As someone who spends approximately 82% of the year house sitting, I always try to have a handful of gifts on standby. Not just any gifts though — they have to come from a local business encountered during my travels with a compelling mission and story that I can share with future hosts as a token of my gratitude.
In the past, when I’ve had months-long sits or traveled to a new place on a regular basis, maintaining and replenishing my local gift stash was no problem. Alas, between house sits and reconnecting with old friends, I’ve almost entirely run out of gifts acquired from abroad in the two months since I first arrived in London!
Given that I’m “stuck” in the city until further notice and have no intention to stop house sitting, I started to worry about the prospect of offering local gifts that my hosts could easily pick up on their own. My concerns swiftly vanished when I heard about the Autumn Welsh Market, a fabulous annual event where over 50 traders bring a taste of Wales to the lovely (and centrally located!) London Welsh Centre.
In this post, I’m highlighting a few of the traders I had the pleasure of meeting and some of the gifts that my future hosts can look forward to receiving!
Gower Lavender
Born and raised in Swansea on the edge of the Gower Peninsula, bee lover and poet Rae Howells founded Gower Lavender in 2017 after a 20-year career in journalism. Run by Rae and her husband Phil Poucher, the almost entirely solar-powered, planet-first business offers a range of natural, handmade soaps, hand creams, pillow sprays, and other products made using their very own locally grown lavender. The products feature ethically sourced, largely local ingredients and come in beautifully designed packaging that is either compostable, recyclable, or reusable.
The Holiday Essentials Tin comes with an exfoliating rami soap scrub pouch, a 15 ml pot of hand cream, a 40 g soap bar, and a 15 ml pillow spray, all packaged in a reusable, beautifully decorated tin. Scented with real essential oils, the best-selling Lavender & Neroli Hand Cream combines the calming, sleep-promoting, and skin healing properties of lavender with the relaxing, stress-reducing effects of neroli. Reminiscent of summer, the Lavender Lemonade Soap combines lavender, lemon, palmarosa, mineral colors, and nourishing butters into one fragrant, citrusy bar. The Calming Lavender Aromatherapy Pillow Spray helps to promote sleep and lower stress by drawing on the calming effects of both lavender floral water and lavender essential oil.
Chilli of the Valley
Founded by Dan Reed, Chilli of the Valley is an award-winning, family-run hot sauce producer based in Merthyr Tydfil, in the heart of the South Wales Valleys. Dan grew up eating his father Arwel’s famous, richly spiced curries and has since transformed his love of all things hot into an extensive range of condiments, pickles, salts, flavored nuts, and rubs featuring homegrown chillies and locally sourced ingredients. In addition to prioritizing flavor over heat, the business also supports initiatives like Chillidren of the Valley, which gives the next generation of the business the opportunity to dream up and sell not-for-profit sauces to benefit local charities.
The PumpKing is a recurring Halloween special featuring locally grown pumpkin, King Naga chillies, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, garlic, and Demerara sugar. A perfect way to bring some heat to chilly autumn evenings or cold winter nights, the sauce works wonderfully in stews, marinades, and more. Adding to its Halloween spirit, the sauce comes in a coffin-shaped cardboard box which, like the sauce bottle itself, features a striking image of a crowned Jack-o’-lantern (or PumpKing) with skeletal hands reigning over a pan of what appears to be either spicy chicken or cauliflower wings, depending on your dietary restrictions or preferences!
The PattyMan
Classically trained chef and master baker Leroy Williams created The PattyMan in 2021 to honor his mother, a Welsh nurse, and his late father, a Jamaican immigrant who was part of the Windrush generation (a term used to refer to thousands of people, primarily from Caribbean countries, who arrived in the UK between 1948 and 1971). In addition to artisan Jamaican patties and a range of sauces and marinades inspired by family recipes, Leroy offers rum punch and delightful “Pattycakes”: Welsh cakes infused with Jamaican spices, rum, and rum-soaked fruit.
The PattyMan 3-Sauce Gift Box comes with three 110 g glass bottles: Sweetcorn, Mango & Chilli Sauce, Jamaican BBQ Sauce, and Jamaican Jerk Sauce. Combining the sweetness of ripe mangoes, the crunch of sweetcorn, and the heat of chilli, the Sweetcorn, Mango & Chilli Sauce makes an excellent salad dressing and marinade for tofu and tempeh. The Jamaican BBQ Sauce brings a smoky, sweet, and tangy flavor to grilled foods, including wraps, ribs, and burgers. A great way to spice up meat, fish, or vegetables, the Jamaican Jerk Sauce can also be incorporated into gravies or used as a dip for an added touch of warmth.
Blaenafon Cheddar Company
Established in 2006 and jointly owned by Susan Fiander-Woodhouse and her husband Gerry Woodhouse, Blaenafon Cheddar Company is an award-winning specialist cheddar cheese business based in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Blaenavon, South Wales. All cheeses are handmade by the family using local ingredients and feature scenes of Blaenavon’s industrial heritage on their labels. The cheddars are coated in colorful wax to give them a natural shelf life of up to six months.
The Heritage Pack and the Savoury Pack each contain four 50 g mini cheeses in easy-to-transport soft plastic tubes.
The Heritage Pack comes with The Lion Hotel 1868, Blaenafon, Pwll Ddu, and Capel Newydd cheeses. Winner of a bronze medal at the 2024 International Cheese Awards, The Lion Hotel 1868 is a mature cheddar coated in black wax and aged in the cellar beneath The Lion Hotel and Restaurant 1868. Coated in deep blue wax as an homage to early 19th-century Blaenafon pottery, Blaenafon (which translates to ‘front of the river’) is flavored with ginger preserve and Danzy Jones whisky from the Celtic Spirit Company. Pwll Ddu, Welsh for ‘Black Pool,’ is named after the Pwll Du Tunnel, the longest horse-powered tramway tunnel ever built in Britain. Flavored with mustard, leeks, and The Reverend James Welsh ale, the cheddar is coated in neutral wax to highlight the texture of the mustard grain. Capel Newydd (‘New Chapel’) is named after the first religious building in Blaenavon. Sealed in green wax, the medium cheddar combines garlic, elderflower, lemon thyme, and white wine from Sugarloaf Vineyard in Abergavenny.
Along with The Lion Hotel 1868, the Savoury Pack also comes with Taffy Apple, Dragons Breath, and Cymru Crunch. Winner of a gold medal at the 2018 International Cheese Awards, Taffy Apple is a savory medium cheddar coated in bright yellow wax and blended with onion marmalade and Taffy Apple Cider from Tomos Watkins Brewery in Swansea. Winner of silver and bronze medals at the 2024 International Cheese Awards and British Cheese Awards, respectively, Dragons Breath is named after the Garnddryrs Forge, an iron foundry that operated just north of Blaenafon from roughly 1817 to 1860. The cheddar, coated in bright red wax, features Brains Brewery SA Welsh ale and wholegrain chilli mustard. Sealed in yellow and black wax, Cymru Crunch features chives, pickled onions, and Tomos Watkins’ Cwru Braf, or ‘Lovely Beer’ in English.
Here’s where to find all the businesses and products featured above:
Gower Lavender — Lavender Holiday Essentials in a Tin
Chilli of the Valley — PumpKing Sauce
The PattyMan — The Pattyman 3-Sauce Gift Box
Blaenafon Cheddar Company — Heritage Pack & Savoury Pack
To keep up with Welsh cultural events in London and find out when the next Autumn Welsh Market takes place, visit the London Welsh Centre.
