Scizza
After inventing the Grindenstein, Alex the owner and designer came up with a novel use for scissors. I imagine he was (maybe still is) a pizza lover. And he set about thinking of how to cut it more easily and without any mess. His answer was to adapt a pair of scissors to do the job of, not only cutting the pizza, but also something that helps serve it, without getting your fingers full of pizza topping. He added a sort of plate (he calls it a Spatula Base) to one of the blades and swept the handles up out of the way and sprung them so that they open automatically. And I say this because if you asked Babette how she slices pizza, she'd say that you can do all this with an ordinary pair of scissors (and she often does).
What is clever about Alex's design is that the plate on the bottom blade, the high handles and springing mean it's a genuine one handed operation and that your hands don't touch the pizza. I don't usually allow marketise to enter the hallowed halls of my emails to you, but on this occasion I was surprised by how factual their account was and if this doesn't convince you then maybe the accompanying video will. Here is what they have to say about their Scizza's, as they call them.....
"Scizza is the best thing since sliced bread itself. It's a pizza cutter that perfectly slices any pizza, on any surface and can also be used to serve. Scizza has a clever spatula base that slides under your pizza so the blades don't scratch your non-stick pans or dull on pizza stones (ahem, like a pizza wheel). Scizza's slicing action means your toppings stay in place, and with a gentle squeeze you can use it to serve your pizza too. Scizza makes easy work of thick crusts, deep dish pizza or flat breads. You can take the blades apart to sharpen them and it's even dishwasher safe - woo hoo!"
Dreamfarm Scizza Pizza Scissors
£21.95
Scizza’s clever curved blades slice from above to keep your toppings in place and your hands away from your food.
The Mini Supoon
One of the less attractive sides of this company are the odd / ridiculous names that they give many of their products. For example the next three products are named "Mini Supoon" "Supoon" and "Chopula". They sound like an ad agency from the late 90's trying their best, to make boring products sound more glamourous, by giving them unlikely names. It may have worked back then, these days it doesn't, or at least for me it doesn't, it just grates (pun in there somewhere, but they haven't yet improved on the my favourite the Microplane).
So with apologies for the silly names let's move on.
The Mini Supoon is actually a lovely useful and unique product. It is a generous teaspoon size "spoonula" (sorry but this is now an accepted term to mean a cross between spatula and a spoon) which being made of silicone will scrape every last drop out of a jar of your favourite Nutella, Hellman's, Marmalade or anything else that you care to think of. Anything, in fact, that typically you currently waste a spoonful or two of when finishing the pot. The handle is made from a hard plastic with a very subtle texture to it, for grip, there's hole in the top end for hanging and when you put it down on your counter, it'll leave no evidence behind that it's been there. This is because of the "kink" in the handle that keeps it clear of the surface. Boxed, its bit of a bargain at £5.95 and comes in a host of colours.
Dreamfarm Supoon Mini
£5.95
Silicone spoon is safe to use on non-stick cookware and is heat resistant to 260°C / 500°F.
The Supoon
Its big brother, the "Supoon" is more or less the same thing with two notable differences. It's bigger and the bowl of the spoon has markings for a Teaspoon and a Tablespoon which is a neat, if not unique idea, and like its smaller brother, sits up above the surface when resting (unlike the Norwegian Blue). It retails for £8.95 and comes in lots of colours.
The Chopula
The slightly more aptly named Chopula is a sort of Fish Slice type of product, primarily for frying pan use, which I think it will accomplish well. It has a good, fine edge for getting under your fried eggs or fish or pancakes and when I was discussing it with Paul earlier he said he thought it would be really good when frying off some minced meat, for chopping it up and spreading it.
Blow me down if the video that I then watched showed it being used for exactly this purpose, amongst others. It is also highly flexible and is safe to 250 degrees C. It's £8.95, comes in lots of colours and like the previous two, also leaves no mark behind.
Dreamfarm Chopula
£8.95
Chopula's multi-curved head design allows you to scrape the corners of pans that other spatulas can't reach.
Garject Lite
In everyday language, this is a Garlic Press that ejects the skin afterwards. So a Garject you may use just like a normal garlic press, but firstly it has an unusual feature, namely that you don't need to peel the garlic. Now if you've been reading my emails for any length of time you may know that my all-time favourite garlic press is the Zyliss Susie 3 Garlic Press. No peeling and easy to wash up.
Well this one doesn't require you to peel the garlic either, and like the Suzie3, is a doddle to use and clean and actually goes one better by having an effective scraper that gets every last drop/bit of garlic off the perforated plate that the garlic comes through. And this it does for you automatically, as you open the press, when you are finishing. And lastly, there is then a little lever that you press to eject the skin that's left behind. And this quite literally goes whizzing off into the compost bin...quite surprising the first few times you use it and very satisfactory! (see the video...quite entertaining, or am I just easily pleased?) It is a plastic body, but fear not it has more than enough strength to do the job.
In my opinion, it's a little piece of Kitchen heaven for a mere £15.
