Forum Thermomix
Welcoming Center, Management and General Chat => Chit Chat => Topic started by: lorywhol on February 25, 2011, 10:11:26 pm
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Ok, I must be crazy. I have been talked into running a stall at the school fete - Sensational Sorbets.
We have access to 4-5 Thermomixes. We think we will only do 2 flavours - (one citrus, one berry).
We are going to serve in plastic glasses (200ml) with plastic tea spoons - I know it isn't environmentally friendly but I am worried about consistency if we go for icecream cones.
We are thinking of using food grade bags of ice, pre-prepared ground sugar (ready to go in a container) and then pre-chopped fruit.
We have 3-4 ladies on roster during the day 10am -4pm.
Any hints, ideas, have I missed something?
What flavours do you think we should do?
We are thinking of charging $2.50 a serve.
Most importantly, what do we need to do to ensure we don't break our TMXs??
Thanks
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This is timely ;D I am considering something similar for our school.
Are you planning on using egg? I suggest just making it without or with half a banana to avoid allergy issues.
Maybe approach your local fruit and veg seller to ask for donations or a good deal on fruit for it.
Are any of you consultants? Keep in mind people may also want to know what the Thermomix is and want more info. If you are close with your consultant I am sure he/she would be happy to provide you with DL flyers or business cards.
I think having thermoservers to put the sorbet into would be a good idea.
Be prepared for high demand and have a backup plan for needing more ice and fruit etc.
Have lots of change.
Make sure you don't cut corners and stick to the maximum weight for ice guidelines.
Have scoops so your portions are the same size.
That is all I can think of at the moment.
When is your fete?
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See if any parents at school have a lemon tree. You could pre-peel the fruit and store it in water.
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Thanks Meagan and Caroline.
It is in Perth on the 10th of April.
We have been asked not to do lemon as there will be another stall making homemade lemonade. So we are probably going to do oranges and other tropical flavoured fruits.
Great idea about the Thermoservers!!
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Do you have a similar frozen berry place to this http://www.frozberries.com.au/
I use them all the time and your fruit is all prepared for you to make sorbets.
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Wow Meagan, you really know what you are talking about with regards to all the forward thinking on this one... sounds like you've even done it before! Great ideas!
Lemon treeeeee !!! :o I am here, knee deep in snow and you are talking about lemon treees.... Waaaaaaaa :'(
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Hey ThermomixBlogger Perth is having a HEAT WAVE - over 20degrees (celcius) everynight and up to between 34-36 degrees every day. YUKKKK.
My electricity bill is going to make me cry.
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We had a blast when we did sorbets at our school about 18 months ago. Our school is probably medium sized...I'll ask someone and let you know for comparison.
This is some of what we (Spanner, Sundari and myself) did:
used some of - those half size plastic cups and charged $1.
did 2 flavours orange and strawberry (it was September so strawberries were cheap). We weighed the fruit into bags for each batch, but I can't remember how much we prepared....I am thinking 20 rings a bell.
we used food grade bags of ice
we managed to keep up the pace with two machines and two thermoservers and three people.
we ground most of the sugar beforehand.
a well known brand of tea towel or two was particularly helpful.
we did use egg white
, but probably could have left it out to simplify the process (though the chickens enjoyed their egg yolks after)
Our fete went for 3 hours....we would have needed more people if it went for longer. An extra TMX bowl or two might have been more useful for us than extra machines.
Hope this helps.
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Lorywhol, what school in perth is it. If it's close I might have to come and have a look ;D
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Me too :D I might even by some lol
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Following on from my comments re food hygiene requirements in the UK and the sale of food at school (and other public) events: You should have Public Liability and Indemnity Insurance and a food hygiene certificate for caterers.
I know this is a contentious issue, but should there be an outbreak of tummy bug (or worse) and have to see a GP or go to A&E it will be investigated by by Environmental Health. The school would be liable and so would the food provider.
Before there is a string of replies saying they would not dream of suing the school or a parent, it would be EH that come looking not necessarily the sick person(s).
In the eyes of the law you must at least take due diligence with respect to prep, storage, transportation, display and hygiene.
