Summer Street kitchenware store Essential Ingredient has reopened after a week-long hiatus with a new name and new brand.
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The business owned by sisters Emma Rogers-Lee and Carla McCormack has been renamed Martha's Food and Home.
"We're a family business," Mrs Rogers-Lee said.
"We've been part of the Essential Ingredient Group, which is a franchise, and we've been with it for 20 years and so we've just celebrated our 20th birthday and we've just decided it's time for a change.
"It's just time for us to do things a bit more our own way."
The new name also reinforces the family business mantra.
![Martha's Food and Home owners Carla McCormack and Emma Rogers-Lee inside their revamped store. Picture by Jude Keogh Martha's Food and Home owners Carla McCormack and Emma Rogers-Lee inside their revamped store. Picture by Jude Keogh](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/GpZJ7bTi6nvXt5tnNdnKeU/1ab214ad-1097-4139-a519-8dcd795c592f.JPG/r0_312_8256_4972_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"Martha was our grandmother and she's not with us now but we just loved the idea of naming the store after her," Mrs Rogers-Lee said.
"We really wanted to kind of have a family name, something that meant something to us instead of just a name we picked randomly.
"Being a family business our whole family is involved, our mum and our dad, we're all involved, my husband has been there today and so we all have our little part."
Mrs Rogers-Lee said they will continue to stock Essential Ingredient products and brands but they have also brought in new stock.
She said the rebrand has given them more freedom to "do our own thing" and expand with a broader range.
"We've always been a kitchenware homewares store and we've kind of expanded a little bit more into the home, not a lot but we have expanded a little bit more into that," Mrs Rogers-Lee said.
The sisters have owned the business for 15 of its 20 years.
"I worked for the previous owner for 18 months and then we bought the business off him," Mrs Rogers Lee said.
Industry newcomer mixing with generational florists for award
A self-made Orange florist has made her mark having been nominated as a finalist in the Sydney Markets Fresh Awards.
Jane Hyde started Pick Me Flowers and Gifts following a career change and now her unyielding efforts are paying off.
"I'm competing against three different families of three generations," Ms Hyde said.
![Pick Me Flowers and Gifts owner and award finalist Jane Hyde inside her Sale Street shop with a bunch of proteas from Hills of Fire Flora at Manildra. Picture by Carla Freedman Pick Me Flowers and Gifts owner and award finalist Jane Hyde inside her Sale Street shop with a bunch of proteas from Hills of Fire Flora at Manildra. Picture by Carla Freedman](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/GpZJ7bTi6nvXt5tnNdnKeU/75c951f9-3a54-409e-9529-15f42d67408f.JPG/r0_550_8256_5210_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
"I'm a baby in the industry, most of the florists have been in the business for 20 to 30 years.
"I didn't enter, they came to me and said you're a finalist, I was floored."
She said three mystery shoppers came to the shop and some of them visited while the shop was undergoing renovations, which included the installation of a see-through temperature controlled flower room with a heated window from Lenehans in Orange.
Ms Hyde said she was drawn to the industry by a life-long love of flowers that began when she was growing up in New Zealand and saw beautiful gardens there and there's never a florist she doesn't want to stop at.
"Seven years ago I walked out of my corporate world, I was never a florist and I've never had a perishable goods shop," Ms Hyde said.
"No one would give me a job or any work experience and I thought 'how hard could any of this be?' and so I opened up a little shop in the Orange arcade."
That first year turned out to be tougher than expected but Ms Hyde persisted and is grateful for the acknowledgement of that effort and achievement by being named an award finalist.
"That first year I couldn't sell a $15 box if I tried and I stuck it out and stuck it out and broke down barriers and got people to love me and seven years later, we were seven on April 14, and we've gone from strength to strength," she said.
Ms Hyde now has two shops, Pick Me Flowers and Gifts in Sale Street and Molong Flower Room in Molong. She also started a courier run to the markets for other florists.