Dreamfarm Garject Lite
£15.00
Garject's clever design ensures all of the pressed garlic gets into your meal and never on your fingers.
Jot
This is a sucker (like the one on the end of a toy arrow) with its two little nipples (sorry, but this is the best description I could think of ) that will hold a variety of things. Nipples apart, this may not sound very exciting. But just wait. If you have ever had the need to hang or secure a pen to your fridge, a charging cable to your desk, a toothbrush to the wall, razor ditto, to have a place where you know you will find your keys, then this is the Jot is for you!
Normally a "sucker" will only stick reliably to a really smooth surface like glass or kitchen tiles, so the thoughtful people at Dreamfarm include a clear glossy disc, sticky on one side that you can stick on pretty well any surface and then push the Jot onto that. So wherever you want a Jot, you can have a Jot! Clever and reliable they come in packs of two £3.95 in a variety of colours, or 4 for £7.95 in Black, White or Clear.
Dreamfarm Jot Hooks
£3.95 for 2
£7.95 for 4
Jot is the hang-it-all suction hook with countless uses. It sucks or sticks on to hold, hang, or hook just about anything, anywhere.
There are 5 or 6 more clever products that I'm now going to have to leave for another time. If, like me, you like good Kitchen gadgets that have points of difference that actually help the user get a better result, you may find it interesting to look at our Dreamfarm landing page on the website. It's full of info and short videos that really show what each product does very well.
This weekend I'm offering you 20% off when you buy two or more pieces of any Dreamfarm product.
Use the code DREAM20 on the website or let us know when you are at the till, who you are if coming into Reigate and Cobham.
Le Creuset Overstock Offer
Lastly I have a potential little treat for you. We have an overstock on the Le Creuset 9"(23cm) Square Baking Dish in Stoneware in 3 colours, Cerise (Red), Black and Meringue (Cream).
Suggestions as to what you might cook in these are, Sticky Toffee Pudding, Moussaka, A Le Cresuet recipe for Chocolate and Cherry Sponge, Lemon and Herb Roasted Chicken and of course Lasagne!
This is already a special offer at £29.00 and we are doing them for £19.00 until the stocks go down a bit.
Babette
Babette, I'm pleased to say, is now out of Hospital, having had her lungs drained of excess liquid (yuk) and seems to be recovering quite well. It's good to have her home and a side benefit is that I no longer have to do daily battle with the wretched hospital car park machine, that asks me my car registration number. This it does when I'm inside the hospital and out of sight of the car, which is awkward since I can never remember the number. At this point I remember that I can't remember my number, walk out to car, scrabble around for a pen and paper. On returning to the car park machine I note my heart rate going up again as I prepare for its next challenge. Having then got it to accept the registration number, it goes on to assume that I can see and follow the instructions, which of course I don't because I've never been able to read and follow instructions....just one of those things! Despite the machine's best intentions however, I eventually prevail, hooray... but the machine still has one more trick up its sleeve. Unlike all other carpark machines that give you a ticket to present at a later stage in the ordeal. It just says thank you, you've paid.... Really? Are you seriously expecting me to believe that you'll remember me when I'm driving out, You're going to raise your barrier as if by magic and say cheerio? Unlikely!
But since I don't have much choice I walk back to the car and go to drive out. Mysteriously, as I approach the exit the barrier, it rises and the sign wishes me a good day. It would have been better without you in it I think to myself, but for fear it may also be able to read my mind, I put my foot down before it has a change of heart. Clearly it was designed by a sadist, or someone under the age of 25, or maybe it was a juvenile sadist.
So, on that happier note (Babette back and no more carpark machines for a while, I hope) I'll wish you a very pleasant and peaceful weekend.
Kind regards
Andrew
PS please remember that if you get mysteriously removed from the database at some point in the future and no longer get these emails you just need to resubscribe on the home page of the website HERE.
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Hello Jane, thank you for the message, and yes so are we glad to have her back.
Hello Vicki, I’m delighted that you’re pleased with our service and I hope, whatever the product was that you bought!
Hello Alice, very glad I solved your problem with the peanut butter, and thank you for the tip of taking a photo of the car, wish I’d had you with me early in the week, it took me most pf the week to work that one out!
Kind regards
Andrew
I was trying to scrape the last of my peanut butter out of the jar yesterday, and was saying how annoying it is that I can’t get it out of the shoulders of the jar. You have solved my problem!
In return, I have a tip for you; I can never my car registration either, so I took a picture of the reg plate on my phone. Then I can magic it up when at a carpark that needs it.
Hi Andrew I’m a new online customer this week so this was my first purchase from you. Brilliant super-quick service and delivery!! Parcel arrived in Mansfield less than 24 hours after I ordered. Very good price ( and I had been looking around as it was an expensive purchase) Helpful when I phoned to check you had stock. Thank you very much. Looking forward to receiving the emails 😀😀
So pleased to hear Babette is now back home. Sending all good wishes to you both 💐💐💐