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I guess different rules may apply in Australia to the UK. Hopefully the suing culture hasn't hit their shores yet.... I still can remember those carefree days over here before the negligence cases started hitting the courts. :-)) :-))
Don't get me wrong, I do think it's important to consider all the hygiene issues
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I didn't know if I am allowed to post the school and date on here so I will wait until I hear from a Moderator.
In the meantime, I will PM you!!
As for food safety, we are all attending a special meeting next week.
We have already been told about gloves for handling food at all times.
Storing food in the correct containers with labels.
That the person who handles money is not allowed to handle food and vice versa (eg. a delegated person for money and delegated people to make the food).
We must all wear an apron.
We are right next to our school kitchen which is TAFE Certificate hospitality grade (so lots of safety, lots of fridges/freezers) etc...
And being a school we have Insurance and special insurance even for the Fete that day.
Although it is the first year I have worked at this school, it seems this Fete (that happens Biennially) is very well organised and thoughtout.
:)
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containergirl, some excellent suggestions there - we hadn't thought about preweighing the fruit. I think that is a definite goer.
zan I am hoping to try and find a similar type company here. I will start googling now!
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lorywhol I did a school event a couple of years ago & the school had to apply for some kind of licence to the local council for food to be sold there. I wasn't selling - merely sampling - but I had to put in a food plan which included information about storage etc. It might be different because you're not using cooked foods or dairy foods. I'll try & find the file & let you know if you'd like me to.............
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Great idea to raise money. Just from a safety point I wouldn't post the school name. Those who wish to know can PM you.
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Hi Everyone
I'm doing the same thing at our school fete on the same day in Perth!! This is our first fete so all the suggestions will be very helpful I'm sure. This will be a great way to give feedback to others who want to do the same thing, as there will be two of us to post on our experiences and successes!! Thinking positive here!!
At home if I buy a bag of ice I preweigh it into ziplock bags to store in the freezer so there's less fiddling around when its time to make sorbet and it seems to be easier to find space for a few small bags rather than one of those large ones! That might be a good idea to do for the fete as well as the preweighed fruit and milled sugar.
Thanks for all the suggestions!!
Juju
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Wow Juju
How crazy is that - same city, same day.
Good luck.
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Wow only 5 days to go.
All the fruit is washed, cut up and pre weighed into individual bags.
Sugar has been milled.
Ice is on order.
Everyone has labelled their TMX so that we don't confuse items.
I am excited...
L
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Good luck. I am sure it will go well. Don't forget to tell us how it goes.
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Hope it is a great success. Have fun. :)
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Thank you everyone for your well wishes.
We had 4 thermomixes.
Great weather and heaps of helpers.
Cutting up all the fruit, weighing and bagging was a great idea.
We did Mango and Strawberry smoothies in 2 thermomixes on one side and Mango and Strawberry granita/sorbets in the other 2 thermomixes.
We would have sold about 400 cups (200ml).
My only problem....our poor spatulas have had a beating.
I may have to buy new ones. Can you do that???
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Glad to hear your stall went well
For your poor spatulas, I have seen them for sale on eBay
Ciao
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You can purchase a spatula from your consultant - they are $25
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How bad are your spatula's Lorywhol? I have had my TMX for nearly 3 years and make sorbet at home all the time and then again for demo's. They seem to get to a stage of looking well used and don't get any worse. ;)
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Congratulations on a great initiative. My advice, after running a very popular fairy floss stall at our school fete was prepegging out a queue for crowd control. One of my students brought it along after we suffered a lot of stress from being pressed by a chaotic crowd the first year and it worked a treat. Hope that helps.
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We had a TMX slushie stall at a fete at the school I used to work at and it was one of THE most popular stalls and made a lot of money. Don't know much about the prep work beforehand but I do know one of the flavours was lemon because I had it. I think there was a choice of 2 or 3. I think they sold for $2.50 or maybe more.
The other thing I remember is the person making them had blisters because of how popular they were. Our fete was in November though when it is warm so I'm not sure about April and what the weather will be like then but good luck!