"Out of my seven years I've done five years of going to the markets up to three times a week. That means leaving here at midnight, get back at around 8.30 in the morning, working until 2-3 in the afternoon," she said.
Now she has a driver who goes down.
![Pick Me Flowers and Gifts owner Jane Hyde in her Orange shop. Picture by Jude Keogh Pick Me Flowers and Gifts owner Jane Hyde in her Orange shop. Picture by Jude Keogh](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/GpZJ7bTi6nvXt5tnNdnKeU/0e875bdf-5418-48c0-8dac-c6c9f3749796.JPG/r0_495_8256_5155_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Part of her success has also been attributed to the different and varied range of seasonal flowers.
"I'm very successful with the online shop, that does extremely well, my website is really high traffic and I get lots of comments from people about the website," Ms Hyde said.
When it came to the most popular flowers she said "natives are always very popular, bright and colourful, we don't have anything that doesn't sell.
"We stock quite high-end flowers. You just need the right clientele to come in, my clients are totally different from Harris Farms or the other florists."
Most of her training as a florist was on the job although she did attend Tafe briefly.
"I did four lessons and then I thought, 'how hard could this be?' and then I opened the shop," Ms Hyde said.
"Then I employed the Tafe tutor, Sarah came and worked for me one or two days a week for a year."
In addition to the flowers Ms Hyde has a selection of gifts that can be made into a hamper.
She also supports aged care facilities and dementia wards by giving them flowers that are left over each week and on special occasions.
"People forget about them, they don't get visitors most of them and they still know sense and smell," Ms Hyde said of people with dementia.
"I've worked in a nursing home, when I first came to Australia, I've only lived her for 12 years and when I first came here I spent a year and a half in Black Town and worked in a nursing home."
![Biltong Bites and Deli Delights owners Etienne and Danica Landsberg in their new deli at the Centrepoint Arcade in Summer Street. Picture by Jude Keogh Biltong Bites and Deli Delights owners Etienne and Danica Landsberg in their new deli at the Centrepoint Arcade in Summer Street. Picture by Jude Keogh](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/GpZJ7bTi6nvXt5tnNdnKeU/5d9cda57-9bac-4048-b171-9e7ab736b0e4.JPG/r220_404_7999_5064_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
New deli brings a taste of South Africa to Orange
A couple of South African ex-pats have brought the tastes of home to Orange by opening a new shop Biltong Bites and Deli Delights.
Husband and wife team Etienne and Danica Landsberg opened their South Aftrican shop in Centrepoint Arcade and have already been busy serving their fellow expats and those seeking a taste of food from across southern Africa.
Among the food they sell is biltong and dried sausages, cured meat and boerewors sausages, which are known for their coil shape.
Some of the things people look for in particular are spices to braai, which is a barbecue on wood fire.
"As well as the maze meal, right through Africa that's one of the main things they eat," she said. "We call it pap, that's Afrikaans for it."
Zimbabweans have been excited by the drink Mazoe.
"Even though we are very happy in Australia and love all the culture going all around it, we still kind of long for those South African products and things, there's a lot of Zimbabwe's as well," Mrs Landsberg said.
The business has also helped those from countries across southern Africa to come together.
"They talk to each other in their language and in our language, Zimbabwe is a different language and then there's 11 official languages just in South Africa," Mrs Landsberg said.
In November the couple will have been in Australia for five years and they've been in Orange for three of those years.
Mrs Landsberg said she still has family in Pretoria and they came to Australia for their children's future and "a bit more freedom".
She said there is a southern African community in Orange with people from South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
"We haven't met half of them," Mrs Landsberg said.
"We started in January as a door-to-door online shop.
"They wanted to pick up instead of door-to-door deliveries so we thought we might get a nice pick up point for everyone."
Biltong Bites and Deli Delights is open Tuesday to Saturday, 10am to 5pm during the week and 10am to 1pm on Saturday.