Irish plum puddings:Rhona Preston, from Dublin, contacted us to say she was "a bit disappointed" that there were no Irish plum puddings reviewed last week.
“I am aware of one Irish plum-pudding maker, Sam’s Cookies (samscookies.ie), where I buy my pudding, but I am sure there are plenty more. This is a family-owned business in Bray. They supply cakes to places such as Avoca Handweavers, Poppy’s in Enniskerry and Juggie’s Well in Glasthule, as well as my local greengrocers in Booterstown.”
She says she does not slavishly buy Irish all the time and likes to try different brands, “but I am mindful of supporting home-produced goods and local, family-owned businesses where possible. We should be able to produce our own Christmas puddings, which are easy to make, use simple ingredients and are part of our traditional fare.”
And we should probably have included at least one Irish brand in our review. Our mistake.
Precious price hikes
A reader called Lorraine contacted us to relate an alarming euro/sterling price differential. Earlier this month she was shopping online for a Christmas party dress when she came across one that she liked on the Monsoon website.
“As it’s an English website, I thought it would take too long to deliver, so I called Monsoon in Dundrum.”
They had the dress in stock. “Score,” I thought. “My perfect dress and only £110”.
She estimated that with the currency conversion and the extra percentage they might include for VAT and possibly higher wages, €150 would be a fair price.”
However, she was surprised to find out that the Irish price was, in fact, €250.
“How can they justify that?” she asked. “For that amount of money I would expect that an expert silk-stitcher stayed up for three years nursing some silkworms to create the fibres required to intricately hand-weave and sew this one-of-a-kind dress. What? They are mass-produced? In China? Surely not,” she added.
When she expressed her concern to the saleswoman at Monsoon, “she very nicely offered me €75 off the garment. “I was suitably impressed and accepted. Still, €175 is quite a hefty price tag for my mass-produced dress.”
