Tag Archives: radio

My radio challenge

Radio, , ,

I love radio. I love interviewing people for the radio, I love trying to make pictures using just sounds and I love broadcasting. Yet I don’t actually listen to a great deal of radio which seems wrong. How else will I know what works, and what doesn’t?

One of the reasons I don’t listen to a great deal of radio during the day is simply finding the time. Whereas in the evening, when I want to relax, instead of listening to the radio I will quite happily bulk watch television shows. Full blown Netflix style.

Nicholas Parson presents Just a Minute on BBC Radio 4 | Photo: BBC

I do listen to a lot of of Radio 4 comedy though, especially shows like Just a Minute and The Now Show. Two of my absolute favourites are In and Out of the Kitchen and The Museum of Everything. And somehow I have got into the routine of listening to Scott Mills’ daily podcast.

But there is so much that I am missing and that’s why I have decided to make myself listen to something new each week. I then plan to write about it here. For this I will need some help. So any radio recommendations please feel free to let me know in the comments or tweet me. I am @charlottereid over there.

Crafty cakes and James Martin

Food for Thought, , , , , , , , ,

This week on Food for Thought I interviewed the people behind Lincoln’s crafterie and cafe shop, Rock Paper Scissors, and also a chat with the celebrity chef James Martin.

Sound interesting? Then you can listen to the podcast here:

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Rock Paper Scissors

Rock Paper Scissors on Guildhall Street in Lincoln | Photo: Charlotte Reid

Something a little bit different has recently opened up on Lincoln’s High Street. You can instantly tell that Rock Paper Scissors is different to the rest of the high street. Outside there is a chair with an open sign propped on it to invite people in and the design on the shop window is hand drawn.

The shop, run by Elizabeth Dimmock and Michelle Forrest Beckett, sells arts and crafts and also holds workshops where they teach people new skills such as knitting. The food part, the most important part for Food for Thought, is you can grab a slice of home made cake or a cup of tea at the same time.

This might sound like a slightly old fashioned way to spend the day but in the short time they have been open a whole age range of people have visited. Elizabeth says: “We’ve had some older women coming in who did knitting the first time round and are coming back to learn things.

“Young people are coming in and picking it up. It’s becoming cool apparently.”

Michelle says there is a good reason for these hobbies to be popular: “I think there’s just something feel good factor about making something with your own hands. Its a nice way to pass the time.”

You can listen to the interview with Elizabeth and Michelle here:

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James Martin

Chef James Martin | Photo: Gin Soak via FlickrWhen I mentioned that I was going to be interviewing James Martin for Food for Thought all sorts of people who I never even expected to be interested in cookery shows wanted to know more.

Sam Pidoux, who regularly helps out on the show, was far too excited so it would have been mean to not allow her to also interview the celebrity chef.

It was a chance for James to chat about his new TV show, United Cakes of America, but we also got chatting about a few other topics. In particular his thoughts on the revelation that in the UK beef has been cross contaminated with horse meat.

Listen to the interview with James Martin here:

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Festive food tidings

Food for Thought, , , , , , , ,

I didn’t realise that I was in a Christmas mood until I noticed that my last few blog posts have been about it. I think I can live with that though. After last week’s special Food for Thought I still had plenty of interviews and ideas to make another special, and when else am I going to use it?

This week was a slightly different take as there was a history lesson from the Museum of Lincolnshire Life who helped me to find out what dinner Victorian families could expect on Christmas Day. There’s also Christmas sandwich reviews and help if you have a vegetarian coming round over the holidays.

You can listen to this week’s show in full here:

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A Christmas Carol | Photo: Brendan C via Flickr

A lot of our Christmas traditions come from the Victorians, and when I think of a Victorian Christmas Day I think of Scrooge from ‘A Christmas Carol’ asking for the biggest goose to share with those less fortunate than him. Talking to the Museum of Lincolnshire Life, who held a Victorian Christmas, the Dickens tale is close to reality. To find out more and hear some of the Dickens novel listen here.

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I do love what shops think a Christmas sandwich should be like, so in the run up to making these Christmas specials I was loving The Poke’s video reviews of said sandwiches.

Then when making programmes you get silly ideas. So I tweeted the guy who came up with the reviews and asked him onto Siren FM and he agreed. Reviewing sandwiches may sound like fun, but Adam takes it seriously as he explained to me.

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When I was thinking about all the important parts of a Christmas dinner I came to realise that if you aren’t a vegetarian you would be a bit stuffed. After chatting to some vegetarians it turns out nut roasts aren’t that nice either. Then I spoke to Karin Ridgers from Veggie Vision TV who gave the show plenty of ideas for vegetarians and vegans as well as pointing out mistakes that people make when catering for others.

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Hopefully you now have some ideas for what to make and eat over this Yuletide season. Food for Thought does carry on over the holidays on Siren FM on Wednesdays at 2pm and Saturdays at 3pm with some best bits.

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