puddings for a cure

PUDDINGS FOR A CURE

The Alport Foundation of Australia is proud to be supported by PUDDING LANE.

A MESSAGE FROM PUDDING LANE.

Having recently exhibited our pudding at the international Food Exhibition, London, and Fine Food Australia, the food industry “buzz” words were Food Miles and Carbon Foot-Prints! In Australia we talk about “paddock to plate” (I like to think “paddock to pudding”). But the meaning is the same, no matter where in the world you are, our customer want to know what we at Pudding Lane are proactively doing to take responsibility for our impact on our natural Environment.

I always tell people that we are accidental environmental enthusiasts – that’s the truth ! But it does all come back to our unique handmade method and a strict provenance of our ingredients. The traditional method that we use to make the pudding has remained unchanged for more than 100 years, and we like it that way!

We have based our reputation for quality on the “boiled-in-the-cloth” method:

• The finest 100% Australian vine fruits & ingredients sourced as locally as possible
• Fresh bread crumbs (from a local bakery that we hand crumb) add the “we-mix” of butter,
• Fresh local Free Range eggs, hand cracked and our egg shells are then collected for organic waste recycling.
• Matured Australian Brandy
• All wet and dry ingredients mixed by hand

The pudding mixture is hand-weighed into lined cotton cloths. The cloths are actually “squares” of natural calico and are reused over and over to make many hundreds of puddings. If the calico square develops a small hole, then we cut it down in size to make another smaller pudding cloth and so the process continues. The pudding are hand-tied with twine, then boiled in gas fired “Coppers”, which have a lesser carbon footprint than electricity. In January 2009 we installed the latest gas efficient technology.

The pudding are then individually hung, again by hand, on a line to air dry, age and mature naturally. When the puddings have been hung and dried we then take them off the line, hand cut them out of the boiling cloth, and dress them in plain cotton fabric ready to sell. Even the short piece of twine that we tie around the pudding cloth for cooking is now carefully sorted and allocated for recycling collection.

Then we carefully package the puddings in cartons made locally from 100% recycled Australian waste material. We also recycle or re-use 100% of all cardboard, paper, plastic & packaging (flour & sugar bags, fruit boxes & egg cartons) created in making our puddings.

With our traditional method of making pudding, we DO NOT use any automated processes, NO production lines, and No electric steam ovens. Our water is solar heated, and grey water is captured for staff facilities and our gardens. Even our kitchen lighting is the latest energy efficient technology.

We DO NOT use plastic basins, plastic bowls or moulds to shape the puddings, each and every pudding is unique, only the supreme moist taste is the same! Many people who know our method or have visit our pudding kitchen are amazed at the level of detail, at the hand-made method, the hard work, how we can create such little waste.

From July 2011, we have been able to further reduce our waste by 97% per annum, resulting in us recycling or reusing 99.6% of all our waste per year. Think of it like this, it equates to an average suburban household putting out for collection only 2 standard bins per YEAR!!

Today, we are less accidental in our commitment to the environment. We maintain a practical commitment to local community involvement in our business and we continue to ensure that our ingredients are; fresh and local, that our handmade method is maintained by strict HACCP certification controls and that we just make traditional Christmas pudding in the old-fashioned and environmentally responsible way.

We just hand-make puddings, so please enjoy!!