why so many daddy longlegs?

If you've been wondering why there are so many daddy longlegs around this year, wonder no more.

Thanks to Ginger Sarah for sending me this.

win some pants

These are pretty rare.

Three pairs of innocent knickers. They're women's knickers, shrink wrapped, with 'innocent' embroidered on the front and a little innocent dude on the back.

There aren't many pairs left in the world (we made them as a Christmas present) so I thought it would be nice to give them away. I can't think of a clever competition, so if you can, one of the pairs of knickers are yours.

Then we'll give the other pairs to the competition winners.

Post your competition ideas as comments and we'll have a read.

live from the kitchen

You may or may not know this, but we have a big shiny kitchen here at Fruit Towers where we invent recipes, test out new ideas and generally mess about with fruit. Today we were trying out some new stuff that might make it into the shops in 2007. Of course, if it doesn't taste good enough, then it won't.

I'd love to tell you what we were tasting, but I'd probably get sacked or ritually beaten for spilling the beans. So I can't. Suffice to say that there was quite a lot of fruit involved, some of which was yellow and some of which was red.

Pictured from left to right - Brett, Beano, Michelle, Chloe, Melissa

tasty

Chris made some innocent gingerbread men the other day. They disappeared pretty quickly.

bearing fruit

Every now and again we have a chatwich here at Fruit Towers. (A chatwich is a lunchtime chat accompanied by sandwiches.)

Anyway, today's chatwich was given by Charlotte Garratt from Care International. She's just come back from one of the projects that we support via the innocent foundation, working with indigenous tribes in Ecuador. Here are a few interesting facts that I picked up:

- Care is the world's third largest NGO. They were also at Fruitstock this year.

- the innocent foundation is supporting Care on a project named PROMESA (promise), working with 300 families to help them to produce and sell local fruit and vegetables to generate income and support themselves. This involves practical stuff such as helping these families get their produce to the market, which in the past has been hindered by poor roads and transport in this remote area.

- in Guadelupe village the Shuar and Mestizo people are working together to preserve their traditional way of life, protect their human rights and lift themselves out of poverty. Charlotte told us that the Shuar and Mestizo concept of time is different to our own, in that they don't store things for the future. Not being naturally capitalist, the Shuar are vulnerable to exploitation by developers and illegal loggers.

- fruit grown in the area includes tamarillos, guanabanas, cherimoyas, guayabas and naranjillas (a cross between a tomato and an orange).

- the Shuar tribe is famous for the ancient practice of Tsantsa (head shrinking).

We'd probably better stop there. Anyway, it was a fine chatwich. Nice to know that the money you spend on our drinks ends up somewhere good.

the perfect role model

Our Richard is the business role model of choice. It must be true - it says so in The Guardian.

They obviously haven't seen him doing the lambada after a couple of diet caipirinhas.

an inconvenient truth

No doubt lots of you will have already seen An Inconvenient Truth at the pictures. If you haven't, you should. It's money well spent. Although Talladega Nights is funny, it probably won't save the Earth. But a concerted effort like the one Al Gore proposes in An Inconvenient Truth might do.

So our recommendation this week is as follows - avoid Aniston, Sandler and even Will Ferrell. Go to see An Inconvenient Truth instead.

PS the site is great too and we especially like the 10 point plan. Stick it up where it will be read - your office restrooms (that's what Mr Gore would call them) seem like a good place.

what the papers say

Piece about innocent in yesterday's Sunday Times.

oh manchester, so much to answer for

Viktor (we think it's spelled with a 'k') is one of our favourite people. He's the Zen master of Polish deli owners. He's an expert baker. A fifteen minute conversation with Viktor leaves one feeling enlightened, slightly confused yet ultimately at peace with the world. He's a surreal gentleman with quality dough-based products on his mind.

Viktor's shop is called Barbakan and it's in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in Manchester. We've been selling our drinks there for about seven years (it was one of the first places outside London to sell them). And we're very pleased to offer Viktor and friends our congratulations for being named the UK's Best Continental Deli.

Read more about Barbakan's triumphs here, and if you're in Manchester on 6th-7th October, we'll be at the Food and Drink Festival in Albert Square.

well hung fun

Congratulations to our friends at the Well Hung Meat Company. Not only did they sell a lot of well hung meat at Fruitstock, but they also just won a gold award at the Soil Association Organic Food Awards.

Even better - they got their prize from everyone's favourite curly haired pig rearer, